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Greece Gets Three-Day Ultimatum From Europe To Fix Itself, Or Else
Yesterday it was the Egyptian military giving president Morsi a two day ultimatum before things "deteriorate", now it is the Eurozone giving Greece a three day ultimatum to "deliver on the conditions attached to its international bailout in order to receive the next tranche of aid" or else.
This links back to the FT report from June 20 that the IMF told Greece it has until the end of July to plug its budget holes, or else. In other words, simple escalation. Of course, maybe it should have been made apparent to Greece back in May 2010 at the time of the first (of many) bailouts that all those tens of billions in sunk costs are actually supposed to lead to economic reforms instead of perpetuating a broken and corrupt political system in which all in efficiencies and failures are blamed on evil (f)austerity.
From Reuters:
Greece has three days to reassure Europe and the International Monetary Fund it can deliver on conditions attached to its international bailout in order to receive the next tranche of aid, four euro zone officials said on Tuesday.
The lenders are unhappy with progress Greece has made towards reforming its public sector, a senior euro zone official involved in the negotiations said, while another said they might suspend an inspection visit they resumed on Monday.
Athens, which has about 2.2 billion euros of bonds to redeem in August, needs the talks to conclude successfully. If they fail, the International Monetary Fund might have to withdraw from the 240-billion-euro bailout to avoid violating its own rules, which require a borrower to be financed a year ahead.
That would heighten the risk that concerted efforts by policymakers over the past nine months to keep a lid on the euro zone crisis could unravel, at a time when tensions are rising in other countries on the region's periphery.
Portugal's Finance Minister Vitor Gaspar, the architect of its austerity drive under an EU/IMF bailout, resigned on Monday in a potential blow to his country's planned exit from an EU-IMF rescue program.
Political tension has also increased in Italy, where Prime Minister Enrico Letta called a government meeting after a coalition partner threatened to withdraw.
Athens and its creditors resumed talks on Monday to unlock 8.1 billion euros ($10.6 billion) of rescue loans, after a two-week break during which the government almost collapsed over redundancies at state broadcaster ERT.
"All agreed that Greece has to deliver (pledges) before the Eurogroup on Monday. That's why they must present again on Friday," a second source told Reuters.
Euro zone finance ministers are scheduled to meet on July 8 and discuss the situation in Greece, which is in its sixth year of recession and has seen unemployment surge to record highs.
It almost appears as if the Troika is actually set on being serious this time:
"It is a very difficult negotiation," a senior Greek official participating in the talks said. "We're moving fast to wrap up as many issues as possible a soon as possible."
But Greece's financial overseers - the IMF, the euro zone and the European Central Bank - were unlikely to be able to conclude their review in July and might need to suspend the visit and resume it in September, a senior euro zone official said on condition of anonymity.
Representatives of the EU-IMF-ECB "troika" have been holding serial meetings with government ministers in Athens, struggling to agree on a host of outstanding issues.
If talks are not concluded by the middle of month, Athens risked missing the installment, the Greek official added.
Athens has missed a June deadline to place 12,500 state workers into a "mobility scheme", under which they are transferred or dismissed within a year.
If indeed the Troika is set on purging Greece, it can only mean one thing: Cyprus part 2, and this time it will be Greek depositors who are to be impaired (since there is no more deleveraging that can be executed in the sovereign realm, either via a PSI or OSI). And with the Cyprus bail-in failing to lead to epic chaos and a financial collapse, the Troika's confidence appears raised that what worked in Cyprus can work just as well in Greece, as the depositor confiscation "template" moves one step ever closer to its ultimate goals: Spain and, finally, Italy.
If we were Greek depositors, we would make prudent use of the 'mattress alternative' right about now...
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Lots of ultimatums being thrown around all of a sudden.
It's moments like this when I just count to 10. Doesn't always work however.
3 days to plug a hole? It takes longer than that just to tie the knot.
Greece Gets Three-Day Ultimatum From Europe To Fix Itself, Or Else
PLAN B of course!
Oh..wait..
I plug holes in 2 to 5 minutes...
In a good day... I can plug 3 holes in a hour.
no honor among criminals..so no rule of law..nothing can be fixed when there is no real law. fake money for pretend reform, getting tired of this ruse.
Or else we will...or else we....or ....oh, ok, we will give you just one more bailout. But this is really really the last one!!!
well... 3 days because... after those 3 days.... IT'S WEEKEND!! NO MORE WORK!! WHOEHOEEEE!!!!
