Honestly, I was hoping for such much more after my last post, fool that I am.
UPDATE: Greece Grinds to a Halt Amid Nationwide 24-hour Strike
NEXT DAY UPDATE:
"Greece back in long-term bond market" by Liz Alderman | New York Times April 10, 2014
ATHENS — Four years after Greece became the epicenter of Europe’s debt crisis, officials Wednesday signaled a triumphant return to the international financial scene, announcing plans to sell long-term bonds for the first time since Greece was granted $330 billion worth of international bailouts.
OMG! The government went RIGHT BACK to the SAME POLICIES and BEHAVIOR that STARTED the WHOLE ME$$!
The Greek Finance Ministry said the government had reached out to international banks “for an imminent five-year bond issue.” The statement gave no details about the size and exact timing of the debt offering. But the Greek media put it at $3.45 billion and said the offering would begin Thursday.
I $uppo$e that will keep the private central banking looting scheme afloat for a few more months.
“The transaction is to be priced and to take place in the immediate future,” the Finance Ministry statement said.
The plan to issue the bonds marks at least a symbolic turnaround for Greece, which has been effectively frozen out of international markets since April 2010, when it appeared to be teetering toward bankruptcy.
Prime Minister Antonis Samaras has hailed the return to the markets as a success story. He plays host Friday to Germany’s chancellor, Angela Merkel, who will visit Athens to discuss the Greek economy and the broader eurozone.
(Blog editor can only frown; western leaders are in total thrall to the banks)
Germany led the tough-love coaching that prompted Athens to adopt budgetary austerity plans, which contributed to the recession and to a staggeringly high unemployment rate of 27.5 percent.
So bankers could be $howered with love.
On Wednesday, Greeks took to the streets yet again in a nationwide strike to protest their economic plight, even as the government was announcing its plan to re-enter the international financial markets.
Yet again, huh? My pre$$ pretty much ignores it.
A spokesman for Merkel acknowledged the Greek public’s pain but tried to cast the situation in a positive light ahead of her visit.
Well, from what I have read in my Globe in the past the Greeks have no love for Germans.
“The chancellor has repeatedly said publicly how much she admires the path taken by the Greeks and how aware she is that this was a difficult path for many people in Greece, but one that is now showing results,” said the spokesman.
In the past few months, other eurozone countries that needed international bailouts during the crisis, including Ireland and Portugal, have also returned to bond markets amid signs investors were ready to believe the worst of the eurozone’s troubles were over. The Irish and Portuguese bonds found ready buyers, and yields — or effective interest rates — on those countries’ bonds, as well as those of other eurozone countries, have fallen sharply since the height of the crisis, a sign of renewed investor confidence and a welcome cut in governments’ borrowing costs.
The gulf between financial optimism and the desperation of millions of unemployed Greeks and tens of millions of jobless people elsewhere in the eurozone and the broader European Union is hard to bridge.
Almost as hard as that wealth gap driving global economic recovery, 'eh?
And who wonder why I'm no longer reading the $hit?
The nationwide strike Wednesday was by both public- and private-sector Greeks still fortunate to have jobs.
Yeah, those ungrateful f***s standing up for everyone! They don't deserve as much coverage as those brave, IMF-accepting, Ukrainian freedom-fighters!
Economists say serious questions about the health of the Greek economy linger. While investors, mainly US and British pension funds, asset management firms, and private equity firms, have shown an interest in returning to Greece, “people should be wary of jumping on the bandwagon that a Greek success story is underway,” said Jens Bastian, an economist who was on the European Commission’s task force for Greece until last year.
Like I said, this is the EXACT SAME THING that GOT THEM in trouble in the FIRST PLACE!
--more--"
