http://yanisvaroufakis.eu/2012/05/28/theres-a-lady-whos-sure/
http://uk.reuters.com/article/2012/05/28/greece-funds-idUKL5E8GSGSR20120528
( I believe this three billion sum has previously been identified as specified to recap Greek Banks - and the last sentence indicating the 3 billion euros are being held at the HFSF supports that belief. )
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/greece-jumps-most-8-months-rest-peripheral-europe-slumps
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 05/28/2012 11:58 -0400
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/greek-retailers-stocking-shutters-case-riots-alcohol-stocks-plunge
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 05/28/2012 10:03 -0400
and....
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/were-not-wonderland-anymore-alice-and-true-greek-debtgdp-ratio-4217
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 05/28/2012 07:58 -0400
and.....
http://hat4uk.wordpress.com/2012/05/28/euroblown-greece-stops-dead-as-government-introduces-payments-freeze-and-importers-demand-cash-up-front-24/
http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_wsite1_9500_27/05/2012_444149
The head of leftist SYRIZA, Alexis Tsipras, who is hoping to lead his party to first place in the June 17 elections, accused his two main rivals, PASOK and New Democracy, on Sunday of scaremongering about Greece’s future in the euro.
ND leader Antonis Samaras attacked SYRIZA in a speech on Saturday, while PASOK chief Evangelos Venizelos also had harsh words for the leftists in a televised press conference on Sunday. Samaras said SYRIZA’s intention to repudiate Greece’s loan agreement, or memorandum, with the European Union and International Monetary Fund would lead the country out of the euro.
“A return to the drachma would lead to incomes, savings and assets being halved, while debt would grow,” Samaras told party members at an ND national congress in Athens. “Tsipras will bring a worse memorandum that will serve the drachma lobby, which will be able to buy up the country on the cheap.”
Samaras’s comments were echoed by Venizelos who said that an outright rejection of the loan terms would be “catastrophic.” “This would strengthen extremists, while making life easier for the drachma group, which is investing in the prospect of buying Greece up cheaply.”
Venizelos said Greece should aim to extend its fiscal adjustment period from 2014 to 2017.
To Vima newspaper suggested that ex-Prime Minister Lucas Papademos warned party leaders that Greece will run out of money in the next few weeks. The state of public finances was set out in a letter to President Karolos Papoulias shared with party leaders during their failed talks to form a government after the May 6 elections.
Papademos indicated that Greece would run out of money by June 20 and would be reliant on funding from the eurozone and the IMF.
This prompted Tsipras to accuse “domestic political forces” of “blackmail, threats and lies.” Instead, he pointed to comments by the head of the Institute of International Finance, Charles Dallara, who estimated that the cost of a Greek exit could exceed 1 trillion dollars. “Just as the head of the IIF, economists and European Commission officials underline the need to stop talk of Greece leaving the euro… the domestic Taliban of the memorandum continue to terrorize the people so they abide by the plans of the IMF and [German Chancellor] Angela Merkel,” said Tsipras.
There’s a lady who’s sure…
28MAYhttp://uk.reuters.com/article/2012/05/28/greece-funds-idUKL5E8GSGSR20120528
( I believe this three billion sum has previously been identified as specified to recap Greek Banks - and the last sentence indicating the 3 billion euros are being held at the HFSF supports that belief. )
May 28 (Reuters) - Greece could access 3 billion euros left over from its first bailout programme to cover basic state payments if efforts to revive falling tax revenues fail, two Greek government officials told Reuters on Monday.
"Our finance ministry efforts at this time are focused on boosting revenues," one official told Reuters. But he added that if those efforts failed: "We will examine all alternatives, including the 3 billion euros from the first bailout."
Greek state coffers are on track for a more than 10 percent fall in revenues this month, a senior finance ministry official said last week. Officials have previously warned the state could run out of cash to pay pensions and salaries by end-June.
