"French banks set for Greek debt rollover; Move could fuel European effort" by Greg Keller, Associated Press / June 28, 2011
PARIS — French banks are ready to help troubled Greece by accepting a significant debt rollover, President Nicolas Sarkozy said yesterday, a move that could push other banks to pitch in to the Europewide effort to keep Athens from defaulting.
Sarkozy said the plan would see banks reinvest their Greek debt holdings into new bonds over 30 years. That would give Greece valuable funding to manage its huge debt load and buy it time to reform its economy.
French banks are among the biggest holders of Greek sovereign debt — some $21 billion — with Germany’s financial sector also heavily exposed, to the tune of $22.7 billion, according to the Bank of International Settlements.
Sarkozy urged others to follow the example of the French plan, which was presented yesterday at an international meeting in Rome where banks and financial institutions discussed what the private sector can do to save Greece from default....
Nothing can save then because borrowing more money via central bank fascism can only end in failure.
The proposed plan would have the benefit for banks of avoiding a complete rollover of their Greek debt, which is another idea that has been mooted in Brussels in recent days....
Really all you needed to know.
A Greek default would have grave consequences on all 17 countries that use the euro and rock markets worldwide. European leaders are trying to get the private sector to take part in a new rescue package under discussion for Greece.
--more--"
Related:
A Communist trade union protested yesterday atop the Acropolis archeological site, condemning the austerity package officials say must pass to get Greece a second bailout. Parliamentary debate on the unpopular package is to wrap up with a vote today. (Louisa Gouliamaki/ AFP/ Getty Images).
Controlled-opposition Communists get the protest photo, 'eh?
"Rioting rocks Athens, leaving dozens hurt; Strikes, protests to go on through austerity voting" June 29, 2011|By Elena Becatoros, Associated Press
ATHENS -- Hours of rioting outside Greece's Parliament injured 46 people yesterday on the eve of a vote by lawmakers to adopt more painful austerity measures, a condition for bailout funds needed to prevent a potentially disastrous default.
Bailout funds which will be used to pay back the very people who loaned it to them -- with additional cuts in state services, raised taxes, and the selling off of state assets.
At least 14 people were arrested, authorities said, as youths sporadically clashed with riot police for more than 10 hours and into the night, leaving the city center filled with tear gas and strewn with smashed marble paving stones.
Unions had begun a 48-hour strike that shut down services and staged mass rallies throughout the capital in another day of chaotic protests.
The new austerity measures must be passed in a two-part vote today and tomorrow before Greece's international creditors will release the next batch of the country's more than $100 billion bailout fund. That would prevent a default that could drag down European banks and shake the European and world economy.
I'm tired of the fear from the same liars who looted us all.
Let's not pay them and then kill them. That will solve the problem.
"Voting these measures is required to maintain our credibility in the [bailout] process," Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos said. 'Voting for these measures, regardless of any reservations, is an important, brave act of political responsibility."
Looks like he is first in line for the old sliding blade, 'eh?
The Orwellian nature of governments and their newspapers these days is really off-putting -- to say the least.
The Socialist government, which survived a revolt by party dissenters this month, is again taking them on by imposing the punishing four-year program of spending cuts and tax hikes on even those earning minimum wages -- prompting anger inside Parliament and out on the street....
Then the WORD SOCIALIST has NO MEANING unless it means SOCIALISM for BANKS!!
"The austerity measures are not only harsh, not only unfair, but they are also ineffective," Socialist critic Vasso Papandreou told Parliament late yesterday. Still, she said she would grudgingly vote for the bill.
Number two in the queue behind Venizelo.
"Greece has many problems, but the real problem is the eurozone," said Papandreou, a former EU commissioner. "Europe should be a zone of solidarity, but it is a jungle where the banks can do what they like."
Then GET OUT of IT!
**********************
"The situation that the workers are going through is tragic, and we are near poverty levels," said Spyros Linardopoulos, a protester with the union blockading the port of Piraeus earlier in the day. "The government has declared war, and to this war we will answer back with war."
