Merkel's Own Party Ready To Give Up On Greece; Another Week Of Deadlines; Reflections On Can Kicking
German Chancellor Angela Merkel is increasingly isolated in her stance on Greece.
Growing Pressure From Within the ranks of her own party bloc to give up on Greece for the sake of the euro.
Members of Merkel’s Christian Democratic bloc are openly challenging her stance of keeping Europe’s most-indebted country in the 19-nation currency region. Even some officials in the Finance Ministry are leaning toward the conclusion that the euro area would be better off without Greece, two people familiar with the matter said.
“The euro would be strengthened if Greece left,” Alexander Radwan, a Merkel-affiliated lawmaker who voted for granting Greece a temporary extension of its bailout in February, said in an interview. “The other countries could then move closer together and apply the rules more strictly.”
Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, a prominent German advocate of European unity for decades, has given plenty of signs of exasperation with Greece since Tsipras and Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis took office in January on an anti-austerity platform.
He told an Austrian television interviewer on March 12 that he could envisage a Greek exit from 19-nation currency. On a panel in Berlin the next week, he accused Greek authorities of lying to voters by failing to tell Greeks that they “lived way above their means” for decades.
As talks between Greece and its creditors drag on, the view that the euro would be stronger without Greece is gaining ground in Merkel’s Christian Democratic-led bloc, according to two lawmakers. They asked not to be identified because they don’t want to publicly challenge Merkel.
“Having its own currency could help Greece get back on its feet,” Hans-Peter Friedrich, one of 29 lawmakers from Merkel’s bloc who voted against extending Greece’s aid program, said in an e-mailed answer to questions.
Another Week of Deadlines
Bloomberg reports Greece Readies for Another Week of Deadlines.
Warnings of an accidental default loom over debt-swamped Greece as Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras’ anti-austerity government heads for another confrontation with an increasingly testy German-led bloc of creditors.
Greece needs at least a symbolic show of progress at Monday’s meeting of euro-area finance ministers in Brussels to persuade the European Central Bank to keep emergency funds flowing to Greek banks at the current pace. The next hurdle comes just a day later, when Greece has to pay about 750 million euros ($840 million) to the International Monetary Fund.
“Experience elsewhere in the world has shown that a country can suddenly become unable to pay its bills,” German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said in an interview with Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung published Saturday. Schaeuble said if Greece is forced out of the euro “it won’t be because of us.”
An accord “will surely not be reached at the Eurogroup meeting on Monday,” Dutch Finance Minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem, the meeting’s chairman, told Italy’s Corriere della Sera newspaper. “We will need more time, but I don’t know how much.” The meeting starts at 3 p.m.
Whether Greece yields before the northern creditor governments’ patience snaps is an open question.
Inevitable Taking Forever
The inevitable default is damn near taking forever. Even if all the parties come to some sort of agreement for June, Greece is going to need a third bailout and the whole process starts over.
This time though, everyone needs to seal the deal on not one but two agreements in a very short period of time.
Why has this taken forever?
Because Merkel's position appears to be "not on my watch", and no one in Greece wants to take the blame. So everyone pretends that some sort of lasting solution is possible.
Can kicking can only last as long as there is a can to kick. This can is nearly rusted away.
Mike "Mish" Shedlock
Disclaimer: The content on the Global Economic Trend Analysis site is provided as general information only and should not be taken as investment advice. All ...
more
"lived way above their means” for decades. I am not sure how this was meant, but the point is that any individual, no matter in what country, has a work agreement and makes money based on that agreement. In fact individual greek citizens have one of the lowest private debt. When one works and expects to earn what one's contract says, one does not do the state's work to check where the money is coming from. Football players do not check their club's income sources. Engineers focus on producing products and not check whether the contracts that pay their salary was obtained by means of bribes. So I am not sure how this statement was meant, but I am not sure an ordinary citizen should have realized what the lending banks apparently failed to realize. If that is the case, football players, engineers or even the guy who unknowingly sells a hamburger to a robber is guilty. People vote for a party for many different reasons, usually because they consider it the lesser evil. In this specific case there was and still may be hope to end the corruption of the previous governments and a policy that was not working. To stay in Euro, they may need some breathing space. We'll see if they get it.
