Greek Economy Implodes: Budget Revenues Tumble 7% In January On Expectation Of 9% Rise
While hardly surprising to anyone who actually paid attention over the past two months to events in Greece (instead of just reacting to headlines) where among those on strike were the very tax collectors tasked with "fixing the problem", we now get a first glimpse of the sheer collapse in the Greek economy, which also confirms why Germany is now dying for Greece to pull its own Eurozone plug (predicated by a naive belief that Greece is firewalled as was discussed before. As a reminder Hank Paulson thought that Lehman, too, was firewalled on September 15, 2008). And what a collapse it is: according to just released data from Kathimerini, budget revenues lagged projections by €1 billion in the very first month of the year. "Revenues posted a 7 percent decline compared with January 2011, while the target that had been set in the budget provided for an 8.9 percent annual increase. Worse still, value-added tax receipts posted an 18.7 percent decrease last month from January 2011 as the economy continues to tread the path of recession: VAT receipts only amounted to 1.85 billion euros in January compared to 2.29 billion in the same month last year." This it the point where any referee would throw in the towel. But no: for Europe's bankers there apparently are still some leftover organs in the corpse worth harvesting. Unfortunately, at this point we fail to see how this setup ends with anything but civil war, as the April elections will merely once again reinstate the existing bloodsucking regime. We hope we are wrong.
The VAT revenue data represent a particular worrying sign regarding the depth of recession for 2012, while even more painful measures are expected to lead to a reduction in salaries and therefore a further drop in consumption. This is the vicious cycle that the government will have to tackle by way of additional fiscal measures this summer.
According to the current data, the 2012 budget will certainly have to be revised soon, given that the original estimate for a contraction of 2.8 percent is now raised to 3.5-4 percent of gross domestic product.
Finance Ministry officials attribute the slump in VAT receipt figures to the major cash flow problems that enterprises are facing. Some of the latter are choosing not to pay for their VAT in order to plug other holes caused by liquidity problems.
At the same time the crisis is seriously hurting the competitiveness of Greece’s economy, resulting in a considerable drop in entrepreneurship. Finance Ministry data showed that some 111,000 companies shut down in 2011, against just 75,000 new businesses being set up. In fact the majority of new start-ups are not actual enterprises but newly self-employed professionals.
This is attributed to the dramatic fall in market turnover and the insecurity that entrepreneurs feel, dissuading them from getting engaged in the local business field.
And this is the background against which the Troika wants Greece to cut another 150,000 people, and to cut minimum wage even more? Does nobody realize that at this point the entire Greek economy has frozen to a dead halt, and has joined only its utterly insolvent banking system in the dumpster?
How much longer will doctors fret around the patient before they finally have the decency to admit the patient has long since passed away?
(32 votes)
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and euro is still going up.....
i think they will delay few more times till bank will offload their bs and then and only then they will call a default.
Well, Greece is still only in a recession, right? From the article:
Unbelievable.
It's a bullish recession, and yes, it's priced in.
All together now...cash out Of banks leads to black market leads to lower taxes leads to more deficits leads to cash out of banks leads tO black market leads to...
This spiral is easily predictable... I mentioned the GREEKS make cheating on taxes a game long before this right?
Maybe Corzine is working his magic over there now?
We're all Spartans, now.
Central Banksters Doing the Money Masters bidding - YouTube
I'm really, really f'ing tired of this charade, it seems to be having no impact on the markets and is going nowhere. But I'm still holding out for this thing to crack.
Why do you care what the frakin markets do?
As to the OP, ZOMG, the Greeks cheated on their taxes even more. That'll show those pesky Germans, hey, if you ask for money we will pay you EVEN LESS.
There should be some fucking reward, one way or the other, for the countless hours I've spent following this drama. I admit, I'm a thrill seeker and want to see some kind of super nova blow up. I've always loved fireworks and rollercoasters. But, that's just me speaking.
Would somebody just turn the lights out as they leave? I'm done with this already.
"And this is the background against which the Troika wants Greece to cut another 150,000 people, and to cut minimum wage even more?"
Cutting government in a recession/depression is the correct response.
Letting wages drop to market clearing levels is the correct response.
Except when there is no free market, like now. We are controlled by oligarchs. You are advocating their complete victory while you cheer them on.
LOL! We have the deluded buffoonery of someone tragically indoctrinated in the false religion of neoclassical economics.
