How the world sees Greece
BOSTON, MA – Beneath a pure blue sky and covered with sunshine, thousands of marchers and spectators enjoyed the 20th Greek Parade presented by the Hellenes of New England on April 6. At the head of the Parade was Boston’s new Mayor, Marti J. Walsh, who praised the Greek-American community when he spoke to TNH. […]
The post New England’s Resounding Greek Parad under Sunny Skies appeared first on The National Herald.
 |
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.thenationalherald.com |
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT greece.greekreporter.com |
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT greece.greekreporter.com |
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.bloomberg.com |
So markets took it on the chin pretty good this past week, with a lot of pain focused on the NASDAQ.
But overall, markets are doing quite nicely, and remain quite close to their all-time highs. Unless you're very heavily invested in the hottest parts of the market, you're doing fine.
So what could trigger a real hard sell?
In a note to clients, Citi credit strategist Matt King describes what could spur a real "Wile E. Coyote" moment.
It goes like this:
But with credit investors likewise mostly long and uncomfortable, could what starts as a position correction turn into something much more serious? After all, it’s not just tech where valuations have become disconnected from fundamentals. As our US HY strategist put it after seeing numerous CLO investors this week, “Whatever the asset class, the pattern is the same. Investors are long risk, invested in assets that aren’t their usual holdings, and wondering who is buying their old paper.” Wherever we go, investors think their market is expensive – but are forced to buy it anyway.
This is not a new problem, either. Credit spreads stopped following corporate leverage almost two years ago. We don’t think it’s a coincidence that that’s almost exactly the same time equities stopped following analysts’ earnings revisions.. Even this week, Alcoa surprised positively – but only provided you looked at reported earnings, not GAAP ones, and ignored some extraordinary restructuring charges. That might seem reasonable enough until you consider our analyst’s remark that “in the ten years or so I have been following Alcoa results there has never been a quarter without ‘restructuring’ charges”. And of course we got a new Greek 5-year trading with a yield that € iBoxx had as recently as December 2011 – despite debt/GDP of 177%, higher than before its restructuring?
Try a bit harder, and you could paint a bleaker picture still, in which investors may be coming perilously close to realizing that market levels owe everything to central bank stimulus and nothing to an improvement in underlying fundamentals. What if the much heralded “improvement in earnings to match the rerating in the market” fails to be delivered in coming weeks? How long till investors realize that extra stimulus in Japan might stem the Nikkei’s decline, but is unlikely to generate the economic recovery everyone is hoping for, no matter how large its size? And that the problem afflicting China – that the growth rates to which investors have become accustomed are utterly reliant on an unsustainable expansion of credit – is in fact a problem worldwide?
King might be overstating things a bit, at least in terms of this idea that there's been no improvement in fundamentals. After all, just this week we got the best initial jobless claims reading since the U.S. economic crisis. And though it's true that Greek debt is still staggeringly high, the Eurozone as a whole now has an implicit ECB guarantee ("whatever it takes") that didn't exist before the crisis existed.
But King is right, that to some extent asset markets have always reacted to the whims of central banks, and if the perception is that things are turning, then it's anyone's guess where the floor is.
That being said, King doesn't think the music will stop any time soon. The BOJ isn't done, the ECB likely has more to do, and the Fed continues to sound quite dovish. So, he says, we might be on borrowed time, but there's likely more of that borrowed time to come. Yay.
SEE ALSO: ZERVOS: The markets are beginning to worry about a Fed mistake
Join the conversation about this story »
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.businessinsider.com |
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT online.barrons.com |
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.euronews.com |
There is a famous tale told by Jean Buridan, a medieval logician and philosopher, about a donkey who starved to death even though he had three full bales of hay before him. The philosopher gives many lessons in logic as he tells the tale, but the story’s moral is that, because the poor beast could […]
The post So Many Greek Cruises, So Little Time appeared first on The National Herald.
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.thenationalherald.com |
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT greece.greekreporter.com |
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.huffingtonpost.com |
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.ntd.tv |
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT finance.yahoo.com |
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.ekathimerini.com |
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.ekathimerini.com |
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.ekathimerini.com |
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.ekathimerini.com |
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.ekathimerini.com |
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT greece.greekreporter.com |
BELEK, Turkey (AP) — Blame it on Rio.
That might as well have been the official slogan of this week's Olympic gathering in southern Turkey.
This turned out to be the occasion when the long-simmering angst over Rio de Janeiro's troubled preparations for the 2016 Olympics blew up into full crisis mode.
On the sidelines of the SportAccord convention in the Mediterranean resort of Belek, the International Olympic Committee executive board and summer sports federations raised the stakes over the critical delays threatening the first games in South America.
Here's five things we learned about the turmoil in Rio:
___
ALARM BELLS RINGING
Everyone has known for some time that Brazil was lagging behind schedule. Until now, however, the IOC had kept relatively restrained with its no-time-to-lose warnings. But Turkey marked a tipping point when the IOC and sports leaders made their complaints loud and clear and exposed just how deep the crisis is, even deeper than it was for the 2004 Athens Games, previously considered the benchmark for organizational disorder. Venue construction delays are not the only concern. Worries are also mounting over accommodations, transport and water pollution. Some officials openly wondered about "Plan B" contingencies. The IOC even refused to rule out moving the games — considered highly improbable at such a late stage. The message: With two years to go, the games need salvaging.