The 3 billion euros are being held in an intermediate Hellenic Financial Stability Fund account.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/greece-jumps-most-8-months-rest-peripheral-europe-slumps
Greece Jumps Most In 8 Months As Rest Of Peripheral Europe Slumps
The Greek equity index jumped almost 7% today, its biggest rise in 8 months, on the back of absolutely no 'real' change whatsoever (Greek opinion poll results change by the second and the stability fund payments were already known) and indeed a worsening situation across most of the rest of Europe (ex-Germany) - with chatter of growing bank runs and Bankia's epic demise. Of course, one needs to bear in mind the ASE pop is off 22-year lows before sounding that all-clear here as Bund yields collapse to all-time record lows andSpanish yields (and spreads) to Euro-era record wides (and almost all-time record highs). Broad European equities and credit gapped up at the open (as did EURUSD) but the rest of the day was spent drifting inexorably back to lows as the Euro-Stoxx ended down 0.5% (with Spain - at 9 year lows - and Italy underperforming notably also - with banks halted on and off all day). Spain and Italy saw sovereign spreads leaking (16bps and 8bps respectively) as the former broke 450bps over AAA for the first time (and 510bps over Bunds). Corporate and financial credit spreads leaked back wider from the positive start to the day and ended still modestly tighter on the day - though financials notably underperformed non-financials. EUR-USD basis swaps improved modestly but EURUSD round-tripped from a decent open to Thursday/Friday highs over 1.26 and back down towards Friday's close - with the USD -0.2% from Friday's close - as AUD strength helped exaggerate the move mildly. Commodities are following USD's lead and as it strengthens into the European close, they are losing early gains (Copper/Oil up around 0.6%, Gold Unch, Silver down 0.5%). USD and Oil weakness into the European close were the most notable micro-trends.
The Athens Stock Exchange Index jumped almost 7% today - the last 2 times it did this was followed by 4-5 down-days in-a-row - don't hold your breath...
and Spain's IBEX Index fell over 2% closing at its lowest level in 9 years...
European sovereigns limped wider aside from Spain and Italy which ended at the day's worst levels (and the former near all-time record wides)...
and for once European stocks in general front-ran credit - though it looks like equity just catching up to last week's credit deterioration (also financials underperformed non-financials into the close)...
and the USD (and EURUSD implicitly) round-tripped (orange curve) as once the US came on line (630am ET) admittedly a closed market, AUD began to drift lower (red arrow) relative to USD which dragged on US equity futures which were also trading - closing near ther session lows (but up around 6pts - though 8pts off the overnight highs (notably rich to broad-risk-assets - though we note TSYs not open to temper reality)...
Charts: Bloomberg
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/may/28/eurozone-crisis-greece-christine-lagarde
( Cue the bank runs - grab cash from the banks while one can ! )
Back with Greece, the country's four biggest banks have now reportedly received €18bn as part of a long planned recapitalisation.
The funds came from the EFSF eurozone bailout fund, and will allow National Bank, Alpha, Eurobank and Pireauks Bank to regain access to ECB funding.
An official at the Hellenic Financial Stability Facility told Reuters: "The funds have been disbursed."
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/greek-retailers-stocking-shutters-case-riots-alcohol-stocks-plunge
Greek Retailers Stocking Up On Shutters In Case Of Riots, Alcohol Stocks Plunge
While America may be experiencing the occasional zombie apocalypse breakout, probably due to the absence of easily available edible iPads, Greek retailers are preparing for the retail version. "British electrical retailer Dixons has spent the last few weeks stockpiling security shutters to protect its nearly 100 stores across Greece in case of riot. The planning, says Dixons chief Sebastian James, may look alarmist but it's good to be prepared." Why Dixons? "Europe's No 2 electrical retailer Dixons owns Greece's market leading but loss-making Kotsovolos chain, which has a 25-percent market share selling iPads and laptops as well as washing machines, televisions and air conditioning units." There we go: Bill Dudley's edible iPads. The question is what happens when this easily digestable piece of plastic is thoroughly looted after local rioters dispense with the "shutters" supposedly protecting their wares. What will be on the menu next? Sadly not booze: "Diageo, the world's biggest spirits group and the name behind Johnnie Walker whisky and Smirnoff vodka, has reacted by slashing its marketing spend in Greece, reducing stock levels and pulling cash quickly out of the country after it saw its Greek sales halve in the last three years to less than 100 million pounds." So: no food, no booze, no cheap 99 cent iPad aps: this is the way the world's most miserable monetary experiment ends.
Who else is preparing for a peak in rioting, and how?