Market clearing wages....less government is best to counteract a recession?
Apparently you missed it when Alan Greenspan announced he had "found a flaw" in his mindless Ayn Rand fiction inspired ideological idiocy.
Note that it was World War II that pulled the West out of the Great Depression. Why? Because economies were effectively nationalized.
Is government and central-planning the answer to the instability and inequalities of the "irrational" market system? Mostly not. But what else can be expected when the system becomes hostage to superfluous debts created by the money masters. Funny how those who profess to warn the world about the 'road to serfdom' have, in fact, been unwittingly paving the way there.
Can you tell me why the U.S. economy didn't start to improve until the 50's when most of the New Deal policies were repealed?
Actually, the reasons the US exploded after WW2 are quite straight forward. Factories already existed - they simply had to be retooled. The US was not damaged physically as in Europe. And our low-tax policies provided plenty of disposable income for all the goodies that began spouting after the war.
Greek Economy Implodes
How in the hell can you tell?
Umm, no it's not!
What needs to happen here is the Greek government needs default on its debt. Pray for it, I know I will!!!!!
-John
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3VDJDPMOmk
Your reward is knowledge, attitude & information. What you do with it is your reward.
Viva-- Sager
here...how about an appropriately entertaining look as what's really going on:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mk7VWcuVOf0&feature=player_detailpage
I should clarify my comment above about "slaves."
Anyone who owes money is enslaved to some degree. The more they owe, the more they're enslaved. This is why fractional reserve banking depends on getting entities and individuals comfortable with the notion of borrowing fiat conjured from thin air, leveraged up many times, for the Ponzi to be able to be perpetuated.
Many are not slaves, because they haven't fallen into this trap, even if they're are small subset (but growing) % of the population.
I genuinely believe they'll crash equity markets soon. Not because they want to, but because they will have to, given that sovereign debt on an unprecedented scale has to be absorbed in the coming years, and it has to be 'risk off' to get the Japanification process underway.
For those that think it's 'tin foil' speak to talk about "they'll crash the markets," it only is if you honestly believe that the PPT, Fed and Treasury truly don't roll out programs and policies to boost equity indexes, and if that's the case, I think you're naive.
If they boost equity indexes via a plethora of actions, merely abstaining from those actions necessarily means equity indexes will fall.
Japan has had to keep domestic savers in their soverign bond markets out of necessity, and their main equity index fell 92% in real terms since 1989 as this process has played out.
We'll see a similar process in the U.S. and Europe, as more incremental buyers of sovereign bonds have to be found in order to finance deficits. Absent this, non-equity assets will skyrocket, and the price of commodities, and the resulting cost-push inflation will murder economies.
All you had to say was go read My side of the mountain by Jean Creighead George.
http://www.amazon.com/Side-Mountain-Jean-Craighead-George/dp/0140348107
Its talks in plain english all you need to know about freedom.
Read in in the six grade and it still moves me to this day.
Maybe im getting old, starting to remenber the past more clearly then present days.
That wouldn't have been as cathartic, though.
Besides, The Creature From Jekyll Island is the gold standard in dissecting debt enslavement and mankind's increasing lack of self-sufficiency and dependence on Dear Leader.
It's also available on Amazon:
Amazon.com: The Creature from Jekyll IslandCracking open that book 4 years ago was my red pill. Went headfirst down the rabbithole and have not looked back since.
The red pill is bitter, but once one adjusts, one has far better odds of being reborn as free & liberated, and that is truly priceless.
I am going to order that book, through Amazon nonetheless even if that means some three-letter word agency will log my IP address as potential troublemaker. They can't put all of us in the Gulag, or maybe they can.
When you are done with TCFJI, get Eustace Mullins book too, Secrets of the Federal Reserve. Names more names. Equally if not more damning.
pods
http://www.amazon.com/Secrets-Federal-Reserve-Eustace-Mullins/dp/0979917654/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1328713227&sr=8-1
Hot damn, and I thought I was the only guy that thinks of that book and wistfully dreams of escaping to the woods with my pet falcon......wait just a damn minute, I don't have a falcon.
A slave only until you refuse to pay the debts and are willing to endure the consequences the Ponzi Kings will put to you. That's why I ask, are the People of Greece refusing to pay taxes - thus crashing the system - because they have nothing left to lose. Or is this due to the tax collectors strike?
Anyone who owes money is enslaved to some degree.
