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The Latest Out Of Europe: "Pretty Steady Level Of Shittiness"
Moments ago, after yet another weekend in which Europe was said to have given Greece yet another "absolutely final" deadline in which to agree to deal terms, terms which now Europe can't agree on, when after five years of recovery we found out that the Greek economy is so bad it will have to put in escrow some €50 billion in assets to preserve the ECB's financial lifeline of its banks which just in October of 2014 passed the same ECB's "stress test" with flying colors, we had a revelation:
We may have hit peak bullshit
— zerohedge (@zerohedge) July 12, 2015
Turns out, we weren't too far off. This is how Sky News' Ed Conway summarized the events to date:
Me: How are the talks going?
EU source: "Shitty."
Me: "Getting more shitty or less?"
Source: "Pretty steady level of shittiness"
#Greece
— Ed Conway (@EdConwaySky) July 12, 2015
So for those who still care, where do we stand now? Before answer that, here is a rather florid visual of what happened just last night, when Germany's Schauble, seemingly pushed into a demonic fit of existential rage with Greece, decided to unilaterally tear apart the Eurozone just to teach Athens a lesson.
According to Reuters, what happened during last night's Eurogroup finmin meeting which concluded without a deal, is that in a "tough, even violent" atmosphere, in the words of one participant, after an overnight break the German and French finance chiefs, Wolfgang Schaeuble and Michel Sapin, sat down to clear the air between them before resuming on Sunday.
Schaeuble also crossed swords with ECB governor Mario Draghi, snapping at the Italian central banker "I'm not stupid!"
"It was crazy, a kindergarten," said a source describing the overall course of nine hours of talks on Saturday among weary ministers attending their sixth emergency Eurogroup in three weeks. "Bad emotions have completely taken over."
Schaeuble and others seemed to favour a "Grexit", another participant said. The European Central Bank's Draghi seemed "the strongest European" in the room, most opposed to the risky experiment of cutting Greece loose and braving Schaeuble's ire by interrupting him during a discussion on Athens' debt burden.
The new Greek finmin was calm, appearing resigned to whatever his country's fate would be:
By contrast, Greek Finance Euclid Tsakalotos, appointed last week in place of the often provocative Yanis Varoufakis, seemed calm and expressed a willingness to take steps to convince creditors Athens could be trusted to implement budget and economic reform measures to unlock tens of billions of euros.
At one point a fellow minister turned to Tsakalotos and told him to ignore the rows raging around him: "Don't worry Euclid," he said. "It's not your problem any more, it's theirs."
But while the future of Greece is now open-ended, with emotions overruling logic and certainly financial interests, the one things that will be the legacy of this weekend's European summit is that the fissure right across the center of Europe is now plain for all to see:
"Schaeuble's positions are irresponsible and can bring disaster," said Gianni Pittella, an ally of Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi. Leader of the centre-left bloc in the European Parliament, Pittella spoke at a meeting in Brussels.
That reflects something of a left-right split across Europe.
French President Francois Hollande's Socialist party issued a comradely appeal to Sigmar Gabriel, the German Social Democrat leader who sits as deputy to conservative Chancellor Angela Merkel in a coalition. It said: "The peoples of Europe do not understand the increasingly hardline position taken by Germany."
Gabriel, also in Brussels, said he aimed to keep Greece in the euro and stressed that France and Germany, traditionally the twin motors of European integration, would work together.
In Berlin and Paris, officials have played down differences in tone on Greece, stressing that Merkel and Hollande must sell their decisions to different national constituencies.
Of course, all of this is meaningless: in Europe it has always been, and always will be, Germany's way or the autobahn. Don't like it, don't let the door hit you on the way out, especially since it still appears confusing to all but Germany that the biggest beneficiary of the Eurozone was the German export sector.
As for almost everyone else, well... ask the Greeks.
Anyway, that was last night. Where are we now, as the European summit of leaders is currently entering 2am in the morning?
Well, some good news: outright talk of Grexit, and a 5 year "time out" appear to have dropped out of the draft.
#Greece was close to signing the creditors' proposal before ideas of euro time-out and privatization fund were tabled - EU source
— Jarno Hartikainen (@JarnoHa) July 12, 2015
Which may help Greece but it still doesn't explain how Tsipras will pass into law the Draconian measures demanded of Greece especially since there are purely logistical hurdles which can't be forced:
#Greece says can't pass legal system reforms & rules for dealing w/ bank failures by July 15, asks for week extension http://t.co/84fEtKhPj6
— Tara Palmeri (@tarapalmeri) July 12, 2015
But "time out" or not, that "other" demand for a Greek €50 billion escrow pre-privatization fund appears to remain. And the biggest irony: now it is the IMF itself which is spraying doubts Greece can ever deliver on this...
