Top Officials Held Private Meeting on Greece Bailout. Athens Struggles to Meet Some Bailout Conditions.

By MATINA STEVIS CONNECT

Updated Jan. 31, 2014 3:40 p.m. ET

BRUSSELS —Top officials peeled away from colleagues after a gathering of euro-zone finance ministers in Brussels on Monday evening for a private meeting to discuss mounting concerns over Greece’s bailout.

Greek Finance Minister Yiannis Stournaras, who was briefing the press in a building across the street at the time, wasn’t invited.

High-level officials from the International Monetary Fund, the European Commission, and the European Central Bank, as well as senior euro-zone officials and the German and French finance ministers were present.

The meeting reflects anxiety that Greece could yet disturb the relative calm in euro-zone financial markets. But the issue is unlikely to come to a head until May when Greece needs to repay some €11 billion ($14.85 billion) of maturing government bonds.

The private meeting, confirmed by several people with direct knowledge of the talks, comes as Athens struggles to meet some of the conditions set by its official creditors for further payouts from bailout funds.

The Greek government has been praised by its peers for reining in spending and implementing some reforms. Economic data suggest the country is on the brink of a slow recovery after six years of recession.

The Monday meeting was held to discuss how to press Athens to forge ahead with unpopular reforms to its labor and product markets, and how to scramble together extra cash to cover a shortfall in the country’s financing for the second half of the year that is estimated at €5 billion to €6 billion.

The meeting was inconclusive, people familiar with the situation said. Talks with the Greek authorities continue, though representatives of the three institutions known as the troika have put on hold their plans to travel to Athens. A spokeswoman for the IMF said that she expected the troika mission to return to Athens soon.

Concerns are growing because €11 billion of Greek government bonds mature in May. The IMF hasn’t disbursed any aid to Greece since July and is €3.8 billion behind in scheduled aid payments. The IMF insists on having a clear view of the country’s finances 12 months ahead, and this condition hasn’t been met.

European officials said the IMF would accept an explicit promise from the euro area to cover this gap somehow, and wouldn’t demand money on the table. The IMF didn’t comment.

The political situation in Greece is fragile. Conservative Prime Minister Antonis Samaras, locked in a weak coalition government with a mere three-seat majority in Parliament, is falling behind in the polls. Leftist opposition party, Syriza, looks set to win local and European Parliament elections in May.

The victory could destabilize the government and lead to snap elections, although Mr. Samaras has vowed he doesn’t want that.

Creditors, and in particular Germany, prefer to give Mr. Samaras some leeway, people familiar with the situation say.

“Although many reforms remain outstanding, the Germans recognize Samaras is their best hope. The conversation in Greece will get much more difficult with a Syriza-led government,” said Mujtaba Rahman, head of Europe at Eurasia Group.

...read more

The german talent: the talent of making enemies

The talent of making enemies

Nikos Kiaos from the Journal of the authors of 5/11/2012

The trump card is the card that wins everything else. One such card was "offered" by the leaders of China to Greece to play the game with their partners- lenders, the European Commission, and the IMF.

How did they offer it? The Chinese Prime Minister clarified, one month ago, to the German Chancellor that if the eurozone does not keep Greece within it, then China country would immediately sell all the European bonds it holds.
Even stressed that China has made investments in Greece of 30 billion euros, with a plan to do more than  40 billion EUR in Europe. Not to proceed, he said, to an exit of Greece from the eurozone, otherwise there will be a clear problem with the German investments and securities in China.
Greek media remained silent, or rather concealed the threat made by Beijing to Germany. Not all. Only in the "VIMA" of October 21 N. Hilas wrote: "On Thursday (18 -10 -2012) in the Bundestag the Left (Die Linke) parliamentary party spokesman Gregor Gizi revealed the threat that China will sell immediately all Europe's debt if the eurozone fails to keep Greece with in the lines. "
What we did not read or heard in Greece, was "offered" by the Germans. The "Stern" magazine  on 11/10/12 reported the threat made by the Chinese prime minister, explainig thus the shift in the attitude of Ms Merkel towards Greece and remarked: "It is the trump card of Greece and they do not exploit it."
After Mrs. Merkel, Mr. Schäuble said on 14/10/12 in Singapore that "Greece will not go bankrupt." Returning from Tokyo, the meeting of the IMF and the contacts with Chinese and other ... The shift of Chancellor was expressed in the German parliament as the warmest praise for the "reform will" of Prime Minister Samaras, while the leader of the Christian Social Union of Bavaria, who was in favor of Greece leaving the eurozone, now smiled awkwardly ..
On 17/10/12 the "Bertelsman Foundation", the most serious in Germany, in a report said that the exit of Greece from the euro would cost in the best case scenario, 615 billion euros in Germany and in the worst 17 trillion euros worldwide.
The "puzzle" or the frame is filled with the statement of the head of Unicredit Bank, T. Vime, "VIMA": "I do not know even one serious banker who would like to fly the country from the eurozone. Quite the opposite, in fact we feared that Greece would decide itself the 'Exit'."
Meanwhile, we hear constantly in Athens by the three government partners, the radios, televisions and newspapers for "negotiations." Yet the "trump card" that "Stern" says , remains untapped. Incompetence, negligence, subjection, lost opportunity? Let this attitude be interpreted as one thinks.

