Greece

The EU's finely tuned (and well-greased by assorted bankers) Nash Equilibrium is about to become history. Austria is the first major country to say enough to Greece's endless lies. Why? Who knows - Austrian banks will be first on the firing squad line when, not if, Greece implodes. Perhaps even Europe is getting sick of this charade. Next up - every man for themselves, but only those who defect first win.

It is settled: the only country that may have more pathological liars than the US, is Greece. Eurostat, whose revision of Greek GDP numbers in April was the catalyst that led to the country's insolvency and riots in early May, and subsequent bail out, is on the scene again, and has once again confirmed that Greek authorities can be relied on 100%... to lie. Reuters reports that Greece's much-revised 2009 budget deficit will be set "once and for all" by Eurostat at above 15 percent of GDP, the country's finance minister said on Wednesday. And the revision is certainly a little more than just "modest": "Remember the 2009 budget was projecting a deficit under 3 percent, then a few days before the (Oct. 4) election the reported deficit to the EU Commission was 6 percent," Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou told a conference in Cyprus. "We realised it was over 12 percent. And actually, even after the final revision by Eurostat ... which will validate Greek numbers for 2009 once and for all, it will be above 15 percent. We are talking about a five-fold difference." This is data fudging that will make not only China but the BLS blush with envy.

Remember all those lies about how the Greek economy was going to grow and stuff? Here is the truth: the latest Bank of Greece report shows Greek GDP to shrink about 4% this year and unemployment to exceed 12%. And it is enough to blow Greek spreads out by 25 bps and growing. Below are the summary points from the report which is the first step to uncovering the true devastation sweeping the country. Elsewhere, Kathimerini reported that delays in the collection of taxes in Greece may cause a EUR 900mln shortfall in 2010 causing further widening in spreads.

Baton-toting police have stormed the Acropolis clashing with government workers and blocking Greece's most sacrosanct archeological site for a second day. So, aside from Waddell & Reed, what else caused the flash crash again?

This is the math, the reasoning and the logic behind a nearly inevitable default by Greece. Why hasn't this been present in the mainstream media?

Oh the joys of austerity. In Greece things are finally warming up, even as the weather is cooling off, and vacation bills come due. Don't expect to see any live footage on CNBC, as Waddell & Reed may be forced to sell 10 ES contracts and wipe out the entire market, but back in Athens things are right about where we left them off on May 6: Greek civil servants have stopped work for 24 hours, "pushing ahead with protests against EU/IMF prescribed austerity measures despite a waning turnout." Reuters reports: "Tax offices, public schools and some public services shut down, while public hospitals worked with emergency staff. Flights to and from Greek airports were to be grounded for four hours up to 1600 GMT, when air traffic controllers joined the action." For the sake of keeping the ponzi alive, we hope at least Fed helicopters are allowed to make emergency landings in the general area of the Acropolis, or to at least paradrop buckets full of green colored linen to keep the peasantry content for a few more weeks.

And the pathological lies of Greece continue to be exposed (not surprisingly, this is occurring after G-Pap the elder repeated about 1,000 times that Greece is not insolvent both before it was bailed out, as well as after, as if he is dealing with a psychiatric ward of clinical idiots). According to AFP, "increased figures for Greek national debt and deficits covering
contested data from 2006 to 2009 will be published this month, the EU
said on Wednesday after conducting its first invasive audit." Which means that Greece has been lying all along, and not just into its May bankruptcy, but after it as well. At what point will the people of Germany finally rebel and say enough with this endless bailout and even more endless subsidization of liars?

Here is how you kill two birds with one stone, all the while confirming that Europe has been about a step away from a full collapse. Greece, which like Ireland, has been unable to peddle its bonds to anyone now that Bunds spreads are back to all time record levels, has just seen the last white knight of the Keynesian system come to its rescue: China. As Bloomberg reports, the European lender of last resort is no longer the ECB: "China has already bought and holds its Greek bonds,” Wen
said in joint comments with Papandreou today, which were carried
live on state-run ET-1 television. “It commits, very
positively, to buy new bonds to be issued by Greece." Yet herein lies the rub: in exchange for the Chinese last-ditch rescue financing, which by the way is so transparent that everybody, except maybe for the Norwegian wealth fund will see right through it, Greece, in what is an almost identical replica of the Petrobras shell game, will use the money to turn around and buy Chinese ships. "Wen said a $5 billion shipping fund will be set up to
tighten relations between the countries’ two maritime industries
and facilitate the sale of Chinese vessels to Greeks." Truly brilliant what Keynesians will come up with in the last days of a collapsing economic religion.

