 |
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.ekathimerini.com |
How the world sees Greece
Thursday, March 13, 2014
From the Battle of Navarino to Cavafy, rare manuscripts go under the hammer
A previously unpublished manuscript describing the landmark Battle of Navarino during the Greek War of Independence is going under the hammer in Athens. The battle, which took place on October 20, 1827, off the southwestern coast of the Peloponnese, pitte... ...
Metsovo authorities accused of squandering EU funds for mobile portal
Local authorities in Metsovo, a town in Greece’s Epirus region, are accused of squandering up to 230,000 euros from the European Union’s “Digital Convergence” program for the creation of a mobile portal.
During a recent inspection, experts found that the ... ...
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.ekathimerini.com |
Pharmacies closed Friday, Monday
Pharmacies will be closed on Friday and on Monday as Greek pharmacists continue their protests against planned reforms aimed at liberalizing their sector.... ...
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.ekathimerini.com |
One dies, three missing after immigrants' boat sinks off Symi
One migrant died when a boat sank near the island of Symi in the southeastern Aegean Sea, Greek authorities said on Thursday, adding that three people were still missing.
Greek and Turkish coast guards managed to save the lives of 15 people who were aboar... ...
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.ekathimerini.com |
Greek American among dead in Harlem blast
The body of a Greek American who was reported missing following Wednesday’s blast in New York’s East Harlem has been found at the scene, reports said late Thursday.
Andreas Panagopoulos, 42, lived in one of the two buildings that collapsed after the blast... ...
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.ekathimerini.com |
Visiting British experts offer tips on waste management
Two representatives of a British public-private partnership that resulted in the creation of one of the largest waste management projects in Europe are in Athens this week to offer insights in an area where Greece continues to lag behind most of its EU pe... ...
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.ekathimerini.com |
Greece Faces Uphill Battle to Tackle Crisis
HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA (IDN) - Greece faces the unenviable choice between accepting the terms of “the Troika” and facing the continuation and deepening of a socio-economic crises, which includes five years of negative growth, over 23% unemployment, an ...
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.indepthnews.info |
Greek Musician Who Worked in Advertising Among Dead in Blast
KathimeriniGreek Musician Who Worked in Advertising Among Dead in BlastWall Street Journal (blog)Said his friend Evangelos Alkimos, a fellow Greek musician and friend, “We can't find him in any of the hospitals and we don't know where he could be.” Fighting back tears, Ms. Perez Almeida, 39 years old, said that she had left the apartment earlier ...Greek man reported missing in East Harlem blastKathimeriniManhattan Explosion: Greek Andreas Panagopoulos Found DeadGreek Reporterall 5 news articles »
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT blogs.wsj.com |
Athens University Closed “until further notice”
The Economics and Business Departments of Athens University, one of Greece’s leading educational institutions, have closed on the orders of the senate after the
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT greece.greekreporter.com |
Former Ellinikon Airport in Rough Shape
Over the years of its abandonment by the Greek state, the former Ellinikon airport has turned into a real landfill and the
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT greece.greekreporter.com |
‘Green Light’ for Private Events on Archaeological Sites
Greece’s Central Archaeological Council (KAS) has given the “green light” to events being organized by individuals on the premises of the Panathenaic Stadium
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT greece.greekreporter.com |
The Sell-Off Is Getting Worse (SPX, SPY, DIA, DJI, QQQ, TLT, GLD)
Global markets have taken a sharp turn lower after starting on a positive note this morning.
The S&P 500 index is down 1.3%, trading at 1844 — 2.1% below the all-time high set last Friday.
U.S. Treasuries are rallying hard, sending the yield on the 10-year note to 2.65%, eight basis points below Wednesday's closing levels.
"The ignition of the Russia/Ukraine situation has created the bid," said Tom Tucci, head of U.S. Treasury trading at CIBC World Markets, in an emailed note to clients shortly after noon. "Massive short covering in the last hour after yesterday's real money buying."
The release of mixed February U.S. retail sales data at 8:30 AM ET this morning caused Treasuries to drop briefly, sending yields slightly higher. The U.S. dollar strengthened a bit against the euro and the Japanese yen as well.
However, these moves were completely erased two hours later, and the dollar is now down 1.1% against the yen, trading around ¥101.60.
European indices closed deep in the red across the board. The German DAX took the worst of it, falling 1.9%. Peripheral government bond yields in Italy, Spain, Portugal, and Greece are rising.
Russia's MICEX equity index closed down 2%, and yields on local-currency government debt rose in Thursday trading. The Russian ruble is losing ground against the dollar.
