How the world sees Greece
 Wall Street Journal | Storming the Greek Academy Wall Street Journal Private universities, even nonprofit ones, are prohibited under the Greek constitution. This monopoly has led to a higher-education system that, like the Greek political system, is crippled by statism, cronyism, nepotism, corruption and inefficiency ... |
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HP picks Cosco's Greek pier as regional transport hub Chicago Tribune ATHENS (Reuters) - Hewlett Packard will transport its goods across Europe, the Middle East and Africa through Greece's biggest port, the Greek government said on Wednesday, after a deal with China's Cosco Pacific that Athens hopes will attract ... |
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 Economic Times | Greece needs softer fiscal adjustment path - IIF's Dallara Reuters ATHENS Nov 14 (Reuters) - Greece needs a softer pace of fiscal adjustment to get out of its debt crisis and lower financing terms can help, but a writedown on official loans does not look politically feasible, the head of the IIF bank lobby group said ... Bank lobby chief Dallara: Greece needs help with deficit target, not new debt ... Greece's recession deepens amid austerity Greece sinks deeper into depression in third quarter |
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FOREX-Euro rises on Spain, Greece hope; yen tumbles Reuters Euro on track for best day in two weeks vs dollar * Rehn says Spain has taken effective action for 2012, 2013 * Japan PM Noda open to dissolving parliament on Friday By Wanfeng Zhou NEW YORK, Nov 14 (Reuters) - The euro edged higher against the U.S. ... |
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Institute of International Finance boss, who once lobbied for Greece's creditors, says focus must be on growth
Eight months after he lobbied on behalf of Greece's creditors during the biggest debt restructuring in the history of world finance, Charles Dallara launched a withering attack on the policies of austerity, saying a "new course" was needed to stop Greece's economic death spiral.
As thousands marched through the streets of Athens on a day of co-ordinated pan-European protests against measures that have seen Greek wages drop by an average of 35%, the American head of the Institute of International Finance said a new strategy was vital.
"Greece now urgently needs a greater emphasis on growth, and less emphasis on austerity. Europe needs the same," said Dallara, whose bank lobbying group negotiated the private sector bond swap that cut an estimated €107bn from the country's debt mountain this year.
"A return to real, sustainable economic growth can be the only genuine solution to Europe's crisis," he told a gathering of Greek financiers. "It is time to recognise that austerity alone condemns not just Greece but the whole of Europe to the probability of a painful and protracted era of little or no economic growth. This would be a tragedy not just for Greece and for Europe, but for the world."
With Athens on course to enter a sixth straight year of recession amid record levels of unemployment and poverty – despite the prime minister Antonis Samaras's optimism that Athens would soon take stock of €44bn in EU-IMF rescue funds – policymakers now had to be more creative and "think outside the box" by easing the pace of fiscal adjustment, which had brought "tremendous stress to Greek society".
"Greece's unprecedented fiscal effort, which was more than planned, has triggered much larger contractions of economic activity and the tax base than the original program had assumed," the IIF chief told the audience in the amphitheatre of the National Bank of Greece.
As a result all forecasts were off-target, he said, rattling off the figures. "Real GDP fell by 11.7% over the two years, rather than the [predicted] 6.5%, domestic demand fell by 15 %, rather than 7 % and unemployment rose to 25%, rather than 15%."
Barely a week ago the Greek parliament passed what will be the most draconian package of spending cuts yet – a condition of further aid to prop up an economy that has lost an estimated 20% of its output since the crisis erupted in late 2009.
"We don't need to throw out the [IMF-EU fiscal consolidation] programme altogether," he said, insisting that the Greek rescue programme had "good" elements. "But we need urgently to change course. More moderate targets are more achievable, will have less negative effects on unemployment, and as demonstrated by Ireland, can have positive effects on market confidence, on the perception of performance, and put Greece on a more plausible path to an early restoration of market access."
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Millions take part in strikes, stoppages and marches on day of co-ordinated action as eurozone teeters on return to recession
Hundreds of thousands of Europeans mounted one of the biggest coordinated anti-austerity protests across the continent on Wednesday, marching against German-orchestrated cuts as the eurozone is poised to move back into recession.
Millions took part in Europe-wide strikes, and in city after city along the continent's debt-encrusted Mediterranean rim, thousands marched and scores were arrested after clashes with police.
