Author Topic: Oxi  (Read 9699 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline Maik

  • Administrator
  • Forum Deity
  • *****
  • Posts: 35167
Oxi
« on: Sunday, 05 July, 2015 @ 23:59:31 »
Quote
Greece debt crisis: Greek voters reject bailout offer

With two-thirds of ballots counted, results from the Greek referendum show voters decisively rejecting the terms of an international bailout.

Figures published by the interior ministry showed 61% of those whose ballots had been counted voting "No", against 39% voting "Yes".


Quote
Samaras resigns

BREAKING: Greek conservative opposition leader Antonis Samaras announces his resignation, sparking cheers in the Athens crowd.

"Our party needs a new start. As of today, I'm resigning from the leadership of New Democracy," Mr Samaras said in a televised statement.

Merkel and Hollande are reportedly calling for a special summit to be held on the Greece crisis on Tuesday.

With close to 80 per cent of votes counted, No stands at 62pc, Yes on 38pc
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/11718775/Greek-referendum-day-results-live-no-vote-leads-by-60-per-cent.html

Offline Bluenose

  • Forum Deity
  • *****
  • Posts: 271
Re: Oxi
« Reply #1 on: Monday, 06 July, 2015 @ 02:12:45 »
Bravo to the Greek nation. Enough is enough. Stick it to them. Suppression by the European lunatics should be halted. IMHO. Now the great experiment looks like it has a chink in its armour. Shit idea in the first place. Sterling !

Offline Maik

  • Administrator
  • Forum Deity
  • *****
  • Posts: 35167
Re: Oxi
« Reply #2 on: Monday, 06 July, 2015 @ 14:07:13 »
Quote
Greece debt crisis: Finance Minister Varoufakis resigns

Greece's outspoken finance minister has resigned, hours after voters backed his call to reject creditors' demands for more austerity in a referendum.

Yanis Varoufakis said it was felt his departure would be helpful in finding a solution to the country's debt crisis.

Eurozone finance ministers, with whom he repeatedly clashed, had wanted him removed, Mr Varoufakis explained.

The European Central Bank (ECB) is to discuss whether to raise its emergency cash support for Greek banks, which are running out of funds and close to collapse.

Greece's Economy Minister, Georgios Stathakis, told the BBC the ECB had to keep Greek banks alive for seven to 10 days so that negotiations could take place.

But even if the ECB continued to freeze the Emergency Liquidity Assistance (ELA) at €89bn (£63bn; $98bn), the current cash withdrawal and transfer restrictions on banks could stay in place until Friday, without any of them collapsing, he said.

The majority of Greeks say they want to stay in the single currency, but their angry "No" vote in Sunday's referendum has made that far harder, our correspondent adds.

Greek banks are so critically low on funds that they could collapse in days without an injection of cash from the European Central Bank. But it will only lend if Greek banks are solvent - which they're not - or Greece is in a bailout scheme - which it isn't. So the door to a eurozone exit inches ever closer.

Greece achieved a political earthquake last night. But the aftershocks could be far greater.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-33406001

Offline Maik

  • Administrator
  • Forum Deity
  • *****
  • Posts: 35167
Re: Oxi
« Reply #3 on: Monday, 06 July, 2015 @ 14:12:39 »
Quote
Taxpayers, companies scramble to settle accounts fearing haircut

Rumors of a haircut on deposits have led some households and enterprises to pay off their tax debts and loans over fears that their deposits will be devalued. More than a few salary workers, self-employed professionals and entrepreneurs have opted to pay their obligations in an effort to protect their deposits indirectly, figuring that their debts would remain intact even in the case of a haircut.
http://www.ekathimerini.com/198983/article/ekathimerini/business/taxpayers-companies-scramble-to-settle-accounts-fearing-haircut

Offline Maik

  • Administrator
  • Forum Deity
  • *****
  • Posts: 35167
Re: Oxi
« Reply #4 on: Monday, 06 July, 2015 @ 15:27:14 »
Looks like the No vote won out in every election district across Greece:



Map and results on ekloges.ypes.gr: for Kef click on Elect. District (top right), scroll down and select Kefallinias. Then click on Municipality and select Kefalonias, then select Municipal Unit.

Offline Maik

  • Administrator
  • Forum Deity
  • *****
  • Posts: 35167
Re: Oxi
« Reply #5 on: Monday, 06 July, 2015 @ 15:40:55 »
Looking at the results here, the closest it got was in Lakonias with 51.17% of No votes versus 48.83% Yes votes.

Most resounding was in Chanion (Chania) where 73.77% of the votes were for No and 26.23% for Yes.


