Greece items of interest - barter taking hold , Finns want Greeks out of EMU , Investors shying away from buying Greek investments and comments from Independent Greeks head Kammenos.....

http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_wsite6_1_04/06/2012_445234

Short of euros, Greeks barter

Time Bank. Patricipants of a time-exchange network stage a pic-nick for new members at an Athens park to indroduce an online exchange where members swap services, counting the cost not in euros, but in hours. More than 1,000 people are registered on the Athens time bank, of which around 200 active members regularly use it to give and receive services.

As a computer specialist who can fix your PC, Vassilis Revelas has a valuable skill. In Greece's economic crisis, he's found a new way of using its value - without a single euro changing hands.
Like hundreds of others in Greece, where incomes have plunged in four years of recession, he uses the time bank - an online exchange where members swap services, counting the cost not in euros, but in hours.
“I racked up about 10 hours of work by fixing people's computers,” says Vassilis.
“In return I've had an electrician come to help with my phone line, I've had someone do my hair, I had someone help me move house and I also had Spanish lessons,” he told AFP.
Time-banking and other forms of bartering are on the rise in Greece and other crisis-hit countries such as Spain, as people come to grips with lower salaries, pensions and job prospects.
“There were time banks before, but people didn't know about them. They didn't need to,” says another user, Christine Papadopoulou. “The reason people know about us now is because of the crisis.”
She says more than 1,000 people are registered on the Athens time bank, of which around 200 active members regularly use it to give and receive services.
“I went to the house of a girl I didn't know and helped her organise her closet,” says Christine, 33, an event planner. “Her house was very messy so I helped her to organise the space.”
This earned Christine three hours of credit, which the person she helped logged for her on the time bank website.
Originally an anti-capitalist initiative, like many of the free bartering markets that have sprung up in Greece, the time bank does not let market forces set the value of members' labour.

“We believe that we are all equal - one hour of a doctor's time is equal to the hour of a cleaning lady,” says Christine. “Right now we only have two doctors” in the bank.
“It is a way for people to get what they need when the economic system is failing them,” Vassilis adds. “On the other hand it raises very important questions about how the capitalist system works.”
At an open-air bazaar in Halandri, a north Athens suburb, punters try on shoes, play with toys and walk away with piles of books or bags of clothing brought there by their fellow locals - without paying a penny.
“This is happening everywhere where people are poor and need it. It's happening in most of the cities,” says local musician Kostas Kousis, 35, one of the organisers.
“We're doing a lot of things like this, and sharing food. Someone who has a lot of rice can exchange it for fruit or meat. This was happening before also, but now it's more necessary,” he adds.
“We're trying to explain to the people that they can avoid money.”
Greece's financial problems have driven speculation that it may drop the euro and return to the weaker drachma. Leaders and companies are reportedly preparing for the country's possible eurozone exit.
Advocates of bartering insist it is not about replacing currency. Many Greeks reject the recent currency fears as hype generated outside Greece.
“I don't think we're going to stop using the euro. They're trying to scare us into submission,” says Despina Tzeveleki, 31, who brings a box of her childhood Barbie dolls to the Halandri barter fair. All the dolls but one get taken.
“It wouldn't be easy to change to the drachma,” says Despina, who lives with her parents off her father's pension which has been cut by a third.
“It would have a big impact on the economy of Europe and maybe on other countries as well.”
Users of bartering say it helps them pull together through a crisis they say they did not create. Weary of tales of corruption among politicians, many Greeks complain of how the economy has been managed.
“These bazaars were started by people in environmental associations. Then the economic crisis came, so they have a more social function as well,” says Katerina, a participant in the bazaar who would not give her second name.
“I don't think this can be large-scale,” she adds, however. “I don't believe in the organisation skills of the Greeks. You have to have self-discipline to do it. But it's not the people's fault.”
Kostandin Leka, a blue-eyed Albanian immigrant of 39, approaches the Halandri market with his four-year-old son.
Working as a glazier, he had his pay cut last year from 1,000 to 650 euros a month. Two thirds of that goes on rent.

