How Velti, One Of The Largest Mobile Ad Companies On The Planet, Lost $130 Million (VELT)

Until recently, Velti was one of the world's huge mobile adtech success stories.

It staged a big, early IPO in 2011, raising 0 million in cash. It had more than 1,000 employees around the world. It had an eye-popping, spaceship-like new headquarters in San Francisco. And it signed some of the biggest mobile ad deals ever seen — one client pledged a million budget to the company in 2012. Business Insider even lauded CEO Alex Moukas as one of the most important people in mobile advertising.

Today, the company is a disaster area.

Not paying its bills

It has laid off 200 people. It took a $111 million writedown in Q2 2013, after admitting it could not collect many of the revenues it was owed. It's been forced to sell Mobclix, one of its mobile ad networks, after publishers fled the business. And it gained a reputation for not paying its bills on time.

Now, the company has only $19 million in the bank. It isn't profitable. And it makes only $8.7 million in quarterly net revenue.

So where did all the money go?

We asked several senior executives at Velti for comment, and they all declined to speak on the record. A spokesperson for the company also declined to comment.

So we dug through Velti's financial disclosures to find out how the company lost $130 million of the $150 million it raised from the stock market just two years ago.

It isn't pretty.

Moukas goes shopping

In Q2 2011, with the IPO behind it, Velti had 0 million in cash on its books. The world was its oyster.

So CEO Alex Moukas went shopping. He made a number of acquisitions, and they were not cheap:

Buying mobile ad network Moblix cost Velti million.  British mobile marketing company Mobile Interactive Group cost million. Chinese ad network CASEE cost million upfront, and another .4 million eventually, in a two-stage acquisition. Indian customer relations management company Air2Web cost Velti million.

That's roughly $144 million in total acquisition commitments, payable over time as a series of earnouts.

The new San Francisco office wasn't cheap, either. It cost million.

At the same time, however, Velti's core business was falling apart. The company was having difficulty collecting payments from clients, particularly in Greece and Cyprus, Moukas' home country.

Warning signs

In May 2012, Velti published a worrying slideshow for investors on a single topic: DSO's. That stands for "days' sales outstanding," or the average total time it takes a company to collect its bills from clients. The slideshow — full of dense accounting terms that fly far over the heads of most non-accountants — was intended "to clarify perceived misunderstandings about the quality of our receivables and our ability to convert revenue to cash," the company said.The slideshow indicated that it took 272 days for Velti to collect its money. It also published a chart showing the difference between the revenue it was owed, accounts receivable ("AR"), and actual revenue. AR far outstripped sequential revenue, a clear warning that the business was not taking in as much cash as its contracts called for:

From this point on, Moukas was repeatedly questioned by Wall Street analysts on Velti's cash position.

But the company wanted to reassure investors on its guidance. It said in the DSO slideshow:

Reiterating Free cash flow by Q4 and operating cash flow positive by Q3. We are very confident on our execution.

That guidance would turn out to be wrong. Velti was having more difficulty collecting its bills, not less. One of Velti's vendors said in July, "I'm owed over $350,000 with over $250,000 that is late. ... I've am now trying another debt collector (directrecovery), and we'll see what happens."

Velti turned out to not be "operating cash flow positive" in Q3 2012. Rather, it saw negative million in operating cash flow.

Bailing out of Greece

That quarter, Q3 2012, Moukas began to come clean to investors about how much trouble his company was in. In a long statement, Moukas said, "We made a key decision in the quarter to divest certain assets associated with economically challenged geographies, including among others, Greece and the Balkan States. ... Quite a few of our customers in the regions where we are divesting assets are focusing on conserving cash above all else and therefore seem unwilling or unable to conform to our new payment requirements."

Basically, Velti was giving up on some of its deadbeat businesses in Europe. In a conference call with investors, Moukas admitted that some contracts had DSO's of up to 540 days — twice as long has Moukas' estimate in 2012.

But at the same time, Velti recorded only growing revenue: $62 million, up from $38 million the year before.

In other words, Velti appeared to be both growing and shrinking at the same time.

Goodbye, guidance

In Q1 2013, That contradiction was ended when the company admitted that in fact Velti was collapsing. Revenue was $41.0 million, a decrease of 21 percent from Q1 2012. The company stopped issuing guidance to Wall Street. And CFO Jeff Ross declined to talk in detail about how much cash Velti would need if it were to survive:

So I'm not going to specifically discuss cash balance today other than to say it's enough to run our business.

 in Q2 2013, Ross told investors that things at Velti were getting worse:

For the quarter, revenue came in at $31.2 million compared to guidance of $42 million to $45 million. As mentioned, this shortfall had several contributing factors. Our advertising revenues were well below our expectations, largely driven by a decline in traffic as publishers moved off the Velti Mobclix platform because we were increasingly unable to timely meet our payment obligations and the fundamental elimination of our enterprise business.

Velti now has a new COO, Mari Baker, who is widely regarded as bringing some tough, adult supervision to Velti. Several senior staff have left, including former COO Christos Kaskavelis and chief revenue officer Harry Patz.

Although the company has admitted to 200 layoffs, we're told that many other staff are leaving voluntarily.

Velti's fundamental problem

The question now is whether Moukas and Baker can solve Velti's fundamental, underlying problem. While Velti is a big business physically — with 900 or so employees it's probably the largest pure-play mobile ad company on the planet — the slice of that business it keeps for itself is tiny.

Velti reports topline revenues. But lower down in its income statement it reports that much of that sum goes on third-party media costs. Pass-through billings, in other words. In the most recent quarter, Velti reported $31 million in "revenues" — that's still a decent sized business in mobile.

But after third-party costs are taken out, Velti keeps only $8.7 million in net revenues. Its sales and marketing expenses alone are $11 million.

$9 million in sales per quarter makes Velti a rather modest business — much too modest to support 900 staffers in $3 million offices.

Employees and investors should therefore expect more cuts at Velti in the near future.

