How the world sees Greece
 Kathimerini | Eurogroup to approve 9.2bln loan tranche for Greece and pick Juncker's successor Kathimerini Greece expects eurozone finance ministers to rubber stamp on Monday its 9.2-billion-euro loan tranche, although the Eurogroup is expected to focus on who will preside over its regular meetings in the future. The Euro Working Group has already ... |
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The Most Positive Thing We've Read About Greece In Years Business Insider The real economy killer was not the austerity, but rather the collapse in investment activity, that was in part the result of everyone thinking Greece was on the verge of leaving the Eurozone.) The good basically boils down to three points: Economy ... |
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 Naharnet | Lagarde: No More Measures for Greece if Reforms Carried Out Naharnet No additional measures would be necessary for Greece if it carries out the reforms under its bailout program, IMF chief Christine Lagarde said in an interview with the Sunday edition of Kathimerini. "But if the structural reforms are not carried out ... Troika Puts More Greek Austerity in Limbo Greece: Six-month break from austerity Greece may have USD12.7b financing by 2016: IMF |
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 Kathimerini | Samaras to meet with heads of Greek privatization fund Kathimerini Prime Minister Antonis Samaras is due to hold a meeting at 2 p.m. on Monday with the top executives of the Hellenic Republic Asset Development Fund (TAIPED) to discuss the government's privatization strategy. The meeting comes a few days after Qatar ... |
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Announcing his candidacy as head of the Eurogroup finance ministers, the Dutch finance minister said he wanted to broaden out the agenda beyond crisis measures and bailouts
Jeroen Dijsselbloem had been finance minister of the Netherlands barely six weeks when his name was first floated as a possible head for the top eurozone decision-making body.
For a first-time minister previously best known as a specialist on agriculture and education, becoming the favourite to succeed the long-serving Jean-Claude Juncker as head of the Eurogroup of finance ministers is the latest stage in a dizzying rise.
But Dijsselbloem, 46, known in the 2000s as a radical leftist, has impressed in Brussels with a manner at once conciliatory and determined, and with his austere personal style.
He is widely expected to be confirmed in the job on Monday when finance ministers of the 17 countries sharing the euro gather to choose their new helmsman, after receiving the backing of several governments and that of Juncker himself.
Watching Dijsselbloem in action at one of his first Eurogroup meetings in December, an EU diplomat recalled being impressed at the steely determination with which he inserted himself into the debate alongside some of Europe's big names.
At one point during tense negotiations over banking union proposals, the German finance minister, Wolfgang Schäuble, went into a meeting room with other heavyweights, including European commissioner Michel Barnier and the European Central Bank president, Mario Draghi.
The diplomat described Dijsselbloem thinking for a moment, before walking to the door, knocking politely and firmly, and entering. He remained inside until they all emerged together with a deal.
"The guy's got guts and grace, I'll say that," the diplomat said. "You could almost see him thinking through the options and then resolving himself to action."
But his Dutch pedigree must have helped once he was in that negotiating room: he comes from one of the eurozone's few remaining triple-A-rated countries, and the Dutch are firmly in the German camp as sticklers for fiscal discipline.
His flawless English – he spent childhood summers at his parents' holiday home in England and is described by friends as an Anglophile – is another asset.
Announcing his candidacy on Thursday, Dijsselbloem told Dutch lawmakers he wanted to broaden out the Eurogroup's agenda beyond discussion of crisis measures and bailout countries.
"It has to be broadened out to include economic co-operation and reinforcement," he said, adding that reforms were needed in virtually all the countries of the eurozone.
This conciliatory style marks a break with the blunt style of his predecessor, Jan Kees De Jager, who ruffled feathers with his demands for fiscal discipline in the eurozone periphery.
He has carrots to go with the sticks. In December, he promised Dutch lawmakers he would help Greek tax authorities deal with tax dodgers by sending them details of hundreds of Greek yachts anchored in Dutch ports.
Until now, the agricultural economist has been best known as a social policy specialist who was happy to speak out against his own party's shibboleths. When chairing a review of education policy, he spoke out against his own party's stance, saying it was too permissive and lacked rigour.
He is a close friend of the Labour leader, Diederik Samsom, a physicist, and, together with Staf Depla, now a councillor in the southern city of Eindhoven, they were part of a clique within Labour known as the "red engineers" because they had all studied at technical universities.
Following the election in September, Labour reached a coalition agreement with prime minister Mark Rutte's Liberals that is strong on budget discipline, promising to cut the deficit by €16bn (£13.4bn) by 2017.
While the red engineers were seen as firebrands, Depla says they saw themselves as pragmatists: liberal on economic policy, less dogmatic about Labour's traditional social liberalism.
Dijsselbloem attracted attention in the socially liberal Netherlands by complaining about the amount of sexually explicit material broadcast on television.
"He's an old-fashioned guy, with a vintage look to him," said Rick van der Ploeg, an economist at Oxford University and former Dutch Labour politician.
More than one party colleague reached for the word "Calvinist" to describe the style of a man who is seen as a somewhat austere social conservative.
The son of an English teacher, Dijsselbloem graduated from Wageningen University, the most prestigious centre for agricultural studies in a country where farming is still central to national identity.
He worked for the Dutch agriculture ministry after finishing his postgraduate work in the Irish university town of Cork. A lawmaker since 2000, he has never fully turned his back on farming and to this day raises a handful of pigs in the garden of his riverside house outside Wageningen.
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GREECE: New Postbank plans to slash wage bill by 30% Financial Mirror The new bank that emerged from the breakup of Greece's troubled Hellenic Postbank will initially hire all of the old lender's staff but offer voluntary redundancies as it tries to cut payroll costs by 30%, its management said on Saturday. Greece said ... |
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BHOWMICK: It Was All Greek to Me Cornell University The Cornell Daily Sun I am a “fresh off the boat” international student from India — I believe that “FOB” is the colloquial terminology. In any case, I should specify that I did not arrive on the American shores on the Mayflower, or any aquatic vehicle for that matter ... |
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