This page has been archived and commenting is disabled.
IMF Splinters From Rest Of Troika, Threatens To Cut Off Greek Funding
At this point it’s become fairly obvious to even the most casual observer that Greece is headed for some manner of default. The only real question is who gets shorted and when, as well as a relatively new question: which debt will Greece will default on first (just because it has so many choices).
After a decree to sweep excess cash from local government coffers to the central bank didn’t go entirely as planned, Athens was forced to delay pension payments by 8 hours last Tuesday, prompting retirees to storm a pension fund board meeting, and at least one official recently claimed that even if a deal had been struck yesterday, there simply was no way — logistically speaking — that Greece could possibly make its May 12 payment of €780 million to the IMF.
Now, FT is reporting that the IMF may refuse to disburse its part of the remaining €7.2 billion Athens would theoretically receive if negotiations produced a breakthrough unless the country’s European creditors agree to write-off a portion of their Greek debt. Here’s more:
Greece is so far off course on its $172bn bailout programme that it faces losing vital International Monetary Fund support unless European lenders write off significant amounts of its sovereign debt, the fund has warned Athens’ eurozone creditors.
The warning, delivered to eurozone finance ministers by Poul Thomsen, head of the IMF’s European department, raises the prospect that it may hold back its portion of a €7.2bn tranche of bailout aid that Greece is desperately attempting to secure to avoid bankruptcy.
Eurozone creditors, who hold the vast bulk of Greek debt, are adamantly opposed to debt relief. But IMF support is crucial both for its funds and to sustain political backing for the Greece bailout, particularly in Germany.
According to two officials present at a contentious meeting of eurozone finance ministers in Riga last month, Mr Thomsen said initial data the IMF had received from
Greek authorities showed Athens was on track to run a primary budget deficit of as much as 1.5 per cent of gross domestic product this year.
Under existing bailout targets, Athens was supposed to run a primary surplus — government receipts net of spending, excluding interest payments on sovereign debt — of 3 per cent of GDP in 2015.
With the large surplus now turning into a sizeable deficit, Greece’s debt levels would begin to spike again.
FT also notes that this has happened before and although European lenders had agreed to consider write-offs in exchange for the IMF funneling cash to Athens, the loans were never actually reduced.
Essentially the IMF is reluctant to give Greece any more money while the country is still running a deficit — that is, they’re not terribly excited about throwing cash into a blackhole. Instead, they may demand that Athens’ debt-to-GDP ratio be reduced the old fashioned way: by simply forcing the ECB and the German taxpayer to write down their portion of the existing debt. This amounts to the most absurd kind of can-kicking one can possibly imagine, as without reforms, Greece will quickly replace the old debt that’s written off with new debt which will then have to be written off at some future date when Grexit again rears its ugly head and so on and so forth.
It also strongly suggests that the IMF is threatening to not pay... itself: after all the bulk of upcoming Greek interest and principal payments are to the IMF. Which is why the "patient" Greeks are expected to smile and nod knowingly at this latest hollow IMF threat, in which it is now unclear if Lagarde is the Troika's good cop (demands a debt haircut) or bad cop (refuses to pay Greece any more).
Meanwhile, Kathimerini notes that the ECB is considering several options for new haircuts on collateral pledged by the insolvent Greek banking sector for ELA:
Greece is hoping that it will find enough common ground with its lenders to trigger an emergency Eurogroup before May 6, when the European Central Bank’s government board is due to meet next to decide on the provision of liquidity to Greek banks.
Wednesday is seen as a key day by the Greek government not just because it wants to alleviate its cash shortage problems as soon as possible but also because ECB officials could opt to increase the haircut that the central bank applies to the collateral offered by Greek lenders in exchange for liquidity.
Kathimerini understands that the ECB is working on three scenarios: Haircuts of 44 percent, 65 percent and 80 percent. The current discount applied to Greek banks’ collateral is 23 percent. Should the ECB choose the more drastic scenarios, local lenders would find it increasingly difficult to come up with the amount of collateral needed in order to maintain the flow of liquidity from Frankfurt.
Since it appears the IMF will not shy away from throwing its weight around as it sees fit when the going gets tough, we wonder whether the organization already has other political parties (primarily in Spain and Italy) that it has added to its list of "non grata" political organizations like Syriza, whose election will result in the prompt pulling of funds and demands for a sovereign default, if mostly on the backs of Greman taxpayers and not so much the IMF itself?
