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As "Options Run Out", This Is What Greek Capital Controls Would Look Like
In what is being billed as a “last ditch” effort to secure an agreement with creditors, Greece’s negotiating team is in Brussels this weekend, where the focus is on crafting some kind of mutually agreeable proposal that can be presented at a scheduled meeting of EU finance ministers next Thursday.
There were reports on Saturday that Greek PM Alexis Tsipras was attempting to trade concessions on Greece’s ‘sticking points’ (i.e. the “red lines”) for debt relief (i.e. writedowns), but by the end of the day that rumor, like all the others that emanate from Brussels these days, had faded.
On Sunday negotiations will continue with EU officials having seemingly moved from exasperation to ambivalence. Here’s FT:
Talks between Athens and its international bailout creditors were expected to resume late on Sunday after Greek government officials were told to submit a final list of economic reforms in order to secure €7.2bn in desperately needed rescue aid.
The request came in a meeting in Brussels on Saturday between Nikos Pappas, aide-de-camp to Alexis Tsipras, Greek prime minister, and Martin Selmayr, chief of staff to Jean-Claude Juncker, the European Commission president who has played a central role in trying to broker an 11th-hour deal..
“Positions are still far apart,” said one EU diplomat. “It’s not certain there will be an outcome.”
Another senior eurozone official said the Greek team returned to Brussels on Saturday without new proposals and that Sunday’s evening session would be a “last try.”
“Greek movement [is] not discernible,” said the official. “I think they do not want a solution.”
“A credible proposal needs to be tabled by the Greeks in the next 24 or so hours,” said Mujtaba Rahman, head of European analysis at the Eurasia Group risk consultancy. “Otherwise it’s looking like game over for Athens.”
Whether or not it would truly be “game over” for Greece should Tsipras’ negotiating team fail to table something “credible” by Monday is certainly debatable. After all, EU officials said the exact same thing on Thursday and here we are on Sunday listening to the same tired rhetoric.
The truth is that as long as Tsipras can get an agreement in principle sometime over the next three weeks (or maybe even in the next five weeks), Greece can probably avoid a default. If Greece were to miss a payment to the IMF, Christine Lagarde would need to send a formal failure to pay letter to the Executive Board. Only then would Greece actually be in default. It’s up to Lagarde to decide when to send that letter and she would have at least 30 days. The set up for EFSF loans is similar, and besides, it seems exceptionally unlikely that either EU creditors or the IMF would put Greece into formal default while a deal is working its way through the Greek parliament, meaning all Tsipras really needs to do is get something on paper that has a chance of flying with Syriza hardliners and get it to the floor before July 20, when a payment to the ECB comes due.
As such, the real short-term risk likely isn’t cross acceleration rights in the event of a formal default to the IMF on June 30, but rather what happens to the Greek banking sector when depositors — who are already pulling hundreds of millions of euros each day from ATMs — find out that Athens has missed the €1.5 billion bundled payment without cementing a deal.
Irrespective of the political wrangling going on behind the scenes both in Athens and in Brussels, a terminal bank run could plunge the country into a crisis faster than politicians can react, an eventuality which would have to be met with capital controls. In “This Is What Capital Controls Will Look Like In Greece,” we took an in-depth look at this eventuality and presented the following graphic which helps to illustrate several potential scenarios:
FT has more:
“We are four to six weeks away from the possible imposition of capital controls,” said Daniel Gros, director of the Centre for European Policy Studies think-tank in Brussels. “There is always some temporary solution [eurozone politicians] can pull out of thin air, but now we are getting really close.”
Were Greece to default on a €1.5bn payment to the International Monetary Fund due at the end of June, the situation could spiral out of control, forcing the hand of policy makers. Greece could then be forced to repeat the experience of Cyprus and Argentina, which chose to intervene to stop their banks bleeding deposits in order to avoid insolvency.
But imposing capital controls would hardly be straightforward.
Such measures are frowned on by the EU treaties, which sanctify the free movement of capital — together with labour, goods and services — as one of the union’s four pillars.
It would be up to the government to enforce unpopular measures, such as limiting citizens’ cash withdrawals, exposing Athens to political blowback from angry citizens.
And here’s Open Europe with more color on what capital controls will look like in Greece:
How would Greek capital controls be implemented and what form might they take?