AND IF THEY EXPECT THEM TO WORK IN THE WEEKENDS: THAT COUNTS AS DOUBLE OVERTIME!!! 200% OF BASIC SALARY!!! 300 IF IT'S A SUNDAY!!!
We are giving you 3 days to fix your problems....OR ELSE WE ARE GOING TO BE serious. REALLY...we mean it this time.
If you are really serious we can schedule a meeting in 2014 and delay any need for fixes.
I call election time bullshit!
that's cruel...
you can vote for Goldman Devision 1 or Goldman Devision 2...
if you don't like democracy you should just say so...
OR ELSE WE'RE GIVING YOU 100 BILLION TO KEEP THE FARCE GOING!!
HA!! WHO'S LAUGHING NOW??!!
Yep. The IMF isn't going to pull out early. They like what they are giving Greece.
EU Commission says it has not yet given Greece a three-day deadline (Less ...) Instant analysis 11:13 - Says deadline report is something for nothing. Analysis details: - Follows reports Greece has been given three-day deadline to prove it can meet austerity requirements, in order to receive its next tranche of bailout payments.
Or else .... we'll have to say "or else" again.
+1000 It reminds me of a Robin Williams stand up comedy routine from the '80's. He is describing the unarmed British police. "Stop, or I'll say stop again"...
you mean that unarmed police that somehow has so few homicides to go after? ;-)
I saw a British Bobby on a bicycle stop a speeding car by holding his hand up as it went past him.
knowing Old Blighty a bit I would not be astonished at all that it worked - it's a gentle realm
And there was cricket being played on the green - and people in front of the pub drinking funny looking stuff... in the distance a fox barked...
rumours are "german" euro is underway
Take away the word euro......and I'm sold.
1 WORD!! MAGINOT!!!
THOSE GERMANS WON'T REALIZE WHAT'S HAPPENING TO THEM!! HAHAHAHAHAHA!!
Says who? Internet articles from 2010?
EURO A - GERMANY, AUSTRIA;FINLAND AND NETHERLANDS
EURO B- THE REST
Belgium and Luxembourg in B... Yeah right
"If indeed the Troika is set on purging Greece..." groan, again I have the urge to "defend" the Troika here? please, some balance. The Greek government wants something, and agreed to do something else for it. It's called a deal
Greece spends moar than it makes (collects in taxes) - that's the real starting point of the whole thing, and a good reminder for everyone
bash away
Ok, we'll take those defective engines of yours and swap you our cold fusion machine that actually works. Fair deal?
thanks, but no, thanks, than I don't think that those engines are defective. your deal sounds a bit like the US offering Greece annexation as a new State, or the UK offering Dominion status, perhaps together with Cyprus
I somehow doubt those offers would ever be made, and even more that they would be accepted
In my experience, most Greeks not living in diaspora were hoping since long that their nation would get a "clean-up". This one is particularly ugly, yes - not one of the IMF deals was ever "sweet". The trick would be to never need the "loving attentions of the IMF"
And yet most Greeks want to stay in this process... and keep using the EUR. And this is a fact. do you have an explanation for that?
Sorry there bud, I proved it long ago. They are designed to build up heat and wear parts faster than they should. Oh I know it's good for the economy, yours that is. But I want no part of that welcome to the partnership, it's unsustainable and is only now showing it's true colors.
what is unsustainable about balanced budgets? because that's "the plan". I know it might sound foreign, but hey, perhaps because it is
it takes a while, it might not work, but it is the way it is
You can't balance a budget when your nuclear industry is in denial, plus once the engines are exposed for the mistake they are, you have now lost customers as your citizens continue to cave in to their own demands. It's unsustainable I say.
deficit spending allows for poor to stay alive. If we were balancing budgets for the last 30 years many would have died of hunger like in africa.
"what is unsustainable about balanced budgets?"
Give it up buddy. Germany is the main benefactor in the EU. Germany produces the best quality products and the currency is pegged across the whole region, so there is no currency disadvantage (currency is not too strong). As an American I can tell you long term trade imbalances are definitely UNSUSTAINABLE.
I can't talk about Greece but I can talk about Portugal:
A lot of the budget deficit is the result of corruption or public over-indebtness to buy votes or pay for large infrastructure projects from where politicians could skim a cut. Both the corruption and the over-indebtness were always enabled and often even incentivised by foreign lenders.
For example, in Portugal a big hole just came to light as result of state owned companies making really bad interest rate swap trades with several international investment banks. Now, either everybody in positions of responsability at those companies were spectacularly incompetent (there are knockoff clausules in those swaps that mean the other side always wins) or somebody got paid.
