How the world sees Greece
 Kathimerini | Dutch report shows 20 pct rise in Greek bookings Kathimerini The figures show a 20 percent rise in bookings for Greek destinations compared to last year, while the number of bookings for countries closer to the Netherlands has dropped, as is the case for France (19 percent), Germany (18 percent) and Italy (12 ... |
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 Christian Science Monitor | Illinois and Greece as penitent cookers of books Christian Science Monitor Greece's reforms have a long way to go, but it has at least begun to prosecute high-level officials for corruption, such as a former defense minister and a city mayor. And a survey by Berlin-based Transparency International finds the level of petty ... |
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Greece: Conservative politicians targeted in blasts, no one hurt Montreal Gazette THESSALONIKI, Greece - Police in northern Greece say the offices of three prominent conservative politicians have been targeted in separate attacks using small homemade bombs. No one was injured. The attacks occurred Tuesday in Thessaloniki, ... |
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 Newsday | Gyrolicious: New and Greek in Jericho Newsday New to Jericho is Gyrolicious, an offshoot of a 4-year-old East Meadow Greek restaurant. According to co-owner Carie Volonakis, everything is made in-house -- and that includes two kinds of gyro, one done with white and dark meat chicken, the other ... |
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 Kathimerini | Greek killed by extremists in Nigeria identified as lab supervisor Kathimerini Lebanon and Greece have identified the hostages killed by Islamic extremists in Nigeria, though two people remain unaccounted for out of the seven kidnapped. Greeces Foreign Ministry said Tuesday that Konstantinos Karras died in the killings claimed ... |
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Greek Peak auction slated for next week CNYcentral.com CORTLAND -- Greek Peak Mountain Resort, in Cortland, will be auctioned off next week as part of bankruptcy proceedings. The resort filed for bankruptcy last August after its primary lender bailed. The FDIC took over Greek Peak's debt and provided the ... |
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Go-to expert for debt-ridden nations on why Spain is the euro's biggest problem, and why he prefers working for debtors
The eurozone crisis rumbles on. After a period of relative calm, the deadlock following the Italian election reignited fears of a eurozone breakup. While the markets may have recovered momentarily, the shock reminded everyone that the crisis never really went away.
The currency bloc is in its worst recession since the second world war, while unemployment remains intolerably high. With countries still crippled by debt, their borrowing costs at the mercy of jittery markets, there is one man who is guaranteed to be at the heart of things.
Lee Buchheit, a lawyer at US firm Cleary Gottlieb, has been present at all the major debt crises of the past three decades. His reputation among investors is as a fearsome and aggressive litigator, but finance ministers in distress see him as something of a fairy godmother.
In Greece he has managed the largest sovereign-debt restructuring on record. In Iceland he was named man of the year after negotiating a deal delaying repayments to Britain over the collapse of Icesave. This is the man who stands up to the vulture funds – so named because they buy up the debt of desperately poor countries in order to chase them through the courts for repayment.
So it is something of a surprise to meet a slight, mild-mannered lawyer, with more than a whiff of academia about him.
He insists he does not make a moral judgement in choosing who he acts for, but rather enjoys working for the debtor nations. "It's just more fun," he says. "If you represent the lender, your client is tiresomely saying things to you like, 'Why don't they just pay us the money back?' When you're on the debtor side, you can say, 'If you want to get it back, why did you give it to us?'"
These conversations, he says, reveal a lot about a country (or, in the case of the eurozone, a whole region). "The Europeans, many of them feel that even talking about this problem is an affront to national honour. To restructure your debt is tantamount to saying you are an emerging market and that is an intolerable affront to the dignity of a developed modern European state."
But the public sense of shame does not yet match up to that he has witnessed in Asian countries, which were forced to renegotiate their debt in the late 1990s.
The South Koreans were evidently so humiliated by the prospect of restructuring that they donated jewellery and heirlooms to the banks to help them pay back their debts.
It was the Latin American crisis of the 1980s that plunged Buchheit into the world of sovereign debt. Joining Cleary Gottlieb in the late 1970s, he arrived in time for Mexico's spectacular default. The Mexican finance minister hired the firm to negotiate its debt and, shortly afterwards, several other countries followed suit.
