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Stock market remains closed

Greek banks opened their doors Monday for the first time in over three weeks, a move that the government hopes will help the economy get back to normal following a period dominated by fears over the country’s future in the euro.

Still, strict controls on the amounts individuals can withdraw remain and new austerity taxes demanded by the country’s European creditors mean that most everyday items are more expensive — from coffee to taxis to cooking oil.

In downtown Athens, people queued up in an orderly fashion as the banks unlocked their doors at 8 a.m., but restrictions on most transactions remained.

Though the daily cash withdrawal limit stayed at 60 euros, the government has given individuals a new weekly limit of 420 euros from this coming Sunday so they don’t need to trudge to the ATM every day.

Ready cash is something Greeks will need as new taxes also came into effect on a wide array of goods and services Monday.

Sales taxes have risen from 13 per cent to 23 per cent on many basic goods — including some meats, cooking oils, coffee, tea, cocoa, vinegar, salt, flowers, firewood, fertilizer, insecticides, sanitary towels and condoms.

Popular services were also hit by the new taxes: restaurants and cafes, funeral homes, taxis, ferries, cram schools and language schools.

The new taxes are part of a package of confidence-building measures that the Greek government had to introduce in order for negotiations on a third bailout to begin.

Since the Greek parliament passed the measures, creditors have sought to relieve the pressure on Greece. The European Central Bank has raised the amount of liquidity assistance on offer to Greek banks while Greece’s partners in the 19-country eurozone agreed to give Athens a short-term loan so it wouldn’t default on a 4.2 billion-euro debt due to the ECB on Monday.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Debt Crisis Central: Let’s Not Forget About America

July 20, 2015

Debt Crisis Central: Let’s Not Forget About America

burning dollar dollar photo club

As the situation in Puerto Rico has recently revealed, Greece is not alone. The world is filled with debt laden nations, many of which may never be able to pay down their liabilities. All told, the world is $200 trillion in debt, of which $57 trillion was accumulated in the past 8 years. And for the record, all the wealth in the world, including assets, amounts to $241 trillion (as of 2013). It’s safe to say that the human race is on one massive debt bender, and there won’t be any easy way out.

As for which countries are worse off than others, a recent article from The Guardian happens to reveal which of the world’s nations are on the fast track to a debt crisis. As I read it however, there was a country that was suspiciously missing from the list. Can you spot this missing debt junky? (hint: it’s America. The answer is always America.)

New analysis by the Jubilee Debt Campaign reveals that Greece’s plight is far from unique: more than 20 other countries are also wrestling with their own debt crises. Many more, from Senegal to Laos, lie in a debt danger zone, where an economic downturn or a sudden jump in interest rates on world debt markets could lead to disaster…

…Jubilee’s analysis defines countries as at high risk of a government debt crisis if they have net debt higher than 30% of GDP, a current-account deficit of over 5% of GDP and future debt repayments worth more than 10% of government revenue. “We estimate that 14 countries are rapidly heading towards new government debt crises, based on their large external debts, large and persistent current account deficits, and high projected future government debt payments,” it says…

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Concentrated Wealth + Widespread Stupidity = End Of Democracy

July 20, 2015

Concentrated Wealth + Widespread Stupidity = End Of Democracy

Today’s America is not a democracy:

“Dark Money Groups Are Funded By Dark Money Groups That Fund Dark Money Groups That Fund…”

That terrific investigative news report by Paul Blumenthal at Huffington Post, on 9 November 2013,penetrated beyond what the U.S. oligarchy — or more traditionally called aristocracy — requires its dark-money groups to disclose to the Federal Election Commission; and so Blumenthal researched also into what dark-money groups are required to report to the IRS (America’s tax-authorities).