___
FELLI TO THE RESCUE
The man with the task of whipping Rio into shape is Gilbert Felli, the veteran IOC executive director of the Olympic Games. Already having been assigned to work on Rio once he steps down from his IOC role in August, the Swiss administrator is being dispatched to Rio next week to kick-start the process. No one knows the ins and outs of the management operations and deadlines for an Olympics better than Felli. But he'll have his hands full. Three task forces are also being created and a local construction manager hired. Another key figure working behind the scenes with Felli will be American Olympic operations expert Doug Arnot.
___
PLEASE MR. MAYOR
The IOC went out of its way to single out Rio Mayor Eduardo Paes as a crucial player in the efforts to get the games on track. There has been deep frustration over the lack of cooperation on the Olympic project among the three level of government in Brazil. Local Olympic organizing chief Carlos Nuzman, the man credited with winning the games for Brazil, lacks the skills and political leverage that Sebastian Coe had in London. IOC President Thomas Bach and Felli both talked about the importance of Paes in facilitating funding for some of the construction, particularly for Deodoro, a complex for eight sports venues where work has yet to begin. "The mayor is the one really acting to solve the problem," Felli said. "Be careful not to shoot at him."
___
NO GRASS FOR GOLF
Perhaps the single sport most at risk is golf, due to return to the Olympic program for the first time in more than a century. Trouble is, the course at Venue Reserva de Marapendi, designed by American architect Gil Hanse, doesn't even have any grass yet. Organizers say the grass installation will begin later this month, but can a world-class golf course be fully tested and ready within two years? Golf needs conditions that will attract the game's top players. Officials may begin looking for an existing course — inside or outside Brazil — if progress isn't made in a hurry.
___
BLAME GAME
Bach and Felli said they wouldn't point fingers or blame anyone for the mess in Brazil. Critics could also take aim at the IOC for two things — giving the games to Rio in the first place, and waiting until now to raise the emergency alarm. (Juan Antonio Samaranch issued his famous "yellow light" warning to Athens organizers four years before the games). Was it prudent to give Brazil the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympics back-to-back? It's hard enough for rich, developed nations to host both mega events. Five years ago, the IOC embraced the emotional and sentimental factors of taking the Olympics to a new continent. Today, the prevailing feelings are ones of dismay and anxiety.
___
Follow Stephen Wilson on Twitter: http://twitter.com/stevewilsonap
News Topics: Sports, 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games, Summer Olympic games, Olympic games, EventsPeople, Places and Companies: Eduardo Paes, Sebastian Coe, Juan Antonio Samaranch, Brazil, Athens, South America, Latin America and Caribbean, Greece, Western Europe, Europe
Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.neurope.eu |
The first Greek sovereign bond in four years proved especially popular with investors from Europe and the US.
The post US, EU Investors Snap Up Greek Bonds appeared first on The National Herald.
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.thenationalherald.com |
An OECD report shows Greece's economic crisis has been costly to workers whose total tax amounts to 41.6% of the labor cost.
The post Greeks Pay 41.6% Income Tax appeared first on The National Herald.
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.thenationalherald.com |
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.ibtimes.co.uk |
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.ekathimerini.com |
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT finance.yahoo.com |
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT greece.greekreporter.com |
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.irishtimes.com |
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT greece.greekreporter.com |
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT greece.greekreporter.com |
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.cm-life.com |
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.dailymail.co.uk |
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT blogs.telegraph.co.uk |
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT blogs.telegraph.co.uk |
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.democratandchronicle.com |
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.sltrib.com |
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.cnbc.com |
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT greece.greekreporter.com |
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT greece.greekreporter.com |
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.bnd.com |
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.nbcconnecticut.com |
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama has nominated his budget chief, Sylvia Mathews Burwell, to replace outgoing Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. Obama calling Burwell, A Greek-American from Hinton, WV, “a proven manager” who knows how to get results. The nomination of Burwell, who was confirmed by the Senate 96-0 for her current post last year, […]
The post Obama Taps Greek-American to be New Secretary of HSS appeared first on The National Herald.
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.thenationalherald.com |
Considered Europe’s oldest city, Knossos served as the center of the great Bronze Age Minoan civilization that inhabited the island of Crete since 7000 B.C. Among striking ancient findings in the area is the palace of King Minos, which with its 1,300 rooms and living spaces, resembles the legendary Minoan Labyrinth. In mythology, it is […]
The post Europe’s Oldest City: Knossos appeared first on The National Herald.
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.thenationalherald.com |
Now here's a ridiculous idea for a restaurant: sell good food at reasonable prices, employ engaging staff who look happy to be there, don't mark up wine greedily, take reservations. How ludicrous. It'd never stand a chance. Absurdly, this second restaurant from chef Cameron Emirali and his front of house partner Luke Wilson doesn't have a burger on its menu, nor, as far as I know, employ PRs or host dinners for people with "meaningful internet presences". In terms of "design", they have done little more than titivate the fixtures and fittings left behind by the site's previous, short-lived incumbent, painted a few bricks white and installed their trademark tables with a handy inbuilt cutlery-and-menu section. They've not even got creative with the name: their first was 10 Greek Street and this is 8 Hoxton Square. Tuh. It's got hubris written all over it, and not even in Futura Bold.
Only, it hasn't. It's a smash, rammed to the rafters on a school night, with people talking and laughing and ordering another bottle from a wine list created with wit and without avarice. It's the very definition of a good time: unrushed, informal, menu stuffed with things you didn't know you were pining for. Savoury zeppole, for instance, a play on sweet Italian doughnuts, with a different filling each day: we land on 'nduja day, the pungent, scarlet sausage oozing through grease-free buns.
Continue reading... |
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.theguardian.com |
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT greece.greekreporter.com |