How the world sees Greece
While Greece has almost completed a bailout deal with international creditors, the migration crisis on the country’s islands is becoming a major problem for the Greek government and the country. The Guardian reported that after Tuesday’s migrant riot on the island of Kos, Greek Police put 2,000 migrants and refugees inside a football stadium. An 18-hour lockdown under the burning
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In an interview to Greek radio on Tuesday, Giorgos Karagounis, who was until recently Football Director of the Men’s Greek National Team, revealed his disappointment with the Hellenic Football Federation (EPO). On August 7, it was announced that EPO decided to terminate Karagounis’ contract while head coach Sergio Markarian was replaced by interim coach Kostas Tsanas. “The most important thing is that 20
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In an interview to BBC, former Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis expressed his disbelief in the potential of the bailout deal that Greece agreed with international creditors on Tuesday. “Ask anyone who knows anything about Greece’s finances and they will tell you this deal is not going to work,” he noted. Varoufakis also claimed that Greece’s new Finance Minister,
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The memorandum of understanding (MoU) agreed by the Greek government and creditors on Tuesday (11 August) sets out a very constraining ...
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After all-night negotiations in Athens, the European Commission (EC) came to an agreement with Greek representatives on Tuesday to provide ...
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Greek police are under the international justice scope after a simple rounding up of illegal migrants, mostly Middle Eastern refugees, transformed into ...
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The outline agreement reached between Greece and its creditors on its third bailout deal represents a surprisingly calm end to an extraordinary saga. The proposals still require political approval, both in Greece and the creditor countries, but the change ...
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Greece sent a detachment of riot police to the island of Kos on Wednesday, as police used fire extinguishers for the second day running to control a ...
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Greece Rotarians gathered at the Rochester Airport recently to say goodbye to their Rotary Exchange Student, Bori Bernat, as she prepared to board ...
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Riot police reinforcements and a cruise ship are being sent to the Greek island of Kos, where authorities are struggling with an influx of refugees. The measures come a day after clashes between refugees and police.
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BERLIN--The German government Wednesday praised the Greek government's cooperation in drawing up a third bailout program with international ...
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Athens (AFP) - Germany on Wednesday cast doubt on a hurriedly-concluded Greek bailout deal which Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said should ...
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Migrants wait to be registered by police at a stadium on the Greek island of Kos Aug. 12, 2015. An aid worker said Wednesday that the situation had ...
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According to the 29-page document acquired by FT, it becomes obvious that Greece's left-leaning government will have its hands tied on all aspects of ...
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While a political obstacle course still lies ahead, officials in Berlin and Brussels are speaking of a markedly improved negotiating climate.
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Migrants on the Greek island of Kos have been tear-gassed and reportedly beaten as hundreds suffer sweltering conditions locked inside an open-air stadium without water, food or toilets. The main charity trying to deal with the crisis has accused authorities of "state abuse". Aid workers from Medecins sans Frontieres claim many families were told to stand "under the blaring sun" in temperatures of 32C (90F) for hours on end – in the hope of getting the paperwork they need to travel to Athens before heading to mainland Europe.
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Hedge funds are going long large-cap financial companies and transportation stocks, and shorting energy and household and personal product companies. That is the key takeaway from an equity strategy note published by the prime services team at Swiss bank Credit Suisse on Monday. The chart below shows hedge funds net exposure (difference between a fund's long positions and its short positions) by industry group for US large caps (Russell 1000) and small caps (Russell 2000) compared to the average of the last five years. Join the conversation about this story » NOW WATCH: 6 mind-blowing facts about Greece's economy
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The Greek island of Kos is struggling to deal with an overwhelming rush of refugees and migrants arriving on its shores daily, making the short ...
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Riot police were called after violence broke out in the national stadium on the Greek island of Kos, as hundreds of people, including children, were awaiting their immigration papers.
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Riot police were called after violence broke out in the national stadium on the Greek island of Kos, as hundreds of people, including children, were awaiting their immigration papers.
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… creditors. The document says: “The [Greek] government commits to consult and … will require more austerity for Greece. The three-year programme entails a … an ambitious privatisation programme”. With Greece suffocating under capital controls and …
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Details of Greece's latest bailout package are being pored over across Europe as Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras insisted the agreement with creditors would put "a definitive end" to the country's economic uncertainty. Mr Tsipras has called an emergency ...
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The influx of migrants from the Middle East to Greece continues, with about 100 to 500 landing on the Greek island of Kos every day - joining ...
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Although there are doubts on Athens' agreement to the conditions of the bailout package, it is widely believed that the creditors of Greece might have ...
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The influx of migrants from the Middle East to Greece continues, with about 100 to 500 landing on the Greek island of Kos every day - joining ...
