Greece

[Heracleum Persicum]

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Greek Debt Crisis :
The Iraq War of Finance

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[Nonc Hilaire]

Deleted

[YMix]

It is obvious what is happening. The creditors are acting in concert. Instead of stopping to reflect for one moment on the deeper wisdom of their strategy, they are doubling down mechanically, appearing to assume that terror tactics will cow the Greeks at the twelfth hour.

If this is true, then I not only hope that the Greek government rejects their demands, but also want a European movement that would remove these petulant morons from power.

Do they think that the EU’s ever-declining hold on the loyalty of Europe’s youth can be reversed by creating a martyr state on the Left? Do they not realize that this is their own Guatemala, the radical experiment of Jacobo Arbenz that was extinguished by the CIA in 1954, only to set off the Cuban revolution and thirty years of guerrilla warfare across Latin America? Don’t these lawyers – and yes they are almost all lawyers – ever look beyond their noses?

Not really.

"The capitalist, as I infer, regards the constitutional form of government which exists in the United States, as a convenient method of obtaining his own way against a majority, but the lawyer has learned to worship it as a fetich. Nor is this astonishing, for, were written constitutions suppressed, he would lose most of his importance and much of his income. Quite honestly, therefore, the American lawyer has come to believe that a sheet of paper soiled with printers' ink and interpreted by half-a-dozen elderly gentlemen snugly dozing in armchairs, has some inherent and marvellous virtue by which it can arrest the march of omnipotent Nature." - Brooks Adams, The Theory of Social Revolutions, 1913

[Endovelico]

Tusk: “Game Over” Tsipras: “Greece’s 1.5m jobless & 3m poor are not a Game”
Posted by keeptalkinggreece in Economy
http://www.keeptalkinggreece.com/2015/0 ... ot-a-game/

Croupier and European Council President Donald Tusk told Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras during the EUCO Summit on Thursday”Game over.”Prompt and tough was the answer by the PM. “Greece has 1.5 million jobless, 3 million poor and thousands of families that living on grandparents’ pension. This is not a game”.

“We should not underestimate what people can do when they feel humiliated.”

Who is this Donald Tusk, one may ask. Oh, he is one of the esteemed members of the United Europe who recently called the Greek government “gamblers.”

“There’s no more space for gambling, there is no more time for gambling. The day is coming I’m afraid that someone says that the game is over,” Donald Tusk .

The former Polish PM has his own personal obsession with Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis. He keeps licking on the same “Greeks=Gamblers” candy. His intellectual capacities reach only so far to read the title of a book he is unable to comprehend. I put my bet that he never read Varoufakis’ “Game Theory” and if he did, he understood not a single word. He doesn’t have the skills. And that’s why, he keep repeating the same “cheap shot.”

It is not “shocking arrogance” or “work of misery” as some people criticized Tusk on social media.

Donald Tusk simply cannot do better. He does not have the skills and the creative imagination to come up with real arguments. It took the History graduate several decades to find out about his own family history, anyway.

The EU is run by idiots. And they want to make sure we become quite aware of that...

[Endovelico]

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras’ statement on the latest developments
June 28, 2015
http://www.keeptalkinggreece.com/2015/0 ... -controls/

Yesterday’s Eurogroup decision to not approve the Greek government’s request for a few days’ extension of the program to give the Greek people a chance to decide by referendum on the institutions’ ultimatum constitutes an unprecedented challenge to European affairs, an action that seeks to bar the right of a sovereign people to exercise their democratic prerogative.

A high and sacred right: the expression of opinion.

The Eurogroup’s decision prompted the ECB to not increase liquidity to Greek banks, and forced the Bank of Greece to recommend that banks remain closed, as well as restrictive measures on withdrawals.

It is clear that the objective of the Eurogroup’s and ECB’s decisions is to attempt to blackmail the will of the Greek people and to hinder democratic processes, namely holding the referendum.

They will not succeed.

These decisions will only serve to bring about the very opposite result.

They will further strengthen the resolve of the Greek people to reject the unacceptable memorandum proposals and the institutions’ ultimatums.

