Category: Eurozone Debt Crisis
The analysis published under this category are as follows.Sunday, February 22, 2015
50 Shades of Greece / Politics / Eurozone Debt Crisis
When it comes to the ongoing Greek question, I see a lot of people eagerly jump to conclusions, after the ‘debt deal’, that I don’t think are justified; certainly not yet. The overall conviction in the press seems to be that Syriza has given in on just about all fronts, and Germany and Dijsselbloem are the big winners.
But since that may well be the exact position Syriza wants ‘the other side’ to be in, where they think they have prevailed, one will have to try and think a few steps ahead before judging the situation. There’s far more grey area here than many pundits seem to assume, easily 50 shades of it.
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Saturday, February 21, 2015
Greece Is Fixed! Oh, Wait... / Politics / Eurozone Debt Crisis
Minutes ago, eurozone finance ministers announced that they've agreed to give Greece four months of breathing room in which to get its financial house in order. In that time, Greece will either work out a debt restructuring with its creditors or create a fully-functioning economy capable of managing the developed world's second highest ratio of government debt-to-GDP.
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Friday, February 20, 2015
Varoufakis’s Revolutionary Plan for Europe - Don't Tell Anyone in Berlin / Politics / Eurozone Debt Crisis
Read full article... Read full article...“The ongoing dispute between the German and Greek governments is nothing less than a democratic revolution against German hegemony and the attempt of the Germans and their paladins in the EU to dictate Greek domestic policy.” –Mathew D. Rose, It’s a revolution, Stupid! Naked Capitalism
Friday, February 20, 2015
How Germany Can Save Greece and the EU / Politics / Eurozone Debt Crisis
Ryan Fitzwater writes: The European debt crisis has been chugging along for six years. But until recently, the financial media was more concerned with volatility in the U.S. markets.
Now our focus has finally turned back to our neighbors across the Atlantic. Specifically, the debt crisis in Greece.
Here’s what’s going on.
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Friday, February 20, 2015
Greece Crisis - Germany Rejects Greek Trojan Horse Bridge Financing Loan Con / Politics / Eurozone Debt Crisis
Germany has rejected Greece's request for a 6 month bridging loan to finance Greek public sector expenditure into the end of August 2015, which Germany labeled as a trojan horse as it would have been without any of the existing conditions for economic reform which would allow Syrizia-Greece to implement its marxist anti-austerity programme at huge euro-zone tax payers expense.
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Wednesday, February 18, 2015
Body Language Hints Greece Is Not For Turning / Politics / Eurozone Debt Crisis
Anthony Alfidi writes: Tonight's NPR Marketplace broadcast repeated a Margaret Thatcher quote relevant to Greece's negotiating position: "The lady's not for turning." It is a very pithy assessment of the Greek approach to the eurogroup. The two sides met today and all public reports indicate that they have not agreed to resolve Greece's pending debt crisis. Body language can tell the story.
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Tuesday, February 17, 2015
Greece Crisis - Europe’s Political Great Rift Valley / Politics / Eurozone Debt Crisis
So what happened there yesterday? What we know is that European Economic Affairs Commissioner Pierre Moscovici delivered a communiqué, ostensibly coming from European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker – he at least knew of it – to Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis, who later called it ‘splendid’ and said his government had been’ happy’ with it and he had been ready to sign.
The European Commission, the day to day ‘directors’ of the EU, offered Greece four to six months of credit in return for a freeze on its anti-austerity policies. Still quite a sacrifice for Greece to make, it would seem, but they would have signed regardless.
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Tuesday, February 17, 2015
The Elegant Simplicity Of The Greek Conundrum / Politics / Eurozone Debt Crisis
It’s really not that hard. It’s even elegantly simple. But that still requires you’re willing to listen, willing to think, and you don’t go into talks with your mind already made up. Obviously, that is too much to ask from the Eurogroup side of the negotiations with Greece. They haven’t been able to move one inch from their ‘Do as we say or else’ bluster.
