Lagarde List leaked - just before the Sunday deadline to accept the Troika demands ! Anyone think that is just a coincidence or does someone ( Germany , IMF ) want to kill any Greece deal ? ?

http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_wsite1_1_28/10/2012_467699

( So , Greece has ruled out a debt buyback plan , Schauble is ruling out haircuts for private and public debtholders , Netherlands has ruled out giving Greece additional time , no one in Euroland  has said they are willing to give Greece the additional 30 billion euros needed even if two more years was given to allow Greece to pretend to cut their deficits and meet  Troika demands / conditions / reforms..... So , what are we doing here ? )

Schaeuble rejects Greek debt losses

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble rejected another debt restructuring for Greece, saying it’s unrealistic to expect public or private bondholders to take losses on their Greek holdings.

Schaeuble’s comments, made in an interview with German radio Deutschlandfunk broadcast on Sunday, pour cold water on a report in Der Spiegel magazine that Greece’s international creditors recommend a so-called haircut in their latest report on the country’s finances. The Finance Ministry in Berlin declined to comment on the Spiegel article.

After agreeing to the biggest-ever write-off on private bondholders, it would “a bit unrealistic” to impose more losses on them, Schaeuble said, according to a transcript posted on Deutschlandfunk’s website. Members of the euro area are meanwhile restricted by law from participating in losses, therefore so-called official sector involvement “is a discussion that has little to do with the reality of member states in the eurozone,” he said.

Schaeuble said a proposal made for a debt buyback is “something one could consider more seriously,” though he refused to speculate on Greece’s finances before the troika report.

European policy makers are awaiting the report on Greece’s progress in meeting internationally agreed targets compiled by the troika of the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund. Schaeuble said the German government received an interim report from the troika last week.

Greek Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras triggered investor confusion on October 24 when he told lawmakers in Athens that Greece had won approval for its bid to secure a two-year extension to 2016 for its bailout program. The commission and the ECB denied that a deal had been struck.

Schaeuble said he had called Stournaras to ask him about his comments and that the Greek minister said he had been “misunderstood.”

“It’s completely clear that the negotiations are not yet finished,” Schaeuble said.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financialcrisis/9639512/Germany-rattled-as-taxpayer-losses-loom-in-Greece.html

By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard

7:46PM GMT 28 Oct 2012

14 Comments

A draft version of the Troika report obtained by Spiegel magazine said EMU governments and the European Central Bank must accept their share of losses in order to bring Greece’s public debt back to 120pc of GDP by 2020, deemed the sustainable level.

Greece must carry out a further 150 reforms, some involving a drastic loss of sovereignty. Troika payments will be held frozen in a special account under creditor control.

The Troika will have power to raise taxes automatically. There must be new laws to make it easier to fire workers and adjust the minumum wage.

In exchange, Greece should be given two extra years until 2016 to meet budget targets, costing up to €38bn.

German finance minister Wolfgang Schauble said over the weekend that taxpayer "haircuts" were unthinkable. "The question has very little to do with the reality in eurozone member states," he said.

Public sector losses are politically explosive in Germany. Chancellor Angela Merkel has told her own people that bail-out loans to southern Europe entail no risk, and have been profitable to date.

She would have to account for any losses to the Bundestag. This would poison debate on further loans for Portugal, Spain, Cyprus, or Slovenia. The fast-growing eurosceptic camp in Germany would claim vindication.

Until now all losses from debt restructuring in Greece have been concentrated on a diminishing pool of pension funds, insurers, and banks, which have suffered an implied `haircut’ of 75pc. They have been squeezed dry.

The ECB’s president chief Mario Draghi says the ECB cannot accept write-downs on its estimated €40bn holding of Greek debt since this would amount to illegal state financing, so the losses would fall on EMU governments and the bail-out fund (EFSF).

The International Monetary Fund has made it clear that it will no longer provide any money unless Greece is put on a sustainable course.

Separately, Mr Draghi told Spiegel that any purchases of European bonds -- meaning Spanish bonds, once Madrid requests a rescue -- will come under strict terms. "Unlimited does not mean uncontrolled," he said.

