How the world sees Greece
 The Voice of Russia | 50 bln euros enough for bank bailout - Greece The Voice of Russia Business, Greece, debt crisis in Greece, News, World, Greek economy · World service · USA Live · Frequencies · Schedule · US Edition website · UK Edition website · No Chinese expansion in Russia – official · Lake Ellsworth drilling sealed off · Man ... |
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 Telegraph.co.uk | Top four Greek banks need €27.5bn by May Telegraph.co.uk "Capital needs for all Greek commercial banks were estimated in May 2012 at €40.5bn, of which the €27.5bn corresponded to the four core banks," it said. The four banks, identified as the National Bank of Greece (NBG), Alpha, Eurobank and Piraeus, will ... Greek Bank Capital Needs at EU27.5 Billion, Bank of Greece Says Greek Central Bank Says EUR50 Billion Enough to Recap Banks Greek Christmas sales turnover reduces by 40 pct compared to 2011: retailers |
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 Bloomberg | Greek Bank Capital Needs at EU27.5 Billion, Bank of Greece Says Bloomberg National Bank of Greece SA, the country's biggest lender, needs to raise 9.8 billion euros, according to an e-mailed report by the Athens-based Bank of Greece (TELL) today. Eurobank Ergasias SA (EUROB) needs 5.8 billion euros, Alpha Bank (ALPHA) ... Greece says needs 27.5 bn euros to recapitalise 4 banks Bank recapitalization report expected on Thursday |
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Greece's young leftist firebrand held the future of his country in his hands for a few days in June. He may do again in 2013
He came from Greece's political wilderness – yet for a few days in June Alexis Tsipras held the future of the euro in his hands. Six months on, the fast-talking firebrand who took the world by storm in the runup to the Greek elections may no longer be in the spotlight, but he has not faded into history. "We may have narrowly lost the battle," Tsipras says of the failure of his radical left Syriza party to clinch power. "But we have not lost the war."
As leader of the main opposition in the country on the frontline of Europe's debt drama, Tsipras is now ensconced in an elegant office on the ground floor of the Greek parliament, a former royal palace that looks on to Syntagma Square, the theatre for the robust rallies that have rocked Athens over the past three years.
Syntagma is likely to see more tumult in the months to come – next year is poised to be the roughest since Greece descended into economic freefall following revelations of the true scale of its budget deficit in late 2009.
"We are the great hope for change," the politician says, his arms sprawled across the back of an armchair. "And we don't want only to stop the catastrophe, the bad medicine," he adds, referring to the recession-inducing austerity cuts Greece has applied in return for rescue loans from its "troika" of creditors at the European Union, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund. "We also want to change Greece – all the positive structural reforms can only be done by us. The political environment was one of the main reasons for the crisis, as was a public sector created to bring in votes."
At 38, with the addition of a newborn son to his four-member family, the young politician has come a long way since the days when his disparate alliance of leftists, greens, Marxists and Maoists worked out of a couple of shabby rooms on the second floor of the parliament building – a reflection of the mere 4.5% that the party then polled.
Propelled by vehement anti-austerity rhetoric and uncompromising opposition to policies that have seen the disposable income of most Greeks drop precipitously, Syriza's fortunes have risen dramatically.
Greece's landmark June election was billed by Antonis Samaras, the man who went on to win the ballot, as a stark choice between painful reforms that would keep the country in the euro and opting, via Syriza, for a return to the drachma. Support for the leftists soared, with the party taking 29.6% of the vote.
Tsipras's own oratorical flair and charisma have undoubtedly contributed to the ascent. Public opinion surveys have repeatedly put his party in the lead since the summer. He has his sights on power. Demands for fresh elections are likely to be heard frequently over the course of 2013.
"This government does not have a long lifeline," he says, waving his arms for emphasis as he lists the measures adopted by his "dogmatic neo-liberal" political enemies that, he continues, have been tried and failed miserably.
"Greece is unique. Even after its debt was restructured it continued to go up," he says. Because the measures were self-defeating, he adds, they were doomed to exacerbate the country's economic death spiral. "A haircut is inevitable and it will happen after the German elections [next September]."
Critics contend that Tsipras is betting on disaster. He is, they say, a demagogue with merely a schoolboy knowledge of economics and the intricacies of global finance. For Samaras and his junior partners, power-sharing in an uneasy coalition, Syriza is not only irresponsible but dangerous to boot.
The party's embrace of the state and steadfast refusal to accept the privatisation of public utilities – with Tsipras often being compared to the late socialist strongman Andreas Papandreou – is, they argue, disastrous for a country dependent entirely on international creditors to keep replenishing its near-empty public coffers.
The former pony-tailed communist sticks to his guns: "The problem with the public sector is not one of quantity but quality," says Tsipras. "We are at a European average in terms of size."
