Home » Posts tagged 'eurogroup'

Tag Archives: eurogroup

Olduvai
Click on image to purchase

Olduvai III: Catacylsm
Click on image to purchase

Post categories

Post Archives by Category

The European financial establishment has just declared war on Italy

The European financial establishment has just declared war on Italy

This week in a CNBC interview Jeroen Dijsselbloem, the former Dutch minister of finance who served as the President of the Eurogroup, declared war on the Italian government. The European financial establishment is prepared to destroy the banking system and cause the Italian economy to implode. Like a Mafia boss, Dijsselbloem warned that Italy could run into trouble if it does not comply with Brussels’ directives. Of course, his statement was cloaked in diplomatic language:

“If the Italian crisis becomes a major crisis, it will mainly implode into the Italian economy … as opposed to spreading around Europe,” he said. “Because of the way that the Italian economy and the Italian banks are financed, it’s going to be an implosion rather than an explosion.”

For a man of this format it is unusual to publicly expose Italy as a state in a weak negotiating position or try to act as a scaremonger. We have never seen anything remotely like that, so we think that the utterance could only serve the purpose of giving the green light to the financial markets to orchestrate an attack on Italian bonds so as to drive Italian yield up.

“And there is gonna be a role for the markets, I mean if you look at what Italy needs in funding next year alone we are talking about over 250 billion Euro, refinancing part of the stock of their debt and also, of course, these new spending plans. So markets will really have to look at that very critically.”

Italy’s situation is ‘pretty worrisome’: Dijsselbloem from CNBC.

He reminded the Italian government that Italian banks are a sitting target for the European financial authorities. In order to destabilize a country’s economy, one must break its backbone i.e. banks.

…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

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…

 

 

The Greek “Choice”: Hand Over Sovereignty Or Take Five Year Euro “Time Out”

The Greek “Choice”: Hand Over Sovereignty Or Take Five Year Euro “Time Out”

For those who missed today’s festivities in Brussels, here is the 30,000 foot summary: Europe has given Greece a “choice”: hand over sovereignty to Germany Europe or undergo a 5 year Grexit “time out”, which is a polite euphemism for get the hell out.

As noted earlier, here are the 12 conditions laid out as a result of the latest Eurogroup meeting, which are far more draconian than anything presented to Greece yet and which effectively require that Greece cede sovereignty to Europe, this time even without the implementation of a technocratic government.

  1. Streamlining VAT
  2. Broadening the tax base
  3. Sustainability of pension system
  4. Adopt a code of civil procedure
  5. Safeguarding of legal independence for Greece ELSTAT – the statistics office
  6. Full implementation of autmatic spending cuts
  7. Meet bank recovery and resolution directive
  8. Privatize electricity transmission grid
  9. Take decisive action on non-performing loans
  10. Ensure independence of privatization body TAIPED
  11. De-Politicize the Greek administration
  12. Return of the Troika to Athens (the paper calls them the institutions… for now)

One alternative, generously presented to Greece, is for the country to put some €50 billion of assets – the best ones – in escrow to creditors. A more polite was of putting would be a Greek secured loan. This is how the Luxembourg FinMin Pierre Gramegna laid it out:

“A few new ideas were added to the table, especially one which is very important for some member states, which is that Greece would put a portion of its assets into a company that would be more independent from Greece.”

“More independent” from Greece and “more dependent” to Berlin.

Greece would place about €50 billion of state assets into an independent company. Those assets could serve as collateral against aid loans, Gramegna says. “It would act as a kind of guarantee. There is great hesitation from the Greek side and now the heads of state and government have to choose.”

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

 

 

 

Olduvai IV: Courage
Click on image to read excerpts

Olduvai II: Exodus
Click on image to purchase

Click on image to purchase @ FriesenPress