How the world sees Greece
IIF: Outcome of Greek Debt Buyback Still Uncertain Wall Street Journal Greek officials have said they have a backup plan in case the buyback fails, an outcome that would likely force euro-zone officials and the IMF to look for ways to cut Greece's debt, such as lowering interest rates on bilateral loans to Athens. The IIF ... |
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Greece dentist uses work to help others Rochester Democrat and Chronicle Dr. Keith Swanger finishes up with patient Mariana Capita of Greece. Swanger and his staff are extensively involved in the community, visiting students in Greece and Rochester schools as well as being part of the Give Back A Smile program. / Jamie ... |
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My family's experience shows how easily Greeks and Germans forget what they have in common
I recently bumped into a cousin in Switzerland. I hadn't known she even existed – she and I never moved in the same family circles when I visited relatives in Athens. But since the start of the crisis, Greeks abroad have become more aware of their family trees. My relative completed a degree in Germany 25 years ago and returned to Greece to get a job in the food industry. Two years ago she was made redundant. For 18 months she tried to find work, then gave up and begged her mother to call her contacts in Germany – such as my father, her cousin once removed, who helped her move to Germany, and from thereon to Switzerland.
Although the German parliament should on Friday pass a deal that eases the pressure on the Greek economy, many Greeks have gone back to doing what they have always been good at: they activating networks of relatives in the diaspora and moving abroad. Statistics released this month show that Greek migration to Germany has shot up almost 80% in the past few years. They are a different breed to the unqualified workers from rural areas who moved abroad in the 1960s, however: the new migrant comes from one of the crisis-hit cities and has a bagful of degrees and qualifications.
In this respect, the Greek disaster is a German boon: the brain drain from the Mediterranean is helping to plug Germany's chronic lack of qualified workers. And yet Greeks who arrive are rarely welcomed with open arms at German borders. A large part of the population still insists that "we" will end up having to cough up for "their" welfare. Out come all the old cliches: haven't "those Greeks" always been feckless layabouts? People empathise with the situation in Greece but often wouldn't want to go as far as letting out their flat to a Greek family.
Accepting that migration is once again part of the Greek experience isn't easy for Greeks, either. Expectations are higher than they used to be. In the 90s, Greece had managed to turn itself from an emigration into an immigration country (even if not a particularly welcoming one, as the rise of Golden Dawn shows). In 2004, when Athens hosted the Olympics and the Greek football team won the European Championship, it briefly looked like the country had finally arrived in Europe. That dream has now come to a sudden end: in the eyes of most Europeans, we've been pegged back to "oriental" levels.
I grew up in Germany with a Greek father and a German mother, and I find it relatively easy to look at the situation from both sides of the divide. But for Greeks in Greece to accept partial responsibility in their downfall isn't easy. Greece experienced modernisation, but no real reforms. Mentally, it never kept up with economic progress. The EU and the euro arrived and living standards rose, but in politics the same old family structures remained intact, tourists were served the same old souvlakis and moussakas for notched-up prices, and the country continued to consume, "Balkans-style" – as if the whole dream could be over by tomorrow.
Analysing what really happened during the boom years is much harder than blaming the big bad Germans, those heartless, work-obsessed robots. Of course you can question Angela Merkel's austerity politics. And there's no question that some Germans – much like many Greeks – have simply failed to grasp where the European project is at: there's a widespread and enormously inflexible fixation with savings, wage restraint and fighting inflation that is simply outdated.
But ultimately Germany and Greece are simply opposite poles at a new phase of European integration. If you look at the relationship between the two countries from a distance, the overwhelming impression is not of a culture clash but a historical enmeshing. You only have to remember that the blue-and-white Greek flag is based on the colours of the state of Bavaria – whose Prince Otto became the first king of independent Greece. These shared links and influences – all too quickly forgotten – should be the starting point for solving Europe's problems.
