How the world sees Greece
The US wants to see Greece “make a good deal with the institutions,” Victoria Nuland, US assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs, said on Tuesday following talks with senior government officials, the US Embassy said in a statement.
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Alternate Defense Minister Costas Isichos told Russian media that he plans to ask authorities there to allow the Greek state access to archives pertaining to the destruction of infrastructure by Nazi forces during World War II.
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Greek banks are suffering from fresh turbulence due to the tension and the apparent collision course between Athens and its creditors. Bank stocks gave up more than 8 percent of their value on Wednesday, while the outflow of deposits was far greater than on previous days.
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(ANSAmed) - ROME, MARCH 18 - The Greek parliament has passed a Tsipras-backed draft law against the 'humanitarian crisis' in the country despite ...
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Greece has responded sharply to apparent pressure from the EU not to pass Wednesday a "humanitarian crisis" law that would provide free electricity and food stamps for the poorest households. Athens was reacting to an apparent message from Declan ...
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Yet another concern was expressed by the European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker regarding Greece’s track on reforms. As he characteristically said, Athens needs to do more with its reforms program. Addressing a joint press conference after a meeting with the French Prime Minister Manuel Valls. “I remain worried about Greece. I am not satisfied with the progress that we could have achieved in the past few days and I want all parties to get their wits together,” Mr. Juncker said. The new comments came amid the process in the Greek Parliament to pass a new bill in order to address the humanitarian crisis. Reuters: Juncker urged Tsipras to tone down Varoufakis Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis “is becoming part of Greece’s debt problem rather than the solution,” Reuters stated, quoting Juncker’s opinion. According to the report, one Eurozone official singled out his attacks on Germany and other powerful partners. “Varoufakis has become a serious liability in the relations between the euro zone and Greece. Attitudes toward a country are largely personalized, especially in a small and intimate environment as is the Eurogroup,” the official highlighted. For the time being, no one is calling for the Greek Finance Minister’s head, although according to the same sources, the European Commission President told Greece’s Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras last week that Varoufakis needed to tone down his rhetoric if there was to be a successful result.
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Greek premier Alexis Tsipras has asked for a meeting with counterparts on the sidelines of an EU leaders' meeting. However, Tsipras sounded a note of defiance in advance, vowing that his government would end austerity.
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"Greece's government and people have indulged in excesses and corruption; now it is time to pay the price." The argument for full repayment of Greece's debt is well known, easily understood, and widely accepted, particularly in Germany. Sacrifice, austerity and repayment are righteous, fair, and just. That view is coloring this and next week's coming meetings between Greece and its international lenders, and with European leaders. A revision of Greece's debt terms has not been on the agenda. European leadership insists that repayment is possible, and that Greece's economy will take off, if only Greeks are willing to bite the bullet and economize. The quasi-religious ground under the wishful thinking on economic growth is that with deep financial pain comes high moral ground. Exactly the opposite case makes far more sense: It's immoral to ask for widespread, long-term destitution in Greece in return for unaffordable debt payments. Restructuring the debt would be the more virtuous route even if there were a plausible scenario under which Greece could repay the enormous amount due -- there isn't -- and even though corruption, tax evasion, dysfunctional government and, at certain periods, excessive spending, have undeniably been problems. What makes changing the terms of debt repayment an ethical imperative, given those circumstances? The economist John Maynard Keynes made probably the most powerful case -- certainly the most eloquent -- for large-scale financial forgiveness when, at the 1919 conference to end WWI, the Allies required a destitute Germany to make reparations. As a member of the British delegation, Keynes countered the view of the war's winners that it was right and just for Germany to be treated harshly, saying "The policy of reducing Germany to servitude for a generation, of degrading the lives of millions of human beings, and of depriving a whole nation of happiness should