The Imperial trap for Berlin

Excerpt from the article: The "triangle" of the crisis, the "friendly" advice of the City to the Germans or the Imperial trap for Berlin EPIKERA magazine 156th issue.

When the disaster occurs,  when the dust settles, the people of Europe will begin to blame each other and everyone will blame the Greeks. The Germans and other Europeans leaders blame Greece as responsible for all the ills of Europe.

.... In late September, the Financial Times of London published an unusually brutal editorial, urging the EU, ECB and IMF to avoid paying Greece the sixth installment of the agreed loan. The editorial explained that Greece was not required to respond to international financial obligations until the end of the year. If not paid by installment, the Greek government would be unable to pay the salaries and pensions, the editorial stated, representing investors and broker of the City. (In the weeks that followed the publication of the editorial, the Greek government faced the threat of interruption of funding, began operating under the rule of absolute confusion and panic, slaughtering virtually all social classes under the supervision of the troika which was sent to Greece and in fact acted as a high level economic killer .)

The Brits know the Greeks and the Germans much better than what the Greeks and the Germans know themselves. Fought against them and defeated them repeatedly and in different ways. Investors and traders in the City may provide a possible outcome if followed their advice - and it is followed. Their advice will accelerate the destruction of Greece, resulting that Greece and Europe will be watered down so much that they will not be able to deal with them. It is also likely that the Greek people will be pushed out sooner or later to some kind of insurrection or rebellion, first against the Greek government, but probably against Germany and the EU. Someone can not criticize the Greeks. They made the second most important European revolution after the French and convened a National Assembly in 1822, when Napoleon was defeated and the Holy Alliance that ruled Europe at the time condemned any rebellion. Also organized the most massive resistance movement during World War II, taking into account the country's population.

Investors and traders in the City also know very well the German temperament, they know that Germans love discipline to the same extent that the Greeks love rebellion. They believe that Berlin would react to an uprising in Greece with a hard, rigid and non-political way. Germany and the EU's political and economic weight are able to induce in Greece an even bigger disaster than it' s already been caused by their policies - and with the cooperation of the Greek government. But do not have the means to avoid the financial and mainly political, ideological and geopolitical implications of the destruction of a small but simultaneously the most historical country in Europe. They can do it, and probably will, but this will accelerate their destruction. If after their adventures in the Middle East Americans rely on the "law of unintended consequences", we should introduce in Europe the new "law of asymmetric effects."

The idea of ​​political unification of Europe will accept a mortal blow. Already the political climate in Europe is poisoned. Both the "rich" and the "poor" Eurozone countries have begun to protest against the" assistance" to Greece, ignoring the fact that the Greeks are not helped in any way,  the banks are and they destroy Greece, and in some cases they speculate and profit from the difficulties of a member country of the EU. Everyone in Europe has begun to seek national solutions. In France, which has always been the political barometer of the whole continent, the fascist National Front of Marine Le Pen is now a socially acceptable political power. The fundamental political office that created and maintained postwar prosperity, democracy and peace in Europe is undermined rapidly before our eyes.