One thing remains certain: the refusal of an extension of a few short days, and the attempt to cancel a purely democratic process is an insult and a great disgrace to Europe’s democratic traditions.

For this reason, I sent a short extension request again today–this time to the President of the European Council and to the 18 Heads of State of the Eurozone, as well as to the heads of the ECB, the European Commission and the European Parliament.

I am awaiting their immediate response to this fundamentally democratic request.

They are the only ones who immediately can–even tonight–reverse the Eurogroup’s decision and enable the ECB to restore liquidity to the banks.

What is needed in the coming days is composure and patience.

The bank deposits in the Greek banks are entirely secure.

This holds true for the payment of wages and pensions, as well.

We will deal with any difficulties with calmness and determination.

The more calmly we confront difficulties, the sooner we will overcome them and the milder their consequences will be.

Today, we have the chance to prove to ourselves–and indeed, to the world–that justice can prevail.

In these critical hours, as we face history together, we must remember that the only thing to fear is fear itself.

We will not allow it to overcome us.

We will succeed.

The dignity of the Greek people in the face of blackmail and injustice will send a message of hope and pride to all of Europe.

I am 100% with Alexis Tsipras and the Greek people. He is a decent, courageous man who has to deal with a bunch of shameless m----r f----rs!...

[Typhoon]

Greece has effectively defaulted

[noddy]

Greece has effectively defaulted

from the article

"What would happen if Greece came out of the euro? There would be a negative message that euro membership is reversible," said Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, who a week ago declared that he did not fear contagion from Greece.

"People may think that if one country can leave the euro, others could do so in the future."

how democratic this EU sounds, not at all like some mafiosi thing.

[Heracleum Persicum]

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Greece Is the Canary in the Coal Mine


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[Alexis]

Greece Is the Canary in the Coal Mine

From the article you cited:
"Greece is the canary in the coal mine for what could one day happen to your savings. You’ll recall our prediction: In a crisis, banks will move fast to block access to your money. First, they will limit withdrawals. Then they will either close their doors or run out of cash. That’s what’s happening in Greece right now…"

That much is true. This is what "could one day" happen, no matter what country one is living or has one's money in.


About the " ", I'm not sure I agree with you. This is not so funny.

[Heracleum Persicum]

Greece Is the Canary in the Coal Mine

From the article you cited:
"Greece is the canary in the coal mine for what could one day happen to your savings. You’ll recall our prediction: In a crisis, banks will move fast to block access to your money. First, they will limit withdrawals. Then they will either close their doors or run out of cash. That’s what’s happening in Greece right now…"

That much is true. This is what "could one day" happen, no matter what country one is living or has one's money in.


About the " ", I'm not sure I agree with you. This is not so funny.

"Alexis" .. FYI, (probably 98%) Americans have not only "Zero Cash", not only "negative net worth", but they owe to the eyeball .. all those ATM just drew money from "credit line" mostly "home equity loan" .. Rich Americans have borrowed Billions (probably trillions) on their stocks etc, they Zero cash

Americans in reality all bankrupt .. smoke and mirror

Europeans, on the other hand, have savings .. Europeans the one who should watch out


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[Alexis]

Americans in reality all bankrupt .. smoke and mirror

Europeans, on the other hand, have savings .. Europeans the one who should watch out

I think this is a simplification. But it's not wrong, even if details and qualifications could be added.

Code name 79, with 47 as his loyal assistant.

[Heracleum Persicum]

Americans in reality all bankrupt .. smoke and mirror

Europeans, on the other hand, have savings .. Europeans the one who should watch out

I think this is a simplification. But it's not wrong, even if details and qualifications could be added.

Code name 79, with 47 as his loyal assistant.

True

Is said, French, (probably) since Bonaparte, sitting on mountains of Gold .. if so, that could explain why they so relaaaaaxed

.