Europeans are currently going through an astonishing learning curve: Greeks are coming to terms with the fact that the European Union isn't just the friendly aunt from the distant west that sorts out our infrastructure but that it can make demands too. And Germany is slowly starting to grasp that the EU can't just be an export market with a stable currency. A union also has to involve solidarity with people who don't speak the same language as you.
In that respect, the crisis could be an opportunity to complete European integration. But that chance will come and go if we don't get a glimpse of a light at the end of the tunnel. I am pleased that the Bundestag will, in all likelihood, pass a measure on Friday to cut Greek's debt mountain by €40bn. For the short term such measures are important, but in the long run "rescue packages" are no recipe for a Europe in which Greece and Germany can coexist happily.
Translated by Philip Oltermann
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Greek groups serve chili, raise money for Special Olympics Wednesday Central Michigan Life Groups of students came to the Wesley Center for a bowl of chili and to support a good cause Wednesday afternoon. Fraternity Sigma Tau Gamma and sorority Alpha Sigma Alpha held a chili lunch at the on-campus center, raising money for the Special ... |
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Andriani Palma says she feels cheated for every one of the 22 years she wasn't told her husband was killed during fighting in the summer of 1974 that split tiny Cyprus along ethnic lines.
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 Business Recorder | FOREX-Euro slightly higher versus dollar, fiscal talk eyed Reuters Thu Nov 29, 2012 2:54pm EST. * Boehner says no progress on budget talks in last 2 weeks * Italian yields fall, euro zone sentiment improves * Dollar's gains versus yen may slow By Wanfeng Zhou NEW YORK, Nov 29 (Reuters) - The euro came off a ... Dollar Pares Losses Against Euro After Boehner Damps Optimism Dollar Retreats on 'Cliff' Optimism Euro briefly trades at $1.30 |
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EU court throws out freedom of information request relating to credit swaps which allowed the country to increase its debts
The EU's general court has blocked an attempt to force the European Central Bank to release files showing how Greece used derivatives to hide its debt in the run-up to the financial crisis. The case was brought by Bloomberg News under the EU's freedom of information rules in August 2010 but was thrown out on Thursday by the court in Luxembourg.
"Disclosure of those documents would have undermined the protection of the public interest so far as concerns the economic policy of the EU and Greece," the EU's general court said.
Goldman Sachs and other investment banks have been criticised by European leaders over claims that they helped Greece disguise the true scale of its debts over several years. German chancellor Angela Merkel said in February 2010: "It's a scandal if it turned out that the same banks that brought us to the brink of the abyss helped to fake the statistics."
The ECB is headed by a former Goldman banker, Mario Draghi.
The ruling means European taxpayers who are footing the bill for the €240bn Greek bailout will not find out whether EU officials knew of irregularities in Greece's national accounts before they became public in 2009.
Georg Erber, a specialist in financial market regulation at the German Institute for Economic Research, told Bloomberg: "The courts are bending the rules to legalise the policies of the European institutions and help stabilise the region. It reveals implicitly that the EU was well informed about what was going on and didn't take steps to avert the crisis."
Bloomberg sought access to two internal papers drafted for the ECB's six-member executive board. In April 2009, ECB officials spotted a "swap operation in unusual terms" involving the National Bank of Greece, according to a cover note to the two documents seen by Bloomberg. From October 2009, repeated revisions of Greece's budget figures drove up the country's borrowing costs and eventually forced it to seek aid from the EU and the International Monetary Fund.
Eurostat accounting rules allowed member states to use off-market rates in swaps to manage their debt until 2008. The use of swaps, which Greece had not disclosed as debt, allowed the country to increase borrowings by €5.3bn (£4.3bn), Eurostat said in 2010. In the largest derivative disclosed, Greece borrowed €2.8bn from Goldman Sachs in 2001.