#EuroSummit has doubts over 50 bn€ privatization target. IMF don't think it's realistic. - EU source
— Jarno Hartikainen (@JarnoHa) July 12, 2015
... the same IMF which in 2011 came up with the same privatization target, only to be severely disappointed:
As for the biggest question of the night, namely where will Greece obtain the funding assuming Tsipras can pass through parliament the latest and harshest Eurogroup term sheet yet, at this point it is better not to ask too many questions, because while the Greek program envisions €86 billion in funding needs over 3 years, it also projects a whopping €22 billion in August alone!
Greece needs an infusion of 22 billion euros ($25 billion) to pay its bills through the end of August, Maltese Finance Minister Edward Scicluna said.
This figure includes 7 billion euros by July 20, when Greece owes about 3.5 billion euros to the European Central Bank, Scicluna said in an interview. It includes 10 billion euros for banks and 5 billion euros for other needs. He spoke on the sidelines of Sunday’s euro-area summit after finance chiefs concluded their session.
As Zero Hedge first noted even with the full Third Bailout paid in full, an amount of debt that would bring its total debt/GDP over 200%, Greece will likely be at the same bargaining table in a few months, only this time with its prized assets already pledged as secured collateral to a loan which will, drumroll, be used to repay the Troika, and with virtually nothing left over for the Greek people. This is about as close to an example of aggravated asset-stripping of a bankrupt debtor without the debtor of even having the benefit of being in default, as one can find in real life.
Some have suggested a combination of EFSF funding, others have said French bilateral loans (subsequently denied), but the reality is that this is irrelevant: if new money comes it will be secured from day one with Greek assets. In other words, any new money coming to Greece will be in the form of a DIP loan, secured with liens on tangible assets and when (not if) Greece is unable to repay, the creditors - who have created paper out of thin air - will be first to collect all too real Greek assets held in escrow in a Luxembourg subsidiary.
So what happens next? Well, Tsipras may finally be granted permission to go back to Athens and try to sell this disastrous "deal" to his people, but not for a few hours more.
"Will probably take some more hours." #EuroSummit
— Stefan Leifert (@StefanLeifert) July 12, 2015
We expect some resolution around first light this morning, and while another Greek can kicking and some last-moment "hope" is surely in the cards, we know two things: Greece is officially finished - there is no way the Tsipras or any other government can politicall recover after such a humiliating spectacle when half of Europe made a mockery of the Greek people; and perhaps better, we finally have seen the true face of Europe: visible only when things are finally falling apart.
It is a very ugly face as Greece, where the #ThisIsACoup hashtag is now trending, have finally realized.
And somehow we doubt, if asked or otherwise, they will want to be a part of it ever again.... and not just Greece but every other country in Europe as well.
The #Eurogroup right now. pic.twitter.com/lxcqTfgM88
— Theodora Oikonomides (@IrateGreek) July 11, 2015
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As everything in life...it depends your point of you.
From where I'm standing right now things are looking GLORIOUS...not shitty !
xox
The final solution (not in caps) for Greece is the Total & Unilateral Repudiation of all Debt.
With TURD, the Greeks can start with a clean sheet, once again.
TURD will set them free.
Tyler: DAX rises from minus 1% to plus 1% in the last hour +/-, but on what news???
WHAT EURO???/ WOLF IN SHEEP CLOTHING.. it's the DEUTSCHMARK!!!!!!!
MAKE NO MISTAKE EURO = DEUTSCHMARK ... DEUTSCHMARK = EURO..
AND LET'S ALL GOOSESTEP TO THE DEUTSCHMARK (whoops, I sot of mean Euro.. not).
Another EU style referendum:
"Should the deal draft that was put forward by the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund in the Eurogroup of June 25, 2015, and consists of two parts, that together form a unified proposal, be accepted?"
NO!
Wrong answer. The correct answer is YES.
Thankyou for voting. See you next time!
to sum it up:
Greece will not get debt written off but only restructured for a longer periof of time. For that Greece will get 86 bln euros to kick start austerity measures for real
" "Schaeuble's positions are irresponsible and can bring disaster," said Gianni Pittella, an ally of Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi. Leader of the centre-left bloc in the European Parliament, Pittella spoke at a meeting in Brussels. That reflects something of a left-right split across Europe.[...] I am Italian, and I can state with near certainty that whatever knowledge of economic reality is present in the Italian establishment could be written in foot-high letters on the head of a pin.
Europe OWNS Greece. But that is NOT NEW.
Yanis and Tsipras had said that OPENLY. They NEVER wanted to leave the EZ given Greece's total bankruptcy from previous plays.
The only question was : QUO VADIS EU/EZ ? Well, they have avoided GREXIT ! Main objective!
And on paper, EU nows says we're all in behind you Tsipras, BUT as we OWN you we'll RUN you. SIMPLE.