be abhorrent and detestable... even if it did not sow the decay of the whole civilized life of Europe." He added, "Justice is not so simple. And if it were, nations are not authorized, by religion or by natural morals, to visit on the children of their enemies the misdoings of parents or of rulers." Keynes believed that the reparations were well beyond what Germany could possibly pay, and predicted that the fruitless demands would lead to crisis in Germany and repercussions throughout Europe. History confirmed that the righteousness of the Allies would eventually end in failure, with the ruined German economy a major factor in the rise of Nazism. While historical analogies are always suspect, there are at least a few parallels here, as well as an undeniable irony or two, and maybe a touch of hypocrisy. Greece has endured five years of righteously fueled austerity policies. The sole goal has been high fiscal surpluses to improve its debt-to-GDP ratio. On the street, that has meant a brutal economy where more than half the population is hungry, the suicide rate has increased 35 percent since 2011, and hundreds of thousands of households can't afford electricity. 'For the misdoings of parents or rulers,' young people have reached an unemployment rate of more than 50 percent. The current approach has resulted in the largest peacetime decrease in GDP of any developed country in modern history. To continue the current repayment programs would mean more of the same -- and an even deeper recession. Millions of Americans have learned that there are times when demands for full repayment are both cruel and infeasible, and that a broader solution is necessary for both the individual and the surrounding community. In Greece, any meaningful change in debt terms needs to be part of a wider plan that deals with the underlying structural imbalances of the eurozone, just as a comprehensive plan was necessary for post-World War II European prosperity. In the aftermath of that war, Germany was the beneficiary of the largest debt restructuring deal in history. Today, German leaders have positioned themselves as the moral gatekeepers of justice in Europe, with a firm stance against any debt forgiveness. Of course, debt cancellation after WWII was one of the primary drivers of the German so-called "economic miracle." A solution for Greece and the eurozone doesn't require miraculous intervention. All that's needed is for Europe to reset its moral compass to do the right thing, beginning with a rethink on the complexities of justice.
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... and two others are being investigated in less than two weeks for bad behavior, some of it even criminal, revealing the dark sides of Greek life.
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A hulking bronze statue of ancient Greek playwright Sophocles was installed at the park recently, the final Hellenic statue planned for the space after ...
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Τhe year's honored performer will be French film actress Fanny Ardant
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The new platform will be called Pangaea, the Greek word meaning “all Earth”
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The focus will undoubtedly be on Chinese investments in Greece, given that Chinese multination Cosco runs two terminals at the port of Piraeus
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He also criticised a leaked letter from an EU official, which had advised Greece to consult with its international creditors before proceeding with the ...
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A local woman has admitted that she helped set up a Greece couple for a home invasion in which they were beaten and robbed. Jessica Moscicki, 24 ...
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Aris Messinis/AFP/Getty ImagesGreece's prime minister Alexis Tsipras is seeking a political deal at a European Union summit starting Thursday to ...
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by Associated Press BC-SOC--Greek Results Associated Press - 18 March 2015 15:24-04:00 BC-SOC--Greek Results Greek Football Results ATHENS, GREECE (AP) — Results from Greek football: Greece Super League Wednesday's Matches OFI Crete 0, Panthrakikos 1 PAS Giannina 1, Platanias 0 Kerkyra vs. Niki Volos Levadiakos 3, Kalloni 0 PAOK Thessaloniki 1, Ergotelis 0 Panionios 4, Veria 2 Xanthi 3, Panetolikos 0 Atromitos 2, Panathinaikos 0 Thursday's Match Olympiakos vs. Asteras Saturday's Matches Niki Volos vs. Panionios Panetolikos vs. Levadiakos Panthrakikos vs. PAOK Thessaloniki Sunday's Matches Xanthi vs. Atromitos Asteras vs. Ergotelis Olympiakos vs. Kerkyra Platanias vs. Kalloni Veria vs. Panathinaikos Monday's Match OFI Crete vs. PAS Giannina News Topics: Soccer, Men's soccer, Sports, Men's sports People, Places and Companies: Athens, Crete, Greece, Thessaloniki, Western Europe, Europe Copyright 2015 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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The Athens Exchange (ATHEX) general index closed at 737.96 points, shedding 4.13 percent from Tuesday’s 769.77 points.