The charts below show movements in various markets. Across the top from left to right are S&P 500 futures, the U.S. dollar-Japanese yen exchange rate, and the euro-U.S. dollar exchange rate. Across the bottom are gold futures, 10-year U.S. Treasury futures, and December 2015 eurodollar futures.
Join the conversation about this story »
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.businessinsider.com |
Alpha forecasts Greek growth at 1.1 pct this year
Alpha Bank’s estimate for this year is for a 1.1 percent expansion of gross domestic product, against a 0.6 percent official forecast in the state budget.
In a report issued on Thursday, Alpha analysts said the last quarter of 2013 showed a remarkable slo... ...
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.ekathimerini.com |
Small drop possible in cruise market
Cruise tourism in Greece will not post an increase before 2015, the representative of the Association of Hellenic Tourism Enterprises (SETE) for the sector, Andreas Stylianopoulos, told Kathimerini.
He said talks with cruise lines for the 2015-17 period h... ...
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.ekathimerini.com |
Greek Parliament committee proposes lifting immunity of 2 GD MPs
Parliament’s ethics committee on Thursday proposed that the House lift the immunity of two MPs of ultra-right Golden Dawn, Eleni Zaroulia (photo) and Michalis Arvanitis, so they can face charges of membership of a criminal organization.
The panel also pro... ...
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.ekathimerini.com |
Greek Policy on Olive Oil Labeling in Disarray
Greek Policy on Olive Oil Labeling in DisarrayOlive Oil TimesThis decision directly contradicted the negative statement made by Minister of Rural Development and Food, Athanasios Tsaftaris, in response to a question by MP George Kasapidis and other members of the Greek Parliament last May 2013 who declared: ...
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.oliveoiltimes.com |
Burials in Greece linked to Macedonia kings
Burials in Greece linked to Macedonia kingsYork Daily RecordTHESSALONIKI, Greece—A Greek archaeologist says she has discovered 20 new burials near Macedonia's ancient capital in northern Greece, and some could tentatively be associated with the early Macedonian kings. Excavator Angeliki Kottaridi says two ...
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.ydr.com |
Greek-Catholic bishops call for a united free, democratic and pluralistic Syria
The meeting of Greek-Catholic Bishops' Conference of Syria was held in Lebanon because of the situation in Syria. In a statement, the prelates call for closeness and solidarity with the victims, urging people not to forget the bishops, priests and faithful ...
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.asianews.it |
Greek extremist killer's biography sparks row
Greek extremist killer's biography sparks rowGlobalPostAn autobiography written by the main hitman of the far-left Greek extremist organisation November 17 has sparked a row over freedom of speech. The book by Dimitris Koufodinas, written whilst serving multiple life sentences in Korydallos prison near ...
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.globalpost.com |
FTSE falls to five week low as Morrisons slumps, but Centrica climbs
Investors continue to be nervous over China, Ukraine and Fed tapering
On another down day for markets, with leading shares at a five week low, British Gas owner Centrica bucked the trend.
Its shares added 6.9p to 334.8p after an upbeat note on the business from analysts at HSBC. They said political risks were decreasing, helped by plans to focus investment on the US rather than UK, and there was hidden value in its upstream assets. With an overweight rating and 380p target price, they said:
It has been 12 months since Centrica's management announced a strategy announcement to focus investment on the US rather than the UK. This strategy was vindicated by the prospect of intervention in the UK supply market by the Labour party if elected to government in 2015 and the lack of political drive to offer attractive investment incentives for new gas-fired generation.At the full year results on 20 February, management pointed out that 20% of Centrica's customers are already on a fixed-price contract so progress has been made on encouraging customers to fix prices, which helps to mitigate political risk.Overall the FTSE 100 fell back for the fifth day running, down 67.12 points to 6553.78. More signs of a slowdown in China, with disappointing retail sales and factory output data, and a warning from premier Li Keqiang of severe challenges to the country's economy set the early downbeat tone. The continuing tensions in Ukraine ahead of a possible divisive referendum in Crimea on Sunday also unnerved investors, while good US data and comments from Federal Reserve nominee Stanley Fischer revived concerns about the Fed bringing its monthly bond buying programme to a gradual close. The US central bank releases its latest monthly update on Wednesday, and further tapering could well be on the cards.
Back in the UK, retailers were in the spotlight.
Morrisons slumped 27.8p or 12% to 205.2p after a new profit warning, with worries about a price war also hitting its rivals. J Sainsbury fell 28.3p to 304.9p and Tesco dropped 15.65p to 298.75p. The three supermarkets between them accounted for nearly 9 points of the FTSE 100's fall.