That is what Hollande and Mutti have obtained by their "forced forceps play" to spawn this new baby called third bail out of Greece. Does this mean debt write-off down the road ? Possibly!
Now... the big question is given the fiat shit hole Eurosystem has become, as little SISTER to big SISTER the Greenback, will the GREEK PEBBLE of destroying its social fabric become the bone of contention of an impossible UNION between arrogant (and bankrupt under the carpet) Germany and overtly bankrupt Club Med Europe?
WILL THE HORSESHOE OF GREEK DYSTOPIA's social fallout in all of south Europe MAKE EUROPE LOSE THE BATTLE OF THE EURO?
That has always been the question.
The KEY LINE in this confrontation was : We cannot trust Greece as our greatest capital in the Euro system is TRUST amongst ourselves.
Now coming from the Horse's mouth of Euro fiat Baloney's Brussels technocracy that has such an IRONIC ring !
'Cos the KEY issue tomorrow and after tomorrow will be :
DO THE OLIGARCHY MARKETS TRUST THE EURO CONSTRUCT OF THIS PARANOID TECHNOCRACY THAT HIDES PRIVATE RUNAWAY DEBT ON THE PUBLIC AND ECB LEDGERS???
And that is the question on the financial titanic of Pax Americana run capitalism, that has fewer and fewer lifeboats in case its flagship hits the BIG WHITE ONE !
Can we hear Hernan Cortez's ghost in DC and WS now whisper : I've burned all my boats?
THE PEOPLE OF GREECE NEED TO STAND UP AND TELL THE EU TO FUCK OFF !!!!! Joint the Eastern trade union, and use the Renminbi untill your Drachma is sorted out.
Greece capitulates...
http://uk.reuters.com/article/2015/07/13/uk-eurozone-greece-idUKKBN0P40F...
Remember this?
http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2012/09/bombshell-no-wonder-obama-bowed-...
The farce continues...
Tsipras disobeyed the referendum results and sold Greece to EU. The EU goes on endorsing his act of dictatorship, i.e. fuck the votes. People, this is pretty scary shit happening now in EU. It's not whether Greece is going to default. It's really what the EU is. The EU has shown its true face, it is a big totalitarian state. Loud and clear.
Betrayed, with their backs to the wall, it will be interesting to see how Greeks react. And later, same with Americans and the rest of the world.
Printing, with aplomb, "Greece reaches deal" prematurely reports results from Puppets on strings, the political leadership in sunken EU-ship. The banks (read Goldman Sacks) started this fiasco 5 years ago. Made profit in Greece's EU entrance and enjoyed getting back their balance with interest ever since. A game that has been around since 1694, comes slowly to and end, at Greece's shore. Creating credit from thin air, the bank had lots of 'money' to spare. Great was the sucking up of assets owned by Greece, and onto the people the debt was released. Today parliaments in Europe will prove to be brave. A lot of NOs may issue out from north to south; Finland, and Greece, with Germany too, will let the creditors know what they can do. It's going to be quite a trip, to see if parliaments or creditors sway leadership.
"We have an aGreekment"
I think there might be a GREVOLT
so the #thisisacoup thread explains how the 'institute for growth' [in luxembourg] that the greeks must pay €50bn to, is owned by German KfW, who have Schauble as chairman of the board. The same Schauble who is shouting at the greeks to pay up, and the same Schauble who is currently 'negotiating on europe's behalf' to screw the greeks even more.
Pretty messed-up that he personally profits from this situation, can't believe some ZH-comments actually support this blatant crook and self-enriching bully politician....
Meanwhile the article on fascist capitalism here on ZH shows the rise in german exports since the euro was adopted, and that is unmatched by other euro nations who mainly experienced negative impact.
asset-striping is the modern word for 'pillage'. Specially as real-world assets are being exchanged for leger-entry created debt.
more fluoride anyone ?
I am a Wall St broker with 30 years expeirence, I have been sucessfully trading the markets with a proven method. As I have mentiion before, I have two gerbils, one named long and the other named short. I feed them both simotamiously and which ever finishes first is how I trade the day. Now for the first time in 30 freakin years both gerbils refused to eat their food and went straight to the corner where the deficate and started eating their feces. I was certain that this was some type of glitch so I shook both cages and tried again only to have the same results. Now I dont want to jump to the conclusion that we are totaly fucked, but I would like to know if any other traders use a similar method and have had similare results............................This just in............UPDATE.............I have two gerbils for sale
Well said! ROFL! :-)
They are just acquiring goods on the cheap. They know the Greeks will rebel but by that time they will have Blackwater / GS4 security guarding the repossessed assets. Fifty years time there won`t even be any indigenous people left.
they have already had the state lottery for buttons. Expect Stavros to be paying for his rainwater next.
I seriously wonder if Germany threatened to send in troops of some sort. Only way I can see this deal happening