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The US wants to see Greece “make a good deal with the institutions,” Victoria Nuland, US assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs, said on Tuesday following talks with senior government officials, the US Embassy said in a statement.
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Athens Mayor Giorgos Kaminis, Norwegian Ambassador Sjur Larsen and the president of nongovernmental organization Solidarity Now, Stelios Zavvos, on Wednesday inaugurated a new program to provide support to the Greek capital’s poor.
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In a letter to the country’s local authorities, the Central Union of Municipalities of Greece (KEDE) has proposed that citizens who are over 67 percent disabled should be exempt from municipal charges.
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A 35-year-old driver and his 19-year-old passenger died on Wednesday after their car veered off the old national highway between Kozani and Thessaloniki in northern Greece.
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In a democracy, the most important thing is not winning. The most important thing is winning in a way that respects and affirms the democratic process. From all appearances, Benjamin Netanyahu's party won more seats than any other party in the Israeli Knesset, but how did they achieve it? By waving an anti-democratic flag in front of people frightened of their fellow (Arab-Israeli) citizens. Last minute railing against Arabs "coming in buses" to vote scared enough voters to give Bibi another chance at forming a government. This sets a very dangerous precedent. The message is clear: the road to success in Israeli elections by right-wing parties is paved by demonizing Arab-Israelis. God forbid the Israeli Arabs should vote! And yet, when it comes time for Israel to ask for more and more money and more and more military hardware from their friends in the United States, Israel trots out their trope of being "the only real democracy in the Middle East." In a democracy, the original definition by the Greeks was "to rule and be ruled in turn." It is not just about the mechanics of one person, one vote; it is about the willingness to be "ruled" by the other side. Democracy requires gracious losers who will consent to majority will; they do so because they have a chance at winning some day, not condemned to be in a permanent minority. So what happens if someday, perhaps some day soon, the united Arab list of parties gains enough votes that it decides to cooperate with a center-left coalition? This is inevitable if there is not a two-state solution to the Palestinian question, as many have pointed out in the past. Then the nation of Israel will cease to be a "Jewish nation" in its form of government. There might be a national holiday for Eid. There might be less money set aside for schools for the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community, and maybe even money spent on the upkeep of mosques, for there is certainly no real separation of religion and state in Israel to stop such an outcome. The monopoly on marriage now enjoyed by the rabbinate would have to be shared with imams. Is that really the Israel that the terrified Bibi voters are hoping to see someday? Ask yourself this question; what would you think of an American politician who won elections by saying "We conservative white people better get out and vote, because African Americans are voting in droves! They are being taken to the polls in buses paid for by liberals!" On second thought, we've already seen this, haven't we? In America we call it racism. What do we call it in Israel?
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Elena Greek jewellery The British Museum will be hosting an exhibition entitled “Defining beauty: the body in ancient Greek art” from March 26 to July ...
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Separately, TheStreet Ratings team rates NATIONAL BANK OF GREECE as a "sell" with a ratings score of D. TheStreet Ratings Team has this to say ...
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Councilman Costa Constantinides, Assemblywoman Aravella Simotas, the 2015 Greek Independence Day Parade Chairman Vasilios Gournelos, ...
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Nearly 200 New Yorkers came together to celebrate Queens' Greek heritage and Greek Independence Day and honor local leaders. Public Advocate ...
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Asked at a news conference about efforts to complete arrangements to allow Athens to draw more cash and arguments between Greece and its ...
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Paulette Poulos, Executive Director of Leadership 100, was honored as “Greek American Woman of the Year” by the Association of Greek American ...
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This is an interesting point being made by Alex Brazier, a senior official at the Bank of England. It's that Greece just isn't going to pay off that mountain ...