In contrast Home Retail, owner of Argos and Homebase, pleased investors with its trading update. It said pretax profit would be slightly ahead of current forecasts of £107m to £111m, helping push its shares up 10.3p to 215.4p. Homebase sales climbed 9.3% - a hefty increase which helped lift shares in Kingfisher, owner of the rival B&Q chain, by 4.5p to 407.4p.
Elsewhere Barclays was 1.9p better at 235.65p after a positive note from Numis:
Our Barclays recommendation is upgraded to add [from hold] and the target price is raised to 280p per share (from 274p). The investment case rests on: (i) improved gross leverage outlook; (ii) valuation upside; and (iii) a slowly improving European macro-economic outlook. Earnings downgrades reflect what is likely to be a weak first quarter for fixed income, currencies and commodities.G4S continued to fall after this week's results, down 4.5p to 228p. Panmure Gordon's Mike Allen said:
Post the analyst meeting, we have downgraded our 2014 and 2015 estimated earnings per share by 14%-15% to take account of foreign exchange, higher interest costs and contract specifics. The stock is currently trading on 17 times 2014 estimated earnings per share falling to 15 times in 2015, which looks rich to us given the execution risks that lie ahead. We are cutting our target price from 200p to 185p on the back of these downgrades, and maintain our sell recommendation on the stock.Vodafone fell 5.15p to 224.4p despite a recommendation from analysts at Barclays:
Investors in Vodafone face a dilemma. On the one hand the potential of a putative AT&T bid appears attractive, and the reported move to acquiring [Spanish cable company] Ono has clear industrial logic given synergies and [selling] opportunities in our view. However, wireless trends remain challenging, and recent commentary from AT&T would suggest a potential cooling. On balance we see upside risks outweighing downside, especially given the recent fall in the Vodafone share price. We reiterate overweight with a 260p price target.Among the mid-caps, gaming group Bwin.Party put on 4.5p to 126.6p after it said the summer World Cup should help it return to growth after problems in Greece and a move away from riskier markets hit its figures in 2013. Earnings fell to €108m from €165m, also hit by start up costs in New Jersey as it moves into the US to take advantage of deregulation there. Analysts said if management could not turn the business round, someone else might, noting that activist investor SpringOwl recently agreed to buy a 6.1% stake in Bwin.
Finally Circassia, an Oxford based allergy drug development firm, became the largest biotech flotation since at least 1995. The company raised £200m after setting its offer price at 310p a share, valuing the business at £581m. The company, which is bringing a vaccine against cat allergies to market, ended its first day of conditional dealings unchanged from the offer price.
CentricaMorrisonsJ SainsburyTescoHome RetailKingfisherBarclaysG4SVodafoneNick Fletchertheguardian.com © 2014 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds |
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.theguardian.com |
Cypriot held after homes of bereaved robbed during funerals
Cypriot police have arrested a man suspected of burgling the homes of bereaved families in Nicosia while they were attending the funeral of their loved ones, a statement said Thursday.
The 48-year-old Greek Cypriot man was remanded in custody for eight da... ...
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.ekathimerini.com |
Markets Are Sharply Lower (SPX, SPY, DIA, DJI, QQQ, TLT, GLD)
Global markets have taken a sharp turn lower after starting on a positive note this morning.
The S&P 500 index is down 0.7%, trading at 1854 — 1.5% below the all-time high set last Friday.
U.S. Treasuries are rallying hard, sending the yield on the 10-year note to 2.66%, 7 basis points below Wednesday's closing levels.
"The ignition of the Russia/Ukraine situation has created the bid," says Tom Tucci, head of U.S. Treasury trading at CIBC World Markets. "Massive short covering in the last hour after yesterday's real money buying."
The release of mixed February U.S. retail sales data at 8:30 AM ET this morning caused Treasuries to drop briefly, sending yields slightly higher. The U.S. dollar strengthened a bit against the euro and the Japanese yen as well.
However, these moves were completely erased two hours later, and the dollar is now down 1.0% against the yen, trading around ¥101.70.
European indices closed deep in the red across the board. The German DAX took the worst of it, falling 1.9%. Peripheral government bond yields in Italy, Spain, Portugal, and Greece are rising.
Russia's MICEX equity index closed down 2%, and yields on local-currency government debt rose. The Russian ruble, however, is nearly unchanged against the dollar.
The charts below show movements in various markets. Across the top from left to right are S&P 500 futures, the U.S. dollar-Japanese yen exchange rate, and the euro-U.S. dollar exchange rate. Across the bottom are gold futures, 10-year U.S. Treasury futures, and December 2015 eurodollar futures.