Both. Greece, like all the Med nations, has (or should I say had?) a large underground economy off the books. Lots of lots of "you build my roof and I'll give you fish" deals are/were common. The whole thing is a maddening Catch 22 - Greece can't return to the idiotic spending rampage (and endless borrowing) and they can't save enough in austerity. Get the drachma, devalue it and get back in the cheap tourist business again.
For the candyman...
;)
http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?feature=player_embedded&v=5u03KAcEbEo...
I remember watching those tv shows growing up. I guess im giving my age away so Ill stop here, but funny clip for sure.
As Tyler suggests, they think they have a Greek bankruptcy 'contained' ... like they thought they had Lehman contained.
The post-Lehman near meltdown of the US and global financial system about 84 hours after the Lehman bankruptcy, on 18 September 2008 ... from a classic ZeroHedge article, 'How The World Almost Came To An End At 2PM On September 18':
« On Thursday (Sept 18), at 11am the Federal Reserve noticed a tremendous draw-down of money market accounts in the U.S., to the tune of $550 billion was being drawn out in the matter of an hour or two. The Treasury opened up its window to help and pumped a $105 billion in the system and quickly realized that they could not stem the tide. We were having an electronic run on the banks. They decided to close the operation, close down the money accounts and announce a guarantee of $250,000 per account so there wouldn't be further panic out there.
If they had not done that, their estimation is that by 2pm that afternoon, $5.5 trillion would have been drawn out of the money market system of the U.S., would have collapsed the entire economy of the U.S., and within 24 hours the world economy would have collapsed. It would have been the end of our economic system and our political system as we know it.
We are no better off today ... »
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/how-world-almost-came-end-2pm-september-18
That was the official story. But I have never bought it. If you were in a panic, the announcement of a $250K guarantee in the afternoon, would hardly stem a panic. And the money was draining far too fast (if the story is to be believed) for it to have been a "panic" of ordinary folks. It would have been an institutional panic, with amounts at risk far in excess of the guaranteed account.
I have always wish this story could be actually investigated by some incorruptible types who could report the facts. It makes no sense to me, the amounts are too large and too fast, with hardly a peep afterwards, and yet it is stated as the event that almost brought the whole show to a stop.
Something doesn't smell right in the story.
Bank guy in Brussels, I agree 100% with your statements.
Hubris amongst policy makers and legislators is running at all time highs, it would appear.
That those who will be most fatally wounded by such hubris are the only resource solvent enough to tap, as in productive, taxpaying members of society, is the scariest part of all.
They never learn from history and they can never seem to see the forest through the trees.
Ha! Ha! Yes, priced in, it is always priced in! The market is forward looking and it's sees bullish growth coming our way on the oceans of printed money flowing from central banks.
You have obviously noted that the word "depression" has been removed from the lexicon of all major news media, print, tv etal..
Prepare NOW! The time is coming where it will seem as sensible as auto or catastrophic health insurance..
euro will keep going up as long as benny prints more money than the ecb. benny does NOT want a higher US dollar so he will simply outprint the Europeans. Then eventually USA can be renamed Zimbabwe 2 abd EUro Zone becomes Zimbabwe 3, and so on.
GERMANY, the DISGRACE of Europe
...the barbarians, who forced beautiful Europe to get down Zeus’“back” and made her a prostitute ...the unworthy Europeans, who in 1945 “took Europe down” from “Mount Olympus” and in 2012 relinquished “enslaved” Europe to the Phoenician loan sharks.
Germans are proved to be the easy solution to breach Europe’s door. Whoever wishes to “set foot” on Europe and demolish it, the only thing he has to do is to “fool” the Germans. For a second time in less than fifty years, Europe’s idiots become the victims of foreigners and they serve their interests at the expense of Europe...
http://eamb-ydrohoos.blogspot.com/2012/02/germany-disgrace-of-europe.html
_____________________
The German traitors of Europe along with the Phoenicians from Asia may have forced Europe to get down from the "back” of the Greek “bull”, but it remains to be seen how they shall pull it through with the “bull”.
Authored by PANAGIOTIS TRAIANOU
Yes, yes, not enough hyperbole here.
I find it hard enough to believe America can get along; I have no idea how Europe thought it could maintain one fiscal union.
In America there are many different types of subcultures, yet still there is an understanding that binds us. In Europe each State has a diffferent culture, and even inside of them there are cultures that feel independent. There was no way the EURO would function as an exchange, and even though it is sad that they tried, it is more sad that the technocrats won't let their one currencie dreams fade into reality.
