What I have managed to read these last few weeks:
"Talks on Greek debt restructuring hit impasse" by Landon Thomas Jr. | New york Times, January 23, 2012
LONDON - Talks between Greece and its private-sector creditors over restructuring its debt hit a snag over the weekend over how much of an interest rate Greece’s new bonds would pay.
Although considerable progress has been made, Greece’s financial backers - Germany and the International Monetary Fund - have been unyielding in their insistence that the longer-term bonds that would replace the current securities carry a coupon in the low 3 percent range, officials involved in the negotiations said yesterday.
Bankers and government officials say they still expect a deal to get done, and Greece and its private-sector creditors appeared close to a deal on Friday that would bring the yield to below 4 percent. But the continuing disagreement over the interest rate is a reminder of just how complex and politically sensitive it is to restructure the debt of a eurozone economy.
It would also make it more difficult to describe the deal as voluntary. A coercive deal, bankers warn, could lead to a technical default and the triggering of credit-default swaps, or insurance - an outcome that all sides were trying to avoid.
The bonds’ rate “is the only issue,’’ said a senior official directly involved in the negotiations. “We have to accommodate the needs of the Greek economy.’’
During an interview broadcast yesterday on the Greek television network Antenna, Charles H. Dallara of the Institute of International Finance, the bankers lobby representing private sector bondholders, emphasized that creditors were insisting on 3.8 to 4 percent.
“This is certainly the maximum offer that is consistent with the voluntary debt exchange,’’ he said. “It is largely in the hands of the official sector to choose the path - a voluntary debt exchange or a default.’’
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Related: Greece debt talks near critical point
Seems like I've been scanning over those kind of articles for the last six weeks back in the business section.
Also see: Greek workers protest new austerity plan
That was a surprising find back there.
"Greece’s prime minister defends austerity moves
ATHENS - In a televised speech, Greece’s prime minister yesterday defended austerity efforts that include painful wage and pension cuts but would ensure the country gets a $171.6 billion bailout to stave off bankruptcy. Lucas Papademos said the alternative is catastrophic bankruptcy, echoing comments made by the leaders of parties backing the coalition government - socialist George Papandreou and conservative Antonis Samaras (AP)."
And there is your problem right there: leaders in bed with the banks and f***ing you!
Anybody ever notice economic rape leads to riots?
"Greece accepts austerity plan amid protests; Riots rage as Parliament debates cuts" by Niki Kitsantonis and Rachel Donadio | New York Times, February 13, 2012
ATHENS - After violent protests left dozens of buildings aflame in Athens, the Greek Parliament voted early today to approve a package of harsh austerity measures demanded by the country’s foreign lenders in exchange for new loans to keep Greece from defaulting on its debt.
What is this REWRITTEN and REEDITED GARBAGE that differs from my printed paper piece?
Though it came after days of intense debate and the resignation of several ministers in protest, in the end the vote on the austerity measures was not close: 199 to 74 in favor, with 27 abstentions or blank ballots. The Parliament also gave the government the authority to sign a new loan agreement with the foreign lenders, known as the troika, and a broader arrangement to reduce the amount Greece must repay to its bondholders.
The austerity measures mean that Greeks will face a 22 percent cut in the benchmark minimum wage and 150,000 more government layoffs by 2015, among other blows — a bitter prospect in a country already ravaged by five years of recession and with unemployment at 21 percent and rising.
Imagine your $7.50 or whatever it is cut by a quarter, American? Could you survive?
All so BANKERS can GET PAID!
But the chaos on the streets of Athens, where more than 80,000 people turned out to protest, and in other cities across Greece reflected a growing dread that the sharp belt-tightening and the bailout money it brings will still not be enough to keep the country from going over a precipice.
Angry protesters in the capital threw rocks at the police, who fired back with tear gas. After nightfall, demonstrators threw Molotov cocktails, setting fire to more than 40 buildings, including a historic cinema in downtown Athens, the worst damage in the city since May 2010, when three people were killed when protesters firebombed a bank. There were clashes in Salonika in the north, Patra in the west, Volos in central Greece, and on the islands of Crete and Corfu.
I always view the violence as coming from agent provocateurs, but if not who can blame the Greeks for boiling over?
Greece and its foreign lenders are locked in a dangerous brinkmanship over the future of the nation and the euro. Until recently a Greek default and exit from the eurozone was seen as unthinkable. Now, though experts say that the European Union is not prepared for a default and does not want one, the dynamic has shifted from trying to save Greece to trying to contain the damage if it turns out to be unsalvageable....
Aren't you guys angry the bankers spoiled your project?
Greece’s limping economy yields large trade and budget deficits, and no one but the troika— the European Central Bank, the European Commission, and the International Monetary Fund — is willing to lend it the money it needs to stay afloat. The troika is demanding more concessions to placate Germany and other northern European countries where the bailout of Greece is a hard sell to voters.
For its part, Greece is trying to preserve social and political cohesion in the face of growing unrest, political extremism and a devastated economy that is expected to worsen with more austerity. And the feeling is growing here and abroad that the troika’s strategy for Greece is failing....
Like everything to which they put their hand.
In the debate last night before the vote, Prime Minister Lucas Papademos appealed to lawmakers to do their ‘‘patriotic duty.’’
And give the nation over the thieving banks!
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In a sign of how the crisis has frayed the political order in Greece, the three leading political parties all moved swiftly to expel lawmakers who had broken ranks with leaders in the voting.
It's called western democra.... never mind.
The Socialists, who governed Greece from 2009 until Papademos was installed last November, ejected 23 lawmakers from their party; the New Democrats, who are expected to gain seats from the Socialists in the next election, ejected 21, and the Popular Orthodox Rally two.
Socialists are s*** in Greece if that's what is a Socialist.
Papademos, a former vice president of the European Central Bank who took office in November with a mandate to negotiate the new loan agreement, acknowledged that the program ‘‘calls for sacrifices from a broad range of citizens who have already made sacrifices.’’ But the alternative, ‘‘a disastrous default,’’ would be worse, he said.
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Update: In Greece, debt deal gets a mixed reception
Word on the blogs is they are going to default anyway.