German Fin Min Schäuble earlier implied that the Greek people have elected the ‘wrong’ government, an already unforgivable intrusion into a EU member state’s internal affairs. What if the Greeks said the same about Merkel et al, what do you think the reaction would be? Today, SPD executive board member, Joachim Poß, member of Merkel’s German coalition government, does Schäuble one better:
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Monday, February 16, 2015
A Way Forward for Greece / Personal_Finance / Eurozone Debt Crisis
The current Greek crisis is exposing the elephant in the room - a worldwide problem getting progressively worse by the day. It’s a problem that has plagued developed economies for the last two millenniums. A problem currently metastasized into a full-blown cancer before our eyes: fraudulent fractional reserve banking (see here and here).
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Thursday, February 12, 2015
Four Dangerous Paths: Wargaming The Greek Crisis From A Global Investment Perspective / Stock-Markets / Eurozone Debt Crisis
Sharp-edged Risk with a capital "R" has returned to the financial world as a result of Greek voters in overwhelming numbers electing the far left Syriza party and installing Alexis Tsipras as the new prime minister.
The investment world had in some ways grown placid since 2012, the days when the financial woes of the heavily indebted and economically troubled PIIGS (Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece & Spain) dominated global financial headlines, and when a possible Greek default last threatened to bring down the financial world.
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Thursday, February 12, 2015
The Greek Issue Just Got Personal / Politics / Eurozone Debt Crisis
It was already present over the past two weeks, for example in Yanis Varoufakis’ meetings with Eurogroup head Jeroen Dijsselbloem and German FinMin Schäuble, awkwardly obvious in facial expressions and body language. A touch of personal discomfort. A touch of a threat that required chest-thumping and hubris to be brushed off. ‘You better do what we say or else’. Back then, perhaps it was still experienced from a political, deal-making, perspective. But in the course of yesterday it became clear something has changed.
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Wednesday, February 11, 2015
Boris Johnson on Greece Euro-zone Crisis : "They've got to try and keep this thing together" / Politics / Eurozone Debt Crisis
London Mayor Boris Johnson spoke with Bloomberg Television's Betty Liu today about Greece's future, the outlook for the U.K.'s membership in the European Union, concerns over citizens who join Islamic State, and technology in the U.K. He also shared that during his visit, he was mistaken for Donald Trump: "I was walking down, having my photograph taken just yesterday in the street in New York, and a young woman walked by and said, gee, is that Trump?"
On Greece, Johnson said: "I have a hunch 70 percent of the Greek population want to remain in the euro. The entire Greek establishment wants to remain in the euro. Everybody in power in Europe basically reckons there's nothing for it; they've got to try and keep this thing together."
Wednesday, February 11, 2015
The Euro’s Exponential Decay / Currencies / Eurozone Debt Crisis
I don’t know about you, but I’m having a ball reading up on the preparations for the Wednesday/Thursday talks between Greece and .. well, everybody else. German FinMin Schäuble proudly declares that it’s do what I tell you or you’re finished, Greek FinMin Varoufakis says prepare for a clash. Greek advisors Lazard say a $100 billion debt reduction sounds reasonable, and some anonymous EU official says Lazard are incompetent and counterproductive (not smart, that).
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Tuesday, February 10, 2015
Syriza Defies Technocrats, US Pressures EU, Greeks Buy Gold / Stock-Markets / Eurozone Debt Crisis
- Tsipras to push ahead with counter-reforms “in their entirety”
- Dijsselbloem tells Syriza it must comply with Troika this week or have funding cut from February 28th
- Varoufakis calls the Eurogroups bluff – does not believe EU would risk expelling Greece from Euro
- US apply pressure on EU to keep Greece in the fold, fears “Grexit” would push Greece into Russia’s arms
- Greeks buying gold as insurance against uncertainty
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Tuesday, February 10, 2015
Greece Dependency Has Created Dangerous Illusions / Politics / Eurozone Debt Crisis
Once again the crisis in Greece is threatening the unity of the entire euro zone. Many analysts are asking what must be done to restore viability to the Union's weakest link. Lost in this discussion is that modern Greece, formed in 1830, has never really been required to stand on its own. Generations of support from abroad, typically given for strategic reasons, has created a false sense of prosperity in the country and has prevented the Greeks from accepting the realities of their current situation.