Offline Maik

  • Administrator
  • Forum Deity
  • *****
  • Posts: 35167
Re: Oxi
« Reply #6 on: Monday, 06 July, 2015 @ 15:48:10 »

Offline Mediterranean Man

  • Gold Medalist
  • *****
  • Posts: 122
Re: Oxi
« Reply #7 on: Monday, 06 July, 2015 @ 22:52:24 »
Quote
Greece debt crisis: Finance Minister Varoufakis resigns

Greece's outspoken finance minister has resigned, hours after voters backed his call to reject creditors' demands for more austerity in a referendum.

Yanis Varoufakis said it was felt his departure would be helpful in finding a solution to the country's debt crisis.

Eurozone finance ministers, with whom he repeatedly clashed, had wanted him removed, Mr Varoufakis explained.

The European Central Bank (ECB) is to discuss whether to raise its emergency cash support for Greek banks, which are running out of funds and close to collapse.

Greece's Economy Minister, Georgios Stathakis, told the BBC the ECB had to keep Greek banks alive for seven to 10 days so that negotiations could take place.

But even if the ECB continued to freeze the Emergency Liquidity Assistance (ELA) at €89bn (£63bn; $98bn), the current cash withdrawal and transfer restrictions on banks could stay in place until Friday, without any of them collapsing, he said.

The majority of Greeks say they want to stay in the single currency, but their angry "No" vote in Sunday's referendum has made that far harder, our correspondent adds.

Greek banks are so critically low on funds that they could collapse in days without an injection of cash from the European Central Bank. But it will only lend if Greek banks are solvent - which they're not - or Greece is in a bailout scheme - which it isn't. So the door to a eurozone exit inches ever closer.

Greece achieved a political earthquake last night. But the aftershocks could be far greater.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-33406001
This is in my opinion a great tactical move by Tsipiras. Clearly Yanis is head and shoulders above the other Finance Ministers in command of the English language, charisma, leadership and economic strategy. No wonder they hate him! He will return, probably as a Leader of Greece. Loved the way he told it as it was, delivered the rhetoric and looked good.

Offline Maik

  • Administrator
  • Forum Deity
  • *****
  • Posts: 35167
Re: Oxi
« Reply #8 on: Tuesday, 07 July, 2015 @ 01:44:40 »


Quote
European Central Bank tightens noose on banking system as creditor powers punish Greece
Greek 'No' vote sees lenders act in concert, warning of imminent bankruptcy unless Athens capitulates to fresh reform demands

Berlin and Brussels are now acting as if their aim is to punish Greece and force it out of monetary union, even though this would almost certainly precipitate a default on €340bn of liabilities to the eurozone.

The political mechanics of EMU mean that Greece is now trapped in an untenable debt structure even though most economists - of whatever stripe or colour - agree that it makes no sense.

The root problem is that the debt is no longer owed to banks, funds and private investors, who know that losses are part of normal business when mistakes are made. In Greece’s case, the money is owed to the taxpayers of other EMU states.

The two rescues of 2010 and 2012 - primarily designed to save the European financial system - roped in taxpayers from Germany, France, Spain, Italy and the rest of EMU to provide loans to a Greek state that was already bankrupt.

It has transformed a normal clash between creditors and debtors into a fratricidal dispute between European nations. The result of this toxic arrangement is the disaster unfolding before our eyes in Greece.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/11722101/ECB-tightens-noose-on-banking-system-as-creditor-powers-punish-Greece.html


Quote
This is what capitalism is really about.

From the beginning, Merkel and the EU have operated from the position that because Greece took on debt, Greece now needs to pay it back. That position assumed — bizarrely, in hindsight — that debt works only one way: If you lend someone money, that money is repaid.

But that is NOT how free markets work.

Debt is not a guarantee of future payments in full. Rather, it is a risk that creditors take, in hopes of maybe being paid tomorrow.

The key word there is "risk."

If you're willing to take the risk, you'll get a premium — in the form of interest.

But the downside of that risk is that you lose your money. And Greece just called Germany's bluff.

More astonishing still is that Merkel et al knew Greece could not pay back this debt before these negotiations started. The IMF's own assessment of Greek debt, published just a few days ago, states: "Coming on top of the very high existing debt, these new financing needs render the debt dynamics unsustainable ..."

"Unsustainable"! Germany's own bankers knew Greece couldn't pay this back. And yet Merkel persisted.

There is another key fact that the Greeks are keenly aware of (but that everyone else has forgotten). This debt was initially owed to private-investment banks, such as Goldman Sachs. But the IMF and the European Central Bank (ECB) made the suicidal decision to let those private banks transfer that debt to EU institutions and the IMF to "rescue" Greece.

The result was that the ECB made this catastrophically stupid deal with Greece, according to our April report:

And so there was no restructuring agreed for Greece. The country paid off its immediate debts to the private financial sector — investment banks, basically — and replacement debt was laid onto European taxpayers. The government agreed to a package of harsh government spending cuts and structural reforms in exchange for loans totalling €110 billion over three years.

