Stocks try for gains after falling 1% amid Greece

"The market is taking a wait & see approach with what's going to happen in Greece, what's going to happen in China," said Adam Sarhan, CEO of ...

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The Many Interpretations Of Greece's 'No'

The Greek referendum is a political oddity that was observed worldwide. With 61 percent of the vote, the government-supported "no" won unexpectedly. A different analysis came from each of the four corners of the world. Seen from Athens, the situation is very positive: The Greeks have given Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras a new mandate with which to negotiate. But seen from Berlin, it's something else entirely. In short, everyone tends to interpret the Greeks' "no" according to their own interests. Here are some of the divergent analyses of this historic vote: The "no" that means "there will be a new agreement" Since the announcement of the referendum, Tsipras has consistently repeated his intention of an even stronger return to the negotiation table. Greece's then-finance minister, Yanis Varoufakis, seemed equally confident on Sunday night, even though the definitive results were not yet known. When a journalist asked him how long it would take to obtain a new agreement if the "no" were to pass, he responded, without hesitating, "24 hours." Later in the evening, once the victory was in, Varoufakis presented the win as "a tool that will be used to extend a cooperative hand to our partners," ensuring that the government would begin to work on Monday to "find a common ground agreement" with the European Union and International Monetary Fund. "We will negotiate in a positive way with the European Central Bank and European Commission," he said. Tsipras reaffirmed his desire to secure a deal: The mandate you've given me does not call for a break with Europe, but rather gives me greater negotiating strength. #Greece #Greferendum-- Alexis Tsipras (@tsipras_eu) 5 Juillet 2015 Tsipras' vision is shared by many in Italy and France, where several groups have called for the negotiations to resume as soon as possible. "Now it is just to resume negotiations. But we will not escape the Greek labyrinth with a weak and stagnating Europe," Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs Paolo Gentiloni wrote in a tweet. "For all lovers of Europe," said Claude Bartolone, president of the National Assembly in France, "the Greece's exit from the eurozone cannot be considered as an option." "More than ever, there is a European emergency," Bartolone said. "I call for holding a conference of the eurozone dedicated to debt restructuring, of which the management and rescheduling can be the subject of a common policy." The "no" that means "nein, nein, nein" The German government, on the other hand, insists on a firm message. Economy Minister and Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel said further European negotiations with Athens appeared "difficult to imagine." Tsipras burned "the last bridges" between his country and Europe, Gabriel said in an interview with Tagesspiegel that came out Monday. "After the refusal of the rules of the eurozone, as expressed by voting 'no,' negotiations on assistance programs, counting in billions, seem difficult to imagine," he said. Germany's CSU party quickly proved a sore loser as well -- vengeful, even. "Good night Greece. You have chosen a difficult road," the party wrote in a tweet. Kali nichta, Hellas - Gute Nacht, #Griechenland! Ihr geht jetzt einen ganz schweren Weg. #Greferendum-- CSU (@CSU) 5 Juillet 2015 However, the German comments on Sunday were by no means surprising. Last week, the country's minister of finance, Wolfgang Schauble, said a resumption