SEE ALSO: Tell us who are the most powerful women in mobile advertising

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Mirza Teletovic explodes for 27 in "friendly" vs. Greece

Mirza Teletovic explodes for 27 in "friendly" vs. GreeceNetsDailyGreece is looked upon as one of the top teams in Eurobasket, but in a "friendly" game Saturday, Mirza Teletovic shredded the Greek defense, hitting 7-of-10 from deep, 10-of-13 overall. He also grabbed 11 rebounds, blocked four shots and had one assist.

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Preparations under way for Staten Island's annual Greek Festival

Preparations under way for Staten Island's annual Greek FestivalSILive.comSTATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- The luring scents and sounds of the annual Greek Festival at Holy Trinity-St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church are just around the corner. Organizers are in the process of preparing for the 40th annual gathering at the Bulls Head ...

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Glendi 2013 to offer Greek food, music and dance

Glendi 2013 to offer Greek food, music and danceMassLive.comIt's time to get your Greek on in Springfield this weekend at the Greek Cultural Center. The St. George Greek Orthodox Cathedral will roll out the red carpet to the community as part of the annual “Glendi – a Greek Celebration” for three days beginning ...

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Radical Jewish Intellectual on Trial in Greece

Radical Jewish Intellectual on Trial in GreeceThe Nation. (blog)Tomorrow morning, September 3rd, in Athens, an Alice-in-Wonderland trial is scheduled to take place. The accused are Constantinos Moutzouris, former chancellor of the National Technical University, and Savvas Michael-Matsas, an internationally known ...

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Bourse fails to capitalize on good news

Stocks on the Greek bourse began the month of September in search of direction, split between winners and losers and with the main index oscillating between positive and negative territory before settling for marginal gains at the end of the session.The Athens Exchange (ATHEX) general index closed at 899.19 points, 0.08 percent lower than ...

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Extradition For Michaelides In Corruption Case

Dinos Michailides Cyprus’ Supreme Court has ruled that forjmer Interior Minister Dinos Michaelides can be extradited to Greece to be tried in connection with a huge money laundering racket centered around former Greek Defense Minister Akis Tsochatzopoulos and a group of others that runs into the hundreds of millions of euros. Michaelides should be extradited to Greece within 10 days at the ...

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Greek hospital doctors to stage work stoppage on Wednesday

State hospitals will be disrupted on Wednesday as doctors are expected to join a four-hour work stoppage called by the municipal ...

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Former Bayern Munich coach Pal Csernai dies at 80, also led North Korea to 1991 win over US

by  Associated Press Former Bayern Munich coach Pal Csernai dies at 80 Associated Press - 2 September 2013 14:57-04:00

BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — Pal Csernai, who coached Bayern Munich to a couple of Bundesliga titles in the early 1980s, has died. He was 80.

Csernai died Sunday after an undisclosed illness. His death was announced Monday by Bayern Munich and the Hungarian Football Federation.

Csernai was a midfielder and played briefly for Hungary before defecting in 1955 while his homeland was under communist rule.

After retiring as a player in 1964, Csernai earned a coaching diploma in Germany and coached there and in Belgium before working with Bayern Munich between 1978 and 1983. Later, he also coached in teams in Greece and Portugal, among other countries.

While coaching North Korea in 1991, the team earned a politically charged 2-1 victory over the United States in a friendly in Washington, D.C.

News Topics: Sports, Obituaries, Men's soccer, Professional soccer, Soccer, Men's sports

People, Places and Companies: Hungary, Munich, Eastern Europe, Europe, Germany, Western Europe

Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. This article is published under the terms of the News Licensing Group, LLC. privacy policy, in addition to the terms of use and privacy policy for this website.

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Greek ministry scrambles to complete landfill tender

KathimeriniGreek ministry scrambles to complete landfill tenderKathimeriniThe Infrastructure Ministry on Monday approved the launch of a tender for the construction of a legal waste-processing center in Alexandroupoli, northeastern Greece, as the country rushes to comply with European Union rules. The legal landfill will ...

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Is The Cult Of Central Bankers Unravelling?