[Endovelico]

The elites are determined to end the revolt against austerity in Greece
Europe's great powers won't be satisfied until they break Syriza, and stop an anti-austerity movement spreading across the continent.
by Owen Jones Published 1 July, 2015 - 10:56
http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/20 ... ity-greece

Contagion: this word sums up how the Greek disaster has been allowed to descend into catastrophe. Not economic contagion, or any real fear that Greece is a Hellenic Lehman Brothers-in-the-making, whose implosion will send dominoes toppling from Berlin to Lisbon, but political contagion. An attempt is being made to suppress the contagion of its anti-austerity movement. In a eurozone where more than 11 per cent of the citizens are without work, including half of all young Spaniards, the social devastation endured by the poor has been sustained by a simple doctrine: “There is no alternative.” If Greece threatens that narrative, it has to be punished.

After France’s François Hollande abandoned his left-wing mandate almost as soon as he marched into the Élysée Palace, Syriza’s dramatic triumph in January represented the first time Europe’s anti-austerity movement had seized power in a national election. Since then, Europe’s great powers – the European Union, the eurozone’s unaccountable Central Bank, the IMF, the German government – have all conspired to make an example out of the party. Greece is a rebellious eurozone province, and if its democratically elected insurgents are allowed to succeed, the doctrine of “There is no alternative” will be shattered and a growing populist left will be emboldened. Why wouldn’t Spain’s austerity-weary voters give a decisive mandate to the radical left Podemos in a general election due by December? And why not then Ireland, Portugal, Italy, the Netherlands and so on?

Syriza has to be broken, or so the EU great powers decided long before it was even elected. But how? First: compel it to impose another dose of disastrous austerity, in violation of the party’s clear electoral mandate. This would inflict on it the same fate as the Greek social-democratic party Pasok, which so alienated its support base that its vote plummeted from 44 per cent in 2009 to 4.7 per cent by 2015. A second possible strategy: strangle Greece’s economy until the people decide that the lesser catastrophe would be to resign themselves to endless austerity within the eurozone. This is the current course of action.

The third strategy: force a default and drive Greece out. However, this might expose the eurozone’s Achilles heel. A precedent would be set: the eurozone would no longer be an indivisible currency union, but a club that weaker members can leave or from which they can be de facto ejected. Italy, say, could find itself the subject of extreme market speculation.

And there is another danger for the elite: although defaults are invariably followed by the ejection of the ruling government – so, goodbye, Syriza – what if a temporarily hobbled post-euro Greece enjoyed a recovery comparable with Argentina’s after the default of 2002? Other countries locked in economic misery would have an example to emulate. For these reasons, a Greek default will have to be as painful as possible, pour encourager les autres.

Syriza’s fate will also be used to hammer opponents of austerity. Resisting the prevailing economic common sense of our time (it will be claimed) is demonstrably futile and self-defeating. Greece’s woes are the product of overspending, and so on. That the likes of Goldman Sachs helped to massage Greece’s books to allow it to enter the eurozone in the first place will be forgotten. The irresponsible lending of German and French banks will be forgotten, too.

The global financial crisis is generally not blamed on low-paid Americans for accepting sub-prime mortgages, but on those who lent to them irresponsibly. The same should apply to Greece: greedy banks, acting in the short-term interest, which lent money, setting aside risk for the sake of profit. As the Jubilee Debt Campaign has pointed out, it was German and French banks that were bailed out, not the Greek people.

Since then, successive bailouts with ruinous austerity measures attached to them have shored up private-sector institutions while slicing a quarter off the Greek economy. Poverty rates have more than doubled to over 40 per cent, unemployment is now a quarter and debt consumes 177 per cent of the country’s GDP. Greece has been instructed to extend policies that have so far achieved only ruin. Yet such is the pressure being exerted on the Greek people that acceptance of (or rather, resignation to) the creditors’ demands is surely likely.

Whatever happens, opponents of Europe’s disastrous policy must keep calling for an international debt conference; not only for Greece, but other countries, too. This debt is an unpayable accountancy fiction that is strangling growth, and inflicting a terrible human cost. A new strategy – informed by the likes of Nobel Prize-winning economists such as Joseph Stiglitz and Paul Krugman – based on public investment, growth, and quantitative easing aimed at infrastructure and new renewable industries must be championed.