Just headlines for now, but this likely means the Greek bond roadshow has been cancelled as not even the world's best underwriters were able to generate enough interest for the imminent disaster that will be Greek bonds. One can only imagine how much horror must have gotten uncovered during the roadshow process if investors, even with the backstop of the ECB's endless guarantees, have said "no mas." Luckily, Moody's earlier gave a provisional rating of AAA to the European Financial Stability Fund (EFSF), which it now appears will be used imminently, first for Greece, then Ireland, and then everyone else who comes to the trough. If this news doesn't send the S&P over 1,220, nothing will.

On one hand you have the Greek finance minister uttering the most self-serving statement of the year, saying Greek bonds are no longer something to fear (even as Greek industrial production falls 8.6% on expectations of -5.7%), on the other you have John Taylor saying that "unless a miracle takes place, the Greek situation will deteriorate and other countries will follow in the next few years." That's fine: G-Pap is currently taking advanced transmogrification lessons as the local alchemy university - even miracle workers have to start somewhere.

There is one major problem with putting houses of card back together - they tend to fall...over and over. And while abundant liquidity in May and June served as an artificial prop to return European core and PIIGS spreads to previous levels merely as mean reversion algos took holds, the second time around won't be as lucky. CDR's Tim Backshall was on the Strategy Session today, discussing the key trends in sovereign products over the past few months, noting the declining liquidity in both sovereign cash and derivative exposure (we will refresh on the DTCC sovereign data later after its weekly Tuesday update). Yet the most interesting observation by Backshall is the declining halflife of risk-on episodes, which much like the SNB's (now declining) interventions, are having less of an impact on the market, as ever worsening fundamentals can only be swept under the carpet for so long before they really start stinking up the place, and indeed, as Tim points out at 5:30 into the interview, even the IMF now realizes that soon the eventual second domino will fall, and it is better the be prepared (via the previously discussed infinitely expanded credit line), than to have to scramble in the last minute as was necessary in May. In other words, the storm clouds are gathering and only fools will invest in risk asset without getting some additional clarity on what is happening in Europe. The bottom line as Backshall asks is: "do they default now or default later." And that pretty much sums it up. Buy stocks at your own peril.

Outflow troubles continue for the time bomb in Europe's periphery, Greece, whose second default is approaching. The central bank has just reported that in July household and business deposits declined from €216.5 billion to €212.3 billion: so much for the ECB's presence inspiring confidence. So €4 billion a month in deposits taken out, and applying a fractional reserve multiplier, means Greek banks lost another €40 billion in monetary supply in July alone. Deflation + Austerity = Kaboom. As to where these deposits are going, here is a suggestion...

Greece's exit from the eurozone would be the "worst possible option", Europe's central bank chief said at the weekend amid concerns over the debt-stricken country's ability to pull itself out of crisis. Will Greece default and will this cause yet another global crisis?

One of the stealthier developments over the past months has been the ever wider creep in Greek CDS, especially in the longer-dated part of the curve. In fact, everything to the right of the 3 Year point is now wider than it was both on the eve of the Greek semi-default, and just after the announcement of the European Stabilization Mechanism (ESM). How is it that with so much firepower, better known as free money, thrown at the problem, have spreads not declined? The CFR provides one interpretation, which speculates that once European banks find a firmer footing, that Greece, with the blessing of Europe proper, will be allowed to finally sever its mutated umbilical cord, and default. The catalyst would be Greece getting its primary deficit under control, at which point ongoing bad debt funding would no longer be necessary. Of course, this hypothesis is based on two very critical assumptions: European banks, especially in the periphery, as the second attached study from Goldman indicates, are still locked out. To think that Europe will be able to get to an equal footing for all countries seems like some wishful thinking at this point, especially if the market does consider the implications of what a Greek default will do to peripheral banking. Additionally, the ramifications to the euro in the case of a default will be dire, although that may be precisely what Europe is after all alone. Regardless, that is how the CFR sees things, rightly or wrongly. Keep an eye on Greek spreads in the coming weeks to see if the theory is validated.

What does Illinois have in common with Bear Stearns, Ambac Financial, LTCM and Greece? Come on fellas, let's roll the dice. I've got some pension money in case I come up snake eyes...