In my experience, markets don't deal well with several crises emerging at the one time. Give them just QE tapering and they may be able to adapt, but throw Syria and an Asian currency mess into the mix, and it can make for a wild ride. Underlying all of the recent volatility though is the first sign that investors are starting to doubt the omnipresent powers of central bankers. Ben Bernanke says there can be QE tapering without rising interest rates and bond markets revolt against that idea. Similarly, the new Bank of England chief Mark Carney says interest rates will remain low for the next three years and bond yields jump given better economic data and rising inflation. This is important because the mother of all bubbles in the modern era hasn't been in subprime, bonds or emerging markets. No, the biggest bubble has been in central banking. It's been a bubble based on faith in central bankers to provide cheap money to smooth out business cycles and prevent serious economic downturns. That faith has been unwavering despite the 2008 crisis and the tepid recovery since. Until now. What does this mean for markets? Recent events may prove a prelude to the ultimate endgame: investors realising that unwinding the extraordinary post-crisis policies will be messy, which gets priced into higher bond yields and exposes the vastly over-indebted developed world and some of the hot money reliant developing countries. I doubt this endgame is imminent though and oversold bond and emerging markets may be due for a bounce. The likes of India and Indonesia will be hoping that time is on their side so they can push through badly needed reforms which will them less exposed to a further crisis down the road. Welcome back volatility What is it with summer holidays (for much of the world) and market turmoil? It seems like someone's bad joke to give investors a headache while they're trying to get some down-time. Anyhow, markets are digesting a lot of actual and probable events right now. They're looking at possible QE tapering, volatile bond markets, the potential for US intervention in Syria, the coming announcement of a new U.S. Fed Chairman and crumbling Asian currencies. Receiving less attention are a big German election this month and another soon-to-announced bailout package for Greece. That's not to mention that China and Japan have quietened down of late, though if they don't announce serious economic reforms soon, they'll be back in the spotlight. And you can throw in September traditionally being a terrible month for stock markets. The simple and logical explanation for much of the volatility stems from Ben Bernanke's statement in May signalling a potential pullback from QE. Of course, QE - aka money printing - has been used to buy bonds and thereby suppress yields. The purpose of this has been to keep interest rates below the GDP rate, thereby reducing America's large debt to GDP ratio, now at 105%. Also, QE has aimed to get investors to part with their cash, by offering pitiful rates, and to put that cash into risk assets such as stocks. With rising stock markets, this would induce the so-called wealth effect where people feel wealthier and start to spend again, which boosts GDP. So goes the theory anyway. Unsurprisingly, Bernanke's announcement resulted in bond investors heading for the exit doors. After all, QE had helped keep bond yields low and any cutbacks would mean less demand and higher yields. Subsequently, U.S. 10-year Treasury yields went from close to 1.6% in May to the current 2.78%. For bond markets, that's a bloodbath. The spike in U.S. and developed market bond yields made emerging market currencies and bonds less attractive. Since 2009, emerging markets have benefited from a flood of money seeking higher yields in currencies and bonds compared with developed markets which were offering next-to-nothing yields. The prospect of QE tapering turned this on its head. And the emerging market countries to suffer the most have been those such as India and Indonesia where investors have doubts about their ability to finance large current-account deficits. In effect, a current-account deficit means you're investing more than you're saving. And you rely on external money to finance the gap. Once that money starts to dry up, currencies get hit. In India and Indonesia, the currencies have been obliterated. That's led to central bank intervention which has drawn down on foreign exchange (forex) reserves. In effect, this action tightens domestic money supply. Tightening is not what these countries need given both have softening economies. There are also fears that the drawdown in forex reserves in emerging markets will produce a "negative feedback loop" for developed markets. That is, these reserves have primarily gone into large, liquid markets such as the U.S. bond market. A reduction in reserves means less demand for these bonds and possibly higher yields. The graph below from MarketWatch illustrates this negative feedback loop. Central bankers tamed What's fascinating about recent events though, and has been little mentioned, is that investor confidence in the words of central bankers appears to be waning. In May, Bernanke indicated the QE tapering was on the cards. When bond yields jumped soon after, leaks to the press tried to downplay the impact of tapering on interest rates. In other words, the Fed was at pains to emphasise that QE tapering did not automatically mean higher interest rates. Investors didn't get the memo and yields spiked further. Similarly, Britain's new central bank chief Mark Carney pledged to keep policy loose and rates low, but investors all but ignored him. Earlier this month, Carney said he'd keep benchmark interest rates at a record low of 0.5% until unemployment in the U.K. falls to 7% - a threshold not expected to be reached until 2016. But with the economy and inflation picking up, investors have already factored in a rise in rates in 2015, a year prior. The worry is, of course, that these market expectations will feed through to higher mortgage rates before then. These events could prove a significant turning point. Up until now, investors have treated the words of central bankers as gospel. Since 2009, these bankers have pledged massive stimulus and low rates. Investors have taken their word and parted with cash to pile into stock and bond markets. What the central bankers wanted, they got. This explains why the correlation between stimulus and the S&P 500 is more than 90%, for instance. Now it seems that investors are getting more sceptical of central bank pledges. It's not before time! But it's important to understand the ramifications of this. The developed world desperately need bond yields to remain low. As I've argued in a previous post, higher interest rates would cripple many over-indebted developed countries. For example, if interest rates in the U.S. normalise and increase by 100 basis points annually over the next five years, the interest expense on government debt would rise from US$360 billion last year to US$1.51 trillion. To put this in context, U.S. government cutbacks earlier this year, which some worried would tip the economy into recession, totalled just US$85 billion. The upshot is that normalising interest rates would result in massive cutbacks in U.S. government programs. Elsewhere, higher interest rates would be even more brutal. The Bank of International Settlements estimates that if bond yields were to rise just 300 basis points across the yield spectrum, the losses for holders of debt in France, Japan, Italy and the U.K. would range from 15% to 35% of GDP. I repeat: the developed world can't afford higher interest rates. The problem is that though central banks control short-term rates, the market controls long-term rates. Once investors start to lose faith in the ability of central bankers to manage an exit from the extraordinary policies of recent years, much higher interest rates will be on the cards. It's only then that the ugly implications of these policies, which has led to even greater debt in developed countries than prior to the crisis, will come to light. And recent events also show, a number of developing countries, particularly in Asia, would also suffer from higher interest rates. Inevitably, like now, those countries with large current account deficits would be hit hardest. A wake-up call for Asia Which brings us to the plights of India and Indonesia. While recent currency turmoil hasn't entirely surprised, the speed and ferocity of it has. There's little doubt that they've both been large beneficiaries of lavish QE and now victims thereof. But equally, they've been targeted for good reason. According to the IMF, India's current-account deficit is likely to be 5% this year, compared with 2.8% from 2008-2011. Similarly, Indonesia's current-account deficit will reach 3% this year after an average surplus of 0.7% from 2008-2011. As alluded to earlier, current-account deficits essentially mean you're investing more than you're saving. The only way to keep this up is to borrow surplus savings from abroad. Or put another way, you're borrowing money to finance growth. QE tapering is leading to expectations of higher interest rates in the developed world. Money which had been flowing into Asia in search of yield is now heading back to the West. And that makes the ability to finance current-account deficits more difficult. India and Indonesia are certainly in a bind. If they hike interest rates, that will slow their economies, leading to another drop in international confidence and further money outflows. If they defend their currencies against further falls, forex reserves will decline, eroding confidence and resulting in accelerating outflows. Do nothing and their currencies are likely to fall further. The elephant in the room is that both countries have elections next year. This makes raising interest rates a politically undesirable option. Though as Indonesia has shown with its recent rate hikes, there may not be a choice in the matter. The diagram from Citi below illustrates the quandary in which India and Indonesia find themselves. Both countries better prayer that higher interest rates in the developed world don't become a reality. More seriously, they need to rectify the issues which have led to their growing current-account deficits, and quickly. Both actually have similar problems which need addressing, namely: 1) Cutting fuel and other subsidies. Indonesia has made some progress on this front while India hasn't. It goes a long way to explaining some of the entrenched inflation issues in both countries. I get that it's politically sensitive particularly when you'd rather bribe voters with subsidies in an election year. But it needs to be done, and soon. 2) Reducing bureaucracy. There's a reason that Indonesia and India are ranked 128 and 132 out of 185 economies for doing business, according to the World Bank. 3) Tackling corruption once and for all. The current Indonesian President promised to crack down on corruption but has had little success. Indian corruption hasn't gotten any better despite endless political scandals. It's a huge issue holding both economies back. 4) Welcome foreign investment. It's amazing how unwelcoming both countries are to foreign investment. When I was a portfolio manager, I used to deal with the maddening situation of many Indian companies capping foreign ownership in their stocks. I had to ask permission from the company whether there was room for our fund to buy stock. Indonesia isn't much better, as the continued imposition of regulations and taxes on foreign mining companies with operations in the country attests. These are but a few examples of what India and Indonesia need to do to rebalance their economies. Hopefully, this crisis acts as a catalyst for reform. What it means for markets What does all of this mean for markets then? If I'm right and the world can't afford higher interest rates, that'll mean central banks will fight to keep rates low by printing more and more money. Whether a small cut to QE happens this month or not, a rather quick reversal shouldn't be ruled out. And other countries will print away regardless. In this environment, oversold bond and gold markets may outperform, as they've been done for the past few weeks. Stocks may rebound at some point but should lag other assets, given their relative outperformance in the months prior. Regular readers will know that my preference is to invest for the long term ie. 3-5 years. On this basis, I still prefer overweights in gold and cash versus stocks and bonds. With yields low, bonds guarantee low-to-negative real returns. Stocks are more attractive than bonds, particularly in Asia where valuations are reasonable compared with the likes of the U.S.. But the view here remains that the bear market in stocks which began in 2000 hasn't finished and consequently valuations can potentially go a lot lower from here. Gold is attractive as a hedge against further money printing and currency debasement. Meanwhile cash is the ultimate contrarian play! Everybody hates it. But it's likely to come in handy if risk assets get beaten up at some point - which is the base case here. In terms of currencies, the Singapore dollar, Thai baht (especially after recent tumult) and U.S. dollar are favoured. The dollar is a flawed currency but should be a beneficiary of an eventual flight to safety. At least, initially. This post was originally published at Asia Confidential: http://asiaconf.com/2013/08/31/central-banker-cult-unravels/  