If if you were right, they still have to pay the bill.. Who else should do so, we Germans?
Why you the Germans? Did the German people lend money to corrupt governments? The bankers did it and knowingly! They don't wnat to loose it? What a surprise! Better bail-out the greek country than humongous Casino-gamblers. By the way, why do you thinck the Sub-prime crisis was nade? Humongous swindlers built the huge sub-prime scam! Did bank directors and owners thinck it was the jewish "maná" falling on the Sinaï peninsula, from the sky? Of course it was a scam! And they gambled on it, making huge temporary proffits! Very reliable for a banker! They should all be fired, have their property confiscated and stay in jail, (not bailed out with your hard earned money, and getting huge rewars). On top of it all, they dare to accuse the victim. Just like a rapist would.
Then as second and main part of the racket scam, The very same "secret" scammers pulled the carpet under everyones (but themselves) feet. Their accomplices and accessories did almost all walk free, got bailed out and richer with workmen's taxes. But the main perpetrators, they get the biggest reward: buying national strategic infrastructures for dimes, and getting more confiscatory rights, and passing laws pushing their endgame racist inslaving agenda.
As a German (as you call yourself), above all people, who have felt on the scam twice, and were only forgiven the eternally enslavery-bonding racket signed at Versalles, because these rats were 1) too afraid from Hitler 2) did in fact fund Hitler into power to a) clean-up the Bolshevic mess they had previously funded (in order to plunder Russia and remove (exttinguish) the jewish-bankers-scams-wise Czar, and b) to destroy the German people in the process (through war) and reduce them back into slavery and abject decadence and c) to cover-up and clean the ominous reputation bankers and Zionists had managed to deserve in the previous 50 years.
For that purpose, they first declared war and boycot against Germany in 1933, through Zionist leader Chaim Weizmann radio broadcast in New York. Appart from bullying Germany to incite "Anti-Semitism", and retaliations. Not happy with that they, concocted ominous, twisted and monstruous gaz-chambers hoax and had it radio broadcasted back to germany through british intelligence black propaganda radio.
(But you don't seem to care or complain about such slanderous perpetually renovated and innovated libelous propaganda! Neither do you seem to resent being repeatedly bled through it in never ending and repetitive compensention and reparation claims!)
I guess you do ressent me for telling you the truth. I guess it is due both to the german comfusion between discipline and ethics (I am afraid that pushed Nietzche into distructing ethics and moral and turned him quite into immorality). Very good basis "meme" upon which Allied Occupation Forces trained and schooled you into abject "Illuminatti" Zio-Banksters obedience.
Then you believe Hitler WAS your worst of demons ever.
"Sit Max. Sit!"
No one has to pay if they declare bankrupt ;)
Just banks were speculating and they lost :D
Of course not. It is beyond comprehension why other europeans had to take responsibility for the money lent by banks. However the point was that the "lived above their means" is an unhelpful and easily misinterpreted statement-at least I hope Schauble did not mean it this way- that is neither accurate, nor fair.
So members of Merkel''s party have long held that Greece must pay what it owes, and according to news reports, German public opinion is that the debts should be paid. Now, rather than offer debt relief, meaning that creditors get back some, but not all of what was lent, some of the "Christian Democrats" would prefer that Greece defaults, and NO more money is returned?