It’s likely that such controls would need to be brought in over the course of a weekend, though I expect they may also need to be combined with some bank holidays anyway
- Cash/ATM withdrawal limits: This would be a vital control in order to halt the huge outflow of deposits which has been taking place and which will pick up if a deal isn’t struck soon. In Cyprus the limit was set at €300 per person per day. However, I suspect ones in Greece may go even lower. This is because Greece is suffering from serious domestic withdrawals while the primary concern in Cyprus was foreign outflows.
- Foreign transfer controls: The aim here would be to limit the amount that people can transfer abroad from Greece in one go and also over a set period. Obviously some transfers are needed for businesses to function so there would need to be a process by which businesses related (and other verified) transactions could still go through.
- Time requirements or taxes: Other options or versions of the above include taxing certain withdrawals or foreign transactions heavily. This has the advantage of potentially creating a revenue stream for the government, though it may come at a very high cost. The government could also decree time limits on certain deposits or investments in an attempt to limit withdrawals indirectly.
- Physical controls: Obviously with free movement within the EU it would be quite easy for people to move large amounts of cash or assets across borders. As such there will need to be checks and limits on the amount of cash people can take abroad with them. This may also have to extend to assets. For example, someone could purchase a car and then try and drive across a border and sell it on. This is tricky to police but some attempts may well be made.
Harvard economist Kenneth Rogoff (who has an opinion or two about high debt and economic growth) echoes the above, telling NZZ am Sonntag that capial controls in Greece are the only alternative (via Bloomberg):
“I see only one possibility: Greece should introduce capital controls for an extended period,” Harvard University economics professor Kenneth Rogoff tells NZZ am Sonntag in interview.
We assume no spreadsheet errors were made on the way to that conclusion.
* * *
If Athens does decide to take the plunge and set about the 'Cyprus'ing' of Greek depositors, the real problem may not be how to implement capital controls, but rather how to lift them, especially considering Greece is doomed to a life of debt servitude until at least 2057. On that note, we'll close with the following warning from Reykjavik University economist Friðrik Már Baldursson:
“It is easier to impose the controls than to lift them. The government needs to convince depositors that they can bring their money back into the banks as controls will not be imposed again. But credibility can disappear very quickly and take a lot of time to be regained.”
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WRITEDOWNS?
Why the ECB keeps extending the ELA is beyond me.
Because Schauble knows he should have taken the hit back in 2012 or 2010, now its much worse. And inevitable.
Right, but the hit is inevitable. So why keep fooling around?
I wonder if Greece would even impose capital controls. I mean, if reducing Grandma's pension by 5% is the "red line" then you would think locking all of Grandma's money in the bank so as to make it impossible for her to get it out would be even a bigger deal.
Other than the bare essentials, how do you get suppliers to supply a country with goods if they cannot get their money out?
This is going to turn into a shit show.
I could see an overnight & instantanious EUR -> GD digital conversion with unlimited card and wire usage and then turn off cash for a day or two until you get all the ATMs up and running with the new Drachma, and then have the banks start converting them at the floating exchange rate -- it would force those people holding EUR in Greece to spend them in Italy for example, and get the velocity of cash in the new GD moving.
But seriously, capital controls and keep the EUR? If the Greeks want that then they deserve to get crucified.
“Positions are still far apart,” said one EU diplomat. “It’s not certain there will be an outcome.”
Oh there will be an outcome, no doubt about that.
Friggin' morons.
>>> Why the ECB keeps extending the ELA is beyond me.
They are hoping to kick the can down the road until after the vote on EU renewing anti-Russia sanctions. The EU anti-Russia sanctions expire in August 2015 if not renewed by a vote in June 2015.
The most powerful weapon Syriza has is to default and veto sanctions. Once they give up the ability to veto sanctions they will then be declared to be in default.
>>> Why the ECB keeps extending the ELA is beyond me.
The ECB got about 200 billion in performing Greek loans as a collateral for ELA. This means they own almost all the assets as collateral Greek privat banks had on their books. In case of a default Greeks banks will have nothing but Greek public debt.
For a government, the great thing about hard assets (real estate and related things) is that you can tax them so heavily that the owners will want to give them to you. McCulloch v. Maryland, 17 U.S. 316 (1819) "THe power to tax"
True, but only if they tax everything and everyone in the same equal way, which means they cannot tax foreigners more than Greeks. Besides that, the collateral will just be sold to satisfy the creditors, no tax here at all since they just get their money back.
(And btw, this is Europe, not that interesting what US courts think)
Common law is common law.