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To get a sense of how the eurozone is handling its latest economic crisis, look no further than this key question: How is Germany handling the crisis? The nation has emerged as the strongest leader in the region, and its enormous economic clout is putting Germany in the incredibly influential position of deciding how the currency union will clamber out of the current situation. The eurozone's largest economy, Germany can essentially "make or break" the euro, especially now at this critical juncture of the crisis. Though Germany isn't the only European country doing well economically, it's the biggest one in the eurozone. And that heft is putting Germany in the role as "rule-maker -- providing order and discipline," notes Wharton finance professor Bulent Gultekin. It's a no-nonsense approach that has rattled some countries, especially southern European nations that are struggling under the weight of numerous burdens, including austerity programs championed by Germany. Many are questioning whether Germany's severity will lead the eurozone to a confident economic recovery -- or leave it cracked beyond repair. 'Germany Has the Checkbook' Currently, Germany is the fourth-largest economy in the world and the strongest in the 19-member euro bloc, not only in terms of its growth rate, but also its size. "Germany has the power now because it has its own house in order. Austria, Denmark and the Netherlands are doing well, but they certainly don't have the size Twitter," says Mauro Guillén, Wharton management professor and director of The Lauder Institute. "Germany has the checkbook." Germany, by most measures, is successful. The country is experiencing slower economic growth than the U.S. and the U.K., but is still expanding. The Germans regard themselves as a model for the rest of the eurozone, and leadership there wants to apply that same model of fiscal rectitude to the other countries, predicting that economic success will follow, adds Franklin Allen, Wharton finance professor. Germany "believes austerity is the solution,"Guillén says. "I think there's no question that austerity eventually works, like in 10 years. Meanwhile, you have lots of hardship and high unemployment." According to Wharton finance professor Joao Gomes, Germany thinks the struggling economies need to shape up with structural reform and strict budget cuts. "Germany wouldn't call it austerity; they call it reforms,"Gomes notes. "They want to focus [household spending on] what really matters and cut out the extraneous stuff. If people want to spend on things they can't really afford, that's not a growth model." While many economists support the Keynesian view that public sector investment can shore up the economy when the private sector is shrinking during a downturn, German Chancellor Angela Merkel has been leading the country with the belief that the government has a very limited role, andmarkets can operate freely in a social market economy. "They have a particular view of the world, and they want to impose that on other countries, in effect,"says Allen, who is also a professor at Imperial College in London and head of its Brevan Howard Centre When the International Monetary Fund first helped Greece in 2010, that support was presented as a bailout. But IMF executive director Paulo Batista told Greek Alpha TV in an interview that the "IMF gave money to save German and French banks, not Greece. In reality, it was more of a bailout of the private creditors for Greece. It required a lot of sacrifice from Greece and not enough sacrifices from Greece's creditors. And I think this needs to change going forward." "I have considerable sympathy for the Greeks, but I don't think that you can blame their plight on the Germans," says Richard Herring, Wharton finance professor and co-director of the Wharton Financial Institutions Center. "Their problem was years in the making, and it is largely attributable to their poor economic policy-making since they joined the euro. The current problem is that given the constraints of being a member of the euro system, they simply don't have powerful enough tools to mitigate the painful cuts in aggregate demand. As members of the eurozone, they cannot change their exchange rate and have no control over monetary policy. That means they must rely on tightening fiscal policy or default," he notes. More than a decade ago, Germany was in the fiscal dumps with a deep recession. "Germany realized that it needed a long-term plan about how the country was going to grow when it went throughreunificationand went through serious questions about who it is and how it is going to compete in the next 10 to 15 years,"Gomes says. "Germany went through major reforms to increase productivity and manufacture goods the rest of the world wants." To continue reading my article on Germany's role in the eurozone crisis, go to Knowledge@Wharton.
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Athens has hit the news for all the wrong reasons lately. Economic crisis, social unrest and corruption in high places have become the blight of the city ...