Company bosses around Europe agree. As the financial crisis in Greece worsens, companies are getting ready for everything from social unrest to a complete meltdown of the financial system.Those preparations include sweeping cash out of Greece every night, cutting debts, weeding out badly paying customers and readying for a switch to a new Greek drachma if the country is forced to abandon the euro."Most companies are getting ready and preparing for a Greek exit and have looked at cash, treasury and currency issues," said Roger Bayly, a partner at advisory and accountancy firm KPMG.
Chief Executive James says the company has contingency plans to shutter up its 69 wholly owned and 29 franchised Greek stores and close them in the short term to protect against any threat of civil unrest and prepare for a switch to a new drachma.Greece accounts for just over 3 percent of Dixon's annual sales of around 8.2 billion pounds. The company competes with Europe's No 1 electrical chain Metro and with a number of local players which James says may struggled to survive in a crisis."We know it would put paid to quite a lot of our competitors and give us an opportunity to get more of a market share. So we are ready and we would be very interested to see how it would turn out," said James.
Dixons should know what is the rioter's pick du jour:
Dixons, using its experience of dealing with riots in London and other British cities last summer - big flat-screen televisions were the looters' booty of choice - has ordered enough shutters to protect its stores and is working with the Greek police and security groups.The group's sales dipped 9 percent in Italy, Greece and Turkey in the year to late April. The group does not split out Greek sales, but these three nations make up around 7 percent of the group's annual sales.
The 6 Greek Cs:
"Businesses need to build in protection by checking payment terms, sweeping cash out of subsidiaries and into other currencies and check on the vulnerability of suppliers," said Martin O'Donovan, ACT's deputy policy and technical director.
KPMG's Bayly advises his clients to check the six Cs when preparing for a possible Greek euro exit: cash, contracts, continuity, counterparties, control and commercial. He believes that automotive companies, tour operators and pharmaceutical groups would see the biggest immediate disruption from an early euro exit by Greece.He argues most companies are well prepared on cash issues and contracts with suppliers, but less so on how they would cope with business continuity in the immediate aftermath of a euro exit.
The worst news? No more booze:
Diageo, the world's biggest spirits group and the name behind Johnnie Walker whisky and Smirnoff vodka, has reacted by slashing its marketing spend in Greece, reducing stock levels and pulling cash quickly out of the country after it saw its Greek sales halve in the last three years to less than 100 million pounds.
Diageo has weekly meetings aimed at cutting its exposure to Greece, protecting remaining sales by bolstering its own in-house distribution network, halting supplies to some small bars and focusing on high-end hotels and clubs.Diageo's Chief Marketing Officer Andy Fennell says its Greek sales are still falling. The once big Johnnie Walker market has already shrunk and now accounts for less than one percent of the group's 10 billion pound annual turnover."There could be a marked impact on Greece but the big question is what happens elsewhere across the eurozone," Fennell said with an eye on Diageo's bigger troubled markets inside the eurozone such as Spain and Ireland.
The best news: new drachma will be well stocked and easily available:
De La Rue, which as the world's biggest commercial banknote printer produces more than 150 currencies, has made no comment. Analysts say Greece could have to turn to outside printers because of the sheer quantity of banknotes needed.
Of course, if after reading this any Greeks are still not utterly terrified of what their vote for Syriza would bring (nothing but Keynesian fire and brimstone), very soon precogs will be released to arrest any and all who dare to vote for ending a disastrous monetary experiment which will eventually unleash what happened in Miami over the weekend, worldwide.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/were-not-wonderland-anymore-alice-and-true-greek-debtgdp-ratio-4217
We're Not In Wonderland Anymore, Alice... And The True Greek Debt/GDP Ratio Of 421.7%
- default
- European Central Bank
- European Union
- Eurozone
- Germany
- Greece
- Gross Domestic Product
- Insurance Companies
- International Monetary Fund
From Mark Grant
We're Not In Wonderland Anymore, Alice!
"You may call it ‘nonsense’ if you like," she said, "but I've heard nonsense, compared with which that would be as sensible in a dictionary!"
