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Welcome, 77 artists, 40 different points of Attica welcomes you by singing Erotokritos an epic romance written at 1713 by Vitsentzos Kornaros

Thursday, June 13, 2013

Greek Festival in Saginaw kicks off weekend of spit-roasted lamb, dancing and ...


Greek Festival in Saginaw kicks off weekend of spit-roasted lamb, dancing and ...
MLive.com
Annual Greek Festival kicks off at St. Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church in Saginaw Township Girls take pictures of the St. Demetrios "Meraki" Dance Group at the 2012 Greek Festival at St. Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church in Saginaw Township. The festival ...


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If only Britain had joined the euro

If Gordon Brown had chosen to join the single currency 10 years ago, both the European Union and Britain would be stronger now

Ten years ago this week Gordon Brown said no to joining the euro. It is an anniversary on which Bank of England governor Mervyn King, Ukip's Nigel Farage, Unite's Len McCluskey and the Guardian's Larry Elliott, along with most of the British economic establishment, can all agree. On this, Brown was right.

Elliott set out the establishment consensus in a classic piece this month on his alternative history of what would have happened had Britain joined. Essentially, he says, there would have been a bigger boom in the runup to 2007 and a more disastrous bust. Britain would now be struggling to maintain its membership as anti-EU sentiment mushroomed, prompting its eventual exit, dramatising the inherent unsoundness of yoking disparate economies into one inflexible currency.

But there is a more optimistic, alternative history. The first obvious point is that Britain could have joined the euro only if a referendum had been won. A victory would have depended on it being an obvious good deal, with the pound entering at a competitive rate and the euro's structure, rules and governance reformed to accommodate British concerns and interests. The European Central Bank would have needed to look more like the US Federal Reserve, with more scope for fiscal and monetary activism. The Germans would doubtless have insisted, in return, that the EU banking system be more conservatively managed.

The last decade would have been very different. What none of the mockers of the euro ever acknowledge is the economic doomsday machine that Brown created through not joining. By not locking in a competitive pound, Britain suffered a decade of chronic sterling overvaluation, made more acute by the City of London sucking in capital from abroad to finance the extraordinary credit and property boom of those years.

Imports surged and exports sagged; the economy outside banking, which made goods and services to be sold abroad, either stagnated or shrank. Much of the best of UK manufacturing was auctioned off to foreigners. Today we find that, despite a huge currency devaluation, there are just not enough companies to take advantage of it: too much of the rest of British capacity, thanks to foreign takeover, has become a part of global supply chains that are indifferent to exchange-rate variation. Our export response has been feeble; evidence of the economic orthodoxy's inability to devise policies and structures that favour production.

Inside the euro, at a highly competitive exchange rate, Britain's exports would instead have soared, and its traded goods sector would have expanded, not shrunk. Regional cities would have boomed around sustainable activity rather than property and credit. The euro's rules would have meant a less reckless fiscal policy, and banks would have been more constrained in lending for property. They would have had to lend proportionately more to fast-growing real enterprise, reinforced because the new rules would have required them to lend in a more balanced way.

Britain would have entered the 2008 crisis with a far less unbalanced economy, a stronger banking system and international accounts, and a government deficit much less acute. And the reformed eurozone could have responded much more flexibly and cleverly than it did.

In any case, both Britain and Europe are now wrestling with depressed economic activity caused by overstretched bank and company balance sheets – and the exchange-rate regime is hardly the cause of this distress. Germany and the stronger EU countries are plainly wrong in their overemphasis on austerity as a solution, but surely right to argue that the only long-term solution is for the whole of Europe to move to their productivist, stakeholder capitalism.

British mainstream commentators see the obvious fissure between the stronger European north and the weaker south as proof positive that the euro is fatally flawed. But suppose countries like Greece or Ireland rise to the German challenge? Already there are encouraging auguries in both. If so, notwithstanding excessive austerity, they could weather the crisis, and become stronger.

There is plainly a chance one or more countries could leave, but there is a greater chance the system in some form will hold – it is in too many countries' interests to avoid failure. Then expect a pan-European recovery to begin in the second half of the decade that will gather strength in the 2020s.