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Amid growing rumors that the president has had a much stronger hand than reported in debt-wracked Greece's dealing with its international creditors, ...
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ATHENS, Greece — Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras insisted Wednesday his government will honor an election promise to end budget austerity ...
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BRUSSELS--Technical talks between Greece and its creditors aren't going well, officials said Wednesday, with each blaming the other for the snags in ...
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Declan Costello, a representative of the European Commission on the technical team monitoring Greece, had spoken out against the bill, telling ...
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Greece's financial crisis and the recent plunge in oil prices pose real risks to Britain's economy, the chancellor warned in his budget speech, even as ...
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Relations between Greece and the eurozone have deteriorated rapidly in recent weeks with recriminations on both sides. As the German finance ...
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Greece frustrated its main creditors by refusing to update eurozone peers on its reform progress at a scheduled teleconference.
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Greece must stay in the euro zone but only on the conditions agreed with euro zone finance ministers last month when it asked for an extension of its bailout in exchange for reforms, European Commissioner for economics Pierre Moscovici said. Greece has not made much progress with any reform implementation since the February agreement and euro zone officials have called on Athens to stop wasting ...
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Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras on Wednesday hit back at reported criticism from European partners on a bill legislating food stamps and free electricity to the poor, saying his government will not be scared into complying with lenders. Britain's Channel 4 had earlier reported that the EU's mission chief for Greece had told Tsipras's leftist government to enter into further talks over the ...
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BERLIN—German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble said on Wednesday that Greece has a chance to strike an accord with the institutions ...
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ATHENS, Greece - Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras insisted Wednesday his government will honour an election promise to end budget austerity — a note of defiance ahead of an expected meeting with the ...
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Greece sold 1.3 billion euros ($1.38 billion) of three-month Treasury bills on Wednesday, covering the amount it sought to raise to refinance a maturing issue in its third successful auction this month amid a cash crunch. The sale's bid-cover ratio was 1.30, the same as in the previous auction, showing no deterioration in demand despite tight liquidity conditions. The settlement date for ...
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The Greek parliament on Wednesday overwhelmingly adopted a "humanitarian crisis" bill aimed at helping its poorest people, ignoring apparent pressure from the European Union to halt the legislation. This first package of social measures put forward by Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras' radical left-wing government drew support across the board in parliament, including from the conservative, former ...
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Paul Kazarian, the founder of Japonica Partners & Co., is unruffled by a standoff between Greece’s government and the organizations behind the country’s bailout loans. “We haven’t sold anything and we’re not planning to,” Kazarian, whose firm bought Greek securities in 2013, said in an interview in London. Kazarian’s view puts him at odds with UniCredit SpA’s chief global economist, Erik Nielsen ...
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Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras on Tuesday unveiled a surprise trip to Russia but also sought talks with European leaders to break a deadlock over reforms that has revived default fears. The radical Greek government said Tsipras, who was already scheduled to visit Russia in May for its annual Victory Day parade, would now also travel to Moscow on April 8 to see Russian President Vladimir ...
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ATHENS/BERLIN, March 18 (Reuters) - Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras lambasted European partners on Wednesday for criticising a new anti-poverty law hours before it is voted on, saying it was the euro zone rather than Athens that must stop "unilateral actions" and keep its word. Tsipras's impassioned speech to parliament as it prepared to vote on his government's first bill marked the latest ...
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European shares fell for a second day on Wednesday, with BMW leading carmakers lower after toning down its profit expectations and Greek banks falling on concern about the country's debt situation. The Greek banking index fell 8.4 percent, dragged down by a 12 percent fall in National Bank of Greece and an 8.9 percent slide in Alpha Bank. The European commissioner for economics, Pierre Moscovici ...
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Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras insisted Wednesday his government will honor an election promise to end budget austerity — a note of defiance ahead of an expected meeting with the leaders of Germany ...
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