When the disaster occurs  when the dust settles, the people of Europe will begin to blame each other and everyone will blame the Greeks. The Germans and other Europeans leaders blame  Greece as responsible for all the ills of Europe and invoke as a pretext for an excuse to impose draconian economic and social policies in Germany and Europe. From their side Greeks will be disappointed because they are refused to Europe, to which they were oriented for two and a half centuries.They will not turn against the "markets" because they have no "address" and "phone number", but against Europe and especially Germany, accusing them for the destruction of their country -for the second time in less than a century. They will remember that the Germans did not pay war reparations and did not return the gold they stole from the Bank of Greece. They will reopen the contracts case of Siemens and other companies, given that European companies massively bribe Greek politicians. The International Herald Tribune, Time and the Financial Times will publish a story about hunger in Athens or analyze the weakness of Europeans to solving their problems. The implication of such a development are obvious. First of all, the image of the social catastrophe in Greece will be used to terrorize all European citizens to accept the salaries and pensions that banks will allow governments to give them. Second, all but the Germans will come to the same conclusion: "The Germans do not change." They remain the same. We can not trust them.

This is exactly the fundamental psychological and ideological mechanism used after the Second World War by the Empire to dominate over in Germany and Europe, to keep the continent divided and dependent, despite the economic, social, and spiritual achievements. And it will be a historic irony if the German nationalism contribute once again to undermine the German national interests ....

in greek

She came, saw and left!

The theater of the absurd was played out today in Athens. The responsible of the destruction of Greece, German Chancellor Angela Merkel came to give support to under-dialysis (dissolution)- Samaras government . Also came in the context of contemporary Goebbel propaganda in a time where we expect the worst financial measures against the Greeks from World War II. Within this communication show, the Greek government is trying to overshadow the social Armageddon in which will throw the Greeks, with the "success" of the Merkel visit  and support on the government from the Chancellor. And believe me, this disgraceful performance will become believable by those to whom it is addressed. And I mean those who will mainly suffer, pensioners and employees. Especially retired people who are willing to be persuaded and to catch any excuse that will ensure their ravaged pensions and they constitute the largest part of the aged Greek population .

Certainly not missing is the symbolism of this performance. The declarations of allegiance to the Greek (;) prime minister, the 7000 policemen and the declaration of martial law, which prohibits the gathering in areas where the "boss" will stop or will pass  in conjunction with the  hegemonic performance of the Chancellor easily refer to occupied area, refer easily to the third Reich days!

What confirms the above is the day. This Day on October 9, 1944, just three days before the German occupation forces leave Greece, Athens was bombed, leaving 6 dead and dozens injured. Irony? Coincidence? Planning or hoax?

The situation in Greece is very difficult. The Germans decided to support the crumbling Samaras government  and prevent undesired  -for them- situations in Greece. The worst they could expect is a government which will not be controlled such as for example a Tsipras government  who leans to the other side of the Atlantic.

However -now AGAIN- we lost the opportunity. We missed opportunity to stand up. To rise up us as Greeks not only by descent but mainly because of international circumstances which give tremendous  advantages in Greece, which holds a geostrategic position of growing importance. The developments in the Middle East, the financial conflict between the United States and Germany, the very good relations with Russia, which sees Greece with much interest because of what is happening in Syria and the possible loss of the naval base, the most intimate relationships with Israel that EEZ and joint research for hydrocarbons and natural gas, and utility of Greece for the interests of China, which sees us as their ticket to the European market, all these together make Greece a very serious player in the global chessboard, a role which the puppets of Merkel, the dependent, trapped in the nets of German agencies, Greek politicians renounce every day, and the Greeks are paying the price!

The greek political system is so addicted and trapped by the Germans, who know all their wrongdoings, they prefer to participate in the genocide unfolding than to "burn" their pelt! 
Quite the contrary i would say, day by day they are becoming harder and hopefully with the help of the "boss" will remain "clean" since any way and every way for reaction from the people will be vanished.

Athens today

Within this frame moved most major media of Greece, which are controlled by people who, in such situations, find enrichment opportunities. Along with them the state media, which showed us the current "inspection" of Ms Merkel as the happiest days of modern Greek history ! While Samaras - Merkel closed agreements with the business "elite" of the two countries: bankers, pharmaceutical, industry, etc. The real world was beeing bombarded by chemicals from the repressive forces of the New World Order and the 4th Reich. Most images of this battle that unfolded on the streets of Athens were shown in the foreign TV networks!

I'll close with a prayer. As at October 9, 1944, the Germans bombed for the last time the city of Athens and left. I hope the visit of the representative of the 4th Reich and the New World Order in our city after 68 years, to be the beginning of the end of them!