The mood on stock markets was lifted by optimism that US lawmakers will be able to avoid the "fiscal cliff" of higher taxes and spending cuts looming in the new year. Republican speaker John Boehner said his party could broker a deal with the White House while Barack Obama said he thought it could be done by Christmas.
The comments propelled the FTSE 100 index in London to three-week highs. It closed up nearly 70 points, or 1.2%, at 5870.30 while Germany's Dax gained 0.8% and France's CAC rose 1.5%.
David Madden, market analyst at spread betting firm IG, said the comments "have filled investors with confidence that the US economy will not plunge into a recession come new year. However, just because Mr Obama says everything will be OK doesn't make it so, and dealers will want more than words as we approach the deadline.
"I think we are in for a see-saw ride on the run-up to Christmas, as traders closely follow politicians' statements – take last night for example. All we need is an 'optimistic' outlook to move the market higher but if there is any doubt that a deal will not be in place, we will see another sell-off."
The better mood was also helped by an increase in business and economic confidence in November in Europe which ended eight monthly declines in a row, while German unemployment rose by less than feared, leaving the jobless rate at 6.9%.
Bond yields in struggling eurozone countries fell in the wake of a successful Italian bond auction and the Greek deal earlier in the week, with Italian 10-year yields briefly touching levels last seen in December 2010. Italy sold €2.98bn of 10-year bonds, just shy of the maximum targeted amount, and paid a yield of 4.45%, down almost 50 basis points from a sale at the end of October. A year ago, Italy paid a record 7.56% to get 10-year bonds away.
New data also showed the American economy grew faster than previously thought in the third quarter, by an annual rate of 2.7% rather than the 2% estimated by the government last month. This was due to companies building up stocks more quickly than thought but is not expected to be sustained as the nation prepares for tax increases and spending cuts.
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Dixons sees major competitor disappear but there is trouble brewing in the group's 'southern Europe' division
The last man standing theory of retailing says that, just by staying upright in the internet storm, there should be a decent living left for the single survivor among high street specialists. It's never been terribly persuasive since HMV and Waterstones continue to struggle even after the disappearance of Woolworths, Borders, Zavvi, and others. But how about Dixons? Will life be easier in a post-Comet world?
Up to a point. Seeing your major competitor disappear, or at least shrink substantially, has to be helpful. Comet has annual sales of £1.2bn so, if Dixons can grab just a fifth of the spoils, its stores should get a £240m uplift.
Crucially, this gain should come at decent profit margins since the rent on the stores has to be paid anyway. Seymour Pierce's analyst calculates that Dixons should enjoy an extra £29m in operating profit at least. Very nice, especially as Dixons, after years of struggle, seems to have knocked its UK operation into better shape: today's £5.6m profit in the UK & Ireland was the first at the half-year stage for half a decade.
But this is no time for Dixons' new boss, Sebastian James, to celebrate rivals' woes. He's got a pile of his own troubles in the group's "southern Europe" division. The Italian operation is too small and the Greek business would be excellent if only it were in a different country.
But the worst of the lot is Pixmania, a monument to the former management's hubris in thinking it could get ahead in the internet game by investing in a French-based pan-European distributor of everything from electricals to jewellery. To no surprise, expansion in Albania, one of 29 countries served, has not made the numbers improve. Dixons has been obliged to buy full control of Pixmania in an attempt to impose order and stem losses. Do not expect a quick fix.
Still, Dixons is definitely a survivor. This year's big event was the repayment, via a refinancing, of a dangerous-looking bond. That represented substantial progress, and the share price had started to react even before administrators arrived at Comet. You could have bought into Dixons in January at 11p, so today's 25.7p makes the shares one of the top performers of 2012. But remember, once upon a time they traded at 280p. The internet, Amazon, and ill-judged expansion have taken a heavy toll.