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Former Cypriot Minister Faces Extradition To Greece

Former Cypriot Interior Minister Dinos Michaelides has been linked to a money-laundering scheme by former Greek Defense Minister Akis Tsochatzopoulos by witnesses. NICOSIA - Cyprus' Supreme Court has ordered the extradition to Greece of former Interior Minister Dinos Michaelides who Greek authorities want to question about a former defense minister there on charges of corruption and ...

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Police Officer Arrested for Robberies

A police officer from the Greek Police Attica headquarters was arrested as he has allegedly been participating in a gang which has conducted armed robberies and break-ins. According to a police announcement, along with the police officer six other peopleaged from 26 to 36 were arrested for their involvement in the organization, while the police are still looking for two more people, a 32-year ...

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‘Volta’ a stroll through Athens seeks crowdfunding

Filmmaker Stella Kyriakopoulos is running a crowdfunding campaign on the Kickstarter forum for a short film that will be shot in Greece in late September, with a September 24 deadline for donations to get the project off the ground. "Volta" (Stroll) follows a mother and her 5-year-old daughter as they travel through the Greek capital, mapping the changing neighborhoods from the ...

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Greeces Vamvakaris named as British womens water polo head coach

British Swimming, the National Governing Body for the aquatic disciplines, is seeking a British Head coach to join the World Class Programme Disability Swimming ...

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Annual Greek Fest Comes To L.A.

Neon TommyAnnual Greek Fest Comes To L.A.Neon TommyOn Sept. 6-8, St. Sophia Cathedral will host the 15th Annual L.A. Greek Fest. More than 15,000 attended last year's event and this year's schedule of events and food and drink menu could inspire even greater numbers. Ouzo lemonade, Greek street fries ...

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Greek director Avranos seeks to give voice to domestic violence victims with 'Miss Violence'

by  Associated Press 'Miss Violence' shocks with domestic abuse tales by PATRICIA THOMAS, Associated Press - 2 September 2013 13:00-04:00

VENICE, Italy (AP) — Greek director Alexandro Avranas says he was seeking to give domestic abuse victims a voice in his deeply disturbing movie "Miss Violence."

Avranas said in an interview that the film was based on a true story in Germany about a grandfather who prostituted his daughter and his granddaughters to his friends. The director said he was driven to make a film to "speak all about these children who have no voice. "

He said while the actors grew depressed due to the movie's subject matter "they had the feeling that they are helping other persons to stop doing this, to see a way to make a revolution. That was our hope, our motive."

The film premieres Monday in competition at the Venice Film Festival.

News Topics: Arts and entertainment, General news, Movies, Entertainment, Venice Film Festival, Domestic violence, Film festivals, Violence, Events, Family issues, Social affairs, Social issues

People, Places and Companies: Italy, Western Europe, Europe

Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. This article is published under the terms of the News Licensing Group, LLC. privacy policy, in addition to the terms of use and privacy policy for this website.

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Sports Direct, Coca Cola Hellenic in line to join FTSE 100 at expense of Serco and ENRC

South African paper maker Mondi another possible entrant to leading index at next week's reshuffle

Sports Direct International looks odds on to join the FTSE 100 at next week's reshuffle, along with recently listed Coca-Cola Hellenic.

Mike Ashley's retailing group - which was recently found to employ 90% of its staff on so-called zero hour contracts - has seen its share price jump more than 70% this year as it boosts profits and takes market share from struggling rivals.

