MAY 9, 2012 – BERLIN – Beware of EU members bearing bailouts: Leading German politicians warned Greece on Tuesday that the country would not receive a cent more aid unless it fulfills all the conditions of its international bailout. An election on Sunday in Greece failed to deliver a parliamentary majority for the two big pro-bailout parties, plunging the country into political limbo and increasing the risk that another vote may be required to resolve the impasse. On Tuesday, the leader of the Left Coalition party, which benefited from rising anger over austerity to take second place in Sunday’s poll, declared Greece’s policy pledges under its EU/IMF rescue null and void. As Europe’s largest economy, Germany has contributed the biggest share of the financial guarantees under Greece’s bailout, which is paid out in installments on the condition that Athens meets specific savings goals. “The agreements must be respected. I don’t think we can or should renegotiate,” said Martin Schulz, a German politician and president of the European Parliament, on a visit to Berlin. Gerda Hasselfeldt, a senior member of the Bavarian Christian Social Union (CSU), sister party to Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU), echoed Schulz in warning Greece against any backsliding. “Our position is unchanged. Aid can only flow if the conditions are met,” Hasselfeldt told reporters. Greece must push a new round of spending cuts through parliament next month to qualify for an 11.5 billion euros aid installment that it needs to avoid bankruptcy. The post-election deadlock has raised questions about whether that timeline can be met. The vote in Greece and the victory of Socialist Francois Hollande in a French presidential election at the weekend underscored a growing backlash in Europe against austerity measures favored by Berlin as the way out of the single currency bloc’s debt crisis. –Chicago Tribune News
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Would it be possible for Greece to sell the Island of Crete to the Chinese? Land is land!!!! It would completely get them out of debt! LOL.
All joking aside, this is serious serious business folks
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It has come before Conor: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/feb/17/greek-pm-denies-land-privatisation-plan
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“Greece must push a new round of spending cuts through parliament next month to qualify for an 11.5 billion euros aid installment that it needs to avoid bankruptcy.”
Cut WHAT ? Eventually, Greece will Run Out of things to cut.
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The wild card is that there is potentially oil and gas supplies in the waters around Greece and Cyprus. There is already a pipeline between Russia and Greece.
The left leaning Grreek parties are waving these potential energy supplies in the face of Germany.
The Turks have threatened to do their own exploration and around Cyprus (Greek territorial waters) and have also threatened to aneexe Cyprus. The Germans and French have supplied Greece with a lot of military hardware – now you know why.
These potential oil and gas supplies are a potential game changer. Europe would have a potential energy supply indepencdent from the middle east.
Did I mention that Israel has taken an interest in these potential supplies and provided a pact with Greece for the exploration and proitection of them?
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Fed clears China’s first US bank takeover
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/3-big-chinese-banks-enter-us-banking-market-185200086.html
The United States on Wednesday opened its banking market to ICBC, China’s biggest bank, for the first time clearing a takeover of a US bank by a Chinese state-controlled company.
Just days after high-level US-China economic talks in Beijing, the Federal Reserve approved an application from Industrial and Commercial Bank of China to buy a majority stake in the US subsidiary of Bank of East Asia.
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Germany is the only country in the EU showing any sanity. Germany should leave the EU and start increasing its military might in preparation to defend itself when goverments begin to collapse all around them and massive civil unrest and anarchy ensues.
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LOL…I agree with Ruiner. Germans are tight with their money. I dont blame them for not wanting to pay for the mistakes of others.
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Alvin
Have you seen this? http://money.cnn.com/2012/05/10/news/companies/jp-morgan-losses/index.htm?source=cnn_bin or this one… http://www.zerohedge.com/news/worlds-largest-prop-trading-desk-just-went-bust …. I guess the TBTF are failing after all and this is just the start… 3 Billion $$ is a lot of money to lose and there are estimates it could go as high as 20-30 billion… oh my…
P.P.
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Yeah, I did see that and posted something about a short time ago. Well, you ask yourself why? The market has been rising precipitously and they should be making money over the long haul. Fed interest rates are near 0% and they’re paying relatively no interest to depositers for holding and using their money…so the risks are being motivated by some serious underlying problems within the bank. When I initially heard this. I thought it must be the Credit Default Swap contracts of which they owe trillions in debt. Bingo, here’s your answer. http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-05-10/jpmorgan-default-swaps-climb-after-2-billion-trading-loss
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