Unions attracted 20,000 protesters to rallies in Athens and plan more downtown protests today as most services will remain shut down.
Bailout eurozone members Greece, Portugal, and Ireland account for only about 6 percent of the common-currency area output but have caused a crisis for Europe's monetary project.
--more--"
"Greece passes steep cuts as riots seize capital" by Elena Becatoros and Derek Gatopoulos Associated Press / June 29, 2011
ATHENS, Greece—Greece fended off a bankruptcy that threatened to roil global financial markets, approving severe spending cuts and tax increases Wednesday in the face of violent protests by Greeks who say they have suffered enough.
The package of austerity measures would keep bailout money flowing to Greece from other European countries and the International Monetary Fund. It would free $17 billion in fresh loans, although the money will only be enough to see the nation through September.
Related: Time is Money in Greece
Oh, they know the whole thing is going to fail anyway?
Investors around the world cheered the news, but protesters, fighting tear gas, hurled whatever they could find at riot police and tried to blockade the Parliament building....
Without the bailout money, Greece was at risk of default. While no one knows for sure what would have happened next, analysts have said it would have threatened the viability of the euro, the European Union's common currency, and could have done much worse.
Some market experts had predicted a Greek default could have trigged another world financial meltdown, like what happened after the Lehman Brothers investment house collapsed in 2008 in the United States.
The risk is that banks, both in Europe and the U.S., would have had to chalk up billions of dollars in losses because of Greek loans that had gone bad. No one knows which U.S. banks hold what amount of Greek debt.
And we can NEVER, NEVER have that! Better YOU and YOUR LIVELIHOODS are DESTROYED, citizen of the world. Besides, I'm sure the governments would have bailed them out yet again with your dime, taxpayers.
On Sunday, European finance ministers will meet in Brussels to work on a second bailout for Greece, expected to be similar in size to the first, in hopes of shoring up its finances beyond just a few months.
Banks are expected to share some of the burden. One way would be for banks to repurchase Greek bonds after they expire, as French banks have indicated they may do.
Many economists still expect it won't be enough.
"We must avoid the country's collapse with every effort," Prime Minister George Papandreou said before the vote. "Outside, many are protesting. Some are truly suffering. Others are losing their privileges. It is their democratic right. But they and no one else must never suffer the consequences ... of a collapse."
We must pay the banksters!
More protests could undermine the government's ability to implement the harsh austerity measures, which tax even the lowest-paid Greeks and raise prices during a recession.
"They are not out of the water just yet," said Carl Campus, an analyst at BMO Capital Markets....
Several banks and storefronts were smashed, while a Socialist dissenter who backed the government at the last minute, Alexandros Athanassiadis, was briefly assaulted by protesters after leaving Parliament on foot.
I sense agent provocateurs, although you can understand the anger.
"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable."
Bankers, governments, and the fascist internationalist order aren't giving us much choice.
That was where my paper version cut it.
Violence continued throughout the afternoon, and smoke billowed from a post office beneath the finance ministry before a fire was put out. Rioters set up burning barricades along Syntagma Square, where demonstrators have staged a sit-in for the past month....
And yet my Globe has barely mentioned it.
A general strike that began Tuesday paralyzed the country, grounding planes, leaving ferries docked and stranding tourists during the busy summer season....
Good, that HELPS with the BOYCOTT!
Forty-three protesters were detained, with 17 of them arrested. Emergency services said they had treated 99 protesters and passers-by for injuries.
Dozens of injured were treated at a first-aid center set up inside the square's metro station. Most were treated for breathing problems, contusions and broken bones, volunteers at the first aid center said, appealing for medical supplies.
See who comes last to the paper?
Across Europe, officials hailed the vote as an act of "national responsibility" and urged Greek lawmakers to follow up with another positive vote Thursday.
"That's really good news," German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on her way out of an economic forum in Berlin. Germany is Greece's biggest creditor.