Meanwhile Greek bottling group Coca Cola Hellenic, which listed its shares in London earlier this year, is now eligible to join the UK indices and is large enough to move straight into the FTSE 100.

Another outside entrant for the leading index is South African paper maker Mondi.

Relegated to the FTSE 250 to make way for the newcomers could be Serco, Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation and - if Mondi joins - Wood Group.

According to analysts at Edison, companies which could be promoted to the FTSE 250 are Partnership Assurance, Al Noor Hospitals, Cineworld, Greencore Group and Entertainment One.

This would be at the expense of Schroder Asia Pacific Fund, Utilico Emerging Markets, JP Morgan's Indian Investment Trust, Anite and Salamander Energy. Edison analyst Gareth Jones said:

The net impact of the changes will be to slightly tilt the bias of the index towards domestic/developed markets and away from (Eastern) emerging markets.Sports Direct InternationalMondiSercoEurasian Natural Resources CorporationWood GroupNick Fletchertheguardian.com © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

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Volcano Near Santorini Attracts Gold

Greek scientists from the University of Athens and the Hellenic Center for Marine Research (HCMR), who explored the Columbo volcano's bottom at an underwater 500-meter depth, found that rare phenomena never observed in the world before have been taking place in the geothermal field of this submarine volcano located north east of the island of Santorini. The results of their work was ...

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Impressive Representation of Parga’s Naval Combat

Parga once again honored its past. Following the representation of the Pargians’ escape on August 15, on September 1, there was another representation which attracted all the people of Epirus. The representation was about the most frightful pirate Kheir el-din Barbarossa, an admiral of the Ottoman fleet, whose mother was Greek, and he destroyed the whole fortified city in 1537. The ...

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Greek Cyprus on track with bailout reforms, EU report says

It is forecast to rise to 8.4 percent in 2014 before falling to 6.3 percent again in 2015 and 2.9 percent in 2016. "The fiscal targets have been met as a result of significant fiscal consolidation measures underway and prudent budget execution," the report ...

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The Winemaking Women Of Spain's Rias Biaxas

The shipwrecked sailors of Greek mythology were thought to be lured off-course by the irresistible Sirens but it's just as likely they were drawn to the racy Albariño wines being made along the Spanish coastline, either way, clever women were involved. By some estimates more than half of the winemakers in Spain’s coastal Rias Biaxas (pronounced ree-ahs-buy-shuss) appellation are women. Although no one in the region could offer me a specific number, it’s a safe bet to say that the winemaking here has a distinctly feminine voice rooted in years of history.

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What else are Greeks good at?

by  Stanislava Gaydazhieva

Everyone knows that Greeks are good at arts and sciences like philosophy, mathematics and medicine.

But what else are they leading in?

Apparently, Greeks are quite good at words and especially at combining those words in a haiku.

Haiku is short form of Japanese poetry which also seems to be mastered by the people living in Greece.

…At least according to the EU and the Japanese foreign ministry which organised a Japan-EU English Haiku contest over the summer, proudly won in its EU part by a Greek.

The delegation of the European Union to Japan announced Monday that Giogos Paximadis has won the first prize among EU entries and will be invited to the birthplace of modern Japanese haiku - the city of Matsuyama.

A three-member jury had to look at a total of 710 entries that were received between 3 June and 1 August – 185 from Japanese and 525 from EU Member State nationals.

On the other hand, a Japanese girl from Kyoto named Misato Oi has won the first prize among the Japanese entries and will visit Belgium.

Below, our readers can enjoy the two best works together with the messages the candidates attached to them.

rainbow of hope

amidst ocean breeze

the lone pine tree

Giogos Paximadis (Greece)

Message from candidate: The “miracle” pine tree of Rikuzentakata which survived the tsunami disaster of March 2011,  will always be a symbol of hope and perseverance in the hearts and minds of people all over  the world.

Heading to the rainbow

— we are the one

on the same boat

Misato Oi (Kyoto, Japan)

Message from candidate:

I saw a rainbow with my crew members while ιν rowing practice. I was exhausted with hard practice, however, the rainbow was beyond description and I could exert my last strength. Also, I was so happy that I could share the same experience with my teammates. I want to treasure this kind of everyday affairs. This is how I came up with this English haiku. 

 

 

 

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Greek festival comes to Cardiff

Greek festival comes to CardiffU-T San DiegoJACUMBA — The sights and scents of a Greek marketplace will be recreated for the 35th annual Cardiff Greek Festival Sept. 7-8 at Saints Constantine and Helen Greek Orthodox Church in Cardiff. Live entertainment throughout the weekend with folk dancers ...

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German FinMin sees Greek funding gap of 4-4.5 bln euros

BERLIN, Sept 2 | Mon Sep 2, 2013 6:43am EDT BERLIN, Sept 2 (Reuters) - German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble estimated Greece's financing gap under its current bailout programme at around 4 billion to 4.5 billion euros, a senior lawmaker from the ruling Christian Democrats (CDU) said on Monday. Briefing reporters on Schaeuble's comments at a session of the German ...

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Letter Bomb Sparks Terrorism Fears

Greek Counter-terrorism units are anxious that anarchists and extremists will be going after economic targets next with anger building over coming worker firings. ATHENS - A letter bomb was sent to a Greek anti-terrorism prosecutor only days after law enforcement officials said they were stepping up security and alerts for possible strikes against economic targets. The comes amid fears that ...

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Policeman arrested for participation in robbery ring

An officer serving at the Greek Police's Attica headquarters was arrested on Monday as an investigation is conducted into his alleged participation in a gang that conducted numerous armed robberies and break-ins.The 44-year-old policeman was taken into custody by his colleagues along with six other people, aged 26 to 36, accused of being part of the gang that is suspected of having conducted ...