This way, Blumenthal was able to discover, for example, that a “dark-money shell game allowed the Wisconsin Club for Growth to influence the elections with both its own ads and those of seemingly unrelated conservative groups with different public agendas. … The trail of cash moving from dark money nonprofit to dark money nonprofit can be traced, in part, through public records of the groups contributing it,” but only by accessing both FEC and IRS public records. And, even then, the picture was incomplete, because the 5-Republican bare majority, on the infamous pro-aristocracy 2010 U.S. Supreme Court Citizens United decision, by five traitors to the U.S. Constitution (which all judges are sworn to protect), prohibits public access to a complete picture of how (like in that Wisconsin election) a few psychopathic billionaires, plus millions of faith-driven fools they sucker with myth-affirming lies, can destroy government of the people, by the people, for the people, and turn it instead into government of the people, by the aristocracy, for the aristocracy. Blumenthal also showed the same billionaires+suckers system replacing democracy in other states. (Today’s Greece is a more extreme case of the same thing. Perhaps what’s today in Greece will betomorrow in America.)

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Portugal’s Debts Are (Also) Unsustainable

July 19, 2015

Portugal’s Debts Are (Also) Unsustainable

Everyone seems to be focusing on Greece these days – a country so indebted that it needs even more loans to repay just a fraction of its gigantic credits. Clearly this is unsustainable and something has to give. Even the IMF agrees.

But what about the other Southern European countries?

Actually, Portugal’s financial situation is looking particularly shaky, and any hiccups could have serious cross-border repercussions from Madrid all the way to Berlin.

The prevailing narrative is that Portugal has been a star pupil compared to Greece, with austerity delivering much better results:

The government, a coalition of a center party and center-right party that together have held the majority of parliamentary seats since the 2011 election, pretty much followed all the major guidelines demanded by its creditors (the famous “Troika”) pursuant to the 2010 bailout, and was even praised for it.
Exports have performed exceedingly well given everything that was going on domestically and abroad; the managers of small and medium enterprises in Portugal are true heroes, operating in difficult conditions and with limited access to credit.
Portugal has recently become a darling of international real estate investors and tourists.
The country’s citizens have stoically endured a range of tough austerity measures with surprisingly little social disruption.

So it is understandable that hopes for Portugal’s future are much rosier than in Greece… AND YET ITS FINANCIAL SITUATION IS ALSO UNSUSTAINABLE!

We realize that this is quite a bold statement. So to support our argument we will use some simple math to show where government finances stand after five years of austerity.

Simple Math, Hard Truths

The Bank of Portugal (“BdP”), Portugal’s central bank, publishes debt statistics of key sectors in the economy on a quarterly basis. The link to the latest publication can be found here.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Was Greece Set Up To Fail?

July 19, 2015

Was Greece Set Up To Fail?

I started writing this on my last night in Athens for now, Wednesday, and had no time to finish it then:

On the eve of my temp absence from this great city, a few things. I could simply extend my stay, which might be slightly cheaper, but A) flights to Athens cost less all the time, and B) I have to go see my mom in Holland, who’s not doing well at all. On top of that, Nicole arrived in Holland last week, and we might as well just fly out back here together in a few weeks.

My ‘job’ here is by no means done, anyway. Because of the general strike today, another Solidarity Clinic that I wanted to donate some of your AE for Athens Fund money to, is closed (update on the Fund tomorrow). Parliament is debating the latest Troika strangle plan as we speak, and who knows what tomorrow will bring? An entire economy is being deliberately suffocated, and all in all it’s just total madness. Quiet madness, though (update: and then the riots broke out..).

Two things I’ve been repeatedly asked to convey to you are that:

1) you can’t trust any Greek poll or media, because the media are so skewed to one side of the political spectrum, and that side is not SYRIZA (can you imagine any other country where almost all the media are against the government, tell outright lies, use any trick in and outside the book, and the government still gets massive public support?!),

and:

2) Athens is the safest city on the planet. I can fully attest to that. Not one single moment of even a hint of a threat, and that in a city that feels very much under siege (don’t underestimate that). And people should come here, and thereby support the country’s economy. Don’t go to Spain or France this year, go to Greece. Europe is trying to blow this country up; don’t allow them to.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Greece Is Now A Full-Blown Humanitarian Crisis – In 9 Charts