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Migrants have been beaten and sprayed with fire extinguishers by Greek riot police who locked them in a football stadium overnight as the situation in Kos continued to deteriorate.
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Germany's government withheld approval of the draft bailout plan for Greece, saying a bridge loan remains an option if a full aid program isn't agreed ...
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KOS, Greece -- Locked in a sunbaked football stadium without food, drinking water or sanitation, about a thousand refugees queued for hours ...
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USA Today has our first look at Nia Vardalos, John Corbett an the rest of the Portokalos clan in My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 photos, which you can ...
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Berlin raises objections hours before Greece’s parliament debates contentious reform plan
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Conditions worsen on Kos as Greece promises ship to house mounting number of refugees
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In July alone, about 50,000 migrants arrived in Greece, of whom 70 percent were from Syria. Thousands of migrants arrive on rubber dinghies through ...
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Greece is heading towards its third "bailout". This time €86 billion is on the table, which will be packaged up by international lenders with a bundle of ...
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Local police are using increasingly heavy-handed tactics, aid group says.
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Hurrah! The milk and bread market in Greece is to be liberated! The much anticipated liberation has been pushed forward by the Troika lenders since the first bailout agreement in 2010. The OECD had provided its famous Competition Assessment Tollkit for this. But although the previous Greek governments had passed […]
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Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said Wednesday he was confident that international creditors would back a framework bailout deal now being scrutinised by EU states and set for a parliamentary vote in Athens.
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Co-authored by Brent McKee, New Deal Historian Last week, Puerto Rico defaulted on a $58 million payment, the largest municipal default in U.S. history. Additional defaults are expected, as San Juan struggles to address a $72 billion dollar debt the island's governor declared "unpayable." Yet efforts to restructure San Juan's debt have largely been met with opposition from the island's creditors. Most notably, a group of 34 hedge funds who spent years preying upon, exploiting and benefiting from Puerto Rico's distressed economy commissioned a report calling for increased taxes and additional cuts in public spending as a means of debt repayment. Put together by a team of former IMF employees, the report conveniently concluded that a string of harsh austerity measures -- including firing teachers, reducing university subsidies, and cutting workers' benefits -- could prevent further default. Not only is such a proposal bad economic policy, it is, what Bernie Sanders deemed a "moral outrage." Indeed, Puerto Rico's inhabitants -- 45 percent of whom live below the poverty line -- have already been hit with tax increases and cuts to education and social programs, including an expected 11 percent cut to Medicare programs in January of 2016. Austerity would disproportionately burden the middle-class and poor, while driving the island's economy further into recession and making the debt even more difficult to pay off. And though there may be some room for cuts in Puerto Rico's budget, "extreme austerity alone," as Governor Garcia Padilla's chief of staff Víctor Suárez Meléndez recently made clear, "is not a viable solution for an economy already on its knees." Indeed, while spending cuts and tax increases are to be expected, austerity is not -- and should not be -- the only solution. Below are five austerity-free ways to address Puerto Rico's debt crisis. 1. Increase federal assistance. Pedro Pierlusi, Puerto Rico's nonvoting representative in Congress, recently wrote: "Puerto Rico has a debt problem because our government has over-borrowed, and the main reason our government has over-borrowed is to compensate for the lack of federal economic support." Yet history has demonstrated that there was no such lack of support during the Great Depression and the New Deal era. Programs like the Puerto Rico Reconstruction Administration built up the island's infrastructure (e.g., schools, health clinics, water lines); the Works Progress Administration and the Civilian Conservation Corps hired the unemployed into public works jobs; the National Youth Administration helped young Puerto Rican men and women finish high school and college; and the Federal Surplus Commodities Corporation delivered hundreds of tons of food to those in need. These New Deal investments had a positive economic impact on Puerto Rico for many decades. We could help Puerto Rico in a similar fashion today, were there a will to do so. However, since the Obama Administration has ruled out any kind of bailout, and since our Republican-led Congress is more interested in war spending than domestic spending, it's painfully clear that this type of assistance will not be forthcoming. 2. Extend bankruptcy protections to the island. U.S. states can utilize certain provisions of the bankruptcy code to restructure debt held by their municipalities and public agencies. While Puerto Rico could greatly benefit from this type of debt restructuring, Republicans in Congress have made clear that they will not grant Puerto Rico the same bankruptcy protections given to states. Simultaneously, many of the island's creditors are lobbying Congress against bankruptcy as an option to address San Juan's mounting debt. Yet another lifeline withheld. 