»
- 26076 reads
- Printer-friendly version
- Send to friend
- advertisements -
Threats, oh, NOOOO!!
FUCK THE IMF
Fuck the Troika.
Threats are illogical. - Spock
Just do it! - Nike
"We'll be glad to buy your beachfront property" - Multiple bidders.
The IMF is the Boa Constrictor of the international money maasters...
Listenworthy I feel...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTot6Wcz3-g
this is getting like liz taylors love life; got a month to hear the story?
Throw those pathetic Greeks out of Europe already.
"Throw those pathetic Greeks out of Europe already."
But it is not just the Greeks that are bankrupt and deficit spending.
It's the whole EU except for Germany.
Better:
"Throw the pathetic EU, except for Germany, out of Europe"
Germany survives because they "beggar they neighbor". As an economic model, Germany has failed as well. If the world would all operate according to the German model, we would need to export to Mars or Venus.
Correct. With world trade slowing, the German export engine is unlikely to sustain the country's economy in the long-term.
I like Charlie Mungers assesment of the Greeks the best.
The SOONER they're gone officially, the better.
Less to worry about.
Just the first of many
IMF: I don't always use threats, but when I do, I prefer to threaten myself. Stay insolvent my friends...
fuck'em all.....
fuck the fucks! I mean just Fuck Fuck Fuck Fuck!! (how many of you are sophomores, anyway? FUCK! fuck!)
... and double-dumbfuck to you, too!!
besides that, anyone remember: shit, piss, fuck, cunt, cocksucker, motherfucker, and tits?
fuck!
This is for you SKillet .. You guys need to have a beer or a cracker together .. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mALNyHFqw14 Funny bird.
noooooooooooo really?
O crap, are they starting to turn on themsleves. Cannibals getting the munchies?
OMFG!
Is there no honor among thieves?
Sometimes there is falling out among thieves.
They will figure out another way to throw good money after lost money.
"Greek funding", LOL! In other words interest payments to IMF banks...
Fuck em. The sheriff hostage scene from blazing saddles... ...again.
Black Swan.
hoooda thunkit
"Greece, BLAH, BLAH, BLAH, BLAH...."
over this shit...
call me when default occurs...
til then...zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
How about Wed. May 6th? You available for a call?
Smells like Timmah might be back in action.
Hey baby, you must've been something before electricity - Al Czervik
"Last time I saw a mouth like that it had a hook in it."
We named our office "Bushwood". Unofficially, of course.
thank you sir. For the young people who need to know the back story:
2002. Timmay had two jobs. Working for the IMF and as the Govenor of the Federal Resrve Bank of New York
2003. Timmay went to a wholesale club, and picked up a bundle that included a copy of turbotax, an anti-virus CD and a slice of pizza. FAR (free after rebate). Timmay ate the slice, went home and filed his taxes.
2008. The financial crisis occurred.
2009. Obama asked congress to approve Timmah for head of the Treasury and the IRS, because he was "the only person alive who could fix the crisis" and prevent tanks on the streets.
2009. The senate had concerns, considering he could not file a 1040EZ properly.
2009. Senate approves him anyway. (see tanks on the streets)
2009-Present. Lois Learner, Hillary and Bubba run a 501c3 from an email server in their basement, that was also likely used in her official function as US-SOS to approve things like selling domestic uranium mines to Russian Oligarchs.
The Future: Look in you wallet or purse, or manpurse (thanks WB7) You or someone you know has an FRN with TIMMAH scribbled on it. From now till the end of the world.
If the CIA really worked for the American people, they would've taken down the U.N. the IMF, and Fed, not those other 3 buildings on 9-11
<-- Nice, bag lady.
<-- Nice bag, lady.
".......if mostly on the backs of German taxpayers and not so much the IMF itself?...." Go for it! maybe some IMF members and funders (aka US taxpayers) are tired of this bullshit!
Who's next, after Greece?
Which little PIIGS? Does the rain in Spain stay mostly in the Plain? Why don't all the PIGS just secede from the North, and form their own Customs and Immigration Union? Whereby...
Their navies patrol offshore in N. Africa, and send or tow the Boat People right back to where they came from. No papers, no money, no exceptional skills? Back you go, have a nice life.
For sure, the other southern European countries are watching intently. They want to see just how much pain is involved in this process. If modest, they'll be following Greece out the door in a couple years (or seriously levering their position for a better deal). If a lot, they'll do whatever they can to stay in.