This week as he made his first official trip to Latin America – meeting not only the president of Brazil, Dilma Rousseff, but her predecessor Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva – Syriza's foreign policy was similarly derided. But the party shot back, saying the visit was part of efforts to "internationalise the Greek debt problem" by pursuing a multifaceted foreign policy that is not only dependent on the EU.
Yet while Tsipras is clearly preparing for power, he is also putting water in his wine – and not only because the disaffection of the middle class is bound to grow with the implementation of austerity measures in 2013 that are billed as the toughest yet. Last month Syriza took the historic step of uniting as a single force, with an overwhelming 75% voting to create a central committee led by Tsipras and the party's decisively pro-European wing.
With maturity have come moderation and a self-confidence on the part of Tsipras that was previously lacking. The dress code, like the first grey flecks in his raven black hair, has changed. Jeans, increasingly, have been replaced by sharper suits, Italian shirts and suede shoes along with a striking improvement in spoken English for a politician who, unlike many in the Greek political establishment, did not attend private schools or universities abroad. "I watch CNN and read the Guardian now," Tsipras says.
But aides insist that while the party's tone may have changed – a byproduct of being forced to grow up abruptly – its overarching objective remains the same: abolition of the memorandum outlining the terms of Athens's bailout and renegotiation of the loan agreement it has signed with its partners.
"From the first year of the crisis everything we have said has come true," says Tsipras. "Of course we feel vindicated but it's not enough. The whole policy has to change."
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 Kathimerini | GREECE: Alpha Bank shareholders clear bond issue to Credit Agricole Financial Mirror Shareholders of Greece's Alpha Bank approved a convertible bond issue to be placed with Credit Agricole as part of a deal to take over the French lender's ailing Greek unit. They also empowered management on Thursday to make other bond and share ... Credit Agricole shuts down PH office |
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 Greek Reporter | Greece to Review Tax Evader Swiss Bank Account List OANDA Forex (blog) Christine Lagarde had previously handed the Greek government the list of tax evaders and it seems the criticism last week by the EU Troika (IMF, EU and EC) has paid off as there seems to be progress as Greek authorities are now reviewing the list. First Lagarde List Missing 600 Names Tax evasion scrutinized |
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Greece Probes 45997 For Pension Fraud Greek Reporter After long delays and sputtering investigations, Greek authorities said they have compiled a list of 45,997 people suspected of pension fraud, including continuing to collect benefits for undeclared dead family members, some of whom would have been as ... |
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 euronews | 'Nouveau poor' in Greece get free Christmas meal euronews A soup kitchen for the poor is something St Emilian church in the Greek capital Athens provides every day. But with the debt crisis throwing so many middle class parishioners into hardship, the local priest organised a Christmas feast for about 40 of ... |
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Greek prosecutors comb through Swiss bank account list Chicago Tribune ATHENS (Reuters) - Greek prosecutors are checking a list of possible tax cheats, court sources said on Thursday, in a case that has highlighted Athens's failure to crack down on tax evasion, one of the factors behind the country's financial crisis ... |
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 Live Trading News | Greek bank recapitalization would cost €27.5B FXstreet.com Of those €27.5B, the Greek National Bank would need around €9.5B and €9.8B, while Piraeus Bank would get €7.0B, Eurobank would receive €5.8B and Alphabank would need €4.4B. FXstreet.com. Advertisement. © 2012 “FXstreet.com. The Forex Market” ... Officials use Christmas Eve to bury reports on the real cause of Greek crisis |
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 KGMI | Eurozone crisis live: Monti and Berlusconi set for election battle The Guardian Over in Greece, the saga of the "Lagarde List" of alleged tax evaders rumbles on. Greek newspaper Kathimerini reported last night that government officials have collected a new copy of the list (which was originally handed to Athens in 2010 and then ... Italy's T-Bill, CTZ Auction Sees Solid Demand but Yields Mixed German 10-Year Bunds Hold Two-Day Gain as Italy Auctions Bills Italian Bonds Seen Weathering Political Confusion: Euro Credit |
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 MiamiHerald.com (registration) | Going Greek: Leg of lamb in paper, brie in phyllo MiamiHerald.com (registration) Pamela Suarez sent a recipe from a Greek cooking website that actually has measurements and timing, but I was dubious since it calls for no treatment of the bag or for putting water in the pan you set the roast in. Sara L. suggested the recipe here ... |
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 The Star-Ledger - NJ.com | Greek Peak Mountain Resort Anticipates the Seasons First Major Snowstorm WBGH Greek Peak Mountain Resort eagerly awaits winter's first snowstorm to hit this evening. With the forecasted snowfall of more than a foot of snow, combined with the Ski Resort's snowmaking operations, Greek Peak anticipates all lifts and trails open by ... CNY ski resorts anticipate great snow conditions |
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If the idea that we're all screwed takes hold, the Conservatives will end up exploiting the fear they've created
It's early for New Year's resolutions, but this one might take a while to get used to: for 2013 we have it as a civic duty to cheer up. Cheer up significantly; infuse debate with optimism and pride. This is unfamiliar territory for any lefty, "onwards, upwards" being more of a free-market mantra. But this year has been characterised by a deliberate air of catastrophe.