Inside the euro for the last decade, the economic and political debate would have necessarily moved on. Having won a historic referendum decisively affirming Britain's future in Europe, the Blair government would have had to think in European terms about how to produce, invest, innovate and export. Sure, there would have been problems. But Britain outside the euro in 2013, with endless spending cuts, the biggest fall in real wages for a century, 500,000 people relying on food banks, and a weak unbalanced economy, is hardly a land of milk and honey.

Emboldened by his referendum victory, Blair could have sacked Brown before the disastrous second phase of his chancellorship and lacklustre prime ministership. Blairism would have morphed into a new form of European social democracy, fashioning British-style stakeholder capitalism. UK politics would not have moved so decisively to the right, with conservatives preaching free-market Thatcherism while the left clings to a bastard Keynesianism – united only in their belief, against all the evidence including Britain's export performance, that floating exchange rates are a universal panacea.

A single currency demands disciplines and painful trade-offs: but floating exchange rates after a financial crisis are a transmission mechanism for bank-runs and beggar-my-neighbour devaluations. Magic bullets do not exist. Had Britain joined, both we and Europe would have been better placed, and Larry Elliott would now be writing about how better to get Britain to innovate and invest under a fourth-term Labour government. A better world all round.


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Defying shutdown Greeces ERT runs bootleg news online

By Renee Maltezou
ATHENS, June 13 | Thu Jun 13, 2013 12:26pm EDT
ATHENS, June 13 (Reuters) - Plastered on a studio inside the headquarters of shuttered Greek state broadcaster ERT, a sign proclaims: "The revolution will not be televised."
For roughly 600 ERT journalists who found themselves out of a job when the government abruptly switched off the signal on Tuesday, the move ...

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Fitch Greek Banks Risks Remain High But Recap Provides Buffer

Fitch Revises India's Outlook to Stable; Affirms Ratings at 'BBB-' The revision of the outlook to stable reflects the measures taken by the government to contain the budget deficit, including the commitments made in the FY14 budget, as well as some, albeit limited, progress in addressing some of the structural impediments to investment and economic ...

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The Beautiful World of Greek Bankers

(Photo/Reuters/Icon/Elias Anagnostopoulos) Michalis Sallas, the founder of Piraeus Bank - now the largest bank in Greece - "graced" a large part of the first page of the Business Day insert of The New York Times this week, and two-thirds of the fourth page of the section. We are talking about an unusually extensive journalistic treatment of the ways and means used by Sallas - a former ...

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Spanish and Greeks move north due to austerity crisis

By Anders Melin BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Greeks and Spaniards are moving to northern Europe in growing numbers, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) said on Thursday, as soaring unemployment rates and fiscal austerity ...

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Council of Europe rights chief says Greeces ERT closure a blow to democracy urges reopening

ATHENS, Greece -- Europe's commissioner for human rights has strongly condemned the closure of Greece's state ERT broadcaster, and urged the government to repeal the decision. In a statement e-mailed to the Associated Press Thursday, Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Nils Muiznieks says the move "deals a heavy blow to a fundamental pillar of democracy." This ...

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Mass Strikes in Greece Follow Latest Austerity Blow

Addressing protesting ERT workers at a studio in Greece's second biggest city Thessaloniki, Alexis Tsipras, a leftwing politician, called on Greeks to defend democracy. What we experienced yesterday was unprecedented, not only for Greece but for all of Europe," Tsipras said. "Public television goes dark only in two circumstances: when a country is occupied by foreign forces or ...

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European Broadcasters Call on Greece to Reopen Public Network

The director generals of 50 European TV and radio broadcasters have called on the Greek government to reopen its state broadcaster, ERT, after Athens pulled the plug on the network earlier this ...

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Greek PM set to meet coalition partners over ERT protests

ERT which was abruptly shut down by Prime Minister Antonis Samaras earlier this week. The PM has agreed to meet two of his coalition partners who have voiced their opposition to his action. The meeting is seen as a move to defuse a growing political crisis, though Samaras has stressed he will not back down. One senior official predicted a compromise may be reached. Our correspondent in Athens ...