Similarly, one of the authonomous regions (which is just a small island in the Atlantic) has managed to run up multi billion euro debts which they were legally not allowed to do. They used the money to pay for huge infrastructure works, which have allowed the guy that heads that region to keep getting re-elected for 30 years.
In all this, the Portuguese government (in reality, the taxpayers) was pushed to take responsability for paying that money to large international financial institutions.
Why should a soverign state pay external creditors for debt which was taken against the law or by people that did not have the authority to do it? Isn't the responsability of the lenders to do due diligence before they lend the money?
Now consider that the Portuguese State now actually has a Primary Surplus (i.e. if they didn't have to pay interest on the debt, the state would have a surplus), which means that the budget is balanced if the nation was not being forced to pay for "fishy" debt. Why exactly would a sovereign nation with a primary surplus not just tell creditors that "We're not paying. You took a risk, you lost. You should've done your due diligence"?
Why should the sovereign state take on the debts the regions owe to the international banks? Because the NSA has recordings of their cell phones and internet usage. If the leaders didn't want to pay those debts they shouldn't have called those 15yr old male hookers (that the NSA sent their way) in the first place.
Collective insanity? Fluoride in the water? Sunstroke? Stockholm syndrome?
weak but persistent sense of nationhood? Greek is a language, it's a culture, and a quite unique nation-state (with the exception of Cyprus)
couple that with a similar sense of europeanhood. note, for example, the general Greek demand for a national TV. the same demand is much weaker for English-speaking folk, than many countries have many English-speaking media. It's easy to exchange foreign with insane, you know that
btw, I have a fable for you... and you figure in it
The BeeGees called it "Stayin Alive".
I don't think that is going to work out how thye think it will. Then again it's likely that this all merely theater for the plebes to keep entertained by.
Cool, I love to play amusement machines to kill the time.
Today is Tuesday. So they give them till Friday. Then they throw Greece out of the Euro, spark a derivative waterfall that cascades all over Europe. Bank holiday monday and all assets are confiscated from every bank. Riots ensue and the European oligarchs are marched out on the street and hung from lamp posts. 2 week celebration follows and then Europe becomes the first continent to reset their system and begin anew, sparking the same thing to happen in America.
Or
They give them a few more bucks to keep the bullshit going.
Oh, they'll give them the money. Just that there will be a bail-in as part of it.
NOTE TO GREEK DEPOSITORS: YOU ARE ABOUT TO GET A HAIRCUT. IF YOU HAVE MORE THAN 100K EUROS IN YOUR ACCOUNT YOU ARE NOW AT RISK. THIS IS YOUR WAKE-UP CALL. NO BITCHING ABOUT HOW GRANNY LOST HER LIFE SAVINGS. NO BITCHING ABOUT HOW YOUR COMPANY'S OPERATING ACCOUNT GOT WIPED OUT.
From the movie "The Rock": You were asked by a friend. You were ordered by a superior officer. Now you are being given your last chance by a man with a gun in his hand.
YOU WERE WARNED, GREEK DEPOSITORS. GET OFF YOUR ASSES AND GO GET YOUR MONEY, IF YOU HAVE ANY LEFT.
lol, you know that preaching Greeks to watch out for their personal money is a bit like trying to teach your grandmother how to suck eggs?
Greeks are many things, except stupid
well they did wind up in the EU. how's that Growth and Stability Pact looking now! the template is now on....Greece is just a larger "test case." there are bigger one's coming.
well, the Squid swore to them that it was a free-for-all buffet - and indeed it was a feast. now they want to stay in the "restaurant" and are haggling for the "revised bill". haggling is a honoured way of life, in some parts of this world. that's a fact
fonz, the eurozone does not work that way. since you go after an hypothetical case:
a country like Greece could declare bankruptcy - or partial bankruptcy - and still stay in the EuroSystem. there is no way to "throw them out"
but of course this would freak our American cousins out of their minds, so it's "to be avoided, if possible"
Thanks Ghordius, I knew they had the option to stay after bankruptcy. I always appreciate your insight and viewpoint on the topic.
whether it's greece or japan or the U.S at this point, the regurgitated headlines make it difficult to know what year it is anymore. it's starting to drive me crazy.
;-) it's 2013, and a good mentor of mine always told me that any serious plans for the future should always contemplate also the all-important and likely scenario of "another seven years of the same shit"
Around here if you hold onto something for 7 years and have not used it, it's time to throw it out.
a friend of mine would inquire at this stage if this includes your womenfolk
Nah, those you trade up for a newer model.
after a careful cost-benefit analysis, I presume ;-)
And don't forget to send 2 of everything this time, that last one got abused to no end.
that mentor was a realist.