Join the conversation about this story »
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.businessinsider.com |
Lenten Recipe 15: Homemade Thin Mint Cookies with Ion Greek Chocolate
Around this time of year, everyone starts to get a craving for Girl Scout cookies. Thin mints are my weakness, but when I started reading nutrition labels, I was disappointed that such a great organization allowed questionable ingredients into their cookies. So, these are quite similar to the thin mints. For strict fast, use the […]
The post Lenten Recipe 15: Homemade Thin Mint Cookies with Ion Greek Chocolate appeared first on The National Herald.
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.thenationalherald.com |
Greek B.B.Q and Kefi on Smokey Thursday
ASTORIA – Although the Greek-Orthodox world in now deep into the lenten season, the preparations traditionally include some great Greek parties. The Chian Cultural Center was filled with the friends of Hellenic Public Radio Cosmos-FM for its annual Tsiknopempti event. In English it is called Barbecue Thursday or SmokeyThursday but in Greece, in places like Patras, […]
The post Greek B.B.Q and Kefi on Smokey Thursday appeared first on The National Herald.
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.thenationalherald.com |
Greece Moves On Russian Gas Concerns With Pipeline Project
Making the most of Europe’s concern about a potential halt in Russian gas, Greece is pushing ahead with a proposed pipeline effort that could finally carve out a role for the country in the Eastern Mediterranean energy boom.
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.forbes.com |
Chance of rapture between the Greek government and troika
The crucial meeting between Greece’s auditors and Stournaras will take place at 3pm today - "We will not commit suicide," government officials say The Greek government is in search of a difficult agreement with the troika with more chances of a rapture ...
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.protothema.gr |
Two men killed by collapsed wall in Agrinio
Two men aged 37 and 49 died after being crushed by a wall in Agrinio, central Greece, on Thursday while replacing a sewage pipe, the Athens-Macedonia News Agency (AMNA) reported.
According to the AMNA, the 37-year-old was the owner of the old house and wa... ...
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.ekathimerini.com |
Athens university shut down 'until further notice' due to clashes between police, vendors
The Athens University of Economics and Business, one of Greece's leading educational institutions, has been shut down on the orders of the university's senate following escalating clashes between police and illegal street vendors who sell their wares on t... ...
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.ekathimerini.com |
Ex-Minister’s Wife In Kickback Probe
The wife of former defense minister Yiannos Papantoniou has been summoned by an investigating magistrate probing a growing defense scandal.
The post Ex-Minister’s Wife In Kickback Probe appeared first on The National Herald.
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.thenationalherald.com |
Schumer Announces USDA Greek Yogurt Pilot Program Will Expand to 12 States Starting in September, Including New York
Schumer Successfully Petitioned For Greek Yogurt Pilot Program In June 2012 & Has Since Fought to Include Greek Yogurt in School Lunches. Following news in January that participating schools had consumed 200,000 pounds and $300,000-worth of Greek yogurt ...
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.longisland.com |
Greek Unemployment Hits New Record
Official data released on Thursday shows that unemployment in Greece reached 27.5 % in the fourth quarter of 2013, remaining the highest in the
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT greece.greekreporter.com |
Five New Royal Tombs Discovered in Vergina
Five new royal tombs have come to light during excavations at the royal necropolis of Aegae, in Northern Greece. The Temenid burial
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT greece.greekreporter.com |
Revision Shows Greek Recession at 7% in 2012
The first shock came after the revision of the predictions concerning the course of Greece’s economic recession during 2013 which stands at
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT greece.greekreporter.com |
Joint Military Exercises for Greek and American Army
Lately, several joint military exercises have been organized between elite units of Greek and American armed forces. The U.S. Army, recognizing the
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT greece.greekreporter.com |
Why the European Central Bank should buy American
US treasury securities could be the answer to ECB's dilemma on how to ease monetary policy without risking legal challenge
The European Central Bank needs to ease monetary policy further. Eurozone-wide inflation, at 0.8%, is below the target of "close to 2%", and unemployment in most countries remains high.
Under current conditions, it is hard for the periphery countries to reduce their costs to internationally competitive levels, as they need to do. If inflation in the eurozone as a whole is below 1%, the periphery countries are condemned to suffer painful deflation.
The question is how the ECB can ease policy, given that short-term interest rates are already close to zero. Most of the talk in Europe concerns proposals to undertake quantitative easing (QE), following the path taken by the US Federal Reserve and the Bank of Japan. This would mean expanding the money supply by buying member countries' government bonds – a realisation of the ECB president Mario Draghi's "outright monetary transactions" scheme, announced in August 2012 in the midst of growing uncertainty about the euro's future (but never used since then).