Go back to what worked Europe. You are many cultures with diferent lives, you should not act like you can all have the same expectaions but live different ways. The ways must justify the means, and they do not currently. Get back Europe, get back to where you once belonged.
The Confederation must fail so that the Republic can blossom. Oh, and pay no attention to the stovepipe-headed tyrants, riding the beasts robed in black, looking to rape that Republic into a Dictatorship.
A vast difference in economic means doesn't automatically make a shared currency impossible.
My wildly irresponsible and completely insolvent Brother-In-Law conducts his transactions in dollars. I conduct my transactions in dollars. Mitt Romney conducts his transactions in dollars. We're worlds apart in means, but we use the same currency. It works because people understand that accepting payment from us in dollars is fine, dollar for dollar. But loaning us dollars carries very different risk.
Imbecile investors bought Greek bonds figuring they were safe because they're denominated in Euros? How stupid is that? My Brother-In-Law would love to meet these shrewd money-managers.
Worse, they took BM and her CDS's seriously.
Mark-to-market hits aside, if the investors are holding to maturity then so far so good. Principal and interest payments have been made on time. I bow before any fixed income manager who bought <=1 yr. Greek bonds with a defensible view on why a default would occur after maturity. Such a manager has made / will make a killing if they're right.
That's the point. They did NOT buy them because they were considered safe. They bought them because they thought the absurdly controlled CDS would serve as a counterweight or even as a huge moneymaker. Leveraging your positions 100-1 sounded smart but did they ever stop and ask if the EU would ever actually allow these to kick in?
You're right about disparate folks using a common currency. In the US there in an implicit agreement that moneys willl flow in part from rich states to poor states but since we're all under one umbrella it's a zero sum gain. The same cannot be said about the EU.
Thats a good one stippy.. How many billions have you loaned your idiot brother in law that you now wish me to pay you back having been no party to the transaction? Egregious debt if there ever was any..
What in the hell does this have to do with my post about the underground economy? THe point is that the deals are NOT in billions (or trillions) but are outside taxable transactions.
You're real disapointement to me. What you said is not only silly but also against even your profile. Your premise is that if Europe did the same as your Big Ben, who I know is not your hero from reading your previous posts, we would not have too much to discuss. Now just let us know are you with Ben or you have some other solutions?
At least present some ideas to solve the problem, in Europe and US, can you? Don't bitch all the time to get Green arrows!
Huh? I was talking about the cultures. And this is socio-economics, and therefore my opinion: I think that America has an easier time functioning than Europe. Europe hvig one monetary union is the equivelent to Canada, Mexico, and the US joining up to form an AMERO. It wouldn't work.
I am not supporting Ben at all, I am noting that America, however disfunctional, works better than Europe. That's all.
And I never write anything to get green arrows, that much should be clear already.
Really it's functioning better? What about all those buncrupt states nobody talks about because they have Europe now to talk about? What about trillions for the banks to shut up everobody? Just gift and not loan like LTRO? Functioning much better because some idiots still accept your dollars, freshly printed, and Europe still doesn't want to go full speed on that? That's why I said you must be friend of Big Ben!
Maybe I exagerated with those green arrows, sorry.
Shut up you lazy, fat Greek bastard. You want Germany's money, then bend over. The time of free gyros is over.
It's not Germany's money. It's the money Germany owes to Greece for the death and damage caused during World War II to the Greek people and their nation.
Ach du liebe Scheisse!
If you're American you better get ready to pay some serious money for the damage your government caused all over the world since 9/11 and using a false flag event and "war on terrorism".
Seriously. Germany paid for WW2 more than enough and then some. Just or unjust is besides the point.
Germany "paid"? What is the price of several million lives? The real crime was the complicity of the German public with the madmen...but at least the citizens were quiet and efficient.
Pseudo Greek Nationalism and spewing hatred is only getting you one step closer to becoming ALBANIA.
A most fascinating link, for which I thank you. I see the "votes" so far do not agree. Too bad.
I call to your attention also to Preparata's study Conjuring Hitler which goes over in exhaustive detail the Anglo-American financing of the Nazis, as part of a long-term strategy to cripple Germany. But Preparata, unlike your author, is afraid to make unflattering reference to "the Jews", which vitiates much of the thrust of his narrative.