Relief was the main response in markets, too. Soon after the vote, the euro rose against other world currencies, including to $1.44 against the American dollar. Stock markets around the world were posting big gains.
Yeah, yeah, we already are full-up with how the money feels.
--more--"
Related:
Stocks rise as Greece nears debt solution
EU confirms Greece getting more money
"Frustration spurs violence, riots in Greece; Culture of protest a routine therapy" July 01, 2011|By Christopher Torchia, Associated Press
ATHENS - A stun grenade exploded in the hand of a Greek riot policeman, severing a finger.
Well, if you are going to carry those things.... I mean, we warn the kids about fireworks.
Police and demonstrators ceased combat and scoured the debris-strewn street, uniting in a frantic search for the missing digit.
They found it. The finger was rushed off in a wet towel to a hospital, where doctors reattached it to the injured man. The brief scene of solidarity, witnessed by an Associated Press photographer, was one of many twists in a wild drama on the stage of central Athens this week....
We NEED MORE of THAT between PEOPLE and POLICE -- and WATCH GOVERNMENTS FALL! After all, we are MOSTLY on the SAME SIDE! I OPPOSE and DETEST the ATTACKS on YOUR UNIONS, and the community cop, teacher, and firefighter is a NEIGHBOR!!
The ferocious display evoked a society unhinged.
And you can thank the globalists and bankers for that!
There were staccato booms, flashes, sirens, the roar of police motorcycles, drifting smoke, flimsy barricades, smashed glass storefronts, and jeering youths with cloth draped over their faces and clubs and marble chunks chipped off buildings in their hands.
About 300 people, nearly half of them police, were injured over two days. But the main battleground, Syntagma Square, buzzed with traffic yesterday. Tourists patrolled with cameras, recording the debris and idle riot police.
Greeks had indulged in another contained eruption, heavy with choreography and symbolism, to convey disgust with their political class. The culture of protest and violence by a hardened minority is now a routine form of collective therapy.
Hey, WHY NOT TOSS a HUGE, STEAMING STINKER of an INSULT at the Greek people, you pos press?!!!
Here I am an AmeriKan citizen trying to find out about our world by reading the "newspaper" and I have to wade through all this condescending corporate crap?
It turns out there is a framework to the chaos, and even police play a part by blasting away with tear gas that riles up the crowd, but doesn't make it go home.
Oh, the POLICE were PROVOKED, huh?
Both sides usually act with a degree of mutual restraint, in contrast to the popular uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa, which have often elicited bloody crackdowns and even warfare.
Yeah, those dang Arabs are so violent (sigh).
As for warfare, who is the one dropping bombs in the area?
Greece does have a dark history of military dictatorship, terrorism, political assassination, and anarchism....
Yes, but the NEWSPAPER WILL NOT BE GOING INTO THINGS like the CIA-supported COUPS or the FALSE FLAG OPERATION GLADIO (I'm sure the Greeks know all about that).
Much of the current protest is about extreme gestures that are, fortunately, grounded only in performance. At one noisy protest, a young man made eye contact with a policeman in silence, then drew a finger across his throat in a slitting motion. Another man plucked a few grimy euro banknotes from his pocket and waved them at police lines.
"Here, you want my money? Take it!" he fumed sarcastically before pocketing the money again.
So he acted like a banker, 'eh?
The anger is real, and so is a fear of the unknown as Europe and international lenders struggle to help Greece dodge a bankruptcy that could inflict new turmoil on global markets.
You better bet it is real, and it is growing every day -- and not only in Greece!
--more--"
Next Day Update:
"Greece provided with moment to exhale; Loan agreement eases some stress" by James G. Neuger and Jonathan Stearns, Bloomberg News / July 4, 2011
Europe pulled Greece back from the brink of default over the weekend, gaining time to work out a formula for ending the debt crisis.
How much did they buy this time?