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Global economy should fear the 'known unknowns'

• US: taper fears/fiscal showdown in the autumn• Political risks remain in eurozone periphery• UK - forward guidance fails to convince markets• Emerging markets party over• Middle East conflict could see oil spike

During the height of the Iraq war, then-US secretary of defense Donald Rumsfeld spoke of "known unknowns" – foreseeable risks whose realisation is uncertain. Today, the global economy is facing many known unknowns, most of which stem from policy uncertainty.

In the United States, three sources of policy uncertainty will come to a head this autumn. For starters, it remains unclear whether the Federal Reserve will begin to "taper" its open-ended quantitative easing (QE) in September or later, how fast it will reduce its purchases of long-term assets, and when and how fast it will start to raise interest rates from their current zero level. There is also the question of who will succeed Ben Bernanke as Fed chairman. Finally, yet another partisan struggle over America's debt ceiling could increase the risk of a government shutdown if the Republican-controlled House of Representatives and President Barack Obama and his Democratic allies cannot agree on a budget.

The first two sources of uncertainty have already affected markets. The rise in US long-term interest rates – from a low of 1.6% in May to recent peaks above 2.9% – has been driven by market fears that the Fed will taper QE too soon and too fast, and by the uncertainty surrounding Bernanke's successor.

So far, investors have been complacent about the risks posed by the looming budget fight. They believe that – as in the past – the fiscal showdown will end with a midnight compromise that avoids both default and a government shutdown. But investors seem to underestimate how dysfunctional US national politics has become. With a majority of the Republican party on a jihad against government spending, fiscal explosions this autumn cannot be ruled out.

Uncertainties abound in other advanced economies as well. Germany's general election appears likely to produce a repeat of the current government coalition of chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union and the Free Democrats, with opinion polls suggesting that a grand coalition between the CDU and the Social Democrats is less likely. In the former case, current German policies toward the eurozone crisis will not change, despite austerity fatigue in the eurozone's periphery and bailout fatigue in its core.

Political risks in the eurozone's periphery include the collapse of Italy's government and a fresh election as a result of former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi's criminal conviction. Greece's ruling coalition could collapse as well, and political tensions may rise even higher in Spain and Portugal.

On monetary policy, the European Central Bank's forward guidance – the commitment to keep interest rates at a low level for a long time – is too little too late and has not prevented a rise in short- and long-term borrowing costs, which could stifle the eurozone's already-anemic economic recovery. Whether the ECB will ease policy more aggressively is also uncertain.

Outside of the eurozone, the strength of the United Kingdom's recovery and the Bank of England's soft forward guidance have led to similar "unwarranted" increases in interest rates, which the BoE, like the ECB, seems unable to prevent in the absence of more muscular action. In Japan, the policy uncertainty concerns whether the third arrow of Abenomics – structural reforms and trade liberalisation to boost potential growth – will be implemented, and whether the expected rise in the consumption tax in 2014 will choke economic recovery.

In China, November's third plenum of the Communist party central committee will show whether China is serious about reforms aimed at shifting from investment-led to consumption-led growth. Meanwhile, China's slowdown has contributed to the end of the commodity super-cycle, which, together with the sharp rise in long-term interest rates (owing to the scare of an early Fed exit from QE), has led to economic and financial stresses in many emerging-market economies.

These economies – the Brics (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) and others – were overhyped for too long. Favourable external conditions – the effect of China's strong growth on higher commodity prices and easy money from yield-hungry advanced-economy investors – led to a partly artificial boom. Now that the party is over, the hangover is setting in.

This is especially true in India, Brazil, Turkey, South Africa, and Indonesia, all of which suffer from multiple macroeconomic and policy weaknesses – large current-account deficits, wide fiscal deficits, slowing growth, and above-target inflation – as well as growing social protest and political uncertainty ahead of elections in the next 12-to-18 months. There are no easy choices: defending the currency by hiking interest rates would kill growth and harm banks and corporate firms; loosening monetary policy to boost growth might push their currencies into free-fall, causing a spike in inflation and jeopardising their ability to attract capital to finance their external deficits.

There are two major geopolitical uncertainties as well. First, will the looming military strikes by the US and its allies against Syria be limited in scope and time, or will they trigger a wider military confrontation? The last thing that a fragile global economy needs now is another round of peak oil prices.

Second, a year ago the US convinced Israel to give its non-military approach to Iran's nuclear-weapons ambitions time to bear fruit. But, after a year of economic sanctions and negotiations with no result, Israel's patience on what it regards as an existential issue is wearing thin. Even short of an actual military conflict – which could double oil prices overnight – the resumption of sabre-rattling by Israel and the war of words between the two sides could lead to a sharp rise in energy costs.

The looming known unknowns are plentiful. Some outcomes may be more positive, or at least less damaging, than expected. But the realisation this autumn of even some of the risks described here could derail the global economy's still-wobbly recovery. And the meta-risk of policy mistakes and accidents remains very high.

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Copyright: Project Syndicate, 2013.

EconomicsGlobal economyStock marketsFederal ReserveUS economyUnited StatesGermanyBank of EnglandChinaNouriel Roubinitheguardian.com © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

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Former Cypriot minister to be extradited to Greece in graft inquiry

NICOSIA (Reuters) - A court in Cyprus ordered the extradition of a former Cypriot interior minister to Greece on Monday for questioning related to corruption charges against a once-powerful Greek politician who is now in jail.

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Germany's Schaeuble: Greece Needs at Least Extra EUR4 Billion in 2014

Mr. Schaeuble told reporters that there is an extra financial need but he declined to give any estimate. The funding gap is a result of a lack of privatization and ongoing discussion about the planned transfer of central banks' profits resulting ...

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Greek Lessons From Detroit In Ruins

What used to be a flourishing automobile plant in Detroit is long abandoned, as is much of the city. Could it happen in Greece? There are scary parallels to ponder. While spending part of my summer break away from the Eurozone in downtown Detroit, I came across an old article by the Chilean-born writer and photographer Camilo Jose Vergara. In the mid-1990's he made what he called "an ...