Who will be buying the fuel for those patroling boats?
Good Q. Presumably the Welfare Dept, hoping to "Spend to save"?
They could also "bill" the countries, for allowing undocumented masses of people to leave their shores, which amounts to an act of Economic Aggression. It could be argued. Of course, good luck in actually collecting from the N. African countries.
Cramdown bitches.
Fuck the Greeks.
For all those who do not know:
IMF = USA Congress
The White House has zero power on IMF.
Greece defaulting on US Congress is basically declaration of war without a shred of exaggeration
Tsipras need to talk to McConnell and John Boehner, not Obama. Obama has zero power over IMF, Boehner and McConnell do
So... Boot & Pants, 'n Boots & Pants, 'n Boots & Pants on the Ground?
IOW... Our exceptional economic desperadoes fighting their non-exceptional economic desperadoes?
Sounds like "Same as it ever was. Same as it ever was..."
Congress is as irrelevant as tits on a bull. And Obama doesn't give a shit. The US will do NOTHING about this situation except send humanitarian aid when Greeks start starving to death.
Congress is ULTRA POWERFUL when it chooses to be
Well then somebody better wake up Hicks because they've been nodding off since around when the airplanes hit the twin towers. Passed the Patriot Act and said "now stop bothering us." It's been increasingly executive branch since then. Obama doesn't even recognize that Congress has powers, and Congress seems to be just fine with that.
McConnell wrote an op-ed telling the States to disregard Obama executive orders about climate change.
And yes. States have the right to disregard executive orders
the wake up call will be when russia and china start to take decisive action(s). oh, someone tell me the last war usa won in the last 50 years? yea, silence. just war games/boogiemen for billions to a handfull of insiders and coharts...
fucking sad ass situation.
but, the world is not forgetting...
Congress is fully owned by the financiers and will do nothing. That's the whole fucking problem.
Congress is fully owned = true
Who are the owners? = fluid situation
Congressmen jump from bank lobby to military complex to oil lobby, to pharma lobby.
Lots of competition
Time for them to learn about loyalty. "What? You want to jump to the bank lobby? POP!" < puts bullet in head >
"Looks like we need another representative in the third district Bob."
Until that starts happening, nothing changes.
It's been going on for 200 years like this
bullshit. When was the last time a senator was taken out? You are an idiot or banking shill enjoying the free money. Fuck off.
You couldn't be more wrong. The US has about a 16% vote at the IMF, by informal agreement, the US combines it's vote with the combined votes of the various major european countries to elect a European to head the IMF, in exchange for European support for a US head of the World Bank. (Which is a sh!tty deal for the US, but I digress)
The US's rep at the IMF is Jack Lew, who's boss is this guy named Barack Obama. He's the guy that gets to vote. Current law delegates most Congressional authority at the IMF to the Treasury, including anything and everything to do with Greece. The only limitations I'm aware of relate to countries/issues like North Korea and states designated as state sponsors of terrorism (Iran, Cuba, etc.)
In practice, the head of the IMF, a certain well tanned French lawyer-politician, has very broad powers to do whatever she wants.
The Duika will still give them money though, right?
Isn't there a one-month grace period before a country that misses an IMF payment is considered to have really-for-serious defaulted? I think the unnamed EU source who said that was actually quite happy to be able to hang Greece out the window while waiting for the Greek parliament to sign up to whatever was agreed on May 11.
Isn't Greek GDP growth supposed to be the belle of the ball in the next few years.
I'm telling you if the ECB just gave the Greeks €500 billion everything would be great.
The first rat to leave the sinking ship. Oh look how it scrambles.
As Alex Jones would say, the "globalists" appear to be frightened
Roger Cohen has written 3 or 4 pieces basically arguing that Scotland shouldnt be independent o fthe UK, and the UK shouldnt be independent of the EU..
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/05/opinion/roger-cohen-britains-strange-e...
Though he's never clear why.
Seems to distill to he thinks Britain should be flooded with immigrants? I can't tell.
Maybe he simply thinks its better for Israel and/or Jews.
fuckin' asshole.
Anyway, I support the right of Israelis to define their own state [just not their occupation of the natives and periodic bombing of their neighbors] and the right of small nations to be free.
Greece should walk and simply invite the russians to park a couple ships in their ports, and talk about the BRICS and what they mean.
"Though he's never clear why."
