Eurozone

"We will now see in the negotiations whether there is even a way to get to a new programme taking into account (Greece's) financing needs, which have risen incredibly. [Grexit] would perhaps be the better way for Greece."

And so the 2015 season of the Greek drama is coming to a close following last night's vote in Greek parliament to vote the country into even more austerity than was the case before Syriza was voted into power with promises of removing all austerity, even with Europe - which formally admits Greece is unsustainable in its current debt configuration - now terminally split on how to proceed, with Germany's finmin still calling for a "temporary Grexit", the IMF demanding massive debt haircuts, while the rest of Europe (and not so happy if one is Finnish or Dutch) just happy to kick the can for the third time.

The Euro Summit statement (or Terms of Greece’s Surrender – as it will go down in history) was just annotated by Yanis Varoufakis as it pertains to ordinary Greek citizens. As the former finance minister writes "The original text is untouched with my notes confined to square brackets (and in red). Read and weep…"

With Small Business Optimism cratering to 15 month lows and CFO's skepticism at 2 year lows, it is no surprise that 'average joe' is also feeling a little less confident (despite the exuberance in equity markets). Gallup's U.S. Economic Confidence Index registered at -11 this week, which marked an eight-month low for the index. While current conditions are weak, more worryingly, the economic outlook has tumbled to its lowest since October with 56% of Americans saying "the economy is getting worse."

The EU Commission has submitted a formal request to tap the mothballed EFSM for a bridge loan to Greece. The UK may look to block the proposal, but fortunately, Europe has a creative "soultion". 

To all appearances, at least “a new Day has dawned” for Greece, the nations of the Rest of the World, and any other members/victims of the Corrupt West also seeking to reclaim their sovereignty, and find economic salvation for their people. Let’s hope that the reality which follows reflects these hopes for a better world.

The dollar has been a stalwart of international trade over the majority of the last century. Around the time of the formation of the Eurozone, it reached its recent peak at 71.0% of official foreign exchange reserves. Since then, its composition of global reserves has more recently dropped to a more modest 62.9% in 2014. However, the dollar is slowly losing its status as the world’s undisputed reserve currency.

"The International Monetary Fund has sent its strongest signal that it may walk away from Greece’s new bailout programme. Under its rules, the IMF is not allowed to participate in a bailout if a country’s debt is deemed unsustainable and there is no prospect of it returning to private bond markets for financing. The IMF has bent its rules to participate in previous Greek bailouts, but the memo suggests it can no longer do so," FT reports.

Several days ago when we first calculated that the new Greek debt/GDP post bailout #3 will promptly hit 200%, something the IMF agreed with earlier today. But it won't stop here, and as the  following analysis from Michael Lebowitz at 720 Global shows, just based on the country's negative growth rate and positive interest rate, Greek debt/GDP will keep rising indefinitely and will likely hit 336% in about one decade, at which point Greece will, for all intents and purposes, cease to exist.

In his Pulitzer-Prize-winning book, Lords of Finance, the economist Liaquat Ahamad tells the story of how four central bankers, driven by staunch adherence to the gold standard, “broke the world” and triggered the Great Depression. Today’s central bankers largely share a new conventional wisdom – about the benefits of loose monetary policy. Are monetary policymakers poised to break the world again?

Last month the fund managers responding to BofA' fund manager survey said that a "Eurozone breakdown" was was the third biggest "tail risk" to global markets. What is much more notable is that just one month earelier, in May, not a single respondent even mentioned this as a risk.  Fast forward to July when "Eurozone breakdown" is suddenly perceived as the biggest tail risk by all those surveyed.

“Greeks cannot withdraw cash left in safe deposit boxes at Greek banks as long as capital restrictions remain in place”, Nadia Valavani, a Deputy Finance Minister in Greece told local television station according to a Reuters report.

In the final act of what has become a modern Greek tragedy, lawmakers will now be forced to choose between "approving" what is effectively a German overthrow of the Greek government, or face the collapse of the banking system and an economic depression of unimaginable propotions. 

The latest BofA Fund Managers Survey has left the report authors stumped: on one hand fund managers have the highest cash levels since Lehman at 5.5% (most since December 2008 and prior to that November 2001), which combined with a capitulation in risk appetite due to ongoing stress in Greece and China would suggest a screaming buy signal... but there is one problem: the same fund managers refuse to actually capitulate and sell, and as a result not only are bank longs at record highs, but equities remains solidly overowned but the group, offset by "protection" levels which are the highest since February 2008. In short, the current positioning is a "complete contrast to 2008."

While Greek PM Alexis Tsipras is busy figuring out how best to go about pushing the "deal" he reached on Monday morning in Brussels through parliament, EU finance ministers are scrambling to put together billions in bridge financing that will hold Athens over until the activation of the ESM program which is likely at least four months away. Although it's as yet unclear which "least bad" option is preferable for Greece's external debt, Wolfgang Schaeuble has an idea for how the country might pay public sector employees.