July 18, 2015

Greece Is Now A Full-Blown Humanitarian Crisis – In 9 Charts

The people of Greece are facing further years of economic hardship following a Eurozone agreement over the terms of a third bailout. The deal included more tax rises and spending cuts, despite the Syriza government coming to power promising to end what it described as the “humiliation and pain” of austerity. With the country having already endured years of economic contraction since the global downturn, The BBC asks, just how does Greece’s ordeal compare with other recessions and how have the lives of the country’s people been affected?

The long recession

It is now generally agreed that Greece has experienced an economic crisis on the scale of the US Great Depression of the 1930s.

According to the Greek government’s own figures, the economy first contracted in the final quarter of 2008 and – apart from some weak growth in 2014 – has been shrinking ever since. The recession has cut the size of the Greek economy by around a quarter, the largest contraction of an advanced economy since the 1950s.

Although the Greek recession has not been quite as deep as the Great Depression from peak to trough, it has gone on longer and many observers now believe Greek GDP will drop further in 2015.

Dwindling jobs

Jobs are increasingly difficult to come by in Greece – especially for the young. While a quarter of the population are out of work, youth unemployment is running much higher.

Half of those under 25 are out of work. In some regions of western Greece, the youth unemployment rate is well above 60%.

An ‘Austrian’ Economist’s Advice For Greece and the EU

July 18, 2015

An ‘Austrian’ Economist’s Advice For Greece and the EU

For months, now, the mass media and the financial markets have anxiously watched and waited to see the outcome of a war of words, accusations, and threats that have been fought between Greece and its Eurozone and European Union partners.

Over several decades Greek governments accumulated a fiscally unmanageable debt and have been unwilling to introduce any meaningful, long-term economic and budgetary reforms to get the country’s political-economic house in order.

Greece’s Euro and EU partners have warned that Greece may be formally or informally expelled from the common currency and, perhaps, from the economic union if the terms for a new series of loans based on domestic Greek reforms and some debt restructuring cannot be agreed upon.

However, in the whirlwind of often sensational and uncertain daily new events, it is sometimes useful and even necessary to step back and try to take a look at the wider context of things in which those current events are occurring.

Greek and European Union Crisis is the Result of Collectivism

The fiscal and other economic policy problems that are plaguing Greece are simply the highly magnified and intensified problems that are affecting many of the other European nations

Many of them have accumulated large national debts that press upon the fiscal capacities of their taxpayers. They all have highly regulated markets and restricted labor markets. They all have aging populations expecting generous government-funded pensions as the years go by. They all have costly welfare state “entitlement” programs that must be financed through taxes and deficit financing.

They also share a generally anti-capitalistic mentality. Intellectuals, politicians, many in the electorates, and most certainly the national and EU bureaucrats neither understand nor advocate the classical liberal ideal of truly free markets or the wider political philosophy of individualism and individual rights to life, liberty, and honestly acquired property.

– See more at: http://www.cobdencentre.org/2015/07/an-austrian-economists-advice-for-greece-and-the-eu/#sthash.Eg4lkJYV.dpuf

Is another way possible?

July 18, 2015

Is another way possible?

A roundup of news, views and ideas from the mainstream press and the blogosphere. Click on the headline link to see the full article.

