"I love Paris in the fall..."

[sowhat]

We're Talking to You, Italy...

Believe it or not, the biggest issue is the credibility of the government. They stretch the facts, assumptions and gray areas to the point where you tend to doubt everything else. It is almost as if they believe no one will actually read what they have written, which very well may have been partially true in the past. Alas, that was the past and this is the present. Information, and to a lesser extent, knowledge travels through the web at the speed of atomic particles...
http://tinyurl.com/yer396f

[Entendance]

...There are three bad alternatives. He recommends #3 (effectively, default):
*A Franco-German bailout. Dr. Sinn believes this is impractical and the worst of the three alternatives because the amounts required for an effective bailout are so large that it would trigger a jump in yields on French and German sovereign debt which would result in a Euro-wide financial crisis. In addition, Angela Merkel said 'no,' and so did Guido Westerwelle (her coalition partner and foreign minister).
**IMF loans. Dr. Sinn believes that this would accelerate the Greek economic contraction with a dramatic deflation of wages and prices, which could lead to civil war, revolution and a political destabilization of the area.
***Exit the Euro zone, revive the Drachma, re-denominate the sovereign bonds in Drachma, let the Drachma collapse, and rebuild after the collapse, largely on tourist remittances Assuming a small amount of domestic (internal) default, this would be the least-painful to the Greek populace, but German banks and investors would lose approximately $38 Bn in bond investments +/- what can be recovered after the Greek economy recovers. Eventually, Greece would be allowed to re-join the EU.
Formation of an EU monetary fund is out of the question, he believes, because it requires treaty modifications that might take many years to pass.
As an aside, he said that if German tax rates are not lowered, that Germany will slide back into recession.
-Steve Stough

http://tinyurl.com/ykj6jga

State-controlled Hellenic Post Bank (TT) spent nearly 1 billion euros last year to secure its positions against the possible bankruptcy of the Greek government, according to documents seen by Kathimerini.
http://tinyurl.com/yhlrlz2

We have officially moved from a Greek tragedy to a Greek surreal comedy. After nearly a month-long scapegoating campaign in which Greek PM G-Pap said he would spit in the faces and skullf#@* all those who dared to buy Greek CDS (because as we have all been lied to by everyone who doesn't know the first thing about CDS, it is CDS buying not bond selling that drives spreads), with the stupidity reaching as far and wide as the Spanish and German secret services, which said they would spy on CDS traders in London and New York, Greek daily Kathimerini has just uncovered that the biggest speculator, holding 15%, or $1.2 billion of the total $8 billion in Greek notional CDS, has been a firm that operates about 2 blocks away from the parliament building in Athens - the state-owned Hellenic Post Bank (TT)! Luckily poetic justice is about to be served, as every single media outlet tomorrow will apply the same circus monkey treatment to G-Pap and his clownshoes henchmen, not to mention the chorus of obese idiots over at the European Commission who fell for the ruse (speaking of EU idiots, has anyone heard of Jenny Craig relapse patient Joaquin Almunia in the past 2 months, with his "Greece will never demand a bailout" arrogance). While there had been speculation that Greek banks were selling Greek CDS to hedge funds, it had never crossed anyone's mind that a Greek bank could be betting on the collapse of its own sovereign host (especially one which does not own Bernanke's printing press), and that in such size! Frankly this beats even our very own AIG fiasco by orders of magnitude in stupidity.
What an unbelievable joke the intersection of global capital markets and politics has become.
-Tyler Durden

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[defio70]

Billions for Greece
http://tinyurl.com/yewm6zq



Next in line--Portugal, Spain, Italy and then the UK.



...taxpayers enjoy!