Economically, we are just one policy initiative away from being Greece (bankrupt, unable to afford basic medicines, on the brink of fascist uprising, burning our furniture for warmth … the overstatement is absurd). Energy futures are so insecure that the only way to steal a march on the rest of the world is to frack our own land to within an inch of habitability and then sell the gas to, erm, the rest of the world.
The benefits system has been rendered unaffordable by the twin evils of fraud and generations of worklessness. Housing benefit is yesterday's luxury; people have to get used to paying the same amount of money for the same squalid conditions – only with more overcrowding. Education is in such crisis that the best way to tackle it is to hand it over to people who have no experience in education. The NHS is inefficient and unaffordable, will become inexorably more so as our population ages, and the only way to handle that is to outsource it to people who want to profit from it.
The mistake I personally have been making is to conceive all these arguments individually, and attend to the answers as if we were all operating on a plane of reason. So, how can austerity be the way to avoid turning into a country whose problems were caused by austerity? What's the point of investing in a fuel that goes against our carbon targets – why can't we spend public money on developing fuel that we can use for the public good? How can the benefits bill be responsible for a debt whose bulk is made up by a bank bailout; how can fraud, at 0.7% of the bill, have made any significant dent on it; what have generations of worklessness got to do with anything, when they are almost entirely a figment of Iain Duncan Smith's imagination (1% of workless households have two generations who've never worked; figures for three generations are unavailable, possibly because those households don't exist – these feral poor being monsters under IDS's bed)?
Why throw education open to well-meaning parents and sponsors, when it means losing the expertise and the cross-borough overview of the local authority? Why introduce private companies into the NHS when the most cursory look at outsourcing anywhere else – old people's homes, waste management, trains, children's homes, asylum-seeker dispersal – shows that private companies do the exact opposite of what they claim? They do not drive down costs, they drive them up. They do not create competition; companies take one another over until there are only four of them, and then they operate as a cabal. They do not innovate, unless you count "innovation" as constantly looking for new ways to cut wages.
All of this is true, but it's not the point: this regime only makes any of these arguments in the service of a wider portrayal of gloom, and the strategy is a good one. For as long as this idea takes hold – that we're all screwed, from every possible direction – the Tories will win. They will fashion themselves as the status quo, taking advantage of the fear they have created to ward off a desire for change. They'll paint themselves as a haven, a safe pair of hands, an authority whose very creation of pain proves its fitness for these times in which pain is inevitable. It's time to stop focusing on battles – which you can win or lose, without making much difference – and change the weapons, change the landscape, come out of the darkness and fight in the light.
The reason we won't turn into Greece is not because of the policy tightrope that George Osborne is so gauchely, painfully clomping across. It's because – no offence, Greeks – our economy is much stronger than theirs, our public accounts more transparent, our tax system more consistent. The reason we don't need fracking is not because we're deep greens, waiting for an apocalypse, it's because we are the best placed nation in Europe, among the best placed in the world, for alternative energies – we are windy, we are surrounded by tides, we've played a key part in the development of renewables, and could continue to (so long as nobody destroys our universities). If Germany is planning for 50% of its energy use to come from renewables within six years, we could better that. We could plug into a European supergrid (once it exists) and sell our excess. We could literally rule the waves, people.
On the subject of benefits, can we pause to consider how incredibly low that figure of fraud is? In so many other areas of dishonesty – tax avoidance, expenses claims – the rot is never contained to a small core, it always spreads over time, it becomes peer-normalised and then grows exponentially, until the only people who aren't doing it are cranks. And yet, here we are, with this body of people among whom the number of fraudsters is tiny. On top of the honesty, consider in-work benefits, the number of people doing jobs that won't cover their rent, won't cover their childcare, won't put food on the table without government subsidy – working, in other words, for the sheer joy of work. This is a work ethic to die for.
The housing crisis is not a threat, it's an opportunity. We need more social housing, we need a more vigorous construction industry, and we need things for a government to invest in, rather than rounds of quantitative easing, delivering money into the hands of the top 5% and eroding pension annuities. We could climb out of recession on the back of this "crisis" at the same time as halting the hegemony of the private landlord, which is perverting wage spending-power and intensifying inequality. This is one of the few levers the government could actually pull to influence the economy.
UK education is ranked sixth best in the world, and not because Toby Young has set up a free school. The NHS is amazing: not because it's a socialist project, but because it is mind-blowingly good, and efficient, at what it does.
This government wants to govern a nation of crooks, fighting over the last crust of bread. In fact, we are an honest, industrious people with natural resources coming out of our well-educated, disease-free ears. Happy New Year.
Twitter: @zoesqwilliams
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