P.S.1: Οf course for war reparations and the Occupation Loan Germany owes Greece (Hellas) not a word!

P.S.2: The Stern magazine estimates the war reparations at 370 billion euros!

source: http://dimokratis-politis-oplitis.blogspot.gr/2012/10/blog-post.html

Irony? Coincidence? Plan?

October 9: Symbolic day today. On October 9, 1944, three days before their departure, the Germans bombard Athens. Report: six dead and 22 wounded. Today, 68 years after, the Germans (Merkel), choose to make a show of strength in town again.

Up to million in the streets of Athens

Riot rage: Athens protesters throw firebombs, police shoot tear gas

A rally in the Greek capital turned violent when protesters in Syntagma Square lobbed Molotov cocktails at police, who retaliated by firing tear gas at the demonstrators.

Security forces also reportedly used flashbang grenades and pepper spray to push protesters back from the parliament building. According to Greek newspaper Kathimerin, the police had been ordered to orders to refrain from using chemicals against protesters.

It's as thousands gathered in front of parliament for the country’s biggest anti-austerity protest since the new government came to power.

Clashes erupted in different parts of Athens Syntagma Square, with demonstrators throwing fire bombs at police.

Witnesses reported smoke rising over the square as security forces dispersed most of the protesters. Some remained, and continued the demonstration; others relocated.

Athens police have arrested at least 20 protesters so far, local media report. Some of the arrests come after members of the radical leftist party Syriza clashed with riot police in the streets of Panepistimiou and Benaki, in the capital's downtown district. Police reportedly again used stun grenades to disperse the hooded youths.

Several injuries are reported.

The general strike halted transit and other industries nationwide. As many as 350,000 Greeks have poured out into streets across the country, estimates the civil servants union ADEDY.

read more

Jean-Luc Godard: “We should thank Greece”

“We should thank Greece. It is the West which has a debt to Greece.

Jean-Luc Godard has cancelled his trip to the Cannes Film Festival, where he participated with his new film  “Film Socialisme”.

2010 marks the 50th anniversary of his first film, “Breathless.” (À bout de Souffle)”

In a laconic letter that he sent to the french newspaper “La Liberation”, the filmmaker made a reference to the financial issues of Greece.

“Due to problems the Greeks would be familiar with, I unfortunately cannot be at your disposal in Cannes,” he said.

“I’d walk to the ends of the earth for the festival,” he added, “But alas I will not be taking a single step further. Sincerely, Jean-Luc Godard.”

In its original French, the statement read: “Suite à des problèmes de type Grec, je ne pourrai être votre obligé à Cannes.“Avec le festival, j’irai jusqu’à la mort, mais je ne ferai pas un pas de plus. Amicalement. Jean-Luc Godard.”

In another interview to  the `Les Inrocks`magazine  Godard said the following:

“We should thank Greece. It was the West which has a debt to Greece. Philosophy, democracy, the tragedy … We always forget the link between tragedy and democracy. Without Sophocles there isn’t a Pericles. Without Pericles there isn’t a Sophocles.
The technological world in which we live in owes everything to Greece. Who invented logic? Aristotle. If this and that, therefore that. This is what the dominant powers use all day, making sure that there is certainty and no contradiction, so that we can continue being rational. Hannah Arendt had said that logic takes us away from totalitarianism. So everybody owes money to Greece today. Greece could ask for a trillion copyrights to the contemporary world and it would be logical to give them to her. Immediately.
Greeks are accused of being liars … It reminds me of an old syllogism that I learned in school. Epaminondas is a liar, or all the Greeks are liars, therefore Epaminondas is Greek. We have not advanced much. “

(Excerpt from an interview to `Les Inrocks`magazine  on May 18, 2010.)

SOURCE: http://www.hellenesonline.com/go/2010/05/jean-luc-godard-jean-luc-godard-we-should-thank-greece/

Scandal! Germany’s Financial Times Calls Greeks to Vote for ND

Posted by keeptalkinggreece in Politics

Unbelievable! Financial Times Germany (FTD) calls Greeks to cast their vote on Sunday in favor of pro-bailout conservative Nea Dimocratia! In the unprecendeted bold op-ed article with the title “Resist to the  Demagogue” Financial Times Deutschland claims this is its recommendation for the Greek voters on June 17.