But QE would present a problem for the ECB that the Fed and other central banks do not face. The eurozone has no centrally issued and traded Eurobond that the central bank could buy. (And the time to create such a bond has not yet come.) By purchasing bonds of member countries, the ECB would be taking implicit positions on their individual creditworthiness.
That idea is not popular with the eurozone's creditor countries. In Germany, ECB purchases of bonds issued by Greece and other periphery countries are widely thought to constitute monetary financing of profligate governments, in violation of the treaty under which the ECB was established. The German constitutional court believes that the outright monetary transactions scheme exceeds the ECB's mandate, though it has temporarily tossed that political hot potato to the European court of justice.
The legal obstacle is not merely an inconvenience; it also represents a valid economic concern about the moral hazard that ECB bailouts present for members' fiscal policies in the long term. That moral hazard – a subsidy for fiscal irresponsibility – was among the origins of the Greek crisis in the first place.
Fortunately, interest rates on Greek and other periphery-country debt have fallen sharply over the last two years. Since he took the helm at the ECB, Draghi has brilliantly walked the fine line required to "do whatever it takes" to keep the eurozone intact. (After all, there would be little point in upholding pristine principles if doing so resulted in a breakup, and fiscal austerity alone was never going to return the periphery countries to sustainable debt paths.) At the moment, there is no need to support periphery-country bonds, especially if it would flirt with illegality.
What, then, should the ECB buy if it is to expand the monetary base? For several reasons, it should buy US treasury securities. In other words, it should go back to intervening in the foreign-exchange market.
For starters, there would be no legal obstacles. Operations in the foreign-exchange market are well within the ECB's remit. Moreover, they do not pose moral-hazard issues (unless one thinks of the long-term moral hazard that the "exorbitant privilege" of printing the world's international currency creates for US fiscal policy). Finally, ECB purchases of dollars would help push down the euro's exchange rate against the dollar.
Such foreign-exchange operations among G7 central banks have fallen into disuse in recent years, partly owing to the theory that they do not affect exchange rates except when they change money supplies. But in this case we are talking about an ECB purchase of dollars that would change the euro money supply. The increase in the supply of euros would naturally lower their price. Monetary expansion that depreciates the currency is more effective than monetary expansion that does not, especially when, as is the case now, there is very little scope for pushing short-term interest rates much lower.
Depreciation of the euro would be the best medicine for restoring international price competitiveness to the periphery countries and reviving their export sectors. Of course, they would devalue on their own had they not given up their currencies for the euro 10 years before the crisis (and if it were not for their euro-denominated debt). If abandoning the euro is not the answer, depreciation by the entire eurozone is.
The euro's exchange rate has held up remarkably during the four years of crisis. Indeed, the currency appreciated further when the ECB declined to undertake any monetary stimulus at its meeting on 6 March. Thus, the euro could afford to weaken substantially. Even Germans might warm up to easy money if it meant more exports.
Central banks should and do choose their monetary policies primarily to serve their own economies' interests. But proposals to co-ordinate policies internationally for mutual benefit are fair. Raghuram Rajan, the governor of the Reserve Bank of India, has recently called for the advanced economies' central banks to take emerging-market countries' interests into account via international co-operation.
ECB foreign-exchange intervention would fare well in this regard. This year, the emerging economies are worried about a tightening of global monetary policy, not the policy loosening that three years ago fuelled talk of "currency wars." As the Fed tapers its purchases of long-term assets, including US treasury securities, it is a perfect time for the ECB to step in and buy some itself.
Copyright: Project Syndicate, 2014.
European Central BankEuropean UnionEuropean monetary unionEconomicsEuropeMario DraghiQuantitative easingInterest ratesBank of EnglandFederal ReserveUS economyJeffrey Frankeltheguardian.com © 2014 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds |
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.theguardian.com |
Is There Growth or Is it Just Plain Wishful Thinking?
High-profile European officials are playing up the fact that Europe is expected to see positive growth in 2014. But what they don't like to talk about is the fact that it will be miniscule compared to the United States and much of the rest of the world. They also rarely talk about how deeper the recession in Europe has got since the global financial crisis erupted in 2008. It is so deep that Europe still needs a lot more time to get back to where it was in 2007, when advanced countries reached their pre-recession peak.
- Today, domestic output in the Eurozone as a whole is still very low (3% below what it was in 2007), a gap that is not expected to close in 2014.
- The rate of unemployment in the Eurozone is 12%, compared with 7.5% in 2007.
In the United States, output is almost 7% higher than its level in 2007, even though the rate of unemployment remains somewhat higher, climbing to 6.7% this month from a five-year low of 6.6%.