There were banners declaring "Austerity kills," Occupy masks, flares, improvised loudspeakers and cancelled flights. But there was also a violent, even desperate edge to the demonstrations, particularly in Madrid and several Italian cities. In the Spanish capital, police fired rubber bullets to subdue the crowd; in Pisa, protesters occupied the Leaning Tower, and in Sicily cars were burned.
"There is a social emergency in the south," said Bernadette Ségol, the secretary general of the European Trade Union Confederation. "All recognise that the policies carried out now are unfair and not working."
Swingeing austerity in Greece, Italy, Spain and Portugal has sent unemployment soaring – there are now more than 25 million unemployed Europeans, and about one in every eight people in the eurozone is jobless. Figures to be released on Thursday are expected to show that the eurozone has tipped back into recession.
Across northern Europe, protesters turned out more in sympathy than in anger. Several thousand gathered at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, and there were stoppages and marches in Belgium and France. But it was southern Europe that bore the brunt.
In Italy, students were in the front line in noisy and often violent anti-austerity marches. In Naples and Brescia, protesters occupied railway tracks; in Genoa, the entrance to the ferry port was blocked. In Turin, a police officer was hit with a baseball bat. Trento, Trieste and Palermo also saw protests. In Padua, two police officers were injured in clashes, and 10,000 people marched in Bologna. There were clashes in Milan, and in Venice protesters draped a bank with banners reading: "You are making money out of our debts". In Rome, where there were four separate marches, traffic was brought to a standstill following clashes on the banks of the Tiber after far-right students tried to get round a police line to reach parliament.
In Spain, police helicopters began flying low over central Madrid as soon as the strike started at midnight and stayed there all day. Riot police out in force in the emblematic Puerta del Sol square, where protesters have gathered for centuries, but particularly since the "indignant" movement sprang up 18 months ago.
Many shops and banks in central Madrid closed for the day, or put up security shutters, and police formed a cordon around the offices of the governing People's party, and several department stores. Public transport and state radio services were patchy as workers heeded the strike call. Long queues formed at bus stops and the radio relied on recorded fillers. The afternoon news on Spain's RTVE channel was interrupted by protesters waving banners in front of outside broadcast cameras.
Traffic jams formed in the evening as noisy demonstrators filled Madrid's main artery, the Castellana, toting banners protesting at budget cuts and backing public services. Many of them chanted "Public health has to be defended, not sold off".
In Athens, the turnout was thinner than usual, perhaps because of last week's two-day strike. Protesters described a country running out of reserves. Many have survived three years of recession and austerity by relying on family support or handouts. "But when that dries up, and it will with these latest measures, there will be no reason not to descend en masse on to the streets," said Kostas Kapetanakis, a young sociologist holding a banner in Syntagma Square demanding free education, health and welfare system. "There will be a revolt because we will have absolutely nothing to lose."
Nikos Bokaris, the president of the national foresters' association standing with other civil servants outside parliament, feared Greece was being pushed towards a huge explosion.
"Civil servants feel they have been very unfairly singled out," he said. "I am very afraid that the country is heading for a massive social upheaval with huge consequences for public safety and order. All it will take is a spark."
The European Union will spend the $1.2m (£760,000) Nobel peace prize on projects helping children in conflict zones. The EU won the prize for its efforts to keep the peace on a continent long riven by fighting. The European commission on Wednesday agreed to administer the prize money on behalf of the EU. The commission's president, José Manuel Barroso, said that because the award represents reconciliation, the funds "should benefit the first hope for the future, but also the first victims of present and past conflicts: children."
The prize, which includes a medal and certificate, will be awarded at a ceremony in Oslo on 10 December.