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Greek Housing Market Falling Down Fast Greek Reporter Unable to pay even necessities, most Greeks aren't even thinking of new homes, resulting in developers staying out of the market until demand returns. Making it worse, property taxes have been doubled in a new avalanche of tax hikes and Greeks are ... |
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Greece Lays Out Plan to Repay Domestic Arrears Wall Street Journal Greece's pension funds and health services are likely to be paid off first in a move that is expected to inject cash and boost consumption in the liquidity-starved economy, Deputy Finance Minister Christos Staikouras said Thursday during a presentation ... Greek bond buyback likely to feature varied prices - source |
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Business Recorder | Euro up slightly; gains tenuous as US fiscal deal hangs Reuters By Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss. NEW YORK | Thu Nov 29, 2012 1:07pm EST. NEW YORK (Reuters) - The euro slipped from one-month highs against the dollar to trade just slightly higher on Thursday after comments by top Republican lawmaker John Boehner ... Dollar Pares Losses Against Euro After Boehner Damps Optimism Dollar Retreats on 'Cliff' Optimism Euro briefly trades at $1.30 |
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 Telegraph.co.uk | UPDATE 1-Greek bond buyback likely to feature varied prices-source Reuters ATHENS Nov 29 (Reuters) - Greece has yet to decide how much to offer bondholders under a debt buyback plan that is central to its international bailout deal, but the price is likely to vary depending on the bond, a Greek finance official said on Thursday. IMF Says Implementation Is Key for Greek Payment to Go Through Greek deal frays as IMF threatens walk-out on debt buy-back impasse Greek Bond Prices Above Level Eurogroup Set For Buyback |
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UPDATE 1-Weidmann - Greece must reform or aid impact will evaporate Reuters BERLIN Nov 29 (Reuters) - Greece must implement reforms agreed as part of its aid package or else the effect of help from its international lenders will evaporate, Bundesbank chief Jens Weidmann said on Thursday. Weidmann, who sits on the European ... |
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Sale of £126m worth of energy services group's shares by family trust hits sentiment
Energy services business Wood Group missed out on a market rally which saw the FTSE 100 reach its highest level for three weeks.
The company's shares fell 35p to 780p. a decline of more than 4%, after the Wood family trust and members of the Wood family sold 4.4% - 16.3m shares which represented their total stake - at 775p each through Credit Suisse, raising around £126m. Sir Ian Wood, the departing chairman and grandson of the company's founder, said he had no current intention to sell his 2.4% shareholding.
But Oriel Securities said this was a good opportunity to buy into the company:
Overall we think [its] strong international position in offshore facilities, subsea and production support leaves the company well placed to take advantage of increasing industry spending.
Andrew Whittock at Liberum Capital kept a hold rating and said:
Given the family's apparent lack of interest in the business we would not read anything into this share sale
With the immediate issues facing Greece and Spain seemingly resolved for the moment, investors turned inevitably to the problem confronting the US, namely the tax rises and spending cuts due to come into force next year, the so-called fiscal cliff. For most of the day, there was growing optimism that Democrats and Republicans could come to a deal, so markets were in a reasonably buoyant mood. The FTSE 100 finished up 67.02 points at 5870.30, its highest since 6 November. But after the UK market had closed after the US house speaker John Boehner said there had been no substantive progress in the last two weeks, unsettling the US market.
Miners were among the leading risers, as investors sought out riskier assets again. Rio Tinto rose 149.5p to £30.90 after it said it planned to cut costs by $7bn over the next two years and sell further assets to offset falling commodity prices. It intends to increase output at its iron ore business, which accounts for more than 80% of earnings. Kazakhmys climbed 40.5p to 719p, and Anglo American added 57p to £17.64.
Elsewhere Burberry continued its recent rise, up 43p to £13.17, helped by some excitable market chatter of a possible £20 a share offer.
