http://www.zerohedge.com/news/live-feed-syntagma-square
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 02/05/2012 11:17 -0500
Live Feed From Syntagma Square
With Greek politicians on the verge of selling out the population more than ever before only to preserve the country's ability to be an ECB toll stop, where it takes Troika money and promptly pays Greek creditor banks, the time to return to the Syntagma Square webcam has arrived especially since tonight is the night when the population learns if Greece will comply once again with Troika demands for record austerity or finally cut the cord. Because with the latest round of troika demands being that "the minimum wage be cut to less than 600 euros ($790) a month and that at least one holiday allowance, the so-called 13th and 14th wages, be abolished, Mega TV said" and that "pensions paid by supplementary funds should be cut by 35 percent" it the local population believes that waving goodbye to one's retirement to fund a bank's bonus is worth it, then it deserves all the bending over it gets.
And for those wondering, here is a reminder how out of every euro in bailouts, only 19 cents actually goes toward the country (and of that we assume a big portion is to fund European military purchases).
Deposit withdrawals turned into 'trapped' cash
ReplyDeleteFinance Minister Evangelos Venizelos told Parliament on Friday that Greeks have withdrawn some 65 billion euros from their bank accounts in the last two years, out of which no more than 16 billion has gone abroad (at least legally).
‘There is therefore another 49 billion euros turned into spending, but it is a shame for them to be trapped in houses and not returned to the banks,’ the minister said.
Venizelos stressed that local lenders have come under much pressure as their clients have chosen to withdraw a large part of their deposits.
The data he presented showed that less than 10 percent of the money moved abroad went to Switzerland, with banks in the United Kingdom receiving some 32 percent.
http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_wsite2_10995_03/02/2012_426000
http://www.athensnews.gr/issue/13481/53048
ReplyDeleteTHE RECAPITALIZATION of Greek banks with EU-IMF funds earmarked for the country’s second bailout remained to be decided on February 2 in ongoing hectic negotiations between the government, political parties and its official lenders that were expected to carry on over the weekend.
Following a week of punitive EU threats over Greece’s budgetary shortfalls, talks with private bondholders over a 50 percent write down on the face value of their Greek bonds were held up by tough negotiations over wage cuts, auxiliary pensions and tax hikes.
The talks with the troika were meant to finalise a bailout agreement worth 130bn euros before the fine print of a deal on private sector involvement (PSI) has been agreed, including the issue of the European Central Bank’s (ECB) participation in the debt writedown.
Official sector participation in a Greek debt swap must be decided before a PSI deal can be clinched, Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos said on February 2.
Berlin rejects OSI
“One of the unresolved issues remaining at this time is the official sector involvement participation,” Venizelos told Pasok deputies, using the neologism to imply the ECB portfolio of Greek bonds.
“The terms of public sector participation are still to be defined,” he said.
But German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble immediately snapped back, saying Greece’s public sector creditors have already done enough to help alleviate the country’s debt crisis and the onus to act rests solely with the private sector.
“Greece needs a reduction of private debt claims of around 50 percent,” he said in an interview on German broadcaster NTV. “An additional contribution from the public sector is not needed.”
But the International Monetary Fund has been pushing for the participation of eurozone central banks as well as the ECB to submit their Greek bond holdings, estimated at 65 bn euros, to the same write down as the private sector, in order to surpass the 100 bn euro debt write off.This is supposed to make the Greek debt sustainable at 120 percent of GDP by 2020.
But this proposal has been roundly rejected by Berlin, which fears that the central bank’s financial standing would be jeopardised by taking losses on its bond holdings purchased at a discount of 20 percent in the secondary market under its Securities Markets Programme.
Athens must rush to wrap up both the bailout talks and the PSI bond swap by February 6 when a special Eurogroup meeting in Brussels is scheduled. The group needs to approve the release of bailout funds for the PSI bond swap and bank recapitalisations in time to prepare for redemption of Greek bonds worth 14.4bn euros that come due next month.
ECB, bank options
One option being discussed by eurozone officials is for national central banks to write down their holdings of Greek bonds estimated at around 12bn euros held in national investment portfolios.
Under this plan, the ECB in Frankfurt would offer its own bond holdings - worth 55bn euros - to a separate bond swap that would not involve losses but the transfer of the bonds to Greece at the same discount price at which they were bought. The transfer would be carried out through an additional EU-IMF-ECB loan to Greece.
On the other hand, Venizelos has backed down from his earlier demand that the recapitalization of the Greek banks with EU-IMF funds totalling 39 bn euros should be carried out through the issuance of common shares.
Under pressure from the troika, Venizelos has reportedly agreed to accept non-voting preferential bank shares or high-yield bank bonds in return for the recapitalization funds.