 ”Greeks make a historical voting decision on Sunday – even though results as well as consequences are not clear. FTD tells in its vote recommendation, for whom the Greeks should vote,” writes FTD in the article lead.

The despicable attempt to manipulation of voters that raises a lot of questions about what exact interests the FTD represent, reads:

Recommendation to voters: FTD and the majority of the Greeks have a common interest : that your country must remain in the euro.

On Sunday historical elections take place that will be decisive on this issue as well as for the future of the common European currency. Therefore the FTD makes a recommendation to the Greek voters as an exceptional move. Something that the FTD does also for German and EU parliament elections.

 Among others the article claims that Greece can remain in the Euro zone only with parties that accept the terms of the international lenders.

 ”Resist to demagogy of Alexis Tsipras and SYRIZA. Do not trust their promises that the denouncement of the loan agreements is possible without consequences.

 

Your country finally needs a functioning state. For your smooth governance we recommend Nea Dimocratia, even thought the recommendation is half-hearted…The best option for your country would be a coalition government with Antonis Samaras as leader and not Alexis Tsipras…..” and so on, and so on…

If you have a strong stomach, read the full op-ed in Greek Here and in German Here  (this is addressed to non-Greek speaking, 2nd and 3rd generation migrants in Germany, I assume)

 

Home of Spitting Llamas…

 

Reactions on FTD page

 

As expected the article triggered outrage among its readers, Greeks but also Germans.

 

One commented that it looks like a “pre-paid ad by SIEMENS and Ferrostaal” [the two German companies that massively bribed Greek politicians to secure state contracts in telecommunications and submarines).

 

Another wrote: “Dear Fourth Reich. You just can’t stay out of our business, can you?”

 

The comment of one guy who wrote: “very convincing article…thank you so much FT…now i’m sure that my decision is the right one…i will vote SYRIZA…” was ‘applauded’ by many Greek FTD visitors and some also advised “We’ll send Samaras to Germany… YES!”

 

Others speak of “disgrace”, of the “FTD and the German establishment “in panic”, of “provocations” and “threats” garnished with a lot of eF-words.

 

SYRIZA’s Reaction

 

SYRIZA reacted strongly and described the article a “Blatant Intervention”

 

ND’s Reaction

Offended is not only SYRIZA but also nea Dimocratia. In a sharp statement, ND said “Greeks are proud people. We know who we vote for. Make  “Recommendations” somewhere else. Make fixed-provocations, short before the elections, somewhere else.”

 

Interestinig note: FTD totally turns its back to PASOK, the party that took Greece to bailout. No PASOK complains so far… he!he!

 

PS I wouldn’t know that I have a common interest with Financial Times Deutschland? Unless they offer me a job

source: http://www.keeptalkinggreece.com/2012/06/15/scandal-germanys-financial-times-calls-greeks-to-vote-for-nd/

Liberation: Greece cradle of an other world!

No, what happens in Greece, though dramatic, is not a disaster. It is also an opportunity. Because the power of money has, for the first time, exceeded a target rate of previously progressive, thorough and carefully organized destruction of public interest and human dignity. And in a country so famous for its philosophy of life, the antithesis of the Anglo-Saxonic model, and famous for his tireless resistance to the multiple forms of oppression that tried to rein it.

The Greek does not dance and will never dance on one leg, nor bend slavishly or anything else the regimes want him to do. He dances with his hands, as if he is to fly to the stars. He writes on the walls what he'd like to read elsewhere. He burns a bank when he no longer affords to bake with the traditional barbecue. The Greeks are so alive, as the ideology of the deadly threat. And if the Greek is sickened to death, at the end he always gets up. Yes, the economy of Europe wanted to create an example. But amid the frustration of hitting the country that seemed weaker in the euro area, in the extreme violence the masks fell. It is now more than ever, the time for us to demonstrate its true face: that of totalitarianism. Because this is really what is all about. And there is only one answer to totalitarianism: the fight, persistent and tenacious, until the battle, if necessary, since the very existence jeopardized . We have one world, one life, and values ​​to defend. Everywhere the streets are our brothers, our sisters, our children, our parents, who are  hit in front of our eyes, even if they are away. They are hungry, cold and we are with them. All the hits that they receive equally injure us. Every child in Greece who faints at school, invites us to resentment and rebellion. For the Greeks, it is time to say no, and, for all of us, it's time to support them. Because the Greek people are now leading the battle against economic totalitarianism, everywhere destroying public property, threatening their daily survival, spreading despair, fear and indolence through a war of all against all.