Pennon put on 26p to 624.5p after the water company, which recently warned on its waste business and said it was unable to accept proposed licence changes from the Ofwat regulator, reported results in line with forecasts. Half year profits rose 3.4% to £111.1m, and Angelos Anastasiou at Seymour Pierce said:
Unsurprisingly, Pennon's interim results are exactly as outlined in the unplanned trading statement on 15 November. Overall: South West Water very good, but [waste group] Viridor disappointing in the short term. It will take a while for full confidence to be regained, but we believe that investors will still appreciate the underlying story.
Kingfisher, the owner of B&Q in the UK and Castorama in France, fell 1.6p to 279p after like for like sales for the third quarter dropped 2.8%. Retail profits fell 5.9% to £257m. Chief executive Ian Cheshire said it was a solid performance for the three months after a tough first half but added:
Our markets remain challenging, with consumer confidence still weak and so we maintain our strong focus on margin, costs and cash.
Among the mid-caps Invensys soared 25p to 305p after Wednesday's late news it had sold its rail business to Siemens for £1.74bn.
Housebuilders moved higher after a positive note on the sector from analysts at HSBC. Persimmon put on 24.5p to 796.5p and Bovis Homes was 17p better at 550p.
RPC, which makes plastic packaging such as jars, lost 35.9p to 390p as it felt the effects of the crisis in the eurozone, which accounts for 64% of its turnover. It said half year sales fell £69m to £518m although operating profit was up 4%. The company plans to close plants in Antwerp in Belgium and Beuningen in the Netherlands as part of cutbacks which will cost around £30m.
BSkyB lose 7.5p to 771.5p as analysts at Jefferies downgraded the satellite broadcaster. They said:
With shares rerating 20% since April, we no longer believe Sky's valuation reflects the challenges it faces as the UK's incumbent pay TV platform as the market matures. With growth slowing we see increased competition for subscribers weighing on prices/churn and new entrants driving up the cost of content. As such we see risks to the downside and move to underperform [from hold].
Chip designer Arm dipped 10p to 762.5p on worries about a reported poor performance from Microsoft's Surface tablet, which uses the UK company's architecture. Liberum Capital repeated its sell recommendation, saying:
Digitimes reports that upstream orders for the Windows RT based Microsoft Surface device has been cut by half from four million to two million units. Demand for other Windows RT devices from Asustek and Samsung is also weak. This is in line with our view that Arm is unlikely to find much success in the Windows based tablet and notebook market due to software compatibility issues. We believe a significant part of Arm's current valuation multiple is based on its taking material share from Intel in the Windows-based notebook market. We also expect Intel to continue to take share from Arm in the Arm-dominated smartphone and tablet markets given that power consumption levels are now similar.
Lower down the market, troubled card protection group CPP fell 21% to 15.75p. After the market closed on Wednesday, its potential suitor, US group Affinion, said it had decided not to make an offer for the business. CPP said it was in talks with its banks about its debt facilities and was also considering alternative financing and strategic options.
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 euinside.eu | Great Graphic: Trajectory of Greece Debt Business Insider This Great Graphic comes from Bruegel. It shows the trajectory of the Greece's debt to GDP ration over until 2030 under different scenarios, drawing on some of the components from the agreement struck at the start of the week. The details have been ... Greece Received a Commitment for a Carrot |
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IMF money for Greece contingent on debt buy back Reuters WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The International Monetary Fund will not disburse Greece's next bailout tranche until the country completes a voluntary buy back of its debt, an IMF spokesman said on Thursday. Eurogroup finance ministers and the IMF agreed ... |
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Is Puerto Rico the Greece of the Caribbean? CNBC.com "There are aspects of Puerto Rico that are quite similar to [Greece]," says Robert Donahue, managing director at Municipal Market Advisors. He explains that the similarities include "high government employment, the [unregulated] tax system, the pension ... |
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IMF Says Implementation Is Key for Greek Payment to Go Through Bloomberg The main challenge for a disbursement under a Greek bailout package is the implementation of measures agreed to by Greece and finance ministers of the euro region, including a buyback of Greek bonds, an International Monetary Fund spokesman said. |
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