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National Bank of Greece avoids nationalization

Greece's largest bank, National Bank of Greece, says it has succeeded in raising enough capital to avoid being nationalized, the second Greek bank to meet that target. The debt-stifled country's banks ...

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Greek state broadcast transmissions get help from Europe

ATHENS, Greece, June 13 (UPI) -- The European Broadcast Union resumed transmission of Greek state television Thursday as a massive strike protested the closing of the national broadcaster.

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Greece Is Demoted as MSCI Shuffles Its Indexes


Wall Street Journal (blog)

Greece Is Demoted as MSCI Shuffles Its Indexes
Businessweek
Insult to injury for bailed-out Greece: On Tuesday, it became the first developed market to be cut to emerging-market status by MSCI Inc, which has $7 trillion in investor assets tracking its equity indexes. The move reverses a 2001 upgrade to ...
Greece First Developed Market Cut to Emerging at MSCIBloomberg
For Emerging Markets, Greece Sticks Out as 'Sore Thumb'Wall Street Journal (blog)
Greece is becoming an emerging marketQuartz
RT -BDlive -Seeking Alpha
all 199 news articles »

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Greek Banks Said to Lure Investors to Avoid Full State Control


Greek Banks Said to Lure Investors to Avoid Full State Control
Bloomberg
National Bank of Greece SA and Piraeus Bank (TPEIR) SA have secured sufficient backing from private investors for their capital raisings to enable the lenders to avert complete nationalization, according to people with direct knowledge of the transactions.

and more »

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Greek State TV Defies Government Shut Down With Pirate Satellite Broadcast

Source: www.huffingtonpost.com - Thursday, June 13, 2013
ATHENS, Greece -- Journalists from axed Greek state broadcaster ERT returned to the airwaves Thursday amid an escalating crisis that saw the country rocked by a general strike, a sharp rebuke from Europe's top human rights official and widening divisions in the fragile coalition government. Officials at the Geneva-based European Broadcasting Union on Thursday said they had successfully relayed a live pirate broadcast from the sacked journalists to the rest of Europe, in defiance of Greece's conservative government which shut down state TV and radio Tuesday as part of the country's austerity measures. "We have just had our signal broadcast on satellite. We thank everyone who helped us," ERT newsreader and union representative Chrysa Roumlelioti said on the broadcast. More than 10,000 people staged a peaceful demonstration outside Greece's public broadcasting headquarters Hellenic Broadcasting Corp., or ERT, in support of fired staff who for a third day occupied the building. The government pulled ERT off the air late Tuesday, axing all 2,656 jobs, and threatening to sue anyone who retransmitted broadcasts by the laid-off journalists. The decision to shutter the broadcaster has drawn harsh criticism from the Europe's top official responsible for human rights. In a written statement to the AP, Nils Muiznieks, Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, called the move an "ill-advised step" that had sent "a chilling signal to th
All Related

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SEE IT: '300: Rise of an Empire' trailer is not Spartan with carnage

It’s a Greek travesty! The new trailer for “300: Rise of an Empire,” which hit the Internet Wednesday, opens with the jarring sight of the nefarious Xerxes (Rodrigo Santoro) riding over the corpses of Gerard Butler’s Spartan King Leonadis and most of his 299 loyal, doomed subjects.
    



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ERT protest in support of fired staff threatens Greek coalition

More than 10,000 protesters have rallied outside Greece’s public broadcasting headquarters in support of fired staff, who for a third day occupied the building to continue broadcasts in defiance of the government.



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ERT: BBC director calls on Greek government to reopen broadcaster

Tony Hall joins directors general of 50 European TV and radio broadcasters in signing EBU petition

The BBC's director general, Tony Hall, has called on the Greek government to reopen the state broadcaster immediately condemning its sudden closure as "undemocratic and unprofessional".