European finance ministers authorized a $12.6 billion loan payout to Greece by mid-July, basing a second three-year bailout package on talks to corral banks into maintaining their Greek debt holdings.
“For markets, what matters is that Greece has got the money to navigate through the summer,’’ said Silvio Peruzzo, an economist at Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC in London....
I couldn't have said it better myself.
Europe’s agreement Saturday to make the payout climaxed a pivotal week for Greece and the euro, providing a respite from the political tensions, clashes with central bankers, and jousting with investors that have dogged the crisis-fighting effort. The finance chiefs gather next week to tackle Greece’s long-term lifeline.
Financial markets offered breathing space as well, with Greece’s escape from imminent default triggering gains last week in the euro, European stocks, and the bonds of fiscally stretched countries such as Spain and Italy.
Greek parliamentary passage of new budget cuts last week gave euro-area governments political cover to release the funds....
Prospects for turning the savings legislation into reality are clouded by a lack of opposition support and public hostility that boiled over into pitched battles between teargas-spraying police and rioters outside the Athens parliament last week....
They are still out there, aren't they?
--more--"
Many economists still expect it won't be enough.
"We must avoid the country's collapse with every effort," Prime Minister George Papandreou said before the vote. "Outside, many are protesting. Some are truly suffering. Others are losing their privileges. It is their democratic right. But they and no one else must never suffer the consequences ... of a collapse."
We must pay the banksters!
More protests could undermine the government's ability to implement the harsh austerity measures, which tax even the lowest-paid Greeks and raise prices during a recession.
"They are not out of the water just yet," said Carl Campus, an analyst at BMO Capital Markets....
Several banks and storefronts were smashed, while a Socialist dissenter who backed the government at the last minute, Alexandros Athanassiadis, was briefly assaulted by protesters after leaving Parliament on foot.
I sense agent provocateurs, although you can understand the anger.
"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable."
Bankers, governments, and the fascist internationalist order aren't giving us much choice.
That was where my paper version cut it.
Violence continued throughout the afternoon, and smoke billowed from a post office beneath the finance ministry before a fire was put out. Rioters set up burning barricades along Syntagma Square, where demonstrators have staged a sit-in for the past month....
And yet my Globe has barely mentioned it.
A general strike that began Tuesday paralyzed the country, grounding planes, leaving ferries docked and stranding tourists during the busy summer season....
Good, that HELPS with the BOYCOTT!
Forty-three protesters were detained, with 17 of them arrested. Emergency services said they had treated 99 protesters and passers-by for injuries.
Dozens of injured were treated at a first-aid center set up inside the square's metro station. Most were treated for breathing problems, contusions and broken bones, volunteers at the first aid center said, appealing for medical supplies.
See who comes last to the paper?
Across Europe, officials hailed the vote as an act of "national responsibility" and urged Greek lawmakers to follow up with another positive vote Thursday.
"That's really good news," German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on her way out of an economic forum in Berlin. Germany is Greece's biggest creditor.
Relief was the main response in markets, too. Soon after the vote, the euro rose against other world currencies, including to $1.44 against the American dollar. Stock markets around the world were posting big gains.
Yeah, yeah, we already are full-up with how the money feels.
--more--"
Related:
Stocks rise as Greece nears debt solution
EU confirms Greece getting more money
"Frustration spurs violence, riots in Greece; Culture of protest a routine therapy" July 01, 2011|By Christopher Torchia, Associated Press
ATHENS - A stun grenade exploded in the hand of a Greek riot policeman, severing a finger.
Well, if you are going to carry those things.... I mean, we warn the kids about fireworks.
Police and demonstrators ceased combat and scoured the debris-strewn street, uniting in a frantic search for the missing digit.
They found it. The finger was rushed off in a wet towel to a hospital, where doctors reattached it to the injured man. The brief scene of solidarity, witnessed by an Associated Press photographer, was one of many twists in a wild drama on the stage of central Athens this week....