For us southern Europeans, the facts are rather depressing. When discussing the situation today our European leaders fail to mention that there is an unequal distribution of the rewards from growth. It is not without irony that the relatively rich north is getting richer and the relatively poor south is getting poorer.
Germany's domestic production, for instance, is currently running at about 3% higher than in 2007. In Greece, it has fallen by more than 27%. As for the rate of unemployment in Germany, it is just 5.2% - this is 3.5 percentage points lower than when the crisis started. In Greece, the rate of unemployment has soared to a high of 28% - this is 20 percentage points higher.
If one probes deeper into these unemployment figures, they will be confronted with yet another horror story: youth unemployment. In Germany, the rate of unemployment for men and women aged between 15 and 24 has actually dropped from 12% to 7.8%. Not so in Greece, where youth unemployment has risen from 22% in 2007 to a staggering 58% in 2013. Meanwhile, in the Eurozone as a whole (where EU heavyweight Germany is the biggest member), the rate of youth unemployment increased from 15% in 2008 to 23.7%, according to the latest available figures.
In addition, the serious mishandling of the Eurozone crisis has highlighted a dangerous lack of leadership that would inspire European citizens, which in turn has created a growing and very angry outburst of populism.
This is in stark contrast to how previous world crises were handled and is causing further erosion of confidence in the EU and in the proposed solution packages. A pertinent example of a previous economic crisis is Germany's need for reconstruction after World War Two. The United States provided generous assistance through the Marshall Plan without any recourse to US taxpayers for their views. The leaders at the time had a forward-looking vision, realising that a prosperous Germany was better for the West than a bankrupt one. In the first economic crisis of the 21st century, however, we have a popularized leadership that sometimes makes financial decisions not on the basis of sound economic argument but on the basis of whether or not voters want to pay higher taxes now (ignoring future benefits that might accrue). Positive growth in Europe does not mean that the Eurozone crisis is over, or that the Euro will survive.
The austerity policies that the EU adopted in 2010 and continues to implement are unsustainable and quite frankly harmful. One of the most difficult lessons learned as far back as the Great Depression of the 1930s is that austerity cannot reverse recession. The situation in Greece and Spain is not all that different from the one that the United States and other advanced countries had to deal with in the 1930s, but the lesson does not seem to have been learnt. Another example of the damage that austerity can do is from the austerity that the Allies imposed on the Weimar Republic after the First World War. It merely served to fuel political extremism. This is something that we are starting to see in Greece.
The root of all the problems of the Eurozone is structural and manifested in overly complicated and burdensome rules and regulations that are unfriendly to entrepreneurship, new ideas and innovation. This has ultimately resulted in large debts and an over-expanded inefficient banking system. These problems have to be fixed first before austerity can be effective.
What is needed is some serious productivity improvement that is supported by innovation and entrepreneurial activity and that will open up new sectors of economic activity and will lead to much-needed job creation. Europe desperately needs more investment - not more austerity which in the end serves to stifle demand and create more problems than intended to solve.It is futile to expect a population to go through the pains of structural reform without the promise of immediate rewards. There are no immediate rewards under austerity because the implementation of such reforms is put at risk and even if successful, there is no demand for the products of new enterprises and there can be no growth.
The usual response to a plea like ours is to ask "What about the debt?" and "Won't an abandonment of austerity lead to more and even less sustainable burdens of debt?"
Indeed, this is the case in countries like Greece that have a very large debt to GDP ratio. But low debt is neither necessary nor sufficient as a safety valve against default. Even if debt is low, default can still occur.
This is what we experienced in the 1990s when many Latin American countries defaulted with a much lower debt to GDP ratio than the eurozone periphery has today. For example, Argentina defaulted with a debt of about 60% of its GDP, much less than the eurozone average (96%). The countries of Latin America that defaulted managed to exit their crisis thanks to serious structural reforms coupled with macro adjustment. Some Asian countries underwent a similar solvency crisis and adjustment period. What all this means is that austerity-induced debt reduction in Greece is no guarantee against default.