Because all Jews are internationalists/globalists. (Apart from Israelis of course).
11 May 2015 Last change to release €7,000 million/€7 billion from ECB
12 May 2015 €0,774 million IMF
05 June 2015 €0,310 million IMF
12 June 2015 €0,348 million IMF
16 June 2015 €0,581 million IMF
19 June 2015 €0,348 million IMF
30 June 2015 A four-month extension on bailout agreement expires.
13 July 2015 €0,465 million IMF
19 July 2015 €0,199 million ECB Maturity Gov’t Bonds
19 July 2015 €0,104 million ECB Maturity Gov’t Bonds
20 July 2015 €3,500 million ECB Maturity Gov’t Bonds
GREECE – WE CAN DO THE MATH NOW, GREEK DEFAULT BY EARLY JUNE/LATE JULY! http://forum.prisonplanet.com/index.php?topic=210616.msg1513335#msg1513335
Even if they recieve the €7 billion bailout from the ECB at 11 May 2015 Greece is only 'saved' till 20 July 2015 when €6.5 billion payment is due after which the whole shebang can start again.
Greece owes a total of €324,000 million /€324 billion to the IMF, ECB, and Euro-Zone governments.
Obvious now that the default will happen when their time table suits them. It's all coming together nicely.
Q2 is already a write off and don't even ask about Q3 or Q4
Baltic Dry has never ever been this low. Massive volume of shipping supply and no demand - anywhere.
Finally, the beginning of the end begins.
Looks to me like Greece might default.
cracks in the troika; Crassus, Pompei and Caesar at loggerheads...Crassus on the march to meet the Parthians...
this is where German taxpayers learn they have no sovereignty and are peons subject to mob rule, plus they get a ration of SyrianMENA refugees to boot too!
reality sucks for the master race too
PS Germany, Russia was your best hope for 15% corporate taxes or your SOVEREIGNTY, good luck with the Turk Islam experiment.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUYEVL_2wFk
Germany is ruled by NWO traitors.
What are the IMF conditionality chains and privatization requirements for any IMF Loan to Greece?
IMF same exact four-step program:
1.0 Privatization 'Briberization.'
2.0 IMF/World Bank capital market deregulation allows investment capital to flow in and out the "Hot Money" cycle.
3.0 Market-Based Pricing, a fancy term for raising prices on food, water and cooking gas
4.0 IMF and World Bank call their "poverty reduction strategy": Free Trade- "The IMF riot."
http://www.gregpalast.com/the-globalizer-who-came-in-from-the-cold/
Michael Chiotinis about Greece at 17:30 min
The IMF will want guarantees underwritten by Germany.
Germany will grant them, because Merkel will not let her dream of the United States of Europe die.
Yes, German taxpayers will get stuffed. But that is down the road. The guarantees will mean the the USofE dream survives, at least for weeks/months, maybe for years.
This situation stands to be possibly the greatest loss of German treasure since WW2.
It's like the transfer of resource from the broad US economy to US financial services post 2007...
Watson
"This situation stands to be possibly the greatest loss of German treasure since WW2."
What about Holocau$t™ reparations, the gift that just keeps giving?
The IMF gives loans for one reason. They figure that they can use you later. Like when they give money to "so called" rebels to buy guns. When the rebels win, the IMF has them by the scrotum.
Guess, the IMF figured out that the Greeks they gave loans to are gone and the current set don't give a damn about the IMF.
FUCK the IMF, WTO, and any other various and sundry 'actors' hiding behind a rock of acronyms. Not even remotely human. Wake up and get these fuckers OFF OF MY FUCKIN' PLANET!!!
At this point it’s become fairly obvious to even the most casual observer that Greece is headed for some manner of default. "
...oh...I dunno about that...
Seems like we still have a lot of posturing going on here.
Greece can't pay. That's true. And the troika doesn't want to take the hit on behalf of the EU taxpayers. That's true too.
But...this mess is merely a microcosm of a much larger mess the whole globe is in. Rampant debt, public and private, is everywhere. No matter what happens with Greece, the Greek people aren't just going to go away. It also doesn't matter what replaces the euro for them (drachma or anything else), they, like much of the globe will remain broke and stuggling for something to grow GDP. This is the central problem, and no one is addressing it.
What difference do these loans make? The Greek economy cannot support Greek growth, nor can it support debt payment. The choice has always been to either carry them along until someone can find a new economic growth model for the whole of Europe, or...cut them loose.