If ONE government has the power to tax, ALL governments have the power to tax...unless otherwise prevented in their constitutions. (I'm sure there would be a work-around if that were the case.)
In other words, if one country has had a court case discussing an issue, it is highly likely that other courts in other countries have reached similar conclusions.
You have no clue about law at all, regardless where on this planet, right? Starts with ... there is no common law in continental Europe.
Rogoff is promoting a cashless socitety.
Consider his agenda.
Bill Clinton had sex with my mother. I'll never forgive him. Vote for Warren.
Am I the only person who has noticed that for the last month, the Greek people have been withdrawing anywhere from 100 to 600 million euros a day??
I assume in antisipation of the introduction of a new local currency backed by possibly the new Chinese infrastructure bank/Russian Ag deal and all those Euros will be converted at a very generous rate, making all the "lil people" feel suddenly richer then they were a day earlier!!
It's really the ONLY play Greece has, it will be a win for the people and Gov and Russia and China of course, and the longer the Greeks can delay without consequence, he more Euros they confiscate before jumping ship!!
Anything else, and the Greek people are fucked and the EU obligarchs win!!
Soooo, what if the ECB declares all Euro notes invalid and introduces new ones in case of a Greek default? And Greeks are not allowed to convert those old Euro notes into new ones?
I take it you mean the Greek Euros only?
If you mean all Euros prepare for a currency crisis. Larry Crudlow would be on TV crowing about King Dollar and the Euro would probably be below parity with the dollar. What is backing the Euro? The same thing backing the dollar, the government's word.
Also people outside of Greece hold Euros. Here in the US we have a lot of Greek Americans who go back and forth to Greece. I imagine anyone holding Greek Euros would lose faith in the Euro instantly. Be they Greek, Russian, Chinese, American, or any other European nationality no one holding Greek Euros would be happy with the EU.
I mean todays Euro notes. You just introduce new Euro notes and declare the old ones invalid. In a short grace period you can deposit the old Euro notes on a bank account. If you are Greek your Euro on the bank account get transfered to Drachma. After the grace period the old Euro notes are worthless, you pay with the new Euro notes.
(Btw, parity of Dollar/Euro is pointless, just numbers to calculate with. The Euro is strongly undervalued right now to the Dollar, good for Germany´s export industry)
I think declaring old Euro notes invalid may be problematic to say the least. When Greece defaults they will go back to the Drachma anyway. I mean you could take all the Greek Euros and print new Euros, but to do it on a wider scale could create a currency crisis. No one is going to want to deal with governments who declare old notes invalid and create new notes. The EU would be better off having the Greeks edge themselves out of the Euro naturally overall. It won't be worth it to punish the Greeks and inconvenience a lot of people in the world.
I am aware that the Euro is undervalued to the dollar. IMHO, I don't think it is pointless to measure the Euro to dollar exchange rate as the US is still the reserve currency and Europe won't be able to survive without trading with countries outside the EU. When the dollar collapses under the weight of our debt, that is when the measurement will be pointless, because the US dollar will no longer be the reserve currency of the world. The US and UK have become quite good at manipulating the world, but am anxious to see how long this last. When will the rest of the world get sick of their bullshit?
How much has the US and UK printed and how has it affected the dollar and pound? They influence the EU to print and the Euro drops like a stone. That's a neat trick. Not to mention the precious metals manipulation.
Declaring old bank notes invalid and handing out new ones is done every now and then in the Eurozone. We have new 5 and 10 Euro notes now. If the ECB hands out new 500, 200 and 100 Euro bank note every cash holder will be forced to convert them via a bank account. The ECB will have perfect control by that. And if the cash holder doesn´t convert his bank notes in time he will lose everything.
"And if the cash holder doesn´t convert his bank notes in time he will lose everything."
Is that really the way things are now?
If the ECB says so, yes. When all those national currency were converted to Euro, most bank notes lost their value after some time.
I love how the new parallel currency is referred to as "IOU's".
What do they think the Euro is? ACTUAL money?
Get real
And it's gone...
https://youtu.be/-DT7bX-B1Mg
Money is not Greece's problem, it is their corrupted social evolution. They must admit their self defeat and accept something similiar to an EU Marshall Plan to reconstruct their nation.
There cannot be a EU "Marschall Plan" for Greece.
Why?
The Spanish and Italians are watching really closely what is happening here. If Greece gets a hundred billion in free cash...