In a petition to the Greek prime minister, Antonis Samaras, the directors general of 50 European TV and radio broadcasters including the BBC urged him to see sense pointing out that "public service media and their independence from government lie at the heart of democratic societies".

The other signatories included the heads of German, French, Swiss, Danish, Spanish and Italian TV.

The intervention piles on the pressure on Samaras who was urged by the staff at the station not to send in the police to clear out the journalists who have been occupying the ERT headquarters for the third day running.

The petition was organised by the European Broadcasting Union which has been at the vanguard of attempts to persuade the Greeks to reverse their decision to close down ERT's TV and radio stations on Tuesday night.

Defiant staff have kept one channel, the news service NET, alive on the internet. The EBU today stepped in to make sure it was broadcast to viewers in Greece and across the globe by retransmitting it by three satellites.

The EBU also called on the president of the EU, José Manuel Barroso to intervene in the crisis that is threatening to topple the new Greek government.


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Thousands Protest in Greece Against Broadcast Cutback

Thousands of protesters rallied in Greece on Thursday as workers staged a nationwide strike to denounce the government's shutdown of public broadcaster ERT. Demonstrators gathered outside ERT's offices in Athens and Thessaloniki to urge Prime Minister Antonis Samaras to reverse his decision to take ERT off the air as part of sweeping cost-cutting measures. Mr. Samaras called a ...

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Greek unemployment climbs again

Greece’s jobless rate continues its steady increase. Overall unemployment climbed to 27.4 percent of the workforce in the first three months of this year, according to the Greek Statistics Agency. That was up from 26 percent at the end of last year and 22.6 percent a year ago. One job seeker in Athens – an artist – painted a depressing picture: ';There is no light at the ...

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Greece Closure airs party splits

The sudden closure of state television channel ERT has split the fragile governing coalition and set the troubled country on the path to fresh elections. But a new vote could leave the divided nation even more riven and just as ...

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Closure of Greek public broadcaster spurs protests strike

Greek leftist opposition leader Alexis Tsipras takes part in a rally outside the Greek State broadcaster ERT headquarters in Athens on June 13, ...

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Council of Europe condemns Greek state TV closure

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Europe's commissioner for human rights has strongly condemned the closure of Greece's state ERT broadcaster, and urged the government to repeal the decision.

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Satellite boost for Greece's public TV holdouts

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Journalists from axed Greek state broadcaster ERT returned to the airwaves Thursday amid an escalating crisis that saw the country rocked by a general strike, a sharp rebuke from Europe's top human rights official and widening divisions in the fragile coalition government.

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Guess who's moving to Germany: Greece


Guess who's moving to Germany: Greece
Quartz
Immigration of citizens of European countries with high unemployment increased considerably, with a 90% increase in flows from Greece and a 52% increase in flows from Spain. Comparing the first three quarters of 2012 with the same period of 2011 ...

and more »

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The TV Station Greece Just Shut Down Is Being Rescued By The 'Eurovision' Guys

ebu

The European Broadcasting Union, best known for producing the annual "Eurovision" song contest, has set up a pirate TV signal to keep Greece's ERT public broadcasting station live, in defiance of the Greek government.

ERT was disbanded Tuesday as part of further austerity cuts. The station's 2,500 workers were laid off, and ERT's website was seized.

Protests in Athens instantly erupted and are still going on now.

Wednesday morning, the EBU's board met and decided to intervene.

They dispatched a van to Thessaloniki, where ERT staff have regrouped, to set up a pirate signal.

Just in the past few hours, EBU restored full broadcasting to ERT satellite subscribers to watch on their TVs.

"Our function is to defend our members' right to operate according to values on which we were built," EBU communications officer Ben Steward told us. "One of these values is providing the public with access to quality information and news, so what the Greek government did is tantamount to the worst kind of censorship."

Steward says the station is prepared for backlash from the Greek government.

"What they're doing is wrong, and... the way they did it was rash, unprofessional, and antidemocratic."

Based in Geneva, the EBU is actually independent of the EU (it predates the EU's formal Maastricht treaty by 43 years). 

Here's the link to the live broadcast >

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