Apart from an emotional anger that is defused by destroying the symbols of oppression, Greeks develop a clear anger, the fighters who refused to give their very lives for the benefit of the banking mafia and logic, that of "mad money". In the assemblies of direct democracy, the movement of civil disobedience movement "We do not pay" and the first experiences of self management, a new Greece emerges at this time, it rejects the tyranny of the market on behalf of the people. I do not know how long it will get people to free themselves from their voluntary work, but it is certain that, faced with the absurdity of client politics, corrupt democracy, the rule of grotesque cynicism of banksters (bank mafia) they will have only the option-against any blackmail - to manage thei affairs on their own.


Greece is our past.
It is also our future.
Discover with her again!
In 2012 we all become Greek!


source:http://www.liberation.fr/monde/01012390932-grece-berceau-d-un-autre-monde

Greece’s geopolitical orientation should not be taken for granted

Due to its geography and geopolitics, Greece will be in play for years to come, argues Robert D. Kaplan.

Robert D. Kaplan is Chief Geopolitical Analyst for Stratfor, a Texas-based global intelligence company.

"Greece is where the West both begins and ends. The West -- as a humanist ideal -- began in ancient Athens where compassion for the individual began to replace the crushing brutality of the nearby civilizations of Egypt and Mesopotamia. The war that Herodotus chronicles between Greece and Persia in the 5th century B.C. established a contrast between West and East that has persisted for millennia.

Greece is Christian, but it is also Eastern Orthodox, as spiritually close to Russia as it is to the West, and geographically equidistant between Brussels and Moscow. Greece may have invented the West with the democratic innovations of the Age of Pericles, but for more than a thousand years it was a child of Byzantine and Turkish despotism.

And while Greece was the northwestern bastion of the anciently civilised Near East, ever since history moved north into colder climates following the collapse of Rome, the inhabitants of Peninsular Greece have found themselves at the poor, southeastern extremity of Europe.

Modern Greece in particular has struggled against this bifurcated legacy. In an early 20th century replay of the Greco-Persian Wars, Greece's post-World War I military struggle with Turkey led to a signal Greek defeat and as a consequence, more than a million ethnic Greeks from Asia Minor escaped to Greece proper, further impoverishing the country. (This Greek diaspora in Asia Minor was a massive source of revenue until the Greeks were expelled.)

Not only did World War I have a bloody and epic coda in Greece, so did World War II, which was followed by a civil war between rightists and communists. Greece's ultimate escape from the Warsaw Pact was a rather close-run affair: again, the effect of Greece's unstable geographical location between East and West.

Greece struggled on. As recently as the mid-1970s it was governed by a particularly brutal military dictatorship (led by colonels from the backwater of the Peloponnese), which lasted for seven years, and fear of another coup persisted during the initial stage of its reborn democracy.

Even though the Olympic tradition began in Greece in antiquity and the first modern Olympics were held in Greece in 1896, Greece was denied the right to host the centenary modern Olympics in 1996 owing to the country's lack of preparedness in organisation and infrastructure. Greece did host the 2004 Olympics, but the financial strain that the games put on Greece contributed to the country's economic fragility in the run-up to the current debt crisis.

...read more

Hey, Germany: You Got a Bailout, Too

By the Editors May 24, 2012 2:00 AM GMT+0300

In the millions of words written about Europe’s debt crisis, Germany is typically cast as the responsible adult and Greece as the profligate child. Prudent Germany, the narrative goes, is loath to bail out freeloading Greece, which borrowed more than it could afford and now must suffer the consequences.

Would it surprise you to know that Europe’s taxpayers have provided as much financial support to Germany as they have to Greece? An examination of European money flows and central-bank balance sheets suggests this is so.

Let’s begin with the observation that irresponsible borrowers can’t exist without irresponsible lenders. Germany’s banks were Greece’s enablers. Thanks partly to lax regulation, German banks built up precarious exposures to Europe’s peripheral countries in the years before the crisis. By December 2009, according to the Bank for International Settlements, German banks had amassed claims of $704 billion on Greece, Ireland, Italy, Portugal and Spain, much more than the German banks’ aggregate capital. In other words, they lent more than they could afford.