But Syriza is cornered, and so are the embattled Greek people. Any concession to the troika will be used to clobber anti-austerity forces. “The Greek people don’t want to let down the EU,” the Commission president, Jean-Claude Juncker, has pleaded. Austerity, Greece, the manifest lack of democracy and accountability . . . all are spreading disillusionment about the EU among the left. A pro-EU centre may continue to shrink, chipped away by left and right. Today, we witness hubris: but tomorrow, the EU may meet its nemesis.

Intelligent people in Europe realize this is so. Dummies will take longer to understand...

[Alexis]

I am 100% with Alexis Tsipras and the Greek people. He is a decent, courageous man who has to deal with a bunch of shameless m----r f----rs!...

Alexis Leonidas Tsipras awaits the Austeritists' charge
Greece shall repel their assaults and win for the sake of social Europe


In a μολὼν λαβέ mood, are we, Endo ?

[Heracleum Persicum]

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Germany Faces Billions in Losses If Greece Goes Bust


The Greek crisis has destroyed an old dream about the future of Europe.
The only possibility for moving the EU in the direction we were promised is a radical solution
-- either a Grexit or an expensive debt haircut.

.

[Alexis]

Rapidly deteriorating economic situation in Greece, under the shock of economic war from the ECB.

Greek banks down to €500m in cash reserves as economy crashes

Greece is sliding into a full-blown national crisis as the final cash reserves of the banking system evaporate by the hour and swathes of industry start to shut down, precipitating the near disintegration of the ruling coalition.
Business leaders have been locked in talks with the Bank of Greece, pleading for the immediate release of emergency liquidity funds (ELA) to cover food imports and pharmaceutical goods before the tourist sector hits a brick wall.
Officials say the central bank will release the funds as soon as Friday, but this is a stop-gap measure at best. "We are on a war footing in this country," said Yanis Varoufakis, the Greek finance minister.
The daily allowance of cash from many ATM machines has already dropped from €60 to €50, purportedly because €20 notes are running out. Large numbers are empty. The financial contagion is spreading fast as petrol stations and small businesses stop accepting credit cards.

Constantine Michalos, head of the Hellenic Chambers of Commerce, said lenders are simply running out of money. "We are reliably informed that the cash reserves of the banks are down to €500m. Anybody who thinks they are going to open again on Tuesday is day-dreaming. The cash would not last an hour," he said.
"We are in an extremely dangerous situation. Greek companies have been excluded from the electronic transfers of Europe's Target2 system. The entire Greek business community is unable to import anything, and without raw materials they can't produce anything," he said.

Pavlos Deas, owner of an olive processing factory in Chalkidiki, told The Telegraph that he may have to shut down a plant employing 250 people within days.
"We can't send any money abroad to our suppliers. Three of our containers have been stopped at customs control because the banks can't give a bill of landing. One is full of Spanish almonds, the others full of Chinese garlic," he said.
"We don't know how we are going to execute and export an order of 60 containers for the US. We don't even have enough gas. We asked for 10,000 litres but they are only letting us have 2,000. It's being rationed by the day. Factories are closing around us in a domino effect and we're all going to lose everything if this goes on," he said.
The fast-moving events come amid signs of deep dissension within the coalition over the wisdom of the country's referendum this Sunday. The vote was originally intended to secure a stronger negotiating mandate for a showdown with Europe's creditor powers, but it is rapidly turning into an "in-or-out" decision on euro membership and the survival of the Syriza government.
Four members of the nationalist Independent Greeks party (Anel) - the junior partners - said they would break ranks and vote "Yes" to creditor demands - though no offer is now on the table - admitting that they were aghast by the closure of the banking system and the drastic events of recent days.
The party's hardline chief and defence minister, Panos Kammenos, dismissed them contemptuously. "We are at war and there will be no backing down. Whoever does not have the stomach for war, be gone," he said.