of negotiations would be difficult even in the case of a "yes" victory. The "no" that is a victory for democracy A surprisingly divergent group of commentators called on Sunday for the need to respect the democratic sovereignty of the Greek people. In France, politicians Marine Le Pen, Jean-Luc Mélenchon and Arnaud Montebourg all welcomed the referendum results on that ground. Belle et grande leçon de démocratie que ce NON grec. Les peuples sont de retour ! #Greferendum MLP-- Marine Le Pen (@MLP_officiel) July 5, 2015 The Greek "no" is a great lesson in democracy. The people are back! #Greferendum MLP Nobel laureate and economist Paul Krugman likened the "no" camp's victory to one for all of Europe. "We have just witnessed Greece stand up to a truly vile campaign of bullying and intimidation, an attempt to scare the Greek public, not just into accepting creditor demands, but into getting rid of their government," he wrote in The New York Times. Europe Wins http://t.co/VgmKhUZnM1-- Paul Krugman (@NYTimeskrugman) July 5, 2015 Some figures on France's political right affirmed their respect for Greece's sovereignty, while reminding their audience that Greece also must pay the price. "It is the choice of a sovereign people who must bear all the consequences. The EU's response must first be that of unity. It is up to France and Germany to take the necessary initiatives to ensure the unity and coherence of the eurozone," former Prime Minister Francois Fillon said. For Spain's Podemos party, which campaigns with Greece's Syriza against austerity, the "no" victory in the referendum is a source of satisfaction. It may give them ideas. Podemos' leader, Pablo Iglesias, tweeted: "Today, democracy has won in Greece." Hoy en Grecia ha ganado la democracia pic.twitter.com/MpBMRIyfTZ-- Pablo Iglesias (@Pablo_Iglesias_) July 5, 2015 The "no" that condemns Greece to leave Europe "As I suggested several months ago, we must proceed towards Greece's organized exit from the eurozone," UDI Party Jean-Christophe Lagarde said. Le non grec a pour conséquence sortie de l'euro. @fhollande ne doit pas se coucher devant @atsipras et alliés FR @MLP_officiel @JLMelenchon-- Christian Estrosi (@cestrosi) July 5, 2015 The Greek 'no' results in a Greek euro exit. @fhollande should not lie down in front of @atsipras and allies FR @MLP_officiel @JLMelenchon The "no" that condemns Greece to leave Europe (but it's no big deal) The eurozone "is able to cope with a crisis of confidence and possible speculative attacks," said Pier Carlo Padoan, the Italian minister of economy and finance, on Sunday night, following the "no" victory to the referendum in Greece. "The uncertainty with regard to the future of Greece is bound to generate volatility in financial markets," he said in a statement. He also stressed that Italy has benefited from a "recovery" and from "a less than 3 percent deficit." The "no" that announces an upheaval in the single currency "This is the beginning of the end of the eurozone. It was demonstrated that the European Union is not irreversible, and this is the first time in history that this infernal machine finds the people standing up, supported by government, for the greatest happiness of the people," And Jean-Luc Laurent, chairman of the Citizen and Republican Movement, said it was necessary to "take into account the impossibility for the European states to handle the solidarity, constraints and interdependencies involved in a single currency." "Let us take a year to reset the euro by transforming the current single currency to a common currency," he added. _________________ This article originally appeared on HuffPost France and was translated into English. -- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