WHO are Greece's "creditors"? Every article one sees on this subject talks about the "international creditors" of Greece without specifying WHO these creditors are, besides mentioning the IMF and "Germany". And that means nothing. When they say "Germany" do they mean Deutsche Bank, the criminals who just had to pay a 2.5 BILLION euro fine for illegal currency manipulation in the Libor Scandal? When they say, just, the "IMF", isn't that just a public shell organization, which could, if it wanted to, reschedule Greece's debt any way they like in order to avoid perpetuating 25% unemployment they have already created in Greece, plus the slashing of the minimum wage, plus the slashing of pensions? If these are the only "creditors", then this whole debt crisis is bogus. If they are NOT the only creditors, then give us the NAMES of the other creditors. I will bet you that most if not all of them, if they are banks, took part in the lying and cheating which drove Greece's economy into the ditch, and they should not be given ANY credence in negotiations over how the Greeks dig themselves OUT of that ditch.
The only lying and cheating was by the Greek governments, who perpetually falsified the state of their finances for years, and promised their people government benefits, particularly pensions, they could not afford to pay.
Well, that's not true. The involvement of Deutsche Bank in illegal currency manipulation, involving tens to hundreds of billions of dollars going back for years and years, is all over the news. You are lying to yourself if you pretend that these guys are honest. They ADMITTED they were guilty. And Deutsche Bank was just one of a whole gang of European banks involved in the scheme! They all just pleaded guilty and got off with paying a fine. No cuts in pensions. No massive lay offs. No, the punishment like that is reserved for working people. It's bullshit. Not only that, but Goldman Sachs was in Greece in 2008 and 2009, in the years leading right up to the financial crisis PUSHING more loans for Greece, which these "international creditors" were happy to make!!! It was their JOB, and the job of these so called "international creditors" to do what is called "DUE DILIGENCE" and make sure Greece could pay off its loans before giving them NEW ONES. For whatever reason, Goldman Sachs and these international creditors were convinced, up until September 2009, that Greece could maintain its obligations. So, it is dishonest for them to turn around, now, and say that Greece never was able to meet its obligations. These creditors swore the opposite was true when they made their loans to the Greeks in 2008 and 2009. The main reason why Greece, and Spain, and Portugal, are having trouble maintaining their public debt, is the financial meltdown of 2009 which drove their economies into the ditch, and that meltdown, without questions, was caused by the illegal activities of the so called "international creditors". The massive illegal activity on their part, involving the sale and resale of worthless debt securities in gigantic ponzie schemes, is documented. Instead of being punished, they all received massive bailouts, and, at worst, tiny fines. One Swiss bank alone, UBS, received over SIXTY BILLION euros in bailouts for the worthless derivative securities they had on their books. But no cuts in pensions. No massive layoffs. Again, that's reserved for the working people, not for the finance types who keep getting bonuses, for god's sake. You are lying to yourself, and to anyone who reads what you write, if you deny this. All of this is in the public record.
100% agree with John Paval, and could add, hope Greece leave EUR and Spain and Portugal and finally Italy not paying their debts because they can declare bankrupt, so in the rules made by those "international creditors" if you get bankrupt you don't have to pay the bill ;). Well except banks the ones who took the money from TROIKA to be saved, at least in Spain. Banks have been playing russian roulette but when they lose they change the rules and get saved (WITH OUR MONEY), just the opposite happening with working class who have to hold them alive with their own money while those vultures are taking out their houses because can't pay their mortgages, here in Spain probably is worse, banks take your house and you still have to pay the mortgage. BIGGEST SCAM IN THE HISTORY. And we have to remember that IMF at least for the last 10 years didn't got a right advice, just the opposite. And don't forget too that was Goldman Sachs who was advising Greek government to lie about their economic situation. So now, hope Greece says NO, we will not pay the bill "GO SUCK A LEMMON" :)))) I SUPPORT GREECE TO STOP THESE CRAZYNESS AND STOP THE VULTURES TO MAKE MONEY ON MISFORTUNES OF OTHERS. We can start a change just joining Bitcoin, the solution ofr rotten bank system ;)
So, now that Greece finally has a government that was not involved in any of this, they have to be disgraced and enter a coalition with those that lied, cheated and falsified. Is this the plan?