I'm sure the EU will throw a few billion Greece's was as a sort of "oh poor thing" kinda deal, but if the EU doesn't step on Greece's neck on this one -- we'll be having this same conversation about Spain in a year, and Italy not long thereafter.
Exactly right. This is only the first domino, and the line eventually leads to France.
On an aside, the German language has destroyed my ability to spell in English anymore.
Nice.
The American Public School System has killed our ability to spell correctly in any language , including English.
Common core for spelling;
Ok boys, girls, transgendered, cisgendered, cisgenderedconfused, transgenderconfused, I need you to spell the word "house"
The first step is to think of the word "desegregation" but students who have been desegretated have to live somewhere in a "house" and then take the letters from the word "house" and and when you put them together you get the word "house."
Thats how you spell the word house.
Next lets use the word "devil" -- the first step to learning how to spell this is think of the word "capitalism" ...
The real question is: is it das Haus, der Haus, or die Haus? I'm gender confused when it comes to objects.
Herr Dildo?
The only thing I can spell is Spanish.
They make it way too easy;)
Just wait till it fucks up your ability to speak coherent sentences.
I'm really kind of (temporarily) pleased with myself that I am not standing in that bread line.
H-T
Extract, literally extract repayment out of Greece while they are being helped. Nothing free. Spain and Italy must hear Greece weeping and gnashing of teeth and know this is their destiny if they choose to follow. Greece must endure and accept major surgery if it wants to stand on its own feet again. Anything else is a short term fix.
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.
Because Schauble's career would be over if he agreed to it. And Merkel's. Got to keep the banksterz cartel from taking ANY losses.
Schauble is in his 70's, his career is already over...he just hasn't gotten around to dying yet. The only decision he has to make is how he's going out...like a old stubborn asshole, or an unexpectedly sane voice that suddenly comes out of the wilderness and says, All right, we made our point. Now let's try something that might actually work...
What kind of Greek idiot would still have his/her money in a bank?
The grandma that can't afford 5% cuts in her pension doesn't have any money in the bank... Is it so hard to get already?? The scheme against grandma goes like this: 1)European banks bought greek bonds not giving a f*** about risk. 2) They realised the risk, and had the corrupt greek government buy all the bonds at par, then immediately default on them through (amongst other) pensioners funds (PSI). 3) Funds turn huge deficit. 4) EU goes : "Bad lazy greek pensioners getting pension before they reach the age of 12 ate all the fund money, CUTS CUTS CUTS". 5) EU demands 0% deficit clauses for the funds (which of course would result in much bigger cuts that your 5%). 6) X% cuts=> X% of pensioners D I E.
Can you see it now?
How are you people able to think on such double standards... good ole West has been tricked by the banksters and should hang them, but LAZY ASS GREEKS deserve cuts to death for the deficits the same banksters created..
They're all treading water on Greece in order to get the rest of the financial system for the financial shock and controls. These shenanigans are to distract everyone from what's going on behind the curtain. Greece will eventually be slaughtered like a little pig but not until TPTB are prepared to transition the system into something more operationally favorable to them.
Like slavery?
You make it sound as if there were some kind of plan behind it all, one involving more than making vague and confusing public statements and changing underwear frequently...and I just don't think so.
Collateral. Worth about 200 billion Euro in Greek real assets.
Yep, default already.
This is an embarrassment to the species.
We want ze money Lebowski
Or vee cut off your Johnson, yah...
Nice marmot.....
Really Haus? Are you a tin-foiler or are you nut?
The meta plan on a resource level is an econometric game.
All our fake and real NUMBers are generated there first and according to the model which I believe has been in play especially since 1971, there is a desired outcome.
That outcome might be the Georgia Guidestones messy-age!
We shall see...some of the signs are, shall we say, not good.
Oh, and that picture? C'mon.....That is a bank withdrawl, Zero panic. Body language, if that is as bad as it got, lucky Greece...
Here is a deep deflect for me, keyboards, unlearned...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3rE9DNnmfiU
Weren't you the one yesterday talking about an alien invasion?
For the skeptics, a pantsuit lizard person gave her first campaign speech in NYC yesterday.
Don't worry about their continued extension of ELA, they'll stop soon: http://redefininggod.com/2015/06/information-about-the-june-18-scenario-...
Throw those pathetic Greek dead beats out of Europe already.