Mr Varoufakis vowed to resign if the Greek people voted yes. "I prefer to cut off my own arm rather than sign an agreement without debt restructuring," he told Bloomberg TV.
He said there is not a "smidgeon of an iota of possibility" that the terms on offer can lift the Greek economy out of a deflationary tailspin, insisting that the talks broke down because the creditors refused to face up to the fact that Greece's debt is unpayable.
The International Monetary Fund has tacitly endorsed his claims, admitting that the country needs large-scale debt relief and €50bn of fresh funds over the next three years to give the economy time to recover.
Mr Varoufakis said acceptance of the creditors's proposals would merely mean another bruising fight in a few months' time and a permanent cycle of hostility.
The mood within the Syriza movement is increasingly bitter and polarized. One MP appeared to have lost confidence in the party leadership. "We have had months of childish tactics. They thought they could blackmail Europe into making concessions instead of going to the root of the problem facing this country and accepting that we have to break free altogether. They don't know what they are doing," he told The Telegraph.
Private citizens have requested an injunction from Greece's top court to halt the referendum, claiming it is unconstitutional. Yiorgos Kaminis, the mayor of Athens, said the vote on a creditor package that no longer even exists - and with a question that nobody understands - reduces the country to ridicule.

"We are facing a national catastrophe, it is so self-evident. If Greece votes 'no' we will be obliged to go back to the drachma immediately, and sooner of later we may be forced to leave the EU as well. I don't want my children to be part of North Africa," he said.
The mayor said the whole structure of the Greek state was falling apart as the political crisis grinds on into its sixth month. "Nobody is paying any taxes any longer. The state has no money. We're facing a disaster," he said.
Mr Kaminis, a law professor and an independent politician, is widely-deemed more credible than politicians from the establishment parties and has emerged as the preferred figurehead of the "yes" movement.
Yet he admitted having "no contact" so far with the other groups in favour of a deal, a power structure known as the "inner Troika" in the demonology of the Greek Left. It is a sign of how fractured the "yes" camp still is with just two days left to put out their message, and polls showing the vote too close to call.
"We have to explain in a very determined way what is at stake. People seem to think that it was the EU that closed our banks," he said.

Mr Michalos, from the Hellenic Chambers, said a five-man committee at the Greek treasury is rationing foreign funds for companies on a top priority basis but it is entirely overwhelmed. "They can't possibly deal with thousands of requests," he said. The net effect is total paralysis.
His own two companies are still hanging on but the danger is mounting. One produces latex for kitchen gloves and the teats on baby bottles. "If I can't import gum from Malaysia I am going to have a serious problem. I have four weeks' inventory," he said.
His other company imports meat for supermarkets and restaurants. That is in dire straits already.
"I can't import anything. Restaurants are starting to close down because they can't obtain food and we are going straight into the peak tourist season. It is going to be utterly horrendous if this goes on," he said.

If the ECB doesn't restore Greek banks financing so as to enable them reopening next Tuesday, following its mandate to ensure economic stability in all member countries, responsibility for the consequences will loom large on two leaders:
- Principal Merkel, as the head of the perpetrators
- Accessory Hollande, as the guy who could have stopped them, but chose not to

French economist Piketty said that Hollande should publicly and solemnly announce that France will veto any Grexit (that is: forced Grexit, it's not as if the Greeks themselves had decided it). Although there is no explicit right for the French president to exert such a veto, I think he's right: a certain level of public denounciation of what is happening, naming the names and warning that if the perpetrators go the full way, totally changing the character of the EU in the process, then France will assess independently how to protect from the consequences of their acts (without any precision on what that means, of course) would probably be enough to stop Merkel.

However, it's almost certain none of this will happen. Hollande would have to change completely - not exactly impossible, but very improbable.

The reason why Hollande is so despised by French (approval rate around 20%) is simple enough: he is not behaving like a leader, while he took a position where he should be one. Following the wishes and utterances of Ms Merkel, except when one is following those of M. Obama, does not a leader make. And no question he would have the means to behave like a leader: Greece is much less powerful than France, yet Tsipras like him or dislike him is a leader.