Urban Gardening in Greece – a New Form of Protest
Orestes Kolokouris, Green European Journal
Guerrilla gardening and local consumer-producer networks are redefining life in today’s Greek cities. While the crisis has shifted politicians’ attention away from the climate, “transition and recovery movements” work hard to keep the environment on the agenda.
—
… Environmental politics were never well developed in Greece, but in the last years before the economic crisis the Greek environmental movement has had a short “renaissance”. First, there was the movement against the Olympic Games, which helped reinforce other local urban movements fighting to reclaim public spaces for societal use. Secondly, the massive series of forest fires in 2007 led to an increased public awareness about the causes and effects of global warming, which then led to the creation of new environmental grassroots movements (e.g. Green Attack, Bloggers, Guerrilla Gardeners etc.), and the reinforcement of the Greek Green Party that gained an MEP in the 2009 European elections. This in turn has led to the “greening” of the public discourse of other political parties (mainly Pasok and Syriza). Finally, the Greek riots of December 2008 and the participating youth movements have led to the creation of new social experiments around the social and solidarity economy, this involves the so called “transition and recovery movements” (movements aiming to transform economical activities and every-day life rather than to protest and reclaim changes from the authorities) or the theory of degrowth.

… Urban agriculture essentially did not exist until very recently in Greece. Its rapid development coincides with the rapid deterioration of living standards in Greek society in recent years due to the deep crisis. But it roots can be traced back to a few years earlier: to the first years of the 21st century, when small libertarian and alternative and ecological circles decided to experiment with this way of life.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Greece’s Lesson For Russia

July 18, 2015

Greece’s Lesson For Russia

“Greece’s debt can now only be made sustainable through debt relief measures that go far beyond what Europe has been willing to consider so far.” — International Monetary Fund

Greece’s lesson for Russia, and for China and Iran, is to avoid all financial relationships with the West. The West simply cannot be trusted. Washington is committed to economic and political hegemony over every other country and uses the Western financial system for asset freezes, confiscations, and sanctions. Countries that have independent foreign policies and also have assets in the West cannot expect Washington to respect their property rights or their ownership. Washington freezes or steals countries’ assets, or in the case of France imposes multi-billion dollar fines, in order to force compliance with Washington’s policies. Iran, for example, lost the use of $100 billion, approximately one-fourth of the Iranian GDP, for years simply because Iran insisted on its rights under the Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Russian journalists are asking me if Obama’s willingness to reach a deal with Iran means there is hope a deal can be reached over Ukraine. The answer is No. Moreover, as I will later explain, the deal with Iran doesn’t mean much as far as Washington is concerned.

Three days ago (July 14) a high ranking military officer, Gen. Paul Selva, the third in about as many days, told the US Senate that Russia is “an existential threat to this nation (the US).” Only a few days prior the Senate had heard the same thing from US Marine commander Joseph Dunford and from the Secretary of the Air Force. A few days before that, the Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff warned of a Russian “hybrid threat.”

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Agency to Enslave Greeks Is Established

July 18, 2015

Agency to Enslave Greeks Is Established

Late on Thursday, July 16th, German Economic News headlined “Greece: Debt Restructuring Through the Back Door,” and reported that, “The majority of Greece’s national debt is to be moved in the next three years gradually to the euro bailout fund ESM [European Stability Mechanism], so that the IMF will continue to remain as a lender. The euro zone countries will thereby provide Athens a longer grace period [a temporary postponement of payments, while the 18% annual interest-rate soars Greece’s debt even higher], and longer repayment periods.”

The super-secretive European Stability Mechanism was set up in 2012, in order to handle Greece’s anticipated virtual receivership, which it now will do.

As I reported on July 16th, the treaty that in 2012 established the ESM, as being the ultimate lending-fund, for what the EU now officially considers to be a permanent economic crisis in Europe — of Greece and other member-nations that are experiencing “severe financing problems” — establishes the ESM as being so secretive, that a precondition of employment there is “Professional secrecy,” which will apply “even after their duties have ceased” (i.e., they’ve retired). In other words: the goal is that the public will never be able to know anything that goes on there, except what the top management issue in their speeches and press releases (if any). Furthermore, the ESM is above and beyond any democratic process, and is immune to any nation’s laws. Everyone in its employ “shall be immune from legal proceedings with respect to acts performed by them in their official capacity and shall enjoy inviolability in respect of their official papers and documents.” (That’s necessary in order to ensure that no information can ever be released by the employees — only the ESM’s public statements will be.) There will be no democratic accountability, whatsoever.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Greece Surrendered: But to Whom Exactly?