3. Resolve the status issue. As the debt crisis has made devastatingly clear, Puerto Rico's status as a commonwealth is innately unequal, structurally flawed, and economically unsustainable. Currently, Puerto Rico has no control over its monetary, immigration, trade and foreign policies, little control over its fiscal policy, and no real representation in Congress. Whether Puerto Ricans vote for independence, free association, or statehood, resolving the status issue would grant the island the stability and structural capacity to more adequately address the debt crisis. 4. Exclude Puerto Rico from Jones Act restrictions. As an unincorporated territory of the United States, Puerto Rico must adhere to all U.S. trade agreements, even those which negatively impact its local economy. The Jones Act is a prime example. Enacted toward the end of World War I to protect the U.S. shipping industry from foreign competitors, the law prohibits foreign vessels from shipping goods between U.S. ports. Such restrictions mean that Puerto Rico's shipping costs are double those of its Caribbean neighbors, ballooning the costs of goods brought to the island and adding to its economic woes. Some economists estimate that the Jones Act costs Puerto Rico hundreds of millions of dollars every year, accounting for half of one percent of its GDP. Unfortunately, requests to Congress by the local Puerto Rican government to exclude the island from the Jones Act have consistently been denied. 5. Conduct an independent audit of Puerto Rico's debt. Some in Puerto Rico are calling for a thorough independent audit of the island's debt -- similar to those conducted in Greece and Ecuador -- to assess the validity and legality of the creditors' claims and further understand the conditions which led to the crisis. The people of Puerto Rico did not benefit from high-stakes bond sales or turn a profit by exploiting a distressed and vulnerable economy. And because of their colonial status, the island's residents have never had any say over the imposed U.S. economic, trade and monetary policies which contributed significantly to the current economic crisis. So why are they now being asked to shoulder the bulk of the burden through austerity? Also on HuffPost: -- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
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Greek PM's domestic gamble in eurozone deal
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My father's family immigrated to America when he was a teenager. There's a good reason they left Greece: It was a mess. And it's still a mess. It's not that Greeks aren't willing to work hard. Ever been to a Greek diner? They're open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. But for more than a century, most of the hardest workers have left Greece if they could, rather than suffer through wars, poverty and corruption. Brain drain ensued. Greece got into this depression by borrowing billions of dollars that a small, rural country can't possibly repay. Before we cast the ninth stone, however, let's remember that America's subprime mortgage crisis is not yet cold in the ground. Have some empathy for the struggling families that inevitably bear the brunt of economic disasters, despite the bankers and lawmakers who continue to encourage and profit from irresponsible behavior. View image | gettyimages.com The European cure for Greece is to continue bleeding the country, rather like leeching someone who's in a coma. Raise taxes (and collect them properly), slash salaries and pensions -- and if all that doesn't work, leave the eurozone. Harnessing the innovative American spirit, I propose that more creative thinking is needed, like the recent attempt to crowdfund a Greek bailout on Indiegogo. Here are 26 more intriguing ideas from my network of entrepreneurs, journalists and philanthropists, not including Muslim American comedian Aman Ali's helpful offer to "spray some Windex on it" and a few vague suggestions like "Bitcoin" and "find oil." Add your own, and perhaps someone will take us up on it. Create a global market for Greek liquor (Ouzo, Raki, Tsipouro, Retsina), similar to what we've seen happen with yogurt. Get Bollywood to deem Greece the new Alps, complete with big-budget love songs and dance numbers around the islands and archeological sites. Negotiate the return of the Elgin Marbles from the British Museum, kicking off a year of cultural festivities around Greece. Get a major research university to open a campus in Greece, like Cornell in Qatar and Technion-Israel in New York City, and develop more study abroad programs for university students from around the world. Create a signature international sports event. There's a New York marathon and a Boston marathon. Why not a Marathon marathon? Open Mount Athos to women a few times a year. Instead of selling off islands, offer long-term leases. Create a contest where people have to recreate the Odyssey journey from Turkey, perhaps in traditional or homemade vessels, culminating in a festival in Ithaka. Birthright Greece program (modeled after Birthright Israel) to bring Greek diaspora teens and young adults to Greece for 10-day cultural trips. Bring back the royal family. (No public subsidy; maybe just give them some land no one wants.) This would change the headlines, bring in glamour, tourism and philanthropy patrons. Make it easy for anyone with a Greek grandparent to claim citizenship, and make it significantly easier to renew your Greek passport abroad and deal with a married name change. Apply Israel's kibbutz model to rural, isolated communities. Legalize, tax and regulate the sin industries: gambling, marijuana and prostitution. If not nationally, could try some of this on specific islands. Annual reenactment of the "300" battle: People in costume march from Sparta and other parts of Greece to Thermopylae. Tiny islands: Good place for fancy European boarding schools and/or high-security prisons? Build a major theme park that showcases Greek mythology and the modern takes on popular characters, like Percy Jackson, Aquaman and Wonder Woman. Create a Hercules fitness regimen (think how Zumba, Bikram yoga and CrossFit have gone global) with a center headquartered near Sparta that can license trainers and holds