But there is no doubt that structural adjustment is easier to achieve when the debt burden does not weigh heavily on people's shoulders. In this respect, Europe can learn from the experiences of Latin American and Asia. In these crises, as well as in Eastern Europe after in the 1990s, debt forgiveness played a key role in recovery. For this reason we suggest that in order to give structural reform a chance to succeed, debt forgiveness must first be seriously considered in the case of Greece and be given priority over other assistance initiatives. The Eurozone partners need to take stock of how far the union has come and what kind of union do they really want for the future. The high debt levels can at least partly be blamed on badly-designed Eurozone institutions. Some reforms have been implemented, but we are still a long way from the necessary banking union - not to mention a fiscal union of some kind. Instead of a Latin American-style default, we believe there should be a mutualization of European debt in order to facilitate structural reform and recovery which will transform the Eurozone (almost overnight) into a true union of equal partners. Mutualization can easily be achieved in a number of ways. The most obvious is the issuing of freely traded Eurobonds by the European Central Bank, which can be used to service sovereign debts. This seems to us to be preferable to defaults, or even to a break-up of the union, which will merely disrupt the European economy even more. Europe needs to take more firm action and it needs to do this fast in order to get out of the vicious cycle of austerity-recession-austerity-recession. This is the only way to rescue an entire generation from sinking deeper into an abyss of oblivion.
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.huffingtonpost.com |
Court hands life sentence to 58-year-old woman for 2009 murder
A court in Amaliadia in Western Greece, on Thursday sentenced a 58-year-old woman to life over the murder of a 42-year-old businessman in Diakopto in the prefecture of Achaia in 2009, the state-run Athens-Macedonia News Agency (AMNA) reported.
The woman a... ...
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.ekathimerini.com |
Greek Jobless Rate Hits 27.5%
Official figures show the unemployment rate in Greece increased to 27.5 percent in the fourth quarter of 2013 as the economy struggled to emerge from a protracted recession.
The post Greek Jobless Rate Hits 27.5% appeared first on The National Herald.
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.thenationalherald.com |
Greek Man Missing in Deadly N.Y. Building Blast, 7 Killed, 60 Hurt
As investigators probe the cause of an explosion that leveled two East Harlem buildings, killing six and injuring more than 60, a Greek-American man was reported among the missing. Andreas Panagopoulos, 42, had not been heard of by friends and family since the blast.
The post Greek Man Missing in Deadly N.Y. Building Blast, 7 Killed, 60 Hurt appeared first on The National Herald.
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.thenationalherald.com |
Asylum Claims Soar 21% in Greece
Already overwhelmed by waves of immigrants from Africa, the Middle East, Irag, Afghanistan and Syria, Greece now is having to deal with a spike in asylum requests.
The post Asylum Claims Soar 21% in Greece appeared first on The National Herald.
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.thenationalherald.com |
Samaras Digs In Heels Against Troika
Prime Minister Antonis Samaras, defying the country's international lenders, said he will keep his promise to return most of a coming primary surplus to austerity victims.
The post Samaras Digs In Heels Against Troika appeared first on The National Herald.
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.thenationalherald.com |
Opportunity for Young Unemployed in Village, Northern Greece
Northern European pensioners are creating an entire village in Northern Greece, in which young unemployed from Greece, Spain, Portugal and Italy will
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT greece.greekreporter.com |
Greek jobless rate hits record in Q4 despite easing recession
The West AustralianGreek jobless rate hits record in Q4 despite easing recessionReuters UKUnemployment is a major headache for Greece's coalition government, which expects recovery this year after a six-year slump and is keen to show there is light at the end of the tunnel before local and European parliament elections in May. The fourth ...The unemployment rate in Greece increased to 27.5% in the fourth quarter of ...Belfast Telegraphall 11 news articles »
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT uk.reuters.com |
Greek joblessness at record level, reaching 'cyclical peak,' according to ...
Irish IndependentGreek joblessness at record level, reaching 'cyclical peak,' according to ...KathimeriniGreece's jobless rate rose to a record 27.5 percent in the last quarter of 2013 even as the pace of economic contraction eased, remaining the highest in the eurozone, data showed on Thursday. Unemployment is a major headache for Greece's coalition ...Greek unemployment rate hits 27.5%Irish IndependentGreek Unemployment Rate Climbs To 27.5% In Q4RTT Newsall 11 news articles »
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.ekathimerini.com |
Greek journalist-turned-politician rides anti-establishment wave
By Deepa Babington and Renee Maltezou ATHENS (Reuters) - A television journalist-turned-political crusader promising to shake up Greek politics is winning unexpectedly strong support from voters in the run-up to European elections in May. Tapping into the disgust felt by many Greeks against established politicians with a call for a grassroots, youth-led movement to solve Greek problems, Stavros ...
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT uk.news.yahoo.com |
Greek unemployment rate hits 27.5%
The data from the country's statistics agency shows the jobless rate increasing from 27% in the third quarter of 2013 and from 26% in the same three months of 2012. The figure means there are now 1.36 million people out of work in a country with a ...
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.independent.ie |
Home Retail higher after sales rise at Argos and Homebase but Morrisons slumps
Retailers in focus but show mixed fortunes, while FTSE 100 struggles for direction
Morrisons may be taking much of the attention after its share price fall in the wake of a profit slump, but it is not the only retailer in the spotlight.