In that case the lenders had gone to the IMF asking for it to help these countries pay back their debts. But the institution told them to accept their dubious lending decisions and swallow the losses. Buchheit admits he expected the same to happen in Europe, so he was surprised when the IMF, the European Central Bank and the European commission – otherwise known as the troika – stepped in to prop up Greece and help repay its debts: "I did underestimate the extent of national pride, the extent of wishing to dissociate oneself from anything that appeared to be [characteristic of] emerging markets."
It was an expensive experiment. The international lenders shelled out billions repaying Greece's hungry creditors before coming to the same conclusion Buchheit posited in a paper in spring 2010: that Greece would have to radically restructure its debt.
In summer 2011 Buchheit finally got the call and helped thrash out a deal to slice 90% off the country's crippling debt pile, with reference to a clause he has traced back to a British railroad bond contract of 1879.
With this on his track record, the markets now keep a close eye on Buchheit's predictions. So what does he think will happen next?
In Greece, he says, there is more to do. Yes, it has slashed its debts but much of it has simply been transferred into loans from public institutions.
"To be made presentable again to the markets, you are going to have to do something with that debt stock, otherwise it hangs like a miasmic cloud over their future."
Another "haircut" is not politically feasible. "No northern European politician is going to gleefully sign on to the proposition that they lost a euro. But they can say, 'Let us stretch this out so that it matures on the 12th of never.'"
So Germany and the other eurozone countries might lend to Greece at a rate of 2%, and agree not to be repaid for another 40 years.
"Now," says Buchheit, energised as he gets into the finer details of the debt market, "the purist would say you've kicked the can a long way down the road to be sure, but it's still a can and it's still pretty battered and you haven't changed the debt to GDP [ratio] or any of that."
But, he explains, investors will not worry about that if they can lend to Greece over, say, 39 years, as they will get their money back before the public sector lenders.
The more pressing question, however, is Cyprus. European leaders meet on Thursday to discuss the terms of its bailout. Meanwhile, its debt investors will be nervous to hear it was on Buchheit's itinerary when he visited Europe in January.
Despite having an economy worth 0.2% of eurozone GDP, what happens in Cyprus will be crucial to the next stage of the crisis, says Buchheit. "Unless you believe that the crisis has passed – and I'm not in that camp yet – the world will watch what they do in Cyprus and view it as an expression of their current thinking.
"In one sense, the fact that Cyprus is small arguably allows them to experiment a bit more. But the world will watch it and see Spain."
Spain, he says, may be a more immediate risk than Italy, with its mountains of regional, as well as national, debt. But fixing its problems will be anything but simple.
Much of Spain's debt is held by Spanish banks, which means even if the government managed to negotiate a deal forcing investors to swallow heavy losses, it would be crippling its own institutions.
"It's like Saddam Hussein's human shields," says Buchheit. "You can't actually get at the target without shooting through your own financial system. It makes life very difficult."
But these countries may as well not exist in the eyes of the markets, what with Italy's current political impasse. Buchheit says: "The market moves so fast that, particularly the hedgies – they have the attention span of a Peruvian chinchilla, from one hour to the next they perceive different issues of being paramount importance. They're quite smart." And you feel the emphasis is on the "quite".
Now 62, Buchheit admits he was considering retiring to an 18th-century farmstead he owns some years ago. So, what happened?
He gives a great laugh. "The world went into a debt crisis. I spent virtually my entire career preparing to do one thing and then all of a sudden the entire world decided to borrow more money than it can pay back.
"There's absolutely no truth to the rumour I'll be taking a job in the Vatican," he adds, although some finance ministers probably consider him worthy of the divine role.