[YMix]

This is not what we signed up for.

[Alexis]

This is not what we signed up for.

Indeed. That is almost an understatement.

[Heracleum Persicum]

Rapidly deteriorating economic situation in Greece, under the shock of economic war from the ECB.

Greek banks down to €500m in cash reserves as economy crashes

Greece is sliding into a full-blown national crisis as the final cash reserves of the banking system evaporate by the hour and swathes of industry start to shut down, precipitating the near disintegration of the ruling coalition.
Business leaders have been locked in talks with the Bank of Greece, pleading for the immediate release of emergency liquidity funds (ELA) to cover food imports and pharmaceutical goods before the tourist sector hits a brick wall.
Officials say the central bank will release the funds as soon as Friday, but this is a stop-gap measure at best. "We are on a war footing in this country," said Yanis Varoufakis, the Greek finance minister.
The daily allowance of cash from many ATM machines has already dropped from €60 to €50, purportedly because €20 notes are running out. Large numbers are empty. The financial contagion is spreading fast as petrol stations and small businesses stop accepting credit cards.

Constantine Michalos, head of the Hellenic Chambers of Commerce, said lenders are simply running out of money. "We are reliably informed that the cash reserves of the banks are down to €500m. Anybody who thinks they are going to open again on Tuesday is day-dreaming. The cash would not last an hour," he said.
"We are in an extremely dangerous situation. Greek companies have been excluded from the electronic transfers of Europe's Target2 system. The entire Greek business community is unable to import anything, and without raw materials they can't produce anything," he said.

Pavlos Deas, owner of an olive processing factory in Chalkidiki, told The Telegraph that he may have to shut down a plant employing 250 people within days.
"We can't send any money abroad to our suppliers. Three of our containers have been stopped at customs control because the banks can't give a bill of landing. One is full of Spanish almonds, the others full of Chinese garlic," he said.
"We don't know how we are going to execute and export an order of 60 containers for the US. We don't even have enough gas. We asked for 10,000 litres but they are only letting us have 2,000. It's being rationed by the day. Factories are closing around us in a domino effect and we're all going to lose everything if this goes on," he said.
The fast-moving events come amid signs of deep dissension within the coalition over the wisdom of the country's referendum this Sunday. The vote was originally intended to secure a stronger negotiating mandate for a showdown with Europe's creditor powers, but it is rapidly turning into an "in-or-out" decision on euro membership and the survival of the Syriza government.
Four members of the nationalist Independent Greeks party (Anel) - the junior partners - said they would break ranks and vote "Yes" to creditor demands - though no offer is now on the table - admitting that they were aghast by the closure of the banking system and the drastic events of recent days.
The party's hardline chief and defence minister, Panos Kammenos, dismissed them contemptuously. "We are at war and there will be no backing down. Whoever does not have the stomach for war, be gone," he said.

Mr Varoufakis vowed to resign if the Greek people voted yes. "I prefer to cut off my own arm rather than sign an agreement without debt restructuring," he told Bloomberg TV.
He said there is not a "smidgeon of an iota of possibility" that the terms on offer can lift the Greek economy out of a deflationary tailspin, insisting that the talks broke down because the creditors refused to face up to the fact that Greece's debt is unpayable.
The International Monetary Fund has tacitly endorsed his claims, admitting that the country needs large-scale debt relief and €50bn of fresh funds over the next three years to give the economy time to recover.
Mr Varoufakis said acceptance of the creditors's proposals would merely mean another bruising fight in a few months' time and a permanent cycle of hostility.
The mood within the Syriza movement is increasingly bitter and polarized. One MP appeared to have lost confidence in the party leadership. "We have had months of childish tactics. They thought they could blackmail Europe into making concessions instead of going to the root of the problem facing this country and accepting that we have to break free altogether. They don't know what they are doing," he told The Telegraph.
Private citizens have requested an injunction from Greece's top court to halt the referendum, claiming it is unconstitutional. Yiorgos Kaminis, the mayor of Athens, said the vote on a creditor package that no longer even exists - and with a question that nobody understands - reduces the country to ridicule.