In contrast to the supermarket group Home Retail, owner of Argos and Homebase, has pleased investors with its trading update. It said pretax profit would be slightly ahead of current forecasts of £107m to £111m, helping push its shares up 10.5p to 215.6p. This is better than a prediction of profits at the top end of a range between £90m and £109m made only in January.
Like for like sales at Argos rose 5.2%, with strong demand for televisions and consoles. The company is revamping Argos from a catalogue based business to increased digital sales, and boosting its in-store collection service.
Meanwhile Homebase sales climbed 9.3% - a hefty increase which has helped lift shares in Kingfisher, owner of the rival B&Q chain, by 9.5p to 412.4p. Indeed Kingfisher and Home Retail are the leading risers in the FTSE 100 and FTSE 250 respectively.
Freddie George at Cantor Fitzgerald said:
The trading update for the eight weeks to March 1 was better than expected both for Argos and Homebase. Following this update, we are increasing our 2014 pre-tax profit forecast from £107m to £112m taking earnings per share up from 9.4p to 9.8p and making similar revisions to our subsequent 2015 forecasts. We were impressed with the first sight of the new Argos format, which is currently being rolled out. We are, however, retaining our hold recommendation on the stock but increasing our target price to 215p from 205p in view of the earnings upgrade. We believe 1) initiatives are factored into the valuation, 2) private equity is now less likely to take an interest attracted by the strong balance sheet and 3) AO, a recent IPO, will likely start to make 'inroads' into the Argos electrical categories.But Morrisons is proving a drag on the markets, currently 15.4p or nearly 7% lower at 217.6p after a 13% drop in annual profits to £785m. The news has also pushed J Sainsbury down 19.7p to 313.5p and Tesco 8.5p lower to 305.9p, with fears of a price war growing. Clive Black at Shore Capital said:
Morrison's weak trade, collapse of trade in recent months, represents a change in industry circumstances. The gross margin environment is now much less robust and the downgrade cycle may therefore be greater and more prolonged; making for a sector that remains unloved because stable and visible profits are needed for the sector to re-rate. As such the sector discounts to the FTSE-All Share and General Retailers in likely to persist.Even so the FTSE 100 has managed to edge up 2.23 points to 6623.13, despite yet more poor Chinese data - factory output and retail sales - pointing to a slowdown in the country's economy. The continuing tensions in Ukraine are also making investors nervous, while later come US retail sales and weekly jobless numbers which will give a snapshot of the country's economy.
Elsewhere gaming group Bwin.Party has put on 3.8p to 125.9p after it said the summer World Cup should help it return to growth after problems in Greece and a move away from riskier markets hit its figures in 2013. Earnings fell to €108m from €165m, also hit by start up costs in New Jersey as it moves into the US to take advantage of deregulation there. Nick Batram at Peel Hunt issued a buy note, saying:
Full year numbers were as bad as expected but 2013 should represent the nadir in the Group's fortunes. However, if management fail to deliver the anticipated recovery in 2014, it is possible that others will try.One surprise was the decline in net cash to €63.8m (€96.7m) – we were expecting broadly flat. However, on the positive front the full year dividend was raised to 3.6p (3.44p). The company has also said that it intends to dispose of non-core assets and return any excess cash to shareholders.Activist investor SpringOwl recently agreed to buy a 6.1% stake in Bwin.
Home RetailKingfisherMorrisonsJ SainsburyTescoNick Fletchertheguardian.com © 2014 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds |
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.theguardian.com |
Greek unemployment rises to 27.5 percent in Q4 of 2013; young women worst off
The Greek unemployment rate rose to 27.5 percent in the fourth quarter of 2013, according to data published on Thursday by the Hellenic Statistical Authority (ELSTAT).
The rate of 27.5 percent shows an increase of 1.3 percent compared with the third quart... ...
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.ekathimerini.com |
Greek unemployment increases to 27.5 percent at end of 2013
Official figures show the unemployment rate in Greece increased to 27.5 percent in the fourth quarter of 2013 as the economy struggled to emerge from a protracted recession.
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.foxnews.com |
Greek 'Eco Bedding' company COCO-MAT Welcomes New Partnership
Greek ReporterGreek 'Eco Bedding' company COCO-MAT Welcomes New PartnershipGreek ReporterCOCO-MAT_Libra-Group The Libra Group has announced that it is the principal investor in 50% of COCO-MAT and has formed a joint venture with the leading Greek manufacturer of specialist mattresses, other natural sleep products and furnishings.and more »
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT greece.greekreporter.com |
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)