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Germany-not Greece-will be the real loser

Germany is using its size and wealth to compel its euro-zone partners to take a hard line toward Greece, but in the end, Germany has much to lose by ...

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Debt Deflation in Greece

However things play out from here — I find it hard to see a path other than Grexit — the troika's program for Greece represents one of history's epic ...

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Let German Comics Explain The Absurdity Of Austerity In Greece

While Germany may be Greece's most fearsome opponent in negotiations over the country's debts, some German comics are sympathetic to the dilemma facing their Mediterranean neighbor. In March, the German TV comedy show "Die Anstalt" (meaning "The Institution") imagined what would happen if Greece's troika of international creditors -- the International Monetary Fund, the European Central Bank and the European Commission -- were just three German guys sitting down in a restaurant in Greece. The skit, titled "Bananenrepublik" (no translation needed), provides a brilliant metaphor of the impossible choices Greece must make to pay back its creditors. The Huffington Post's Braden Goyette translated the sketch, and we have shared some choice segments below. In a particularly funny segment at the beginning of the sketch, three German men calling themselves the troika sit down to eat in a Greek restaurant. They want to be served, but when the restaurant owner offers them classic Greek dishes -- moussaka, souvlaki and tzatziki -- the troika members inform him he cannot serve any of those items. Instead, the Greek restaurateur must serve a new German menu, in order to "receive the next installment of funds" the restaurant needs to survive. By taking wine off the menu to cut costs, the troika has rendered the business inoperable. Nonetheless, the German patrons laud the new menu for enabling a "completely balanced" budget. Bar owner: Your help has only made things worse! Troika man #1: Ach, now it's our fault again?! Bar owner: Yes, last time you took wine off my menu! Troika man #1: There was no other alternative. Bar owner: This is a wine bar! Now I don't have any sales anymore. Troika man #2: But now your budget is completely balanced. Bar owner: Yes, I have no expenses, but I also have no income. Troika man #1: You see? Doesn't get more balanced than that! The restaurant owner goes on to complain that it is not his fault he got into debt and needed the troika's help. The troika is unsympathetic, and only has unyielding Old Testament justice to offer. Bar owner: You don't understand! No wine, no business! Troika man #2: You should've thought of that before you got into debt! Bar owner: I inherited the debt from my father! Troika man #1: You should've thought of that before you got that father! The scene is a spot-on illustration of Greece's central grievance with its creditors -- a grievance backed, incidentally, by a broad array of economists. Like the Greek restaurant owner denied his staple menu offerings to save money in the short term, Greece says the fiscal austerity demanded by its creditors in exchange for bailout loans have prevented the country from recovering economically. And the Greek government thinks this approach is penny-wise and pound-foolish. Thanks in no small part to the massive fiscal contraction Greeks have undergone in the past five years, the country's economy is one-quarter smaller than it was in 2008, with official unemployment at over 25 percent. That has led Greece's debt to grow faster than its economy, making it unsustainable at about 177 percent of the gross domestic product. Greece is now caught in a cycle of asking for new loans to pay off the old loans, on terms that make it harder for the country to emerge from a deep economic depression. Source: tradingeconomics.com What is more, the Greek restaurant owner's insistence that his father's profligacy is to blame for the debts he must manage is similar to the claims of the current Syriza government that it is paying the price for past governments' irresponsibility. Then-Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis made this point on June 22 in an op-ed in The Irish Times aimed at swaying public opinion toward compromise with Greece. "Greece's drama is often misunderstood in northern climes because past profligacy has overshadowed the exceptional adjustment of the past five years," he wrote. In fact, as Varoufakis notes, the IMF estimates that when adjusting for its sluggish economic performance, Greece had the largest budget surplus before interest of any nation in the eurozone in 2014. Source: IMF, 2015. But much like the "troika" patrons in the German television scene, the public and political leaders in Germany, Greece's largest creditor and the continent's most powerful nation are uninterested in Greece's complaints. They were reluctant to transfer any money to Greece's indebted government and banks to begin with; the idea of giving Greece better terms on those loans, by restructuring Greece's debt, for example, strikes them as downright offensive. Now, with Greece's banks on the brink of collapse, the German government is indicating it would rather expel Greece from the eurozone -- marking an unprecedented reduction in the eurozone's membership -- than offer Greece any additional compromise measures. The German comics are not the only ones trying to point out the futility of the German government's approach to Greece. In May, Thomas Piketty, the French economist famous for studying income inequality, told German newspaper Die Zeit that Germany has "no standing" to lecture Greece -- or any other country -- about paying its debts. That is because in 1953, Greece and 20 other European countries wrote off most of Germany's debts from World War II and restructured the rest. In the interview, Piketty echoes the sentiments of the fictional Greek restaurant owner who asks the troika members not to blame him for the flaws of his father. "The Greeks have, without a doubt, made big mistakes. Until 2009, the government in Athens forged its books," he said. "But despite this, the younger generation of Greeks carries no more responsibility for the mistakes of its elders than the younger generation of Germans did in the 1950s and 1960s. We need to look ahead. Europe was founded on debt forgiveness and investment in the future. Not on the idea of endless penance. We need to remember this." -- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

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Greece debt crisis: 'No new plan' as eurozone leaders meet

The eurozone says Greece has submitted no new proposals to secure a deal with creditors ahead of a key meeting of the group's leaders which is ...