"We are facing a national catastrophe, it is so self-evident. If Greece votes 'no' we will be obliged to go back to the drachma immediately, and sooner of later we may be forced to leave the EU as well. I don't want my children to be part of North Africa," he said.
The mayor said the whole structure of the Greek state was falling apart as the political crisis grinds on into its sixth month. "Nobody is paying any taxes any longer. The state has no money. We're facing a disaster," he said.
Mr Kaminis, a law professor and an independent politician, is widely-deemed more credible than politicians from the establishment parties and has emerged as the preferred figurehead of the "yes" movement.
Yet he admitted having "no contact" so far with the other groups in favour of a deal, a power structure known as the "inner Troika" in the demonology of the Greek Left. It is a sign of how fractured the "yes" camp still is with just two days left to put out their message, and polls showing the vote too close to call.
"We have to explain in a very determined way what is at stake. People seem to think that it was the EU that closed our banks," he said.

Mr Michalos, from the Hellenic Chambers, said a five-man committee at the Greek treasury is rationing foreign funds for companies on a top priority basis but it is entirely overwhelmed. "They can't possibly deal with thousands of requests," he said. The net effect is total paralysis.
His own two companies are still hanging on but the danger is mounting. One produces latex for kitchen gloves and the teats on baby bottles. "If I can't import gum from Malaysia I am going to have a serious problem. I have four weeks' inventory," he said.
His other company imports meat for supermarkets and restaurants. That is in dire straits already.
"I can't import anything. Restaurants are starting to close down because they can't obtain food and we are going straight into the peak tourist season. It is going to be utterly horrendous if this goes on," he said.

If the ECB doesn't restore Greek banks financing so as to enable them reopening next Tuesday, following its mandate to ensure economic stability in all member countries, responsibility for the consequences will loom large on two leaders:
- Principal Merkel, as the head of the perpetrators
- Accessory Hollande, as the guy who could have stopped them, but chose not to

French economist Piketty said that Hollande should publicly and solemnly announce that France will veto any Grexit (that is: forced Grexit, it's not as if the Greeks themselves had decided it). Although there is no explicit right for the French president to exert such a veto, I think he's right: a certain level of public denounciation of what is happening, naming the names and warning that if the perpetrators go the full way, totally changing the character of the EU in the process, then France will assess independently how to protect from the consequences of their acts (without any precision on what that means, of course) would probably be enough to stop Merkel.

However, it's almost certain none of this will happen. Hollande would have to change completely - not exactly impossible, but very improbable.

The reason why Hollande is so despised by French (approval rate around 20%) is simple enough: he is not behaving like a leader, while he took a position where he should be one. Following the wishes and utterances of Ms Merkel, except when one is following those of M. Obama, does not a leader make. And no question he would have the means to behave like a leader: Greece is much less powerful than France, yet Tsipras like him or dislike him is a leader.

In simple terms, Europe not taking care of Greece

Well,

Greece has to look for it's own interest

ByeBye NATO

Hello Russia, China

Russia needs a Navy base outside of DarDanelles

Iran could swap oil for a (Iranian) "Submarine" Navy Base next to Piraeus

.

[Simple Minded]

In simple terms, Europe not taking care of Greece

Well,

Greece has to look for it's own interest

ByeBye NATO

Hello Russia, China

Russia needs a Navy base outside of DarDanelles

Iran could swap oil for a (Iranian) "Submarine" Navy Base next to Piraeus

.

amen. Free market solution, if you don't like the terms one bank offers you, go to another. Or another analogy is hiring a prostitute. Lots of prostitutes & customers in the world.

Also analogous to the Scotland/UK votes. Both sides should get to vote. Greece on whether to leave or not, and the rest of the EU on whether to throw the Greeks out of the EU or not.

Too big to govern is often too big to succeed. Nothing new here.

[Endovelico]

This is not what we signed up for.