At the free bazaar he finds a box of dominos for his boy to play with and a bracelet to take home for his wife. “No money,” he explains. [AFP] and....... http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_wsite1_1_04/06/2012_445233 Most Finns want Greece out of eurozone A majority of Finns want Greece to leave the eurozone, a study conducted by Finnish pollster Think If Laboratories showed on Monday. A total of 56 percent of the 1,819 people questioned said Greece should leave the euro while 21 percent opposed the idea, and 23 percent of respondents were undecided, according to the survey. ”Finns are clearly dubious about the way the ongoing crisis is being handled. The findings are indicative of a deep distrust in Greece’s ability to manage its economy,” Juhana Aunesluoma, the director of the University of Helsinki’s Network for European Studies, told AFP. According to Aunesluoma, ”Greece’s membership in the single currency will be costly. Finns understand that Greece’s woes will have an impact on Finnish finances as well. However, Finns seem to like the euro, but take issue with some of its members.” A separate poll last week showed that 58 percent of Finns supported Finland’s membership in the eurozone, 32 percent opposed it and 10 percent were undecided. Already 10 years ago, many in Finland were highly skeptical of Greece’s membership in the euro and the recent findings confirm that Finnish attitudes toward the southern European state have not changed, Aunesluoma said. Greece’s financial problems have driven speculation that it may drop the euro and return to the weaker drachma. Leaders and companies are reportedly preparing for the country’s possible eurozone exit. Finland, one of only a few EU countries to enjoy a triple-A credit rating, was an outspoken critic of the EU’s second rescue package for Greece amid public reluctance to bail out countries largely perceived as having mismanaged public finances. Helsinki only agreed to take part after striking a collateral deal with Athens in October 2011. Finland joined the EU in 1995, and has used the single currency since its introduction in the eurozone in 2002. Monday’s poll was commissioned by Finnish television station MTV3 and conducted May 24-29. The margin of error was three percent. [AFP] and....... http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_wsite2_1_04/06/2012_445259 Investors shying away from Greece By Giorgos Mantelas Yet another attempt to attract a foreign investment project to Greece ended fruitlessly the week before last. This had not been an uncommon occurence in recent months, only this time the project was too big not to leave a bitter aftertaste. A high-ranking source at the prime minister’s office, which the prospective investors visited last before boarding the plane back home, refused to provide further details but it is not really the name of the visitors that matters as much as the result. According to other sources that also declined to give further details, it was a well-known Chinese fund that is active in Asia’s energy sector and has recently launched an investment drive in Europe. In Athens for exploratory talks a few weeks ago, the arrival of the company’s team coincided with the end of the previous pre-election period and the start of the new one. According to the sources, the representatives cited political uncertainty in Greece as the reason why the company is not ready to make a committment just yet, as it would rather wait until after the June 17 elections to see domestic and international developments. The paradox of the example above lies in the fact that it has been known for a few months now that the country is facing a serious danger of a blackout due to lack of liquidity in the power sector. But the overall picture, of Greece being shut out of international business, has become common and seems to have developed into the rule. When the country does not make foreign investors walk away due to its bureaucracy and inefficient public sector, it is Greek firms that face a hostile environment when trying to do business abroad as they are shunned almost by definition. Late last month, this exclusion took a new twist, when credit insurer Euler Hermes announced it would stop covering Greek exports. Such developments lead domestic groups to start thinking about the transferring their bases abroad. Already, big deposit accounts used for operating capital have been transferred to Luxembourg, Switzerland and elsewhere, and are used to pay staff in Greece. It seems that this is the only way for Greek groups to obtain letters of guarantee and do business. Another recent instance was a retail fuel distributor, which saw its gasoline stations go under one after another due to the lack of liquidity, and its main foreign supplier/partner refuse credit after decades of impeccable collaboration. and...... Greece can't be kicked out of the euro, Kammenos says 4 Jun 2012 Panos Kammenos has attacked ND and Pasok and said that Greece cannot be ousted from the euro. (file photo) Independent Greeks leader Panos Kammenos lashed out at New Democracy (ND) leader Antonis Samaras and Pasok chief Evangelos Venizelos during a campaign rally in Polygyros, Halkidiki on Sunday night.   Kammenos charged that the ND of Samaras was not the "ND of Constantine Karamanlis that put Greece as an equal member in the EU".   "Now, Samaras and Venizelos have put us in the Europe of the loan-shark bankers, of Merkel and Schauble," he said.   Kammenos also charged that an operation was underway to terrorise the voters ahead of the June 17 repeat general elections.   "All this terrorising, that they will oust us from the euro and lead us back to the drachma, to poverty, is not working, for one reason: because poverty has already arrived. Because no one can send us out of the euro. Because if Greece leaves the euro, the euro itself and the European Union will collapse. Because we have already paid the euro," he added.   On the gold mining investment in Halkidiki, he said: "We say no to destruction of the environment. Only the enterprises that will ensure the proper environmental conditions should receive permits. This is Greece. We are not Ghana where you can spread cancer among the workers and the citizens".   He further proposed the introduction of an electronic visa for non-Schengen countries. (AMNA)