Won't happen. Debts can't be canceled, especially when they are denominated in euros.
Who says that the Greek debt will be canceled?
I would say if Greece left the Euro zone or the EU, the holders of their debt would have significantly less chance of recovering it or securing the necessary collateral for hundreds of years into tne future than if Greece stays in.
Here's the point: Everybody equates Default with Exit the EU. The EU needs to deal with a member country's bankruptcy WITHOUT kicking them out, that's Greece's plight in a nutshell. The EU wants them out, but Tsipras and Varoufakis don't want to go.
"the EU wants them out"
No! Quite the opposite, for the reasons I laid out above: keeping their dead hand on the debt claims.
If they want to keep them, they need to acknowledge Greece's bankruptcy and restructure their debts.
Nobody "needs" to restructure the debt of Greece. If the creditors want it the Greeks have to repay every single Euro.
Once the drachma is released, an exchange rate of drachma's to euros will develop.
Greece can begin printing drachmas, and trading them for euros, and get out of debt - weinmar republic style.
The IMF will paper it over again just like last time. The we'll get 100 trillion of fresh credit like the BIS suggested several years ago.
HairsCut!
Maybe a few balls, as well.
All of this over something that's as real as the Easter Bunny. If the Greeks only knew they could just say no to fiat and fix everything in a matter of minutes. Oh wait, the banks own the guys with the guns. Doh!!!
Meat,
It is the fear of the great unknown. Nobody wants to be the first kid to give the bully a wedgie. Yeah, maybe the other kids will help...maybe they won't.
Great analogy, Philo.
If you want something done right. Do it yourself.
There are not many things that feel better than whipping your bullies ass good. Food tastes better, music sounds nicer, the air is freasher, people look at you better. It is a truly great feeling. The only things better are true love and the birth of my children. Its that good!
Even if you lose you can still look in the mirror and know you are a man.
Just that you know. Your God expects you to whipe your own ass.
Exactly, reguardless of the end results. 300 Spartans met 10,000 Persians at Thermopylea knowing full well they would all die ... how to die with honor? Two thousand five hundred years later, a few of us still honor them with "Molan Labe" as a way of life; not always attainable but as a goal. "Fuck you and the horse you rode in on." is the modern interpretation. Can the modern Greeks do the same. I think not. I lived there for several years and IMHO these are not the same Greeks that built the Parthenon or died at Thermopylea or fought at Marathon. The last great act of defiance, the mouse giving the finger to the eagle. We shall see if they've got it or not.
Enjoyed reading your post Philo... the other kids in this case are Putin and what backs him....
Whether they help or not, you WILL be the first kid to give the asshole a wedgie, and nobody can take that from you.
The guys with the guns are us (80 million of them held by the public in the U.S.) what we don't have a is free press communicating to the owners of these guns the horrific truth behind the banking / government / MIC tyranny. In fact the media is complicit in this tyranny as most are financially benefitting from it.
In a revolution the take over of one of these broadcast networks to start broadcasting the truth would be the first port of call in an uprising against the U.S. Gov's fascistic control over the free flow of news and critical information.
The Founders would be shooting by now!
Greece got into trouble by creating new credit (debt money). Greece formed sovereign debts and then hypothecated them for Euro Credit in foreign banks. Debt instruments that vector away from law cannot be canceled with a jubilee. Never let you debts point outside of your law. Greece subordinated their sovereignty when they adopted the Euro money.
Greek problems with debts and money could be solved overnight, with a flick of a banker’s pen.
Austerity is an attempt to grab real productive resources from the real economy in a magick swap for financial debts.
Below excerpt from Graeber:
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/mar/18/truth-money-iou-bank-of-england-austerity
The central bank can print as much money as it wishes. But it is also careful not to print too much. In fact, we are often told this is why independent central banks exist in the first place. If governments could print money themselves, they would surely put out too much of it, and the resulting inflation would throw the economy into chaos. Institutions such as the Bank of England or US Federal Reserve were created to carefully regulate the money supply to prevent inflation. This is why they are forbidden to directly fund the government, say, by buying treasury bonds, but instead fund private economic activity that the government merely taxes.
It's this understanding that allows us to continue to talk about money as if it were a limited resource like bauxite or petroleum, to say "there's just not enough money" to fund social programmes, to speak of the immorality of government debt or of public spending "crowding out" the private sector. What the Bank of England admitted this week is that none of this is really true. To quote from its own initial summary: "Rather than banks receiving deposits when households save and then lending them out, bank lending creates deposits" … "In normal times, the central bank does not fix the amount of money in circulation, nor is central bank money 'multiplied up' into more loans and deposits."