In matter of fact we don't know what we signed up for...Better informed, but naive, people, may have believed in what was stated in the preamble to the Treaty of Rome... Last I heard northern Europeans were using it for toilet paper...

[Endovelico]

This Is Why The Euro Is Finished
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-07-0 ... o-finished

The IMF Debt Sustainability Analysis report on Greece that came out this week has caused a big stir. We now know that the Fund’s analysts confirm what Syriza has been saying ever since they came to power 5 months ago: Greece needs debt relief, lots of it, and fast.

We also know that Europe tried to silence the report. But what’s most interesting is that this has been going on for months, as per Reuters. Ergo, the IMF has known about the -preliminary- analysis for months, and kept silent, while at the same time ‘negotiating’ with Greece on austerity and bailouts.

And if you dig a bit deeper still, there’s no avoiding the fact that the IMF hasn’t merely known this for months, it’s known it for years. The Greek Parliamentary Debt Committee reported three weeks ago that it has in its possession an IMF document from 2010(!) that confirms the Fund knew even at that point in time.

That is to say, it already knew back then that the bailout executed in 2010 would push Greece even further into debt. Which is the exact opposite of what the bailout was supposed to do.

The 2010 bailout was the one that allowed private French, Dutch and German banks to transfer their liabilities to the Greek public sector, and indirectly to the entire eurozone‘s public sector. There was no debt restructuring in that deal.

Reuters yesterday reported that “Publication of the draft Debt Sustainability Analysis laid bare a dispute between Brussels and [the IMF] that has been simmering behind closed doors for months.

But that’s not the whole story. Evidently, there was a major dispute inside the IMF as well. The decision to release the report was apparently taken without even a vote, because it was obvious the Fund’s board members wanted the release. The US played a substantial role in that decision. Why the timing? Hard to tell.

The big question that arises from this is: what has been Christine Lagarde’s role in this charade? If she has been instrumental is keeping the analysis under wraps, she has done the IMF a lot of reputational damage, and it’s getting hard to see how she could possibly stay on as IMF chief. She has seen to it that the Fund has lost an immense amount of trust in the world. And without trust, the IMF is useless.

And while we’re at it, ECB chief Mario Draghi, who is also a major Troika negotiator, made a huge mistake this week in -all but- shutting down the Greek banking system, a decision that remains hard to believe to this day. The function of a central bank is to make sure banks are liquid, not to consciously and willingly strangle them.

How Draghi, after this, could stay on as ECB head is as hard to see as it is to do that for Lagarde’s position. And we should also question the actions and motives of people like Jean-Claude Juncker and Jeroen Dijsselbloem.

They must also have known about the IMF’s assessment, and still have insisted there be no debt relief on the negotiating table, although the analysis says there cannot be a viable deal without it.

One can only imagine Varoufakis’ frustration at finding the door shut in his face every single time he has brought up the subject. Because you don’t really need an IMF analysis to see what’s obvious.

Which is exactly why there is a referendum tomorrow: Alexis Tsipras refused to sign a deal that did not include debt restructuring. It would be comedy if it weren’t so tragic, most of all for the people of Greece.

(...)

Let's get out of the EU while we still can!...

[Endovelico]

(...)

Which brings me to my speculation about Greece and the report quoted above about China helping Greece via the new AIIB. Might it not suit China, with its coming flood of new Yuan, to offer Greece a hand with a few Yuan. Greece might offer to conduct all its foreign trade in Yuan rather than dollars or Euros. Greece would benefit because it would not be beholden to America or Europe for a flow of their currencies. It could look to China instead. Russian would be happy with this because it has a settlement agreement with China. Any gas pipeline work could be financed in Yuan with chinese government backed Yuan loans. The AIIB could help Greece out with a loan to allow it to operate. Such a loan would not be blockable from Europe or America. Greece could default and still have operating money. China could spin it as almost humanitarian aid: The Chinese people reaching out to the desperate, impoverished but brave Greeks when the wicked capitalist Europeans would not.

(...)

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-07-0 ... -b-tsipras

It could work...

[Typhoon]

Οχι.

[YMix]

Interesting.