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Is Eurocrat an alternative spelling for "U rock, rat", praising the disease-spreading vermin?
Notice this time there is no talk of triggering Credit Default Swaps? If the Greeks default on the debt won't that blow them all up, and since there is much more paper than "money", will blow up the entire financial Global daisy chain?
Yet the "markets" remain lazily at the top....
That is my take as well, the domino thingy...then poof, a huge pile of debt ponzi and all the associated paper goes with it! fini
Wow, five neins.
Isn't that 45?
Get ready to buy some gold or silver. I suspect a 'can kicking' is coming and that will be viewed as positive. When that happens I suspect one more big assault on gold so the manipulators that dropped it $100 can close their profit books on this most recent assault.
Does this mean no?
Actually means no....change. Classic game theory. No party will change his or her behavior as long as he thinks the others aren't going to change theirs. Stakes too high to change. My guess? "We'll, maybe we'll give you Greeks 6 more months...but just six more months! We really mean it this time!"
Looking at the pic and reading some of the bullshit on the page, it looks like that paper is an EU-sympathizing brussels-humping pile of shit.
No, it's just the left producing their mandatory daily heap of bullshit.
That's right, you are NOT getting your money back; not now nor in 50 or 100 years. It's gone dumbasses.
www.traderzoo.mobi
yes Ms Merkel, please bend over and take 10 inches of prime Greek penice in your arse and as always, thanks for shopping in Greece oh and your tips on the night stand.
Please allow me to repeat myself, at least in part:
Extend and Pretend is of crucial importance to the EU. It allows the Troika to maintain the illusion that they, the Euro, and all EU nations are financially sound.
Notice that the key demand made by the Troika to Greece now is
that Greece accept more loans from the Troika. As David Stockman and others have pointed out, that makes no financial sense at all.
The key to understanding the EU demand that Greece continue to Extend and Pretend lies in the fact that the EU has long passed the point at which financial facts are the key to dealing with the EU's economic and financial problems. The problems are political - how do the politicians and the EC maintain the illusion that all is under control?
The debts of the PIIGS nations are far beyond their ability to ever pay them off. Worse, their debts continue to increase. And default by Greece may trigger large amounts in derivatives, causing major headaches for EU banks, the EC, and the ECB. But for now, the fight with Greece is being waged among politicians, not bankers or economists.
Preservation of the Euro system is of crucial importance to Germany. The Euro has become a trap for the less-competitive members of the Euro zone, and a boon for the more competitive. Germany runs huge trade and current account surpluses with other Euro nations, but those other nations cannot devalue their currencies or adjust interest rates to adjust for their trade
account deficits or for their lower competitiveness. For example, the unit cost of labor in Greece has been estimated to be three times that in Germany, but the only way Greece can readily adjust is to reduce wages.
The adoption of the Euro, and the fact that no individual nation could print Euros or devalue its currency, removed the exchange-rate risks formerly faced by banks lending to the countries of southern Europe, which had formerly had poor
credit ratings and therefore faced high interest rates on their borrowings. The banks of Germany, Italy, and France went on a lending spree to Greece, buying Greek government bonds and lending money to Greek banks. The lending banks enjoyed an implied guarantee from the European Central
Bank and EC that no lender would suffer in a default on Euro obligations by any Euro nation.
After the EU caught contagion from the US financial meltdown of 2008, it became clear that the Greek bonds and IOUs from Greek banks were worth little.
The "bailout of Greece" in 2010 was actually a bailout of the
German, Italian, and French banks. The Troika bought the worthless Greek bonds and Greek bank IOUs, and gave a bit of money to Greece while forcing Greece to accept new budgetary rules that prioritized debt payment above all else.
The same pattern was applied in Spain, Portugal, and Ireland.
Austerity has not produced economic growth to any extent. The people of Greece, Spain, Portugal and Ireland live in straitened circumstances with high unemployment and lowered living standards.
BUT the balance sheets of the banks that lent to the PIIGS nations have been made to look good. The unpayable debts of the PIIGS nations and their banks are now held mostly by the Troika.
Greece's new government is demanding the removal of the austerity rules, and a write-down of the debts, and threatens to default if no new deal is given. The Troika fears that other PIIGS nations may echo Greece's demands.
Since the bonds held by the Troika can never be paid off anyway, what does it matter if Greece repudiates the bond debts?
Repudiation by the Greeks would have effects having both political than financial importance. First, repudiation would expose the reality of the worthlessness of the Greek bonds, and force the holders of those bonds to write down their value on their balance sheets. That would immediately expose the shaky nature of the Troika's balance sheets, and shake market confidence in
the Euro. Any success by the Greeks in renegotiating their
bailout/austerity will embolden other PIIGS politicians to try the same.
EU politicians would face the wrath of their voters when it became clear that each EU country that contributed to the bailout funds would not recover the lent money, and would have to contribute even more to make up the losses of the Troika, under the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF). This
appears to be why Merkel is so adamant that Greece not be allowed any adjustment of its "bailout" deal of 2010.
An analysis of the EFSF shortly after it was introduced exposed its frailty.
Under the EFSF, each EU nation guaranteed the debts of the others. But in case of a default, fewer nations would be left with the
obligations of all, tending to lead to further defaults as the next-weakest nations defaulted on their share of the accumulating costs of meeting guarantee obligations. The inevitable result is a cascade of defaults, with the stronger nations eventually being left owing all default bailout obligations, and perhaps going under themselves.
Enter Super Mario Draghi with his QE bond-buying program. The ECB will buy sovereign bonds and even corporate bonds. Effectively, this gives each Euro nation a printing press to print Euros, up to whatever amount Draghi will allow the ECB to buy in bonds from each nation. For now, he says the ECB will
not buy Greek bonds, but that may change during negotiations. The QE would allow all EU nations to create new Euros out of thin air, perhaps issuing bonds with zero interest rates and near-infinity terms, easing any concerns about having to meet obligations under EFSF guarantees with new taxes or money borrowed in public or commercial markets.
In other words, the ECB QE program is part and parcel of the Extend and Pretend game. Remember, the Euro was introduced more as a political means to unify the peoples or Europe into thinking of themselves as Europeans rather than as citizens of their individual countries. The Euro system was designed by politicians as a political project – economics came as a secondary consideration.
Germany's Angela Merkel is stuck between: (1) her need to appear "thrifty" to the German voting public by not allowing the spendthrift Greeks to escape the bailout debts, and not having Germany put on the hook for more ECB funding; and (2) the need to preserve the Euro system that gives Germany such fantastic benefit as the primary exporter of manufactured goods to other members of the Euro zone. In the end, I suspect Germany will go along with some adjustment of the 2010 Greek deal, after making enough noise to assuage the outraged German public. Remember, it's all about politics - economics and financial sanity are secondary concerns.
The Hellenic people survived the Romans and the Turks. This is ephemeral.
Ist das nicht ein Wiener Schnitzel?
Ja! das ist ein Wiener Schnitzel!
Even Elmo says Nein!
http://youtu.be/1ZeciX-3wfs
LMAO!
The taz is hardly "the German press"; for most of the Germans it's a propaganda device of the communist party. So what? That the far left wants to redistribute all the wealth it can get its slimy hands on isn't any news.
And as a reminder: This is how the Euro was sold to the German sheeple by Merkel's predecessor. Now they demand it to be true.