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Merkel Rival Fight Over Greek Pollicy

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, a resounding favorite to win re-election on Sept. 22, found herself trying to defend her policy of propping up Greece with bailouts while her rival, Peer Steinbrueck said she was administering ';deadly doses'; of austerity, during their televised debate. Steinbrueck, from the SPD Social Democratic Party, hammered away at Merkel for sending German ...

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Cypriot ex defense minister to be extradited for Greek money laundering trial

A top Cyprus court ruled on Monday in favor of extraditing former Cypriot Interior Minister Dinos Michailides to Greece to be tried in connection with a huge money laundering racket centered around former Greek Defense Minister Akis Tsochatzopoulos and several others.Michailides should be extradited to Greece within 10 days at the latest, the Cyprus Supreme Court ruled, rejecting an appeal lodged ...

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Angela Merkel defends Greek austerity measures in leadership debate

The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, is criticised by leadership rival Peer Steinbrck over austerity measures in Greece, during a televised debate prior to the German elections. Steinbrck, a Social Democratic Party politician, says pressure put on Greece to meet bailout requirements is sending the country into a 'downward spiral'. Merkel defends the measures, saying Greece did not meet ...

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Merkel Election Rival In Greek Tussle

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, (back left) and her challenger Peer Steinbrueck, awaiting questions at a televised debate on Sept. 1. (AP Photo/WDR) Saying for the first time that she, too, believes Greece will need a third bailout, German Chancellor Angela Merkel found herself trying to defend the rescue loans as her challenger in the Sept. 22 election, Peer Steinbrueck said she was ...

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He Admires Eroglu Says Greek Cypriots Rude

Dervis Eroglu, the hard-line leader of the Turkish community in lands it unlawfully occupies in the northern third of Cyprus. Some months back we ran a story on our travel news site about Northern Cyprus. It was not the first portrait of that wonderful Island, but what ensued was one of the more interesting and revealing chronicles of our time in journalism and PR. Cyprus, besides being one of ...

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Greek Jobless Rate Stuck For 20 Years

With crushing austerity measures creating a record 27.6 percent unemployment rate and putting 1.4 million people out of work, it will take at least 20 years for the jobless rate to drop below 10 percent, according to leaked extracts of a report on the Greek economy prepared by the country's main private sector union, GSEE. According to the Athens-Macedonia News Agency, GSEE's Labor ...

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Greece not to allow foreign intervention in the privatization fund

The Greek government has denied rumours that it will allow its lenders to take over Greece's privatisation plans. This response came following the publication of a report last week saying that the international troika made up of the European Union, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund were planning to force the Greek government to give the management of the Hellenic ...

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Price of a third Greek bailout? Merkel remains ambiguous

HSBC Purchasing Manager Index (PMI) - a snapshot of business activity – was up to its highest reading in almost two years - to 51.8. On a 100 – point scale a reading above 50 points to expansion. German taxpayers have grown tired of financing the ...

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Ex-SS officer to be tried over killing Dutch resistance fighter

by  Stanislava Gaydazhieva

A 92-year-old former member of the Waffen SS, the military arm of the Nazi Party, will be tried in the German town of Hagen over alleged participation in the murder of a Dutch resistance fighter, German media reported Monday.

Dutch-born German national Siert Bruins will appear in court on 2 September, facing charges of killing Aldert Klaas Dijkema in September 1944 while stationed on the Dutch-German border.

Dijkema was shot four times in the back in the Appingedam area east of Groningen almost 70 years ago. The trial is considered as one of the last of its kind in Germany.

If convicted, the 92-year old faces a life sentence. German media report, however, that due his age and different types of sickness, Bruins can negotiate for up to three hours per day imprisonment.

BBC recaps that a court in the Netherlands convicted Bruins in absentia of participating in three shootings, including that of Dijkema, in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War. He was sentenced to death in 1949, a ruling later commuted to life imprisonment.  

However, the former SS officer avoided serving his sentence having fled to Germany, which does not extradite its own nationals.

Bruins did serve a seven-year jail term in Germany in the 1980's after a court convicted him of being an accessory in the murder of two Jewish brothers in the Netherlands in April 1945.

The 92-year old is one of the last presumed Nazi criminals detained by the German authorities, as was another former SS officer, Heinrich Boere, who was sentenced to life in March 2010 for the murder of three Dutch civilians.

Local media recap that since the Nuremberg Trials in 1945-1946, around 106 000 German or Nazi soldiers have been accused of war crimes. About 13 000 have been found guilty and around half sentenced, according to the authority charged with clearing up Nazi crimes.

The trial of Bruins will go against the background of one of Germany's most high-profile neo-Nazi trials in post-war period which began in May this year. Beate Zschäpe and four others alleged members of National Socialist Underground (NSU), a neo-Nazi gang randomly discovered in 2011, have been charged with complicity in the murders of eight ethnic Turks, a Greek immigrant and a German policewoman between 2000 and 2007.

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Piraeus investment deal eases privatisation prospects

Its container port handled a total of 625,914 TEUs of cargo last year, up 28 percent on 2011 but still 6 percent below its 2009 level reflecting the damage to Greek trade from the economic crisis. OLP has a stock market value of 421 million euros.

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The Fabulous Baker Brothers go to Greece

Daily MailThe Fabulous Baker Brothers go to GreeceDaily MailWhen we were children we spent one glorious holiday on the tiny Greek island of Paxos. Just getting there was a mini-adventure in itself – a flight to nearby Corfu and then a ferry. My parents liked places out of the way. With six children, they were ...and more »

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Designer Aslanis subject of arrest warrant over debts shortly before death report claims

An arrest warrant had been issued for Greek fashion designer Michalis Aslanis due to debts to the state a few days before the 63-year-old was found dead in his apartment in Athens, Proto Thema newspaper reports.The warrant was reportedly issued on August 9. The designer was found dead on August 28.According to Proto Thema, ...