So what happens when Greece finally can't pay back its debts? If Greece exits the Euro, is there an immediate jump in its relative value to other currencies? That would be great for the Euro, but what is the future of Greece. Will it resort to a form of devalued pre Euro currency, all of the options seem worrying.
As it stands Greece cannot pay its debts. The recipe of the troika thus far was " by means of unemployment, lowered wages and taxation, force people to dig deep into their savings". Which would be at least effective if that state income were used to pay back debt. As it is, it (together with new loans) was used to pay back INTEREST (as well as feed the friends of the previous governments). Needless to say, at some point savings run out and you are left in a situation where you can pay neither interest, nor debt. What then?
Also note that asking people to make sacrifices for their country or their company is ok. Asking them to make sacrifices with no end so that the CEO can give himself a doublingof his salary or that the people who created the crisis by voting for deficit upon deficit, populating public service with their friends, wasting money and doing nothing about public administration and tax evasion, all these while being handsomely paid and having sworn to look after the country's interests, pay nothing, is looking for suckers.
The EU does have a duty toward the Greek people. It should provide food stamps and other poverty alleviating measures. It is ridiculous to distort the free market by not allowing failed investments to fail.
Free market you say? Meaning the greek state intervening at the troika's insistence to unilaterally change existing PRIVATE contracts and agreements by law? Is this your idea of a free market? And mind you, the net effect of these changes is that the state LOSES direct and indirect taxes -not to mention credibility- and competent people leave. Love the preaching " agreements must be honored", but meaning agreements with the lenders only and in order to do so, all agreements with subhuman natives must be changed.
The Greeks can do what they want, but then they have to leave the Euro. We do not really need that country.
Pesch, read your qwn words, you used NEED, that's the mistake. Is not abnout your (germans) needs, is about all europe. But at the moment the ones who are taking more advantages from eur currency are germans, improving your exports. Would be great that Greece. Portugal, Spain and Italy leave eur, will see how you mark is not competitive for your exports. What german politicians didn't understand (well they know but dont like the idea) is that all europe has to take profits from the union but right now each country is doing what they can for their own country instead of common profits, and germany the one that has more power not allowing Europe to grow together. After a currency union we should do politic union, well we should have done both together, just like USA one president for europe and each state with their own laws. But of course Germany dont like the idea that someone out of german been leading europe. As I always said in the german politics objective is the europe domination because still they think they are better than others and only them deserve to rule the world. Dont take me bad, is just a few % of germans with this thinking, just the german big boys, most of the people learnt the lesson of the past. But the few ones that never admit they are wrong keep trying to do what is not possible, domination of europe. So best think can happen is everyone leaving eur currency until we do a politic union. Would bundesbank agree with me? :)))) I guess no :)))))
Your choice, it was good while it was importing. At any rate would you rather Greece continued to take loans it cannot repay? If not, then I would assume you must have been mad at the previous greek governments, not this one.
Controlled default without Grexit: A silent, slow death for Greece
http://bit.ly/1bUBPg3
Now is the time to buy Greece's Government bonds and other papers as their course is low. Remember what we were told inthe Investment class: BUY LOW...SELL HIGH!
NO! Greece shall not leave the EU... I do not know WHO was the reporter,who invented this LIE,that Wolfgang Schäuble wants Greece to leave the EU? Beside this NOT we,GERMANS decide the Geexit,but the European Commission in Brussels!
I lived in Athens for about a yera and as my sister and my cousin are married there,I travel often to Greece and herad,that business people there IN KEINEM FALL DIE DRAHMA WIEDER HABEN WOLLEN!
even i did not visit german but when i was trying for Ph.D to germany education industry and DAAD gave me booklet admission forms but could not succeed and i got benifit that all education industry is in my mind german nation is loveable as a question of money german should have his own currency not euro. Ilove this country much more than other countries of the world German people are very kind and have reality of human being