When the European Union and the European Central Bank stepped in to bail out the struggling countries, they made it possible for German banks to bring their money home. As a result, they bailed out Germany’s banks as well as the taxpayers who might otherwise have had to support those banks if the loans weren’t repaid. Unlike much of the aid provided to Greece, the support to Germany’s banks happened automatically, as a function of the currency union’s structure.

How It Worked

Here’s how it worked. When German banks pulled money out of Greece, the other national central banks of the euro area collectively offset the outflow with loans to the Greek central bank. These loans appeared on the balance sheet of the Bundesbank, Germany’s central bank, as claims on the rest of the euro area. This mechanism, designed to keep the currency area’s accounts in balance, made it easier for the German banks to exit their positions.

Now for the tricky part: As opposed to the claims of the private banks, the Bundesbank’s claims were only partly the responsibility of Germany. If Greece reneged on its debt, the losses would be shared among all euro-area countries, according to their shareholding in the ECB. Germany’s stake would be about 28 percent. In short, over the last couple of years, much of the risk sitting on German banks’ balance sheets shifted to the taxpayers of the entire currency union.

It’s hard to quantify exactly how much Germany has benefited from its European bailout. One indicator would be the amount German banks pulled out of other euro-area countries since the crisis began. According to the BIS, they yanked $353 billion from December 2009 to the end of 2011 (the latest data available). Another would be the increase in the Bundesbank’s claims on other euro-area central banks. That amounts to 466 billion euros ($590 billion) from December 2009 through April 2012, though it would also reflect non-German depositors moving their money into German banks.

By comparison, Greece has received a total of about 340 billion euros in official loans to recapitalize its banks, replace fleeing capital, restructure its debts and help its government make ends meet. Only about 15 billion euros of that has come directly from Germany. The rest is all from the ECB, the EU and the International Monetary Fund.

Better Prepared

Germany’s changing financial exposure has major implications for its role as a leader of Europe’s response to the crisis. Before Germany’s banks pulled back their funds, they stood to lose a ton of money if Greece left the euro. Now any losses will be shared with the taxpayers of the entire euro area -- particularly France, whose banks still have a lot of outstanding loans to Greece. Perhaps this is what some German officials mean when they say that the euro area is better prepared for a Greek exit.

Ultimately, though, the cost of letting Greece go would come home to Germany. If bank runs and market turmoil forced Portugal, Spain, Italy and others out of the euro area as well, the losses could wipe out much of the capital of German banks. Not to mention the longer-term damage the euro breakup would do to the exports that drive Germany’s economy, and the potential demise of a European project designed to prevent a repeat of the horrors of two world wars.

To prevent such an outcome, with or without Greece, Germany will have to do everything it has so far refused, and more. This would include allowing the ECB to stand behind the debt of sovereigns. The euro area also needs a mechanism that would transfer money to economically troubled countries just as automatically as the region’s payment system bailed out Germany -- an element economists have long said is crucial to making the euro area a workable currency union. As we have advocated, a joint unemployment insurance fund could be a first step toward such a fiscal union.

As German Chancellor Angela Merkel considers the next step in the euro crisis -- one that could help the euro area return to growth or, alternatively, risk the survival of the entire currency union -- she should keep in mind that her country is indebted to the euro system as much as Greece is.

Read more opinion online from Bloomberg View. Subscribe to receive a daily e-mail highlighting new View columns, editorials and op-ed articles.

Today’s highlights: the View editors on the problems with the Facebook IPO; Clive Crook onEurope at the brink; Jonathan Alter on political substance and slander; Ezra Klein on the fight over Bain; Caroline Baum on overregulating banks; Tobias Moskowitz on data-driven policy; Panagis Vourloumis on Greek shock therapy; Junheng Li on China’s economic misinformation.

To contact the Bloomberg View editorial board: view@bloomberg.net.

source: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-05-23/merkel-should-know-her-country-has-been-bailed-out-too.html

If this is Europe, we don't want it!

SHOCK: Mother and son jump from the roof hand in hand!

The tragic incident happened yesterday at 8 am. Mother and son climbed on the roof of the building in which they lived in Metaxourgio Athens and dipped down!

The first information refer to financial problems. Both in recent years lived with the mother's pension, which was 340 euros. The 60 year old son was unemployed musician in the profession.