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Monday, February 09, 2015
Greece Debt, Who is Accountable? / Politics / Eurozone Debt Crisis
Raymond Matison writes: There are millions of individual and institutional investors worldwide who purchase equities and fixed income instruments. When they make a decision to purchase an investment, they hope to make a profit, but they also take on a risk of losing their money. If the stock or bond purchased loses value, it is solely the investor or lender who takes the loss.
When a family purchases a home and seeks a mortgage loan, the bank making the loan used to be at risk. That is, they made an evaluation of the borrower’s ability to repay, and used the property as collateral to secure the loan. If the loan went bad, the bank was at risk of losing money. Over the last decades, banks sell off their mortgage loans to be packaged into a security which is sold to investors, thus passing the loss risk to individual and institutional investors. It is the ultimate investor or lender who accepts the risk of loss.
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Friday, February 06, 2015
Greece To Leave The Euro or Not to Leave The Euro, That is The Question / Economics / Eurozone Debt Crisis
As we watched the Prime Minister and the Finance Minister of Greece travel though Europe in a failed attempt to re-negotiate the terms of the "Bailout" it received, we find ourselves thinking quite differently to the mainstream commentators. Ours is not a jaundiced view but a realistic one. Pragmatism demands we do so. The prime underlying factors that will be brought into play are the interests of each side.
After all, countries don't have friends they have interests, even with fellow members of the Eurozone. These will dictate the result and likely the tactics on each side. We do not see these as friendly negotiations at all. For Greece the stakes are higher than they are for the E.U.
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Thursday, February 05, 2015
ECB ‘Blackmails’ Greece – “Grexit”, Bank Runs, Capital Controls and Bail-Ins Likely / Stock-Markets / Eurozone Debt Crisis
- ECB ‘blackmails’ Greece – “Grexit”, bank runs, capital controls and bail-ins likely
- Shock announcement yesterday led to volatility in markets; turmoil in Greece
- Stocks, commodities including oil and Greek investments fall
- Euro gold surged from EUR 1,104 to EUR 1,126 per ounce or 2 per cent
- Greek government bonds will not be accepted as collateral in accessing cheap ECB liquidity from February 11
- Greek banks are believed to be heavily exposed to Greek government bonds
- Banks in difficulty will have recourse to Emergency Liquidity Assistance (ELA) from Greek central bank but ECB has authority to block ELA
- Greece now shut out of markets
- ECB putting interests of banks over those of people … again
Thursday, February 05, 2015
Greece Have A Little Faith In Blotto / Politics / Eurozone Debt Crisis
What, Greece again? Sorry!! But I see a lot of things flash by that make me want to say something. Today it’s the alleged 180 that Syriza made on debt reduction, before that it was their alleged kow-towing to Brussels on Russia sanctions, and tomorrow it’ll be something else again. It’s all media formatted bite-size and pre-chewed chunks, but the Greece-Troika stand-off is anything but.
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Wednesday, February 04, 2015
The ECB Fears Deflation, But You Should Not / Interest-Rates / Eurozone Debt Crisis
The European Central Bank (ECB) is planning to pump 1.1 trillion euros into the banking system to fend off price deflation and revive economic activity. The ECB president and his executive board are planning to spend 60 billion euros per month from March 2015 to September 2016.
Most experts hold that the ECB must start acting aggressively against the danger of deflation. The yearly rate of growth of the consumer price index (CPI) fell to minus 0.2 percent in December 2014 from 0.3 percent in November, and 0.8 percent in December 2013.
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