Of course there is a way to throw them out.
The ECB can simply decide that due to a violation of some important rule (eg the fuckers go bankrupt and can't return some ECB loans) they won't process the Greek CB's transactions.
Game over. Then what's left is to make the official announcement to the unsuspecting public.
fonzannoon
I really like your first scenario, its long overdue.....but fear your second scene will be enacted....pity.......
Was not Greece on the right track not long ago?
Not to anyone that was actually paying attention.
Was not Greece on the right track not long ago?
We heard ya the first time.
Was not Greece on the right track not long ago?
sorry for multiple posts :(
Greece is non event, as ISDA CDS never will be qualified as CREDIT EVENT
They might if an asteroid was about to kill planet Earth......in theory....it could totally happen.
Greece will promise what they must promise to get the reqd money for food transport oil, and then not deliver on the promise.
It is the Irish bank strategy -- get the money flowing so that it is impossible to walk away from the money already committed.
the Anglo-Irish Bank strategy was about executives out of an utterly corrupt culture of banking hoodwinking their regulators and government into a small, affordable bailout of 7bn and then, later, explaining that it was about 30bn (and "damn the Germans")
the previous Greek strategy was to believe the Squid advisors - out of the same utterly corrupt banking culture - that a few cooked books were a sound and sustainable trick thanks to derivative magic
the current Greek strategy is to try to get their Republic back to their feet - which is a bit like cleaning up Augias' stables
There is no strategy of Greece. There is strategy of people who control the Greece government.
they will do and say whatever they need to do and say to get moar money....eventually someone may realize they are never going to pay back the money...and they will default. how do i know? this is exactly what i would do......
But until Sep 22 it is the appearance that is important.
Why would Merkel want to be bothered with the truth and facts that will do her no good?
Big deal, few billion euros... Why would Merkel let that pocket change spoil her reelection chances?
I agree they are just setting the stage for "Bail-In Part II" or winking to those in power to get their money out beforehand. They won't let anybody fail...they can't. Too much exposure to Greek bonds in rest of EU. I'm probably wrong but I think the only country that will leave the Euro is Germany.
The wolf is coming, the wolf is coming, no really the wolf is coming! At this point, what is left to bail in? By now almost everybody is broke. Maybe this will finally piss off the citizens of Greece and they will orchestrate their own Coup De Grace.
"Greece Gets Three-Day Ultimatum From Europe To Fix Itself, Or Else"
"Or else: We'll give you the dosh anyway."
Nothing will happen until after the German elections.....its all quiet on the Western Front...These little countries know that so they start crying to get attention knowing they will get what they want ..and fast..to keep them quiet....Merkel wants to be re elected....and can´t have this kind of problems going on to do it...
She never filled in all the right places, so I wouldn't count on her accomplishing much outside her own private circle.
Spartans! At least we can go broke in the shade!
Don't make me count to three, or else I'll count to four...and then five...and, well then I'll keep counting some more!!
LOL, or else the ECB gives more money. Europe is halarious. An on-going political comedy.
No worry the NSA knows about everything your doing. So if you EU members step out of line you'll get a call from the American white house.
Greece to Troika. I spoke to my mate, she said, if I borrow another 200B, I could then pay you back 100B from the previous bailout and in addition have ready another 100B when you ask for it? Sounds good to me? ?????????
Cyprus #2 is coming to Greece
Be sure to have a gun and plenty of ammunition to defend those martresses...
"Greece Gets Three-Day Ultimatum From Europe To Fix Itself, Or Else"
we'll send a few billons more..
Sorry could not resist.
How can Greece get rid of state workers if everyone who doles out those "jobs" is dependent on the support of the minions they hire?
A dept head who loses his army of supporters most likely will doom his own job to a rival.
The Catch 22 is built in to the patronage system in place.
How many people can you move into the Ministry of Restaurant Decor and Film Services?
Or else what? Greece has got the leverage here. Take down Draghi's derivatives baby he brokered when working for Goldman Sachs who is still a counter party to all those bets right now. Draghi will eat skittles out your ass in front of the whole world to make it not happen.
We want our free shit, when we want it and as much of it as we want or else the money changers doing gods work gets it. Troika will back down real quickly.
Hey! You there with the blindfold and bullet holes! Stand up straight!
or else Europe will make these demands again next week.
What a gong show.
Maybe the Greeks should start selling citizenship? Snowden with Wiki backing would come up with some nice coin....
A Golden opportunity for ,Golden Dawn.