Note that a few days ago the musician posted on a site describing the problems they faced, but nobody moved ... "The problem is that I had not planned to have enough cash in my account, and suddenly the economic crisis started. Although I have enough property and sell at cost, I have run out of cash and we can no longer eat, and my credit card with 22% rate is full  even if the banks borrow at 1%, and i also have other running costs. I live a dramatic life. I have no solution. I have Enough property but no cash and no food, what now? Does anyone know any solution? Powerfull of the world, for the economic crisis you created, you must be hanged, at least " the memo concluded.


The case that comes a day after the suicide of 60-year man with many children, who cut his veins on a bench and left there his last breath.

Response to the Euro-fascists!

The Greek people have never been asked,
therefore they are not obliged to honor any 

commitment!


Written by Pyros the Athenian


Everyone in Greece (Hellas) knows that our country is not independent. Since the Greek revolution the vultures of the West devoured all the independent voices of the newly state, with great example the assassination of Ioannis Kapodistrias, the first (and only) independent ruler of Greece (Hellas).

 Since then Greece (Hellas) is "tied" to the chariot of Europe. Wanted desperately to join the "civilized" Europe, where the principles of democracy, equality and justice - which incidentally is a Greek (Hellenic) gift, but nobody deliberately did not educate the Greeks, who were completely unaware of their history, and emerged from a period of 400 years of obscurantism - represented hope and joy of a people who had suffered so.

We were convinced by the "civilized" Europeans, or rather we tried to convince ourselves at all costs - that we are part of Europe (of course, Europe got its name from Greek mythology and the word is very much Greek) that we participate as equal partners in the European architecture, that the loss of economic sovereignty, which was granted by our inclusion in the common currency, was a small sacrifice in front of the common good of Europe (of Germany as demonstrated ).

So the Greeks due to naivety and - most importantly - because of historical ignorance, were "delivered" in the arms of (German) Europe. A Europe which had not overcome the negative stereotypes against the Greeks, which was carrying since the Middle Ages. Proof of this is the ease with which - most Europeans - accepted and welcomed the German - mostly - Media propaganda against the Greeks (Hellenes). A hatred that goes back to the 5th AD and culminated in Charlemagne (ninth century), who never received recognition and legitimacy as successor of the Roman Empire. Besides, so it was. Since then the Germans guarding us, as history has proven many times.

Once they took the Greek polls results, the "Fuhrers" of Berlin put aside any pretense of democratic legitimacy of the EU and began mud expulsion threats of Greece 

(excact phrase from an article by G. Delastik at the EPIKAIRA magazine). Openly threatening that if the Greeks (Hellenes) did not honor their signatures and commitments, namely to consent to physical extermination because of austerity and recession of the memorandums, would be expeled from the eurozone.But the German "friends" and "partners" forget that the Greek people never consented to any memorandum, any austerity measures and when they were given the opportunity, through democratic processes-, spoken up their opposition to it. Therefore, it is not required, the Greek people to honor an agreement that they did not make! 

Unlike, the one who must stand by its commitments and signatures is Germany as a defeated, must compensate Greece for Nazi atrocities and return the entirely conventional loan which they took from Greece!

I was trying to understand the German mentality, but in vain. The vanity of the attempt to repeat the germanization of the rest non-German Europe, when the Germans themselves have suffered so many losses from previous failures suggests schizophrenic tendencies. They do not realize that the only thing they manage from their action is reaction? The same reaction that created the fifth century in Byzantium the anti-german movement called "Panhellenic" which had as its purpose to prevent the germanization of the eastern part of the Roman Empire and finally completed successfully its mission. This is what happens now but it is not happening only in Greece. 

Greeks (Hellenes) and many Europeans are realizing every day the new (;) orientation of the unified Europe that is not what everyone hoped it would be, ie social welfare, equity, solidarity, and democracy but instead turned into an undemocratic Europe where decisions are not made by elected - but appointed by secret places, commissioners who override the popular mandate, where the economy and the rules of precedence stand over the dignity of human existence and democracy, in which Europe of people has become a Europe of banks.

So this is not the Europe we want. We do not need, and the threats of the Eurofascists for expulsion of our country from the euro area and Europe, in my ears sound like ... greetings, wishes to come true!

source:  http://dimokratis-politis-oplitis.blogspot.com/