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Steinbrück attacks Merkel over Greece bailout

Telegraph.co.ukSteinbrück attacks Merkel over Greece bailoutEuropean VoicePeer Steinbrück, who hopes to unseat Chancellor Angela Merkel in Germany's general election on 22 September, has attacked Merkel for imposing “a deadly dose” of austerity on Greece and other troubled eurozone economies. The Social Democratic ...Angela Merkel: Greece 'Should Not Have Been Admitted' Into The Euro ZoneHuffington PostAngela Merkel: Greece should never have been allowed in the euroTelegraph.co.ukAngela Merkel says Greece should never have been allowed to join the euroThe IndependentBloomberg -CNNMoney -Trend.azall 533 news articles »

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Magda Abu-Fadil: War Threatens Palmyra, UNESCO Pleads for Syrian Heritage Protection

It's another urgent call to protect Syria's irreplaceable historical sites amidst the fog of war, loss of life and limb, and steady drumbeat of outside...

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Al Benn's Alabama: Greek community's barbecue and pastry sale marks milestone

Al Benn's Alabama: Greek community's barbecue and pastry sale marks milestoneMontgomery AdvertiserWorkers check on and baste hams Sunday as they cook in preparation for the Labor Day Barbecue and Pastry Sale at the Greek Orthodox Church of the Annunciation in Montgomery. / Mickey Welsh/Advertiser ...

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Portugal's BCP to keep 'core' Polish bank after EU approves revamp

LISBON (Reuters) - The European Commission has approved a restructuring plan for Portuguese lender Millennium BCP , including the future sale of its Romanian operation and Greek assets while retaining its profitable Polish arm.

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Affinity in Greece loses farmers market

Affinity in Greece loses farmers marketRochester Democrat and ChronicleMarc Goldfischer, occupancy director at the Affinity Orchard Place Apartments & Townhomes in Greece, knows that many of the residents haven't had much experience with farmers' markets. The apartments in the 550-unit complex are considered affordable, ...

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Greece projects 10% jump in revenues as tourists return

Greece projects 10% jump in revenues as tourists returnJamaica ObserverWITH tourists beginning to return to Greece, the industry is reported to be expecting total revenues this year to rise by 10 per cent on the previous year. At the same time, Greek officials forecast that tourism receipts will total ¤11bn from the ...

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Here's The State Of The World Economy

Today is the perfect day to step back and take a big picture look at the world economy.

For one thing, it's Labor Day in the US, so it's a natural time to gain perspective. It's also, fortuitously, PMI Day in the rest of the world, so we have a lot of fresh economic data.

So let's hit on the big themes.

1) Europe is coming back.

We've been writing about this since early in the summer, but the latest data makes it clear that across the Eurozone, a comeback is happening.

Both Spanish and Italian PMIs had their best months since Spring 2011. Germany remains solid. And even Greece (!) is surging back. It's nearly back to growth.

This table from Markit nicely tells the whole story in the Eurozone.

And it's not just the Eurozone.

UK data has been solid lately, and Eastern European numbers are looking very strong.

Here for example is the Czech Republic (Poland looks similar).

Europe is not "out of the woods" or anything. But the numbers are going in the right direction, which makes everything from debt to politics a lot smoother.

2) China is not crashing

For years, China has been in a a Schrödinger's Hard Landing. Some people are convinced that it's all falling apart. Others insist that things are just fine, or maybe slowing a tad.

Earlier this year there was serious concern about a hard China fall, but the recent data has eased those concerns somewhat.

Again going to the latest PMI data, it looks like things are doing fine. Growth isn't at its most spectacular levels, but the situation is not deteriorating too hard, and the numbers right now are a tad better than expected.

Anyway, the more important story in China seems to be the government's eagerness to see "quality" growth (i.e. growth that's not just driven by aggressive investment), and also a push to reform and crack down on corruption, which we're seeing in the newsflow coming out of the country. So China might not be the voracious consumer of the world's commodities quite the way it used to be, but a full-on meltdown in the world's most populous country doesn't seem that likely either.

3) Emerging Pain

Outside of China, it's clear that several of the world's formerly red-hot emerging markets are experiencing serious pain.

Indonesia and India are the pits, as both are seeing deteriorating economic data, a rush of outflows, diving currencies, diving stock markets, inflation, and all that stuff. What's causing the weakness? Part of the issue is being ascribed to the rise in US interest rates causing dollar strength and a reversal of hot-month investment inflows. Strong inflows in earlier years had helped paper over, it's argued, structural flaws in the economy, that now need to be addressed.

Just today, both clocked in with some ugly numbers. India had its worst PMI Manufacturing report in years, and Indonesia whiffed on a trade number. The Jakarta Market fell 2.6%. The question is not whether the scene is bad, but whether things develop into a real "crisis." So far, the thinking seems to be that this doesn't have to be an actual crisis-crisis, a la the late 90s.

4) The US: A little better than same-old, same old

Better-than-expected growth is right around the corner in the US... of course we've been saying that for like 3 years now. But now, maybe this time it's real. Maybe? Possibly?

Economic data in 2013 is a bit stronger, and seems more durable than at any time since the crisis. The labor market continues to improve, and the strength of the housing market is well known. But none of it is that good, especially on the labor front, and lately some of the housing data has been mediocre (though actual prices are quite robust).

Once again, goings on in Washington appear likely to be unhelpful. The coming September chaos (Fed nomination, Fed tapering, budget debates, and debt ceiling) are very well known. Once again, it seems like we can't get out of our own way:

5) Some other themes

Syria. We're now in a weird holding pattern, and shaping up for one of the biggest votes in Washington DC since TARP. Oil is on the rise. Japan seems to be doing okay, though things have quieted down quite a bit. Iraq: A mess again.

So there's your state of the world: We have the tantalizing prospect of all of the major economies: Japan, Europe, the US, and China in a state of decent growth, which would be something we haven't seen at all since the 2008-2009 global economic crisis.

But we have a fresh spate of geopolitical concerns hanging over everything, and the familiar shenanigans out of Washington threatening to the spoil the party.

SEE ALSO: 26 things that China ripped off

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