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Saturday, September 15, 2012

Greek opposition leader hardens anti-bailout stance


Kathimerini

Greek opposition leader hardens anti-bailout stance
Reuters
The 38-year-old leftist said he would mobilize his lawmakers and supporters against the measures to prevent them from causing irreparable harm to Greece's economy, after more than two years of austerity measures that have slashed wages by a third.
Tsipras Envisions a “Post-Troika” GreeceGreek Reporter

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Large anti-austerity protests in Spain, Portugal





MADRID (AP) — Tens of thousands of people from all over Spain rallied in the capital Saturday against punishing austerity measures enacted by the government, which is trying to save the country from financial collapse.

The conservative government of Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has introduced stinging cuts and raised taxes in a bid to reduce the deficit and to reassure investors and officials from the 17-nation eurozone.

The Interior Ministry's regional office said it had expected more than 500,000 people to reach a central Madrid square, but later said 65,000 had attended to listen to speeches made by protest leaders.

Toxo called for a referendum on the government's austerity and bailout plans, saying the measures were so different from the ruling Popular Party's election pledges that Spaniards should have the right to express an opinion on them.

Rajoy has accepted a loan of up to €100 billion ($127billion) to help ailing banks reeling from a collapse of the country's real estate and construction industries.

In Portugal, another package of recently announced government austerity measures could turn the nation's sullen acceptance of belt-tightening into an explosion of anger similar to that seen in Greece over the past two years.

Last week, Portuguese Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho announced an increase in workers' social security contributions to 18 percent of their monthly salary from 11 percent.


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German lawmaker: no majority for 3rd Greek bailout


German lawmaker: no majority for 3rd Greek bailout
Boston.com
The Greek government is under pressure from voters not to make further painful budget cuts demanded by its creditors. Bruederle told RBB Inforadio on Saturday that if Greece doesn't receive further funds the country's only option is to leave the common ...

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Greece Reaps Euro Goodwill in Break From Past Crisis Scoldings


Daily Beast

Greece Reaps Euro Goodwill in Break From Past Crisis Scoldings
Bloomberg
Creditors led by Germany and the International Monetary Fund may now grant Greece more leeway to narrow its deficit after their austerity-first policy helped mire the country in a fifth year of recession, and two Greek elections produced a shaky ...
Greece May Get More Time On Bailout, No More Money, IMF, EU SayHuffington Post
IMF: Greece Needs More TimeDaily Beast
Greece may get extra time to meet austerity targetsDaily News & Analysis
Carlisle Sentinel
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Large anti-austerity protests in Spain, Portugal

Spain's financial Minister Luis de Guindos, left, talks with Netherlands Financial Minister Jan Cornelis De Jager talks before they pose for a group photo at the conference center during an Informal European economic and financial affairs council in capital Nicosia, Cyprus, Friday, Sept. 14, 2012. Key participants in Europe's debt crisis are gathering in Cyprus to discuss the latest developments in Spain and Greece and the impact of the European Central Bank's plan to protect the euro. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)Tens of thousands of people from all over the country converged on Spain's capital to hold a large anti-austerity demonstration on Saturday.



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Is Greece a security risk for NATO?


Deutsche Welle

Is Greece a security risk for NATO?
Deutsche Welle
The endless discussions about the future of Greece took an unexpected turn in Germany recently, and it had nothing to do with if, or when, the country would leave the eurozone. Instead, politicians focused on the potential security risk to the European ...
Greece euro exit expensive for Germany too: AsmussenReuters
Unfinished business in GreeceFinancial Times
ECB's Asmussen wants Greece to keep euro: reportMarketWatch

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Migrants Use Greece as Gateway


Wall Street Journal

Migrants Use Greece as Gateway
Wall Street Journal
A group of Afghan men walked on the road near Nea Vyssa, in northeastern Greece, in September 2010 after crossing illegally from Turkey. Greece's role in the euro-zone crisis is well known. But from Brussels to Oslo, leaders are fretting about another ...


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The Netherlands: Fool's gold | Editorial

Mark Rutte's VVD now advocates the cutting of the nation's development aid budget by two-thirds (Geert Wilders wanted all of it to go). Is this the price of putting stability before intolerance?

Brussels breathed an audible sigh of relief at the result of the elections in the Netherlands. In these turbulent times, everyone sees what they want to, and what they wanted to see was the comeback of the pro-European centre, who would manage, modulate and internalise the current plan – growth through austerity. If the economics of this are terrible (the postwar economic boom may never return, and why should we assume banks will re-emerge as the economic engine they once were?), the European politics of it are even worse.

The current German consensus that sees partial surrender of debtor sovereignty as the quid pro quo of debt mutualisation is a real vote-loser everywhere else – in France, Spain, Italy, Portugal, never mind Greece. And besides, the Germans say they have written enough cheques in the aftermath of re-unification, so their share of mutualisation will always be limited.

The closer you look, the more cracks there are in the theory that, with these policies, the pro-Europe political centre will hold the ring on the rescue of the euro. Much solace was to be had in Brussels from the fact the Dutch electorate, traditionally seen as the trend-setting Californians of Europe, rejected the extremes. They gave the far-right populist Geert Wilders a kicking, and froze the vote of the Socialist party, which voted against the eurozone rescue package.

This is fool's gold. Never mind the volatility of these votes, with large percentages undecided right up until the last minute. Think instead about the policy trade-offs that Mark Rutte and Diederik Samsom made to achieve this result. Thanks to the absorption of part of Wilders' vote, Rutte's VVD now advocates the cutting of the nation's development aid budget by two-thirds (Wilders wanted all of it to go). Is this the price of putting stability before intolerance? On Greece, Rutte says no third rescue package and no extension to the second. Put Samsom's Labour budget through the mill of the central planning bureau, the monopoly macroeconomic adviser, and in the first two years you would get a budget deficit of 3.7%, busting the European target, and in the second two years you get full-blown austerity.

Negotiations over the formation of the next government are going to be interesting. It will do nothing to prevent the wrecking of the economy of the European periphery to stave off the evil day when the banks write down their bad assets. This is not how deeper European integration will be forged. The Netherlands is both pro-European and pro-euro. The issue is the management of the euro storm, from which the Netherlands, a rich nation with low unemployment, will find scant shelter.


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Clinton: Japan, 10 EU nations get further exception on Iran oil sanctions

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton delivers remarks at the State Department in WashingtonWASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States has renewed 180-day exceptions on Iran sanctions for Japan and 10 European Union nations due to their continued reductions of purchases of Iranian crude oil, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Friday. Clinton said the exceptions would apply to Japan, Belgium, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain and the United Kingdom. ...



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