The Arrow
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Post by The Arrow on Apr 25, 2015 9:10:44 GMT 7
Os this not a similar situation to Iceland? Are the regular Greek folks really to blame for all this? Or was it Goldman Sachs, the EU and a bunch of other shisters? The Greeks are lazy feckers....it would make me smile to see 'em doing 12 hr shifts for a year or two! hehehehe It was well known that the culture in Greece was not compatible with neighbouring industrial powerhouses where 12 hour shifts are sadly the norm. Feta cheese salads with olive oil dressing, beach life and pulling stuff about with donkeys is a far superior lifestyle in my opinion.
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smokie36
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Post by smokie36 on Apr 25, 2015 9:12:33 GMT 7
The Greeks are lazy feckers....it would make me smile to see 'em doing 12 hr shifts for a year or two! hehehehe It was well known that the culture in Greece was not compatible with neighbouring industrial powerhouses where 12 hour shifts are sadly the norm. Feta cheese salads with olive oil dressing, beach life and pulling stuff about with donkeys is a far superior lifestyle in my opinion. Why anyone in Greece wanted different is a mystery to me as well.....I'd not mind a bit of fishing in the morning followed by a siesta and some vino....rinse and repeat!
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The Arrow
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Post by The Arrow on Apr 25, 2015 9:14:47 GMT 7
It was well known that the culture in Greece was not compatible with neighbouring industrial powerhouses where 12 hour shifts are sadly the norm. Feta cheese salads with olive oil dressing, beach life and pulling stuff about with donkeys is a far superior lifestyle in my opinion. Why anyone in Greece wanted different is a mystery to me as well.....I'd not mind a bit of fishing in the morning followed by a siesta and some vino....rinse and repeat! It's hysterical really. People in industrialized countries flog themselves to death in the hope that one day they'll be able to eat feta cheese salads with olive oil on the beach and pull stuff about with a donkey. Beats me too, although I suspect most Greeks didn't want it.
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smokie36
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Post by smokie36 on Apr 25, 2015 9:32:42 GMT 7
Why anyone in Greece wanted different is a mystery to me as well.....I'd not mind a bit of fishing in the morning followed by a siesta and some vino....rinse and repeat! It's hysterical really. People in industrialized countries flog themselves to death in the hope that one day they'll be able to eat feta cheese salads with olive oil on the beach and pull stuff about with a donkey. Beats me too, although I suspect most Greeks didn't want it. I've discovered if you want to eat feta by the beach the first step is to move to the beach. Retirement for many never comes....everyone assumes good health until they are 90.....I am here to tell this forum...DON'T....live life now!
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The Arrow
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Post by The Arrow on Apr 25, 2015 9:34:34 GMT 7
It's hysterical really. People in industrialized countries flog themselves to death in the hope that one day they'll be able to eat feta cheese salads with olive oil on the beach and pull stuff about with a donkey. Beats me too, although I suspect most Greeks didn't want it. I've discovered if you want to eat feta by the beach the first step is to move to the beach. Retirement for many never comes....everyone assumes good health until they are 90.....I am here to tell this forum...DON'T....live life now! I've had another letter from the Doc's threatening me with blindness, kidney failure and amputation. I am keen to roll off this mortal coil sooner rather than later.
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smokie36
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Post by smokie36 on Apr 25, 2015 9:42:17 GMT 7
I've discovered if you want to eat feta by the beach the first step is to move to the beach. Retirement for many never comes....everyone assumes good health until they are 90.....I am here to tell this forum...DON'T....live life now! I've had another letter from the Doc's threatening me with blindness, kidney failure and amputation. I am keen to roll off this mortal coil sooner rather than later. Well controlled diabetes and you won't be rolling off of anything too soon....at least you don't have to deal with my all too frequent hangovers!