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Young Greeks Aren't The Only Ones Losing Faith In Europe

Europe is trembling. The Greeks have taken a stance against the rescue policy of their creditors. In truth, however, the Greek youth have voted against Europe, or put differently, against the European idea as they know it today. Because, for many of them, Europe no longer stands for promise but danger; it no longer means new beginnings, but insecurity. In many southern European countries, the younger people are part of the first generation to have it worse than their parents. Greek Unemployment by Age pic.twitter.com/IiJQ6no1kJ— ian bremmer (@ianbremmer) July 5, 2015 They no longer want to put up with it: 85 percent of the 18- to 24-year-olds have voted against the creditors’ suggestions for Greek reform and austerity. And, in turn, for a little bit of dignity in this messy situation. It Is A Statement That Nobody In Europe Should Ignore Young Greeks are not the only ones losing their faith in the European idea. College graduates and students from other countries are starting to feel the same way. According to recent data, only 28 percent of French people between 18 and 24 believe that Europe will have a positive influence on their lives. And only 21 percent of them want more of Europe. Another reason for concern: The French youth are nearly as euro-skeptical as those over the age of 65. A similar situation is evident in Italy: Young Italians don’t see Europe as a future project anymore either. According to a poll by the Istituto Toniolo, more than every other young Italian has given up on Europe: 58 percent of them state that the EU is a failed experiment. Only 32 percent of young Italians still feel positively about the euro. And only 35 percent of young Italians regard Germany’s role in Europe as positive. They are more likely to feel attracted to France and Spain. The Spanish Have A Positive Outlook On Europe All these numbers reveal something stark: If Europe breaks apart, it won’t be in Brussels, but in the student dorms throughout the continent. Because it’s members of the younger generations who will shape and will have to support the politics of the future. Yet surprisingly there is no north-south divide in the identity crisis seen in younger Europeans. This is obvious in Spain, a country that has already achieved a lot, working its way out of a euro-crisis. Pablo Iglesias, center right, leader of Spanish Podemos left-wing party, marches to give a speech at the main square of Madrid during a rally earlier this year. Although Spanish youth have lost interest in the EU institutions amidst the crisis, they still rate their country’s EU membership as positive, according to sociologist José Pablo Ferrandis, of Spanish polling agency Metroscopia. In a Europe-wide comparison, the Spanish have a similar trust in the EU as the Germans -- who rank at the top throughout Europe. According to Metroscopia, 54 percent of Spaniards, ages 18-30, believe that being a member of the EU has helped their country overcome the crisis faster. This makes for a surprising axis of Europe’s supporters -- between Spain and the biggest country of the Eurozone, of all places. “There is hardly any other country in which young people are so open to the European idea than in Germany,” says one of the most famous youth researchers, Klaus Hurrelmann of the Hertie School of Governance. They have more trust in the EU than younger people in other countries “and they see considerably more opportunities than risks in the EU,” says Hurrelmann. “There is no other place in Europe, where people are as positive towards the Euro than in Germany.” These numbers are reflected in the Eurobarometer of the EU commission. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, center right, sings together with students during a visit at the Roentgen School in Berlin, Germany. As critically as youth from Italy and Greece may look towards Germany, the Germans still remain unshaken: “Of course, they see themselves as Germans,” says Hurrelmann. “But in a similar way, they see themselves as Europeans -- even more so than their parents.” This area of tension -- between the skeptical Italians, French and Greeks, and the relatively europhoric Spaniards and Germans -- is the real problem in Europe. Because the young people on the continent have lost their collective vision. In the end, it works like a family: If the members don’t believe in sitting down for dinner together and discussing their issues, and everybody is barricading themselves in their own rooms instead, it will break apart. Now, you could argue that these young skeptics might change their minds eventually. However, if you grow up with the certainty that Europe is doing more harm than good, you aren’t very likely to change your opinion later. You will vote against Europe at the ballot -- regardless of the political price that you will have to pay. How Can Europe Still Be Saved? We finally need to start talking more about ideas -- and less about failures. Instead of bank bailouts at the center of EU politics, the focus should be on future programs that young people in Europe will benefit from quickly. Spain is living proof that an economic recovery, no matter how small, can restore faith in Europe. A Marshall Plan for southern Europe, which focuses on supporting young, sustainable or social companies, has been discussed repeatedly. Why not? We have to sit down together and put these suggestions forward again! Time presses. Every time we hesitate, it costs Europe more credit -- from its youth. The ones, we must remind ourselves, who are Europe’s future. Alexandre Boudet contributed reporting from Paris, Giulia Belardelli from Rome and Gloria Pina from Madrid. This article originally appeared on HuffPost Germany and was translated into English. ___________________________________________________________ -- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

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