-The Red Queen
Greece Through the Looking Glass
With all of the talk of Greece leaving the Eurozone and forfeiting the Euro as its currency; what if it does not? That, my friends, is now the question. The current estimation of Greece’s GDP is $308.3 billion. All of the debt of Greece, direct, derivatives and guaranteed is $1.3 trillion giving the country an actual debt to GDP ratio of 421.67%. You may recall all of the talk, all of the pandering words spit out by the IMF and the European Union that the new austerity measures would take the Greek debt to 120%; all nonsensical and a nonfactual expression of a very fantastic and fairy tale imagination. If someone has actually stepped through the looking glass I suspect it is Christine Lagarde. Perhaps she is Alice’s granddaughter? In my estimation she must have eaten some of the cake because her reputation has dwindled as she and Greece fell down the rabbit’s hole.
“There comes a pause, for human strength will not endure to dance without cessation; and everyone must reach the point at length of absolute prostration.”
-Lewis Carroll
Since those false exclamations the economy of Greece has, in fact, shrunk like a grape in the process of becoming a raisin. Austerity has had an effect of the Greek economy, that much is true; it has caused it to whither like an autumn vine on a dead oak tree. Not only is the economy in decline by -9.6% but the expenditures are exceeding the budget by $2.5 billion each and every month; it is a sinkhole, a vast expanse of quicksand where anything and everything is going down. With a population of 10,768,000 the people of Greece could not pay the debt they have accumulated if they stood on their tiptoes and spat Euros at the sun. The current situation is, without doubt, an impossible contrivance that could have been avoided, was not avoided, and there is no way to climb the wall of this financial cliff without, in one way or another, blowing up the wall.
"The time has come", the Walrus said,
"To talk of many things:
Of shoes — and ships — and sealing wax —
Of cabbages — and Kings —
And why the Sea is boiling hot —
And whether pigs have wings."-Tweedledee
The pig could be bright blue, her lipstick could be of the shiniest shimmering red, her wings could put those of the Angels to shame and still she could not fly. If Greece decides to say in the Eurozone then the question will shift to whether Europe will allow her to remain. After the elections Greece will be required to cut another $30 billion from its expenditures. This will cause a decline of about $50 billion in its revenues which will take its GDP down to around $260 billion and the debt to GDP ratio will be a whopping 500%; say it ain’t so but it will be just that number if no new debt is added which is an impossibility at this point so that the calculation will be even worse. Then the burden has shifted from the European banks and insurance companies as they handed the Greek debts to the ECB, the EIB and the IMF so that the very institutions that could have back-stopped Greece are already full of Greek debt and therefore dead in the water.
“I know they're talking nonsense,” Alice thought to herself: “and it's foolish to cry about it.” So she brushed away her tears, and went on as cheerfully as she could.
I have always said that Greece will not depart until the money spigot is turned off. Therefore Greece will hang around as long as she can but the moment is coming and coming soon when Germany and the rest will say that since Greece is not keeping its part of the bargain that it cannot play any longer in the sand box. They may demand repatriation through the Bank for International Settlements. They may try and keep the Greek assets pledged at the ECB as an offset to the sovereign and municipal debt which will never get paid back but it will not just be consequences but carnage when this point is reached as even the ECB itself will have to be recapitalized by the other nations in Europe as the Greek default overwhelms its equity capital. The Greek banks, one way or another, are history and their debt will only be useful as certificates to be hung on some office walls as a reminder of lessons that should have been learned and were not. Greece is now a “dead man walking” and the execution chamber is primed and ready. The only remaining questions, really, are who is going to flip the switch and at what time ?"The horror of that moment," the King went on, "I shall never, never forget!"
"You will, though," the Queen said, "if you don't make a memorandum of it."
Make a memorandum of what is passing before your eyes and do not forget it!
and.....
http://hat4uk.wordpress.com/2012/05/28/euroblown-greece-stops-dead-as-government-introduces-payments-freeze-and-importers-demand-cash-up-front-24/
EUROBLOWN: Greece stops dead as Government introduces payments freeze, and importers demand cash up front
BEDLAM CREATED BY EU/BERLIN LUNATICS TAKES OVER IN ATHENS
Facing the threat of a delay in the disbursement of bailout installments from the Troika, Greece’s caretaker government has suspended rebates and payments to suppliers of the public sector. All loans by banks to any business, regardless of viability, have been stopped. In the absence of safe ways to sell, 74% of Greek companies are focused on debt reduction. And foreign companies importing to Greece are demanding money up front.
The Troika’s crazy austerity and repayment schedules demand a Greek economy going at Full Ahead Both. It is now on Silent All Stop.