July 18, 2015

Greece Surrendered: But to Whom Exactly?

On July 12, Greece surrendered abjectly and totally. Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, who had promised to combat the austerity measure that are driving the Greek people to ruin, poverty and suicide, betrayed all his promises, denied the will of the people expressed in the July 5 referendum, and led the Greek parliament to accept an agreement with the nation’s creditors even worse than all those that had already caused the economy to shrink and which further abandoned the last scraps of national sovereignty.

Yes, Greece surrendered unconditionally, as has been thoroughly and eloquently expressed here on CounterPunch and elsewhere. But one crucial question appears not to have been adequately answered. To whom, exactly, did Greece surrender?

A common answer to that question is: Germany. The poor Greeks surrendered to the arrogant Germans. This theme has served to revive anti-German feelings left over from World War II. Frau Merkel is portrayed as the heartless villain. One thing is sure: the animosity between Greece and Germany aroused by this debt catastrophe is proof that the “European dream” of transforming the historic nations of Western Europe into one single brotherly federation, on the model of the United States of America, is a total flop. The sense of belonging to a single nation, with all for one and one for all, simply does not exist between peoples whose languages, traditions and customs are as diverse as those between Finns and Greeks. Adopting a common currency, far from bringing them together, has driven them farther apart.

But was this disaster actually dictated by the wicked Germans?

n reality, very many Germans, from the right-wing Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaüble all the way to the former leader of the left party “Die Linke” Oskar Lafontaine would have preferred a very different solution: Greece’s exit from the Eurozone. Schaüble was thinking of German finances, while Lafontaine was thinking of what would be best for the people of Greece – and of Europe as a whole.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

All Hail Our Banking Overlords!

July 18, 2015

All Hail Our Banking Overlords!

We work for them, plain & simple

You really have to be paying attention to see what’s truly going on these days. The keepers of the system, that is the banking elites, now openly control everything — though you’d never know that by listening to the media.

Consider this:

Eurozone backs €7bn bridging loan

Jul 16, 2105

Eurozone ministers have agreed to give Greece a €7bn (£5bn) bridging loan from an EU-wide fund to keep its finances afloat until a bailout is approved.

The loan is expected to be confirmed on Friday by all EU member states.

In another development, the European Central Bank (ECB) agreed to increase emergency funding to Greece for the first time since it was frozen in June.

The decisions were made after Greek MPs passed tough reforms as part of a eurozone bailout deal.

How generous of the finance ministers of all those EU member states to agree to a “bridge loan” that will help Greece “keep its finances afloat”. This should provide the people of Greece with a bit of breathing room, right? Maybe access to their bank accounts (finally!), perhaps?

No, not at all. Here’s what the entirety of the “”loan”” will go towards instead:

The bridging loan means Greece will be able to repay debts to the ECB and IMF on Monday.

Ummmm…that “money” will not ever go anywhere near Greece.

This is all merely electronic window-dressing for entirely esoteric bookkeeping purposes. Servers will blink at one location in Europe as digital 1s and 0s are transmitted to another. The electronic balances at the ECB and the IMF will change, but not much else.

The people of Greece will see none of it. Nor will they see their bank accounts unfrozen.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Thank Goodness Everything’s Fixed

July 18, 2015

Thank Goodness Everything’s Fixed

The trick is to borrow as much as you can and leverage it to the hilt, and buy, buy, buy.

Thank goodness everything’s been fixed. Now that the bigshots in the Eurozone have given Greece the Humphrey Bogart treatment– When you’re slapped, you’ll take it and like it, Bogart’s line as he bullied Peter Lorre in The Maltese Falcon–and a chastened Greece is in line for another 17 billion, or is it 17 trillion, I’m losing track of the numbers … but anyways, it’s all fixed, and squeezing Greek pensioners was the trick needed to save Europe from itself.

Now everyone can get back to their summer vacations and the good life resumes. It doesn’t get much better than this.