competitions. Establish a Daedalus human flight engineering center. Get Boeing, Airbus, Richard Branson and Stelios Haji-Ioannou involved. Bring in Starbucks to open a European training center in a Greek city, similar its initiative to do this for 15 distressed American cities. Nescafé and Costa Coffee, too. (Greeks love coffee and certainly need more jobs: win-win.) Invite James Cameron to explore deep sea depths around Santorini for an "Atlantis" film. Invest in Greek cuisine. Greece deserves a Michelin-starred restaurant, a molecular gastronomy center (like what Ferran Adrià did for Spain) and a Cordon Bleu equivalent. Round up the Greek diaspora comedy stars -- Jennifer Aniston, Tina Fey, Zach Galifianakis, Demetri Martin, David Sedaris, Amy Sedaris, John Stamos, Rita Wilson, Nia Vardalos, etc. -- for an entertaining fundraising campaign. Telethon? Series of short films? Ouzo bucket challenge? Challenge them to come up with something. Arianna Huffington, Maria Menounos and George Stephanopoulos could emcee. Create EUcorps (not to be confused with the military Eurocorps). Like AmeriCorps and PeaceCorps, would organize programs to bring European Union students and retirees to less-developed regions, starting with Greek villages, for a year or two of service projects. Bring in Goodwill Industries to train people and create jobs, while providing centers for donations and cheap shopping. Turn Eurovision into a benefit concert. (And finally get one of America's 2,000 channels in to air it.) Make Greece the permanent host of the Summer Olympics. Got one to add? Based in Seattle, Nicole Neroulias Gupte is the communications manager at Philanthropy Northwest. Follow her on Twitter. -- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
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Jittery investors should look to eastern Europe—and Romania in particular—for a sanctuary from Chinese market volatility and Greek debt wrangling, ...
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China is shaking up global markets. For two straight days, the People's Bank of China has moved the official exchange rate and weakened its currency by 1.9% in a bid to boost its economy. US stocks sold off on Tuesday, and on Wednesday, the major averages had their biggest drop in three weeks. The Dow fell to its lowest level of the year, and the S&P 500 went negative for 2015. Asian and European stocks were also a leg lower. In a note to clients on Wednesday, Gluskin Sheff's David Rosenberg highlighted five reasons why the surprising move from China is sending jitters to investors: Still remember Greece? Now, China is added to the list of global worries, and it's not likely to be deleted soon. Rosenberg notes that the real effective yuan excluding the dollar is up 14% for the year. And so, we may have only seen the beginning of the central bank's devaluations. Weakening a currency helps exports become cheaper and more competitive. And so, countries with big trade linkages just lost a big one to China. Other Asian central banks may soon join in and escalate this "currency war." China may be accepting that the "'hard landing' risks" are worse than previously thought, and the government may not even know the extent of the economy's weakness. The US dollar will continue to climb on all of the above. That's bad for commodities, and for emerging market countries that have piles of debt denominated in the dollar. SEE ALSO: ALBERT EDWARDS WARNS: Prepare for overwhelming 'waves of deflation' to suck us into recession Join the conversation about this story » NOW WATCH: 11 facts that show how different China is from the rest of the world
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EU sources stressed the “toughness” of the demands placed on Greece, amid scepticism from German MPs, who must also vote on the measures.
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Sir, As Greece and its lenders reach a new bailout deal, it is of vital importance that Greece's real debt position is accurately reported.
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Greece's government submitted a draft bailout agreement for a parliamentary vote. In this photo, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras speaks during a ...
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The imposition of capital controls showed that Greeks have over 50 billion euros stashed away under mattresses, in drawers, buried in the yard or in bank safety deposit boxes. In July, with capital controls in full effect for the whole month, banknotes in circulation decreased by 400 million euros compared to June. In June, the
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Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras appeared optimistic on Wednesday afternoon about the agreement he made with international creditors, after meeting with Alternate Infrastructures, Transport and Networks Minister Christos Spirtzis. “Despite the obstacles that some attempt to set on our way, we will complete this agreement successfully,” he said. On Tuesday morning, Greece and international creditors
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The annual River Party music festival in Kastoria, northern Greece, will open its doors once again between August 18 and 23, overcoming all the difficulties presented at an economic and social level. The 37th River Party will take place with no increase in ticket prices, while the organizers decided to include another day of festivities, connecting the
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More than 140 events will take place in various Greek archaeological sites, museums and monuments on the occasion of the 2015 August full moon, on Saturday, August 29. The events will vary from musical and theatrical performances, to shadow theater, guided tours, exhibitions, film screenings, astrophysics observation and free admission to certain archaeological sites and
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Greece has sent extra riot police to the resort island of Kos as tensions mount over an influx of migrants and refugees, the police said Wednesday.
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