In other words, everything we know is not just wrong – it's backwards. When banks make loans, they create money. This is because money is really just an IOU. The role of the central bank is to preside over a legal order that effectively grants banks the exclusive right to create IOUs of a certain kind, ones that the government will recognize as legal tender by its willingness to accept them in payment of taxes. There's really no limit on how much banks could create,
"Greek problems with debts and money could be solved overnight, with a flick of a banker’s pen."
Somewhere, somehow, someone made money the only discussable medicine for all social ills?
BTW: Enjoyed the read
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.
Does the average Greek own several firearms? I sure hope so, because the banker man's tax man cometh.
trav7777 time...
Fri, 08/27/2010 - 11:04 | 548238 trav7777
This is just the camel's nose of austerity.
see, rich tribers like Mort own a TON of claim tickets to the upcoming liquidation in the form of USTs. They want them ALL PAID BACK. Out of your kids' organs if necessary.
Notice how they've shaped the public opinion toward "let's slash and burn and suffer." We see this on ZH where there are people who are actually begging for mass suffering to come.
Austerity is the IMF's prescription for looting via deflation. DO NOT BE MISLED by it.
The solution is to ABANDON the debt model and repudiate the claim tickets of shylocks like Mort. Look, what Rothschild figured out is that if he could start a money-as-debt racket, the math would inevitably bankrupt the sovereign and then he could own the whole fucking country. That is the POINT of usury! For fuck's sake, recognize that.
The whole POINT of tribe carpetbaggers in the south was to lend to blacks for the PURPOSE of acquiring their entire years' worth of sharecrop! It's a way to make your MONEY work so that you do not have to. And the con is so insidious that you can make PRETEND money turn into real things WITHOUT work. It is the way of the PARASITE.
Only the very intelligent understand the mathematical inevitability of usury. The stupid simply see the rich getting richer without working while the poor work harder and harder and go backwards. Institutional Usury lets money "make" money without work and it INEVITABLY bankrupts the poor and stupid...this is why it and its purveyors have been reviled as con artists throughout history.
Usury mathematically leads to bankruptcy and liquidation. Once the machine of geometric compounding is set into motion, there is a very short window to get out, after which it CANNOT be stopped and will proceed to its final, foredestined outcome.
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/zuckerman-loses-it-releases-most-scathing-criticism-obama-yet-most-fiscally-irresponsible-go#comment-548238
The above post is the reason free speech is important. Sometimes we need to be offended. We do not need to agree. But we need to be offended and not bitch about it. People should be allowed to vent...with venting come the plumes of smoke that spark the change to wipe out the old forest and grow the new one. FFS, all this touchy feely shit has resulted in a big steaming pile of fuck all.
Agree.
But to use another analogy,
the slow release of steam is good untill the water runs out.
Then the boiler explodes.
No, the boiler explodes because the steam it produces wasn't allowed to vent. As more steam is produced more pressure builds up in the boiler until the tensil strength of the boiler is met or exceeded.
Tensil Strength.
Once the steam disappears due to lack of water to boil the only thing left is for the boiler to melt down, but only if the heat applied equals or exceeds the melting point of the boiler.
Seeing that water boils at 212 degrees Fahrenheit at sea level its quite possible the boiler may never melt. And, depending upon the boilers ability to radiate heat, due to its size and composition you may run out of fuel before the boiler melts.
I think Arnold is refering to a "bleve"--
Step number one is NEVER go to a foreign country and expect to negotiate any terms in your favor.
In Greece's case, the only negotiating tactics they have is to not just enter into forbearance/default, but in-fact withdrawal from NATO.
Ask yourself what it costs Greece to participate in NATO and ask the EU what it is worth for Greece to not leave.
The best thing for Greece is to enter the Russian/China Sphere as a off-shore banking haven. Have all EU/IMF debt bought and serviced by the Rus/China in exchange for a 50 year contract for military basing. Re-organizing the economy around expanded tourism and shadow operations buys a lot of ouzo.
I am sure all those sailors in Crimea would rather harbor in Salamis, especially since Russia feels Damascus is falling and ISIS will not honor its contracts in Tartus.
Leave the EU already.