If the troika, on behalf of the rest of the EU chooses to cut them off, they will still be there, and will likely need humanitarian aid to ward off societal collapse, once they separate from the whole of the Union.
What then?
Does anyone seriously think they will be allowed to starve?
In the heart of Europe?
If the EU wants to remain whole, and present some kind of strength to the rest of the world, it had better find a way to carry Greece along. Otherwise, what kind of Union does the EU really have?
In the end, the mindless EU may well find that Greece's debt today was indeed a small price to be paid for the trouble their intransigence on this matter causes in finally unwinding the whole bullshit in which the world finds itself...
...and the rest of the world ain't gonna like that.
m
The IMF has little time for Greece now days, as the IMF has taken on another bigger job at the behest of Washington DC. The Kiev Junta installed by an American Coup in Kiev is bankrupt, broke and penniless. With GDP falling at over 20% annual rate and the need to reconquer territories where the people have openly revolted against the new Kiev Junta, the IMF is the one and only real financial backer of the Junta. Billions of IMF funds are being used to buy arms, mercenaries, tanks, planes, IFV, missiles and small arms. yet this is a stop gap, only enough to fund an all out offensive in June. In the long run, the IMF will need several hundred billion dollars to keep the Junta in power as there is no tax revenue and no economy. Greece is an after thought when the IMF has wars to fund. The Trokia will be setting up shop in Kiev, cutting wages, slashing pensions, closing schools and hopitals, firing tens of thousands of workers, while demanding more work at lower wages and longer hours. The Troika will repeat the Greece and Portugal scenario, where all those in the bottom 90% are slashed to the bone. Guess what Ukraine? The Troika is in town, so is the draft board looking for soldiers 16-60, needed to fight Washington's conquest of the Donbas.
Funny...
Greece don't want any more loans, but they're still trying to make people believe they are still in charge by denying them more loans.
NO SOUP FOR YOU, NEXT
The German and French banks that made bad investments in Greece that were bailed out are laughing all the way to the bank. European taxpayers will have to foot the bill if debt reconstruction would take place.
Why should tax payers bail out banks that made bad investments? Because commercial banking got intertwined with investment banking so EU's pension and saving systems were in jeopardy. Time to split that up again.
I could see it coming..
This is all about forcing Europe to back the fucking neocon warmongering cunts in Washington against Putin.
They know that if they cut of Greece from funding then Greece exits and Europe burns, and that includes Greece.
Europe knows it too so has a choice to make, Back the cunts in Washington to the hilt over Putin, and help to set fire to Ukraine, or Washington sets fire to Greece and Europe follows.
Not difficult when you figure that Washington is losing allies every day and now even Europe is backpedaling on the fucking warmongers demands, and the only way they have to keep them onside is threats like this
Greece still has plenty of valuable assets left to steal, so expect "significant progress" in the coming days.
When playing with electronic money created out of thin air, drama and theatre are essential, to keep the deceptive scam running for long enough, to get ownership of those assets 'transferred' - using the vehicles of loan 'security' and 'privatisations' for pennies on the dollar.
The only question is how long the corrupt politicians of Greece can pretend to be 'holding out' for a 'better deal for Greece' - on said 'loans' created out of thin air, before sufficient state and private assets can be effectively 'transferred'?
I think at least six more months, maybe even a year, before the theft becomes so obvious, it will even become embarrassing for the IMF, who do have to ‘keep up’ certain 'standards' and 'values'; they are not after all, 'common thieves'. But like all reliable things, their system is simple, but very nicely packaged.
Once the Greeks are thoroughly looted over the next year or sooner, we'll then see the facists take charge, in order to suppress the masses who then realise they've been robbed. Some well publicised but staged riots, beatings and dotted with equally well performed false-flag attacks here and there; maybe even another military coup, which is not much different in objective.
The main reasons for this ‘dictatorship’, is so that the former owners, who have been robbed, cannot take back their possessions. Ukraine is at this stage of the game. Problem is, the victims of crime never forget, and they will always seek redress decades later, until they are satisfied. Forgiveness is a concept invented by the scammers to avoid any payback, but it is not a quality found in nature; nature always tends to equilibrium, and thievery always creates tension and inequality.
Welcome to Zionism showing its true form, intention and screenplay – soon to be showing itself in a country near you, having remained hidden for decades, whilst the fruits of other people were low hanging and easy to take.