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Post by Fletchsmile on May 18, 2015 11:31:15 GMT 7
Greece Toying With ‘Chaos’ Has Eichengreen Urging Lesser EvilBloomberg 18 May, 2015 Greece’s exit from the euro would unleash turmoil whose fallout will far exceed the cost of staying in the currency union, said U.S. economist Barry Eichengreen. Reintroducing the drachma would solve none of Greece’s problems and instead set the stage for “even more chaos and uncertainty,” Eichengreen, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, said in an interview in Prague on Friday. “Staying in the euro zone will be costly and difficult for Greece and for Greece’s partners, but Greece getting out of the euro would be even more costly and difficult,” said Eichengreen, author of “Hall of Mirrors,” a book comparing the crises of the Great Depression and the Great Recession. “Staying in the euro is the lesser of evils under these circumstances.” Greece, Europe’s most-indebted state, is locked in talks with its creditors over the terms attached to its 240 billion-euro ($274 billion) bailout. Uncertainty over the country’s future in the euro area has triggered a liquidity squeeze, pulling the economy back into a double-dip recession. Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras says he’s not considering leaving the currency bloc and is focused on getting the aid he needs to avoid a default. “Anything can happen, but my guess would be that it will have debt restructuring, default on its debt -- to put it in more provocative terms,” Eichengreen said. “But it will stay in the euro area.” Riga Summit Tsipras plans to press fellow European Union leaders to help resolve the deadlock in talks with creditors and will raise the standoff in bailout negotiations on the sidelines of talks to be held May 21-22 in Riga, Latvia, according to a Greek government official. Greek bonds and stocks fell Friday. The yield on Greek 10-year bonds rose 20.9 basis points to 10.76 percent. That yield climbed as high as 13.93 percent in April, the highest since December 2012, after dropping to as low as 5.52 percent in 2014. The benchmark Athens Stock Exchange General Index fell 2.6 percent. Eichengreen sees no relief in sight for the uncertainty plaguing the standoff around Greece. “None of this will be resolved quickly,” he said. “I think that the uncertainty will continue.” Just as unclear is the potential impact on the currency bloc of the so-called Grexit. While officials insist publicly that the rest of the euro area is protected against the fallout should Greece fail to reach a deal, last month some finance ministers called for contingency plans to be drawn up to bolster their defenses. Greek Spillover “The next time there’s a shock of some kind in Europe, people would immediately ask the question of what will Portugal do or Spain,” Eichengreen said. “We have absolutely no idea how a Grexit would impact the markets.” The European Central Bank’s bond-buying program has had a “visible” impact on the continent’s securities markets and deflation. The quantitative easing is “one of the reasons” for the upswing in the European economy, according to Eichengreen. The ECB embarked on large-scale asset purchases in March and envisages spending 1.1 trillion euros through September 2016. The euro-area economy grew at 0.4 percent, the fastest pace in almost two years, in the first quarter. At the same time, the program “gives rise to distortions” and leads to “problems of liquidity,” Eichengreen said. “The ECB was correct to launch the QE,” he said. “There have been benefits but there’re also problems when you have a cancer patient and administer chemotherapy, you can cure the cancer but create other problems.” www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-05-17/greece-toying-with-chaos-has-eichengreen-urging-lesser-evil
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Post by Fletchsmile on May 18, 2015 11:34:48 GMT 7
Yes, I'd fully agree that: “Since the great crisis of 2008, Europe has created many tools... and “Thus the crisis in Greece is more likely to be resolved through the tools of the ECB rather than” through political tools...
Sort of goes without saying really that all these political tools aren't good for much --------------------------------------------------------------- Greek Endgame Nears for Tsipras as Bank Collateral Hits Buffers Bloomberh 18 May Greek banks are running short on the collateral they need to stay alive, a crisis that could help force Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras’s hand after weeks of brinkmanship with creditors.
As deposits flee the financial system, lenders use collateral parked at the Greek central bank to tap more and more emergency liquidity every week. In a worst-case scenario, that lifeline will be maxed out within three weeks, pushing banks toward insolvency, some economists say.
“The point where collateral is exhausted is likely to be near,” JPMorgan Chase Bank analysts Malcolm Barr and David Mackie wrote in a note to clients May 15. “Pressures on central government cash flow, pressures on the banking system, and the political timetable are all converging on late May-early June.”
European policy makers are losing patience with Tsipras who said as recently as May 14 that he won’t compromise on any of his key demands. While talks are centering on whether to give Greece more money, the European Central Bank could raise the stakes if it increases the discount on the collateral Greek banks pledge in exchange for cash under its Emergency Liquidity Assistance program.
Such a move might inadvertently prompt a further outflow of bank deposits and pressure Tsipras to choose between doing a deal and putting his country on the road to capital controls. A Greek government spokesman declined to comment, as did officials at the Greek central bank and the ECB.
“We are in an endgame,” ECB Executive Board member Yves Mersch said in an interview with Luxembourg radio 100.7 broadcast Saturday. “This situation is not tenable.”
Liquidity Lifeline
The arithmetic goes as follows: Greek lenders have so far needed about 80 billion euros ($92 billion) under the ELA program.
Banks have enough collateral to stretch that lifeline to about 95 billion euros under the terms currently allowed by the ECB, a person familiar with the matter said. With the central bank raising the ELA by about 2 billion euros every week, that could take banks to the end of June.
A crunch will come if the ECB increases the haircut on Greek collateral to levels not seen since last year. That could be prompted by anything from a complete breakdown in talks to a missed debt payment, the official said. A continuation of the current impasse could even be all that’s needed, the official said.