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 FRANCE 24 | Greek bailout program review hits snag MiamiHerald.com ATHENS, Greece -- Inspectors from Greece's rescue lenders have delayed a meeting with the prime minister after talks stalled over tax collection difficulties and promised reductions in public sector staff. Government officials said a meeting between ... Creditors to iron out differences with Greek PM Samaras: 2013 will be a turning point for Greece |
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 AFP | Greece: Debt inspectors delay meeting with PM after talks stall on tax arrears ... Fox News ATHENS, Greece – Inspectors from Greece's rescue lenders have delayed a meeting with the prime minister after talks stalled over tax collection difficulties and promised reductions in public sector staff. Government officials said a meeting between ... Samaras: 2013 will be a turning point for Greece Greece scrambles to reach agreement with Troika |
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Lebanon, Greece Name Hostages Killed in Nigeria ABC News Lebanon and Greece have identified the hostages killed by Islamic extremists in Nigeria, though two people remain unaccounted for out of the seven kidnapped. Greece's Foreign Ministry said Tuesday that Konstantinos Karras died in the killings claimed ... |
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 The West Australian | Greece withdraws bill that would have benefited tax dodgers GlobalPost Greece withdrew on Tuesday a proposed measure that would have enabled some tax dodgers to pay reduced penalties in return for disclosure, a finance ministry source said. Wrapped into an investment bill in early March, the amendment offered reduced ... Papaconstantinou Relatives Won't Testify |
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 CNBC.com | Greek banks' ECB funding rises in Jan., ELA down Reuters ATHENS, March 12 (Reuters) - European Central Bank funding to Greek banks rose by 56.9 billion euros in January while emergency liquidity assistance (ELA) from the country's central bank fell, Bank of Greece data showed on Tuesday. Greek banks ... Greek farmers drive to Athens to protest Stimulating business in Greece as signs for optimism emerge – 138 businesses ... Greece Faces 150000 Job-Cut Hurdle to Next Aid Payment |
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Greece Police need help identifying suspicious SUV around schools News 10NBC Keep your eyes open for a red Ford Explorer SUV. That's the vehicle that Greece Police say is trolling around schools in the town. The latest incident was Monday when a school girl told police that an SUV matching the description followed her from school. Second Suspicious Vehicle Report In Greece Greece Police investigating second suspicious incident involving student |
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 CNBC.com | Greece an Emerging Market? That's Offensive: Pro CNBC.com "Greece is not an emerging markets country, because it is too rich and its financial system is too developed. Greece is simply a bad credit. The example of Greece illustrates a basic fundamental principle of investing that all countries are risky and ... Ashmore's Dehn hits back at Greece 'emerging' reclassification |
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 Kathimerini | Gazprom CEO, Greece PM Discuss DEPA Privatization Fox Business Gazprom is one of two Russian companies eyeing the public gas corporation, DEPA, and its gas network operator, DESFA, which are being sold as part of the Greece's privatization program. Gazprom has only expressed interest in DEPA. The other Russian ... Gazprom CEO and Greece hold talks on DEPA |
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The jailing of Chris Huhne and Vicky Pryce reflects our inability to punish political figures for their public failings
Liars, hypocrites, the louses of parliament, the mighty fallen. Strip-search them in jail. Humiliate their families. Stick a lens up their noses. We know where they live. Let them wallow in their heinous crime. The reaction to the Huhne-Pryce conviction has been sickening. It has nothing to do with speeding or lying about speeding, hardly rare offences. It manifests something quite different: a public craving for revenge on those in any sort of power. They can get off scot-free most of the time, but sometimes the mob sees its chance and pounces. Judges, wigs and gowns flapping; camera crews and reporters in full cry; police and penal pundits – all descend as a ravenous horde and tear the victims limb from limb. It is killing without blood.
No proportionate justice would commit Chris Huhne and Vicky Pryce to jail. They did what thousands do, switched points and lied. No one died. No one was hurt. No one lost money. All they did was get caught through their own foolishness. They will not repeat their crime and pose no threat to society that requires incarceration. I am told that elsewhere in Europe such a case would be seen by a magistrate for half an hour, with a fine and a licence suspension.
Going over the speed limit is rightly an offence, but it is not reckless or dangerous driving. An estimated 10 million drivers, based on a survey conducted by Churchill insurers, say they would consider switching points to avoid a partner losing a licence. Reports from the AA and others suggest over half a million such "crimes" already. A law with so little public consent is a bad law and needs changing.
Sending people to prison for "seeking to pervert the course of justice" is equally bizarre. Everyone who bears false witness in court is trying to pervert justice, either by lying or by "suppressing a truth, suggesting a lie". Do we add that offence on to the original one if the defendant is found guilty?