That spot of bother in China’s stock market has been fixed by criminalizing negative comments about stocks, removing all the stocks that might sink further from trading and extending more margin to more banana vendors, so they can get rich quick. And since to get rich is glorious, we can anticipate thousands of banana vendors becoming millionaires and rushing to New York to buy a Manhattan cubbyhole for $2 million.

When stocks rise, everybody wins! Except those who can no longer afford to live in Manhattan, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Vancouver, etc., but hey, the path is open to them, too–just margin up to the hilt, mortgage your future and buy stocks now–the People’s Bank of China, the Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank all have your back.

Thank goodness that brief stock market swoon is over and the march higher can resume, so everybody can keep winning, forever and ever.

The deal with Iran is a win-win for everybody, too–especially consumers, who will see oil prices plummet as Iran doubles its production. Of course that will drive a knife into the heart of every other oil producer’s net income, but those sorts of adjustments are good in the long run.

Once again, everybody wins.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Farage on Europe at the Heritage Foundation

July 17, 2015

Farage on Europe at the Heritage Foundation

Nigel Farage may be the only practical politician these days because he came from the trading sector. He explains the Euro-Project and its failures. He makes it clear that the Greek people never voted to enter the euro, and explains that it was forced upon them by Goldman Sachs and their politicians. Nigel also explains that the Euro project idea that a trade and economic union would then magically produce a political union – the United States of Europe and eliminate war.

He has warned that the idea of a political union would end European wars has actually turned Europe into a rising resentment in where there is now a new Berlin Wall emerging between Northern and Southern Europe.

The Euro project was a delusional dream for it was never designed to succeed but to cut corners all in hope of creating the United States of Europe to challenge the USA and dethrone the dollar, That dream has turned into a nightmare and will never raise Europe to that lofty goal of the financial capitol of the world.

The IMF acts as a member of the Troika, yet has no elected position whatsoever. The second unelected member is Mario Draghai of the ECB. Then the head of Europe is also unelected by the people. The entire government design is totally un-Democratic and therein lies the crisis. Not a single member of the Troika ever needs to worry about polls since they do not have to worry about elections. This is authoritarian government if we have ever seen one.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Greek Banks Will Not Re-Open Monday Even As Loan To Repay ECB Approved

July 17, 2015

Greek Banks Will Not Re-Open Monday Even As Loan To Repay ECB Approved

The timing could not be worse from a visual perspective but within minutes of the Eurogroup confirming that they approved the €7.16 billion bridge loan (which will merely be recycled back to The ECB to ensure the appearance of normalcy continues), local reports note that the Greek finance ministry says banks will not re-open on Monday (as promised).

The elites get their money…

Eurogroup statement:

On 17 July 2015, the Council adopted a decision granting up to €7.16bn in short term financial assistance to Greece under the European Financial Stabilisation Mechanism (EFSM).

The loan will have a maximum maturity of three months and will be disbursed in up to two instalments. It will allow Greece to clear its arrears with the IMF and the Bank of Greece and to repay the ECB, until Greece would start receiving financing under a new programme from the European Stability Mechanism (ESM).

Longer term programme

On 16 July the Eurogroup decided in principle to agree to a request made by Greece on 8 July 2015 for stability support over three years from the ESM. Once negotiated between the institutions and Greece and approved by the Eurogroup, the ESM assistance would be used, amongst other things, to repay the loan Greece receives under the EFSM.

Economic policy conditions

The Council also adopted a decision approving a macro-economic adjustment programme setting out specific economic policy conditions attached to the financial assistance. The reforms undertaken by Greece are aimed at improving the sustainability of its public finances and the regulatory environment. Specifically, Greece was required to adopt legislation to reform its VAT and pension systems, strengthen the governance of the Hellenic Statistical Authority (ELSTAT), and implement by 15 July 2015 the relevant provisions of the Treaty on Stability, Coordination and Governance. The adjustment programme will be set out in a memorandum of understanding (MOU).

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

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