Trichet made a colossal, elementary mistake. The right place for risky debt by definition is in the private markets, such as Goldman. The entire point of private debt investment is that those creditors are prepared for a haircut. The risk absolutely should not be borne by central banks that rely on taxpayer money for bailouts.

Had Trichet made the opposite decision — and left the Greek debt with Goldman et al — then Sunday's vote would be a footnote rather than a headline in history. "Goldman Sachs takes a bath on Greek debt." Who cares? Goldman shareholders and clients, surely. But it would not have triggered a crisis at the heart of the EU.

If Greece were more socialist — more like Germany, with its giant corporations that have massive unionised workforces paying taxes off their payrolls — then tax collection would be a lot higher in Greece.

Greece is now most likely an international pariah on the debt markets. It may have to start printing its own devalued drachma currency. It will have no access to credit. Sure, olive oil, feta, and raki will suddenly become incredibly cheap commodities on the export markets. Tourism in Greece is about to become awesome. But mostly it will be awful. Unemployment will increase as Greece's economy implodes.

But the awfulness will be Greece's alone. Greece is now on its own path. It is deciding its own fate.

There is something admirable about that.
http://www.businessinsider.com/greece-referendum-result-and-the-meaning-of-debt-2015-7


Quote
What we should watch, of course, is how Greece lives in the coming  months. If it needs humanitarian aid from those who help refugees, for example, what does it tell us about Greece? Or about the EU? Or about us?

It is a cliché to say this, but clichés sometimes have to suffice. If Greece becomes a beggar state, we can tell ourselves that it deserves it. An example for the Podemos party in Spain. Don’t step out of line. Endure “austerity”, our polite word for poverty. But is that why the EU was created? As a bankers’ union to enrich the wealthy and impoverish the poor? It was supposed to ensure that there will never again be war in Europe?

So what are we going to inflict upon the Greeks?
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/greece-debt-crisis-live-referendum-eu-family-needs-to-forgive-rather-than-punish-an-impoverished-state-10370181.html


Huge variety of expert(?) opinion and mis-information on the internet (I'd trust The Times about as much as the EU bearing gifts), I'm no expert but it seems the (unsustainable) debt has been transferred from the banks and financial institutions to the tax payer.

Looks like a monumental f*ck up by the EU and its institutions.

Offline Maik

  • Administrator
  • Forum Deity
  • *****
  • Posts: 35167
Re: Oxi
« Reply #9 on: Wednesday, 08 July, 2015 @ 01:22:40 »
Quote
Greece given deadline to avoid banking collapse and euro exit
Athens told to present convincing details or EU leaders will hold emergency meeting in Brussels on Sunday to deal with Grexit

Greece has been given little more than 48 hours by European leaders to strike a longer-term bailout deal with its eurozone creditors this week or face a banking collapse, a humanitarian emergency and the start of exiting the single currency.

Unless Athens presents convincing details entailing more austerity as the basis for its third bailout in five years, all 28 national EU leaders, not just those of the eurozone, are to gather in Brussels on Sunday in emergency session to decide how to contain the fallout from Greece’s financial collapse.

The stark ultimatum emerged from a special eurozone summit in Brussels on Tuesday where the Greek prime minister, Alexis Tsipras, was pressed to explain to the other leaders how he wanted to proceed following his victory in the controversial referendum on Sunday when Greece said no to eurozone austerity measures as the price of staying in the euro.

In a letter to the Guardian, Piketty and other leading economists wrote: “We urge Chancellor Merkel and the troika to consider a course correction, to avoid further disaster and enable Greece to remain in the eurozone. Right now, the Greek government is being asked to put a gun to its head and pull the trigger. Sadly, the bullet will not only kill off Greece’s future in Europe. The collateral damage will kill the eurozone as a beacon of hope, democracy and prosperity, and could lead to far-reaching economic consequences across the world.

“In the 1950s Europe was founded on the forgiveness of past debts, notably Germany’s, which generated a massive contribution to postwar economic growth and peace. Today we need to restructure and reduce Greek debt, give the economy breathing room to recover, and allow Greece to pay off a reduced burden of debt over a long period of time. Now is the time for a humane rethink of the punitive and failed programme of austerity of recent years and to agree to a major reduction of Greece’s debts in conjunction with much needed reforms in Greece.”
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jul/07/greece-crisis-eurozone-tsipras-banking-collapse


I'm getting older, maybe my memory plays me up. I'm pretty sure it wasn't so long ago the EU said there was no mechanism for a member state to leave, even if it wanted to.

Now it may seem an admission that Merkel et al are clueless and want Greece to present a solution to save the EU. JMO.