[Entendance]

viewtopic.php?f=17&t=738&p=10175#p10175

...The Eurozone and the European monetary union is actually several different economies at vastly different levels of development, which so happen to have a common currency—but they have nothing else in common. Because—unlike in the US—in the Eurozone, each member state can issue its own debt. Therefore, each member state can borrow its way to equality of wealth, instead of earning it.
Looked at this way, it becomes obvious that the Euro isn’t a common currency—rather, it is a very complex fixed rate exchange system.
In other words, a currency peg.
So instead of thinking of the Euro as €, common to all Eurozone countries, it would be smarter to think of the Euro as GR-€, or FR-€, or IT-€, or SP-€, and so on—a different Euro for each member economy, all of which happen to be fixed at a one-to-one parity.
Now it becomes obvious what we’re looking at—when we look at Europe today, what we’re really seeing is Latin America circa 1980...
http://tinyurl.com/yckqtzd

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[GSIMMERLE]

Greece should tell the EU and ECB to bugger off. Stick the banks over there with their losses; default all their externally-held debt. Declare their externally-held Treasuries worthless by fiat and leave the Euro. Arrest and prosecute everyone involved in government book-cooking, including the banksters that conspired with them. Without external borrowing a crushing austerity would be imposed as government spending would be forced to immediately contract to that which could be taxed, but the benefits, once the pain was endured, would belong to the Greeks, not the bankers from France and Germany.
Issue a non-debt-backed currency and tell the bankers to stuff it, relegating them to pursuit of profit in the private markets, not on the back of the government and citizens via taxation.
Radical? Maybe...
http://tinyurl.com/y3hozfy

[Entendance]

Euro Zone Government Debt Could Top 100% of GDP
http://tinyurl.com/y5c3alr



ECB Official Warns of Potential Sovereign Debt Crisis
http://tinyurl.com/y2kqgzs

April 22 2010
Euro-Area Deficit Widened to More Than Double EU Limit in 2009
Greek Budget Deficit Revised to 13.6%, May Top 14%, EU Says
Greek Civil Servants Strike Over Austerity Measures

Sharks shunt you first.
Then they circle you and come back for the kill. Usually from underneath you.

Tigers bite your legs first, to stop you from running.
Then they bite your throat, to stop you from breathing. Then they all pile in and eat you.
Wolves knock you down first.
Then they stare at you for a while to see you're down for sure. Then they eat you.
Economic crises attack households first, then banks, after that currencies, because printing takes over, then states themselves.
That's when the depletion-wolf sinks its theeth in.
There's no coming back from this...as time will reveal.
-Wolf at the door.flv

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[Entendance]

Greek PM announces activation of EU/IMF aid package

Game over? Greece's debt crisis Thursday spilled across global equity, bond and currency markets, making it virtually certain a joint aid package from the euro-zone and International Monetary Fund will have to be activated. But even with the package agreed to over a week ago, questions remain over its implementation and whether Greece ultimately needs a debt restructuring...
http://tinyurl.com/2vkq6xb

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[sowhat]

Greek Unions Vow to Strike Over Aid Appeal
A few short hours after Greece submitted its formal request to activate the joint bailout mechanism promised by the European Union and the International Monetary Fund, the country's unions threatened more strikes and the opposition party launched populist tirades against the government...
http://tinyurl.com/33ypfrm

[GSIMMERLE]

Greek general strike turns violent
http://tinyurl.com/yeaw7vm

...the idea of a so-called Euro 2 is beginning to emerge, in other words to split the current Euro, thus creating a new currency unit. However, we must keep in mind that, for this very reason, one of the first Countries that would oppose such a move would be Germany, which would find itself faced with partners whose potential and appeal would make life difficult for Germany. The introduction of the Euro created many additional benefits for certain Countries, but it also put incredible strain on the account books of other Countries and that is why the markets are now rather dubious about the future of Europe and the Euro. Greece with its 0.3 trillion Euro debt is a joke. The Country could easily be bailed out by means of a joint intervention by the other European Countries, but what about a Country such as Spain? Or Italy for that matter. Who will bail them out?"
http://tinyurl.com/yfu2g3z

Greek Unions Launch Assault On Austerity Plan
http://tinyurl.com/ygwblgk

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Greeks Call For Referendum On IMF Bailout, Call Austerity "Barbaric Attack" And "Premeditated Crime Against Greek Society"
http://tinyurl.com/2a8m8pl

[Entendance]

Describing his country’s economy as “a sinking ship,” Greece’s prime minister formally requested an international bailout on Friday, creating the biggest test so far to the European monetary union.

"Dear China, can you please just buy Greece already so we can move on? Thanks, Rest Of World"
-Kid Dynamite

Greece, The IMF, And What Comes Next
http://tinyurl.com/34btj2s

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