Thanks to cut-off threats from Berlin-am-Brussels, the Athens government has stopped paying suppliers, foreign importers will not ship until upfront cash has been received and confirmed, and banks have been instructed to lend nothing to either domestic or business borrowers.
The personal loans ban has been framed in the light of a suffen rush for ‘credit’ alongside massive withdrawals. Loans by banks were running at €11bn euros a month. From here on they will be zero.Meanwhile, the insolvency and supply problems for drugs at retail level in Greece has predictably backed upstream. Greek GPs are owed €620m. The provision of primary medical care and medicines to about 9 million people is very close to collapse due to the accumulated debts of the National Organization for the Provision of Health Services (EOPPY), as the government has reneged on its promise to settle all arrears to private suppliers of the old insurance funds (that now make up EOPPY) by the end of March. The money involved – a total of around €1.7 billion – spookily isn’t there any more: it went to pay off the last of the bondholders.
For damned are those who will not pay The Bondholders.
As the Mad Woman of Monetary Funding launches nanny-fury at Greek citizens , even New Democracy’s Antonis Samaras is now saying he wants the Troika bailout schedule suspended. He doesn’t mean it of course: nevertheless, in a fit of inexplicable madness, Greek voters have made ND the new front-runner in opinion polls on the basis of it.
But weigh these up as a measure of the disconnect between the financial sector, Brussels, and Real Earth: ‘Stocks rise as Greek euro exit fears wane’ (FT at 8.20 am). ‘The euro bounced off two-year lows on Monday after Greek conservatives topped opinion polls ahead of another general election’ (Reuters at 7.17am).
And the final (if predictably) irony. This morning, the IMF’s cheeky minx Pristine Lowgrade told Bloomberg she was ‘sensitive’ to the plight facing Greece, and she was misheard by those who didn’t catch her real meaning, viz – that the wealthy must pay their fair share of taxes.
Well Prissy, the wealthy Greeks are buying London properties, the eurozone is sinking fast, and Greece is close to anarchy. It’s a little too late for mendacious, back-handed apologies.
YESTERDAY THE SLOG TRIED TO POINT OUT SOME OF THE MORE CLINICALLY UNHINGED BELIEFS THAT HAVE MADE CRASH 2 INEVITABLE. The post is very closely related to the above, and I recommend it heartily.
and....
http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_wsite1_9500_27/05/2012_444149
Tsipras rebuffs attacks from ND and PASOK
  |
ND leader Antonis Samaras attacked SYRIZA in a speech on Saturday, while PASOK chief Evangelos Venizelos also had harsh words for the leftists in a televised press conference on Sunday. Samaras said SYRIZA’s intention to repudiate Greece’s loan agreement, or memorandum, with the European Union and International Monetary Fund would lead the country out of the euro.
“A return to the drachma would lead to incomes, savings and assets being halved, while debt would grow,” Samaras told party members at an ND national congress in Athens. “Tsipras will bring a worse memorandum that will serve the drachma lobby, which will be able to buy up the country on the cheap.”
Samaras’s comments were echoed by Venizelos who said that an outright rejection of the loan terms would be “catastrophic.” “This would strengthen extremists, while making life easier for the drachma group, which is investing in the prospect of buying Greece up cheaply.”
Venizelos said Greece should aim to extend its fiscal adjustment period from 2014 to 2017.
To Vima newspaper suggested that ex-Prime Minister Lucas Papademos warned party leaders that Greece will run out of money in the next few weeks. The state of public finances was set out in a letter to President Karolos Papoulias shared with party leaders during their failed talks to form a government after the May 6 elections.
Papademos indicated that Greece would run out of money by June 20 and would be reliant on funding from the eurozone and the IMF.
This prompted Tsipras to accuse “domestic political forces” of “blackmail, threats and lies.” Instead, he pointed to comments by the head of the Institute of International Finance, Charles Dallara, who estimated that the cost of a Greek exit could exceed 1 trillion dollars. “Just as the head of the IIF, economists and European Commission officials underline the need to stop talk of Greece leaving the euro… the domestic Taliban of the memorandum continue to terrorize the people so they abide by the plans of the IMF and [German Chancellor] Angela Merkel,” said Tsipras.
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The eurozone is a club but you get cheaters who get away with it until everyone finds out and at that point you need to remove them otherwise everyone will cheat. It’s better for Greece to leave.
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