We NEED MORE of THAT between PEOPLE and POLICE -- and WATCH GOVERNMENTS FALL! After all, we are MOSTLY on the SAME SIDE! I OPPOSE and DETEST the ATTACKS on YOUR UNIONS, and the community cop, teacher, and firefighter is a NEIGHBOR!!
The ferocious display evoked a society unhinged.
And you can thank the globalists and bankers for that!
There were staccato booms, flashes, sirens, the roar of police motorcycles, drifting smoke, flimsy barricades, smashed glass storefronts, and jeering youths with cloth draped over their faces and clubs and marble chunks chipped off buildings in their hands.
About 300 people, nearly half of them police, were injured over two days. But the main battleground, Syntagma Square, buzzed with traffic yesterday. Tourists patrolled with cameras, recording the debris and idle riot police.
Greeks had indulged in another contained eruption, heavy with choreography and symbolism, to convey disgust with their political class. The culture of protest and violence by a hardened minority is now a routine form of collective therapy.
Hey, WHY NOT TOSS a HUGE, STEAMING STINKER of an INSULT at the Greek people, you pos press?!!!
Here I am an AmeriKan citizen trying to find out about our world by reading the "newspaper" and I have to wade through all this condescending corporate crap?
It turns out there is a framework to the chaos, and even police play a part by blasting away with tear gas that riles up the crowd, but doesn't make it go home.
Oh, the POLICE were PROVOKED, huh?
Both sides usually act with a degree of mutual restraint, in contrast to the popular uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa, which have often elicited bloody crackdowns and even warfare.
Yeah, those dang Arabs are so violent (sigh).
As for warfare, who is the one dropping bombs in the area?
Greece does have a dark history of military dictatorship, terrorism, political assassination, and anarchism....
Yes, but the NEWSPAPER WILL NOT BE GOING INTO THINGS like the CIA-supported COUPS or the FALSE FLAG OPERATION GLADIO (I'm sure the Greeks know all about that).
Much of the current protest is about extreme gestures that are, fortunately, grounded only in performance. At one noisy protest, a young man made eye contact with a policeman in silence, then drew a finger across his throat in a slitting motion. Another man plucked a few grimy euro banknotes from his pocket and waved them at police lines.
"Here, you want my money? Take it!" he fumed sarcastically before pocketing the money again.
So he acted like a banker, 'eh?
The anger is real, and so is a fear of the unknown as Europe and international lenders struggle to help Greece dodge a bankruptcy that could inflict new turmoil on global markets.
You better bet it is real, and it is growing every day -- and not only in Greece!
--more--"
Next Day Update:
"Greece provided with moment to exhale; Loan agreement eases some stress" by James G. Neuger and Jonathan Stearns, Bloomberg News / July 4, 2011
Europe pulled Greece back from the brink of default over the weekend, gaining time to work out a formula for ending the debt crisis.
How much did they buy this time?
European finance ministers authorized a $12.6 billion loan payout to Greece by mid-July, basing a second three-year bailout package on talks to corral banks into maintaining their Greek debt holdings.
“For markets, what matters is that Greece has got the money to navigate through the summer,’’ said Silvio Peruzzo, an economist at Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC in London....
I couldn't have said it better myself.
Europe’s agreement Saturday to make the payout climaxed a pivotal week for Greece and the euro, providing a respite from the political tensions, clashes with central bankers, and jousting with investors that have dogged the crisis-fighting effort. The finance chiefs gather next week to tackle Greece’s long-term lifeline.
Financial markets offered breathing space as well, with Greece’s escape from imminent default triggering gains last week in the euro, European stocks, and the bonds of fiscally stretched countries such as Spain and Italy.
Greek parliamentary passage of new budget cuts last week gave euro-area governments political cover to release the funds....
Prospects for turning the savings legislation into reality are clouded by a lack of opposition support and public hostility that boiled over into pitched battles between teargas-spraying police and rioters outside the Athens parliament last week....
They are still out there, aren't they?
--more--"