An increased haircut would reduce the ELA limit to about 88 billion euros, the person said. While that gives banks about four weeks before hitting the buffers, the leeway is so limited that Greece might need to impose capital controls, limiting transactions such as ATM withdrawals, to conserve the cushion.
ECB Tools
“Since the great crisis of 2008, Europe has created many tools to control the flow of money and banks,” said Andreas Koutras, an analyst at In Touch Capital Markets, in London. “Thus the crisis in Greece is more likely to be resolved through the tools of the ECB rather than” through political tools.
Market News International first reported on the reduced ceiling on May 12. The ECB’s next decision on ELA is expected on May 20, when the governing council meets in Frankfurt.
Investors in Greek debt are showing few signs of panic for now. The yield on the Greek 10-year bond was at 10.76 percent on May 15, down from 13.64 percent on April 21. While Greece benchmark ASE Index fell 3.2 percent last week, it has still risen 15 percent since April 21.
Nor are ECB policy makers willing to raise the pressure on Greek banks on their own. Central bank governors won’t take any action which would be seen as pushing Greece out of the currency bloc if negotiations show progress and convergence, the person said.
Collateral Fix?
Greek lenders are also working with the country’s central bank on plans to collateralize additional assets, a separate local official with knowledge of the matter said.
Still, it’s unclear if these assets, including government guarantees, would be accepted by the ECB if the standoff in bailout negotiations persists. According to a senior Greek commercial banker, the ECB’s decision on what to accept as collateral is essentially a judgment call, and not necessarily related to the quantity of the assets available.
Tsipras will push Greece’s case at a European Union leaders summit in Riga that starts on May 21 after a weekend that showed few signs of progress. An International Monetary Fund memo dated May 14 said Greece won’t be able to make an IMF payment on June 5 unless an accord is reached with partners, the U.K’s Channel 4 news reported on Saturday.
The ECB’s next full monetary policy meeting is on June 3, two days before the IMF payment.
“There were too many people crying wolf before,” Koutras said. “But as Hemingway wrote: How did you go bankrupt? Two ways: Gradually, then suddenly.”
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rubl
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Post by rubl on May 18, 2015 22:45:45 GMT 7
May 12th Greece 'paid' the IMF €750m, that is Greece is believed to have borrowed €650m from its IMF holding account to meet the debt interest payment. "Member countries have two accounts with the IMF – one where they deposit their annual quota, in effect their membership fee, and another where they store reserves, including gold, for emergencies. Country quotas are based on each country’s relative size in the world economy. One Greek official told Reuters on Tuesday that the reserves that the government used must be replenished in the IMF account in “several weeks”. Greece also used €100m of its cash reserves to make the full payment on its IMF bailout loan interest, the official said." www.spotenews.com/greece-taps-reserves-to-pay-imf-loan/Not too many times even Greeks can pull those tricks, not even when bearing gifts
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The Arrow
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Post by The Arrow on May 25, 2015 2:53:24 GMT 7
Greece 'cannot afford IMF repayment' in June - ministerGreece cannot make a repayment to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) due on 5 June as it does not have the money, the interior minister says."The four instalments for the IMF in June are €1.6bn, this money will not be given and is not there to be given," Nikos Voutsis told Greek TV. www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-32864068I think the beginning of the end of the Euro project is near.
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rubl
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Post by rubl on May 25, 2015 5:23:35 GMT 7
The current Greek government was elected on a package of populistic promises based on the scientific method of 'wishful thinking'. For three months now they have tried to wiggle out of obligations, threatened, obfuscated, etc., etc. No surprise the rest of the E.C., ECB, IMF and so are a wee bit weary. Unlikely to be the end of the Euro project, but should lead to more realistic requirements to new applicants. BTW it would seem that next to a possible "grexit", we have the Bank of England looking into a 'Bookend' www.theguardian.com/business/2015/may/22/secret-bank-of-england-taskforce-investigates-financial-fallout-brexit
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Post by paddyjenkins on May 25, 2015 7:42:55 GMT 7
"Unlikely to be the end of the Euro project, but should lead to more realistic requirements to new applicants."
Yes, like the GFC led to a more sensible attitude to debt...
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Mosha
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Post by Mosha on May 25, 2015 14:22:08 GMT 7
Just seen on the BBC ticker bar. Greece cannot afford IMF repayment.
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Post by rgs2001uk on May 25, 2015 14:47:25 GMT 7
Just seen on the BBC ticker bar. Greece cannot afford IMF repayment. Should hardly come as any great surprise. Solution, cut payments and extend repayment period, in theory putting them into even more debt, never mind keeps the greedy bankers happy. Pass me another brandy sour please, my heart bleeds purple p**s.
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Kupa
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Post by Kupa on Aug 17, 2015 1:16:57 GMT 7
The suspense is over. An agreement has been reached for a new package to bail out Greece.
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