Again, thanks, and Godspeed.
“The Greek people are anarchic and difficult to tame. For this reason we must strike deep into their cultural roots: perhaps then we can force them to conform. I mean, of course, to strike at their language, their religion, their cultural and historical reserves, so that we can neutralize their ability to develop, to distinguish themselves, or to prevail; thereby removing them as an obstacle to our strategically vital plans in the Balkans, the Mediterranean, and the Middle East.” – Henry Kissinger 1974 Keepin it real, Bitchez.
Does that mean Californians will need to learn German?
like, totally!
"Dear Mr Marinos
Thank you for your letter. As to the quote, there was no award ceremony, there was no speech and the alleged quote is entirely untrue. The whole thing is pure invention, and I expect you to correct it.
Since you are the first to tell me where the quote came from, I have only today had the opportunity to correct it in the Turkish Daily News and I have done so.
Sincerely yours,
Henry A. Kissinger"
Better than fucking expected...no matter what.
Greeks, if you can still afford them, Mosins are only $69.95 at your local gun store!
And if you ever run out of ammo, you can always use them for firewood.
Where the heck you apying that price without an ffl or at least a CR?
one thing i am always confused.... how much money does it takes to rase a currency 200 pips?
i remember when BOJ intervene , they had to spend around 30 billion just to move JPY/USD around 300 pips.
If there are so many shorts ( the record ) for the euro, how much money in opposive direction does it take to do a short sqeeze?
It just takes one quisling at the Federal Reserve Bank in front of a key board to drop the dollar, and thereby float the euro. It's like wack a mole. www.nar2012.com
Didn't Mao say that it only takes a spark to light a raging bush fire ? Raging economic bush fires coming to a European country near you...
Quelle surprise!
Obligatory..
"... annnnnd it's gone."
Who would have thought austerity wouldn't boost revenues? I for one am shocked. Clearly, they need more austerity.
18% yoy decline in VAT... yowza.
Sounds like a reason to "BUY BUY BUY" risk on! I would expect that MDB would chime in how this is a result of all the brilliance housed in the FED/ECB.
*ahem
Something something something this is because the people are stupid. All you see are the proletariat rioting because they're stupid. Something something somethig need the ECB to bail out Greece and get it back on track to 5% per year GDP growth. Something something something.
Close enough?
Now let's see your AnAnonymous impression.
Fiat is escaping across the border......whooda thunk it ( scratches head ) ?
And in a Fiat 500...or is that a Chrysler minivan?
...more like a Ginsburg minivan.
From RT:
A meeting of Greek coalition party leaders to discuss austerity measures has once again been postponed as Prime Minister Lucas Papademos has instead been negotiating with Greece’s international creditors. The meeting with party leaders will now take place on Wednesday, the prime minister’s office said. The EU and the IMF insist that Greece must pass further harsh austerity measures, such as private sector salary cuts and civil service redundancies, in order to secure a second €130 billion bailout.
Time to pull up the drawbridge.
Heh, yeah... "will the last one to leave the country please turn out the lights?"
Global Debt Crisis
The greatest private fraud of human history.
Who are the great fraudsters who are becoming the murderers of the human kind? How does the economy "illness" threaten Democracy and the freedom of people?
http://eamb-ydrohoos.blogspot.com/2012/01/global-debt-crisis.html
---------------------------------
By knowing what happened in indebted Greece, where loan sharks created “bubbles” and the current inhuman debt, one can understand the inhuman plan in total ...understand where this plan started just to bring all states at the same end ...understand how this type of plans are established...
Might these guys have something to do with it?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3GMDcFOq0g
Feel free to check this out as well: http://eamb-ydrohoos.blogspot.com/2012/02/germany-disgrace-of-europe.htm...
It would be funny if one of those hacker groups took over CNBCialis and posted real economic headlines instead of the current drivel.
I'm wondering if the EU firewall isn't going to start looking less like a metaphoric wall, and more like a concrete, steel reinforced Berlin wall...
Yepper...its all fixed.
buy buy buy
I used to be outraged at Greece's lies, but then I took an arrow in the knee.
Does Jerry Brown govern Greece as well?
Civil war? Not just Joshin' are ya?
and the market keeps moving up...........
The greek market is up 28% this month...go figure.....and the Euro is "strong".....I have lost it...nothing makes sense now...nothing...people though Madonna was good....WTF