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 CBS News | Hamas militant chief killed in Israeli airstrikes CBS News Updated at 2:12 p.m. ET. GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip Israel killed the commander of the Hamas military wing in one of some 20 airstrikes on the Gaza Strip Wednesday, the worst barrage on the Palestinian territory in four years in retaliation for renewed rocket fire ... Israelis Launch Major Assault on Gaza, Killing Hamas Commander Israel's 'Iron Dome' reportedly intercepts 13 rockets from Gaza in wake of ... Israel kills Hamas military chief: live |
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 Moneycontrol.com | Euro gains versus dollar; yen sinks as early Japan election seen Reuters India NEW YORK (Reuters) - The euro was on track to post its largest daily gain in two weeks against the U.S. dollar on Wednesday, after five losing sessions, on expectations Greece may receive another round of financial aid soon. The yen, on the other hand, fell ... Euro Trades Near 2-Month Low Before European Finance Chiefs Meet Yen Falls Most in Two Months Against Dollar on Election Outlook FOREX-Yen falls as Japan PM Noda hints at early election |
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 Telegraph.co.uk | Greek discord pushes down price of Spanish bonds BDlive WHILE the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and finance ministers from the eurozone fail to agree on how Greece can bring down its debt load, Spanish bonds are reacting. The price of the bonds fell on Tuesday, pushing the 10-year yield to a six-week ... Greece Participates in Pan-European Strike Widespread Strikes Planned Across Europe |
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People in Italy, Spain, Germany, France and Greece have joined strikes and demonstrations against austerity measures
The Italian union CGIL led a four-hour general strike in Italy to protest against labour reforms instituted by Mario Monti's government easing hiring and firing rules, as well as rising unemployment and austerity-driven spending cuts and tax hikes which are hitting families hard, just as the recession sends thousands of businesses under. But students were also well represented on the streets, protesting against education cuts and what they see as a jobless future. One banner singled out the labour minister, Elsa Fornero, who recently warned graduates not to be "choosy" about jobs when they enter the job market. "Stay Choosy? Choose to fight," read the banner.
Spanish unions have launched their second general strike this year to protest at budget cuts they say are strangling the economy, killing jobs and hurting all but the well-off. They accuse the conservative People's party government of breaking promises made in their election campaign a year ago and of using the crisis as a smokescreen for dismantling public services, creeping privatisation and undermining working rights. Ignacio Fernández Toxo, leader of the Comisiones Obreras union group, accused the government of implementing "impositions from Brussels, or more exactly, the road map imposed by Berlin and Chancellor Merkel". "I'm striking today because this last labour reform is a fast track to unemployment," said Fatima Frutos, a local government equality officer in the northern town of Pamplona. "Spain's welfare state is being sold off at bargain basement prices."
In Germany, people were not particularly complaining about their own problems but rather seeking greater social equality in the whole crisis. Germany's federation of trade unions (DGB) galvanised several thousand protesters across the country to demonstrate their solidarity towards strikers in southern Europe. Under the banner "against the social division of Europe", it said workers in Greece, Spain and Portugal in particular were paying for a crisis for which they were not responsible. Doro Zinke, the boss of DGB Berlin who gathered protesters at the Brandenburg Gate, said that anger among German workers was growing over politicians' lack of joined-up thinking. "The EU is concentrating solely on the economy but the EU also needs a social face and with that, job creation schemes for young people as well as an intensive effort across the continent to tackle wage dumping."
The five main French unions organised around 100 protests across the country on Wednesday to protest at the "shock treatments" being meted out to workers, especially those in Greece, Spain and Portugal. Austerity, they warned, was plunging Europe into "economic stagnation, if not recession" and was unfair, adding that unemployment in France had not stopped rising for 17 months. "Precariousness is growing, millions of employees are getting work only with fixed contracts for shorter and shorter periods; 11 million people are affected by exclusion or poverty, many of them pensioners. Private and public salaries are stagnant." Opposed to economic "libéralisme" (broadly, the free market), they called for the setting up of a European "social contract" giving European workers equal rights, ending competition between countries and creating "solidarity".
Greeks, who on average have seen their purchasing power decrease by 35%, want pay and pension cuts to be revoked and collective work agreements, a hard-earned right going back decades, to be reinstated. The prospect of up to 150,000 civil servants being fired by 2015, with the first wave being laid off by December – a central tenet of the €13.5bn austerity package passed by the Greek parliament last week – is another grievance. "People haven't been fired from the public sector in this country for over a hundred years," said Nikos Alexopoulos, head of the union of interior ministry employees as he marched through Athens with black flag in hand on Wednesday. "At a time when almost no one can survive, they now want to get rid of 150 of the 600 people who work in our ministry." Greeks are also demanding that unpaid pensions and wages – often going back months – be paid and that mass privatisations and the merging of loss-making, state-run organisations be dropped.