The global stall. If you are an honest producer think it over. Why work at all if they are just going to swipe it? Good luck finding a replacment that will work for free.
Strike until a coin with a fixed real value is put in place. Until then barter the fiat to death.
The only thing that I want to know is: HOW MUCH EXPOSURE HAS BEEN SHIFTED FROM THE BANKS TO THE PUBLIC.
Those snakes and lizards have had plenty of time to readjust!
Why all of it.
Send the EU a nice bouquet of flowers with the following note: Roses are red, violets are blue - fuck off EU. Just something short and sweet.
“I see only one possibility: Greece should introduce capital controls for an extended period,” Harvard University economics professor Kenneth Rogoff
Another passenger for the exile boat to Somalia. Go on get him outta here. Dude knows damn well Greece should immediately create a gold backed crypto-currencey and issue arrest warrants for Blankfein and Dimon.
I thought there was a payment due 2 Fridays ago which Greece didn't make and would have triggered Grexit. (?) But they're still acting like the next deadline is the important one. And after that, the next one. What gives?
Like I explained above, the IMF papers it over each time to keep their debt claims active. An official default would fuck them and the troika they rode in on.
Greece won't impose capital controls. They're allowing the money to go. They're even actually encouraging the bank run.
The plan is as follows: they are encouraging the people to draw as many euros as they can. These euros will remain perfectly valid. Then, they'll default and go back to the drachma, devaluate the drachma and tell he people to bring back whatever euros will have been taken out. These euros, once changed, will buy lots of drachmas, and the economy will rocket. If it works, it's a master plan.
And all paid for by the ECB.
(That bunch of crooks, fools and wankers, which is going to have to give back what it has stolen from Greece).
I just returned from Greece, and it is business as usual; Porches, Mercedesses and Audi's all over, most Greecs own a vacation home on the islands, plenty of barbounia fish, 80% of homes are family owned without mortgage. Pensions are state sponsored with 100
% of last salary. Yes, there are lots of shops to let,etc. like in other European cities. The pictures of poor Greecs are often Albanians who live in relatively poverty as guest workers. And a lot of refugees from other countries who did not profit from the 300 billion USD of aid the EU gave to the Greecs the last years. Efgharisto poli: thank you very much!
I heard similar stuff regarding Spain, restaurants all 100% full, people enjoying weather etc. Most likely Italy same. Btw I also heard from local friends that travel to Ukraine that in majority of the country people dont even know war exist and that aside of some most eastern part near the russian border, everything is normal and bussiness as usual.
Which all of this back my already long ago made conclusion that all of this was "agreed" to make US and its shitty dollar not collapse in fraction of seconds. Because I guarantee you problems worldwide are the only things keeping that US ponzi "economics" alive.
"most Greecs own a vacation home on the islands". So what you are saying is that there are at least 3 million vacation homes on the island (Greece population is 10 million but ok, many of them are children so let's say 3 million homes)?
And of that 300 billion USD or 270 billion Euro a British NGO calculated that only 10% reached Greek society. The rest was used to bail out German, French and Dutch banks and pension funds that made bad investments in a country that everybody knew was/is a basket case. Why did they make these high risk investments? Because they knew they would be considered TBTF and would be bailed out. Cause we live in a systems that privatizes profits and socializes losses. And they would do that to Holland as well. In fact they did with Fortis and ABN.
Of course we can cram this camel through the eye of a needle! All it takes is time, money, and then force. (Warning: Some dismemberment may be required.)
Greece apparently still has gold, so they'd better lock that up real tight before American trucks arrive and do a Ukraine. America's getting real sloppy, there hasn't been an organised "ouzo maidan revolution" to out Syriza and hand power (and gold, don't forget the gold) over to a fat US puppet who'll bomb his own people for money yet.
Wow, Rogoff has really gone full fascist. Fuck Rogoff!
There is another alternative and that is to create national parallel currencies and let the EU monetary union die the slow painful death that it deserves. Looks like Greece is going to be the first. All efforts by the bankers will be to destroy Greece so they don't become a model of resistance.
What happened to the post about an EU vote in June to reimpose sanctions on Russia??????
Um, it's June.
The people in that picture have winter clothes on.
I don't think we need to fake this one. Where are the pictures of the REAL bank run?
Capital Controls are Damage Controls. Well past that stage. The juice for markets now is to play the private sector Creditors. Anyone has a list of who hold the most Greek papers ? Deutsche Bank has a lot.