Perverting the course of justice has become a middle-class offence, used to catch celebrities such as Jonathan Aitken, Jeffrey Archer, Huhne and Pryce, where an initial lie has got out of hand. They may have lost their fortunes, their careers, their reputations, often their families, but this is considered "insufficient punishment" to satiate judicial grandeur and the jail-addiction of British public opinion. Judges must send "people like us" pointlessly to prison to prove they do not send only the poor pointlessly to prison.
The glee that greeted the Huhne-Pryce sentences reflects an extraordinary retributive vengeance on the part of the public, or at least its spokesmen and women in the press. The trial was staged with all the publicity-craving, privacy-intruding, salacious detail that British justice can muster when it has a juicy case on its hands. Absolutely anything goes.
In this case it was not the crime that mattered, and only in part the salacious manner of its revelation. It was the possibility of draconian punishment. Once upon a time the mob would have flocked to the pillory or the gallows. Things not being what they were, it must make do with the tabloid front pages. Had Huhne and Pryce been merely fined, there would have been a howl of disappointment. The desire was to see the gilded couple pass beneath the grim jailhouse door and hear it clang shut behind them.
The coverage was drooling. Huhne would have "the jeering catcalls of fellow inmates ringing in his ears". Pryce would face "vulgar abuse and physical attack" if she put on airs. They would be strip-searched, drug-tested and literacy-tested. The heart-rending texts within the Huhne family, which should never have been revealed in court, were reprinted over and again. The details of family breakdown, the futile search for revenge, the money, the celebrity, the price both parties had already paid, all this was reprised. Mr Justice Sweeney, finding himself in charge of this miserable case, had to justify it with sonorous phrases such as "controlling, manipulative, devious", "stellar careers … fallen from a great height", and "this most serious and flagrant offence".
The truth is that we have so few ways of making power answer for its misdeeds that we grab hold of any stick that will do. There is virtually no accountability for incompetence in office beyond the ballot.
In Iceland the prime minister was hauled before the courts. In Britain there is no committee or tribunal to charge Huhne with his time at the energy department. He left power stations unbuilt and energy supply at risk, while pursuing an obsession with giving rich landowners millions of pounds of other people's money to erect senseless wind turbines. Let him answer for that.
As for Pryce, she may be sound on Greece and the eurozone, but as joint head of the government economic service from 2007-10 she should account for the direst years in postwar economic policy. If ever her profession were to stand trial for its role in the credit crunch, she is surely one person who should be in the dock.
Of course, no such things will happen. But since we cannot charge such people for things that affect us, we must charge them for things that do not. The ministerial lies that cascade daily over the dispatch box are left as lies. The human lives that are wrecked by unnecessary recessions and pointless wars are dismissed as just too bad. We can rant at our politicians in fury, but there is nothing we can do beyond silently vote them out after five years.
So we attack the powerful for their private failings, and pretend these reflect on their public duties. We hound their marriages and their finances. We jail them for cheating on expenses, since we cannot jail them for cheating on the country. If they swear at policemen we stake out their homes and shout abuse through their windows.
I am sure Mr Justice Sweeney is no different. He would love to get his orotund tongue round the tax dodgers, Libor riggers, planning fiddlers and energy swindlers. But he cannot, so he too must resort to damning a couple of bit players in the great game who fell foul of a speed trap.
We are back in the middle ages. We subject rulers to trial by combat and ordeal. We force them to "carry the hot iron" or "swallow the blessed morsel". We make them pass tests of purity and honesty we would never pass ourselves. When they fail, we crucify them. The reason is banal. It is that we cannot get at them any other way.
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CNBC.com | Greece Faces 150000 Job-Cut Hurdle to Next Aid Payment Businessweek More than three years after revealing that Greece had misled its euro partners on the state of its finances, the nation remains reliant on loans from the euro area and the International Monetary Fund to pay pensions and wages. To qualify for payments ... Greek farmers drive to Athens to protest |
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WVU fraternity members vie for the title of 'Mr. Greek' Daily Athenaeum "Greek Week allows our sorority and fraternity members to promote this philanthropic spirit while showcasing their talents and enjoying some friendly competition," said Ron Justice, director of Student Organizations Services. "The collaborative effort ... |
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