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 AFP | Yen Falls Most in Two Months Against Dollar on Election Outlook San Francisco Chronicle Nov. 14 (Bloomberg) -- The yen fell the most in two months against the dollar after Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda said he will dissolve parliament, paving the way for elections that polls show his Democratic Party of Japan will lose. The dollar dropped versus ... Euro Trades Near 2-Month Low Before European Finance Chiefs Meet Yen Sags, Dollar Drifts, Greece Goes for Austerity CURRENCIES & BONDS / Dollar weakens slightly against yen after Greek ... |
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EURO GOVT-Caution on Greece keeps German debt in demand Reuters The International Monetary Fund and the euro zone remain at loggerheads over how Athens should bring its debt down to a sustainable level, and a deal to release further aid payments to Greece remains some way off. Concern the country may default and ... |
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A photographic highlight selected by the picture desk. Petros Giannakouris' photograph of a woman protesting in Athens is a potent image of discontent
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Holidaymakers are languishing in UK airports instead of lounging on Mediterranean beaches following a general strike over austerity cuts
Thousands of holidaymakers hoping to fly to Spain, the Canary Islands, Portugal, Greece and Italy have had their flights disrupted and cancelled because of a general strike.
EasyJet has cancelled 26 flights, including services from Gatwick to Barcelona and Madrid, and rescheduled 10 others including flights from Gatwick and Manchester to Athens, and from Gatwick to Thessaloniki. Iberia Group has cancelled more than 350 flights.
The disruption is expected to continue into 15 November. TAP Portugal has announced that London-Lisbon flights will also be affected on both days. Passengers are being told their airline is unable to land at airports where fire services are not functioning.
So if you are still languishing in a British airport instead of lounging on Mediterranean beaches, what are your rights?
EU regulations stipulate that if your flight has been cancelled you should be offered a full refund or the option of rebooking. You are also entitled to phone calls, refreshments and accommodation if you are stuck at the airport overnight.
If your flight is delayed the airline must offer you meals and/or refreshments, depending on how long the delay is. If it is a lengthy delay the airline may have to give you accommodation and transport to the hotel.
Most airlines have encouraged passengers to rebook on alternative dates free of any extra charge.
Under EU law industrial action is categorised under "extraordinary circumstances", which means your airline is not obliged to pay the compensation that would usually be due if a flight is cancelled, though it will pay for meals and refreshments if you find yourself stranded at the airport.
Although the cheapest policies may not include cover against strike action, most now pay out if policyholders are delayed because of industrial action – check the small print to make sure. However, few will pay out if the policyholder cancels the trip simply because of the threat of cancellation, before it is confirmed by the airline.
For your claim to be successful you must have bought the insurance before the date the strike was announced – 19 October.
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Police officers try to push protesters back onto the pavement after they blocked traffic on Oxford Street, London, whilst taking part in a picket and demonstration they said was over dismissals of 28 workers employed by contractors on the Crossrail transport project, for being trade union members, Wednesday, Nov. 14, 2012. The protest was held to coincide with planned European strikes on Wednesday in Spain, Italy, Greece, Portugal, France and Belgium against austerity measures and economic reforms. Crossrail, due to start running services in 2018, is a new train line that will include twin-bore 21 km tunnels under central London and link 37 stations including transport hubs such as Heathrow airport with business districts including the City and Canary Wharf. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham) |
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Greece needs more lenient targets to reduce its budget deficit, not a debt write-off by official creditors, which wouldn't be politically feasible, the head of a global banking lobby said Wednesday.
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 The Star-Ledger - NJ.com | Ancient Greek grapes make fine Campanian wines The Star-Ledger - NJ.com This ancient Greek grape generally produces a light, dry, nondescript white wine, but Donnachiara offers a more pronounced version that is made and aged exclusively in temperature-controlled stainless steel tanks. Both vintages exhibited fresh and ... |
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 euronews | Figures point to economic gloom in Portugal and Greece euronews There were was no hiding bad news for Greece. The country's economic slump deepened in the third quarter with output shrinking 7.2 percent on an annual basis. One in four Greeks remain out of work. Analysts said today's figures could actually point to ... |
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