There will be no intervention unless bond spreads are "excessive". Any support will be switched off if states fail to comply with conditions. "Countries have to give up part of their sovereignty if we want to restore trust in the eurozone," he said. The comments have been seen as a warning to Madrid that a "bail-out lite" is not on offer.

Michael Fuchs, a key Bundestag ally of Chancellor Merkel, said "every single measure" of the Greek package must come under intrusive control.

"Tranches will paid out only when there is compliance, and not just in the Greek parliament, but also in the administration," he said.

Diplomats say there is an element of theatre in these demands. German politicians are trying to put a gloss of control on a crisis that has long since slipped out of their hands.

Yet the tone of language grates in Greece where president Karolos Papoulias warned creditors -- and Germany in particular -- not to push his country too far as it braces for a sixth year of deep depression. "We cannot ask more from the people," he said on Sunday.

In pointed language, Mr Papoulias said Europe had forgotten the debt owed to Greek fighters who pinned down Wehrmacht forces in mid-1941 long enough to delay the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union. Some historians say the delay prevented the fall of Moscow.

Hans-Werner Sinn, head of Germany’s IFO Institute, said it is becoming cruel to keep Greece in EMU. "The austerity needed to restore wage and price competitiveness will break society first. We are sacrificing a generation of young people who cannot find work, and all in the name of the euro. It is irresponsible. A euro exit would offer hope at last," he said.

Dr Sinn said Europe should craft a controlled return to the drachma with help to shore up the Greek banking system and to provide trade credits. "There is no need for catastrophe scenarios," he said.

Russian president Vladimir Putin echoed the words, saying Greece would "have a way out" if it could return to the drachma and devalue.

Mr Putin said Europe had charged ahead prematurely with the euro project "for political reasons" and was now facing the consequences.

In Athens, police arrested Greek journalist Kostas Vaxevanis for breach of data protection laws after he revealed the names of 2000 wealthy Greeks with HSBC bank accounts in Switzerland.

Known as the `Lagarde list", it was given to the Greek authorities by Christine Lagarde in 2010 when she was French finance minister.

"Instead of arresting the tax evaders and the ministers who had the list in their hands, they’re trying to arrest the truth and freedom of the press," said Mr Vaxevanis.

and.....

http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_wsite2_1_28/10/2012_467697

Political will can make debt viable

 Greece needs a big buyback bond program to reduce the burden and recapitalization of banks by the ESM

Some government officials are suggesting that the second memorandum provides for the ECB to refund all income earned on Greek bonds acquired via the terminated SMP bond buying program in the past.

By Dimitris Kontogiannis
Greece is likely to suppress its twin deficits more next year by continuing to implement restrictive economic policies, but will not regain the confidence of international markets if the debt sustainability issue is not dealt with effectively. Unfortunately, it looks as if this may have to wait until after the German elections next year.
New data on public finances and the external accounts show considerable progress, paving the way for achieving a stable equilibrium at some point in 2014. What are perhaps the most impressive figures are coming from the current account balance, with the deficit shrinking by 66 percent year-on-year or 9.1 billion euros to 4.6 billion in the January-August period.
The sharp compression of the gap was aided by the drop in interest payments abroad to the tune of 3.3 billion euros, thanks to this spring’s debt restructuring. Given the trend, it is likely the current account deficit will be confined below 10 billion euros for the whole year, from 21 billion in 2011 and 23 billion in 2010.
The state budget deficit stood at 12.7 billion euros to end-September compared to a target of 13.5 billion and 20 billion euros over the same period in 2011. Of course, growing state arrears to the private sector continue to cloud progress while cuts in public investment budget spending darken the quality of the improvement. Still, the deficit reduction is sizable despite a deeper-than-projected recession of 4.8 percent.
The new austerity measures of some 9 billion euros along with the restrictive effects of labor reforms on incomes promise both another deep recession and continuing compression in the country’s twin deficits in 2013. In this regard, the current account deficit may fall below 4 percent of GDP next year while the primary budget balance is likely to produce a small surplus, ranging from 1 to 3 billion euros.
If the estimates are right, this will be Greece’s first primary budget surplus – it does not include interest payments on its debt – since early 2000 but is likely to fall short of the 3.6 billion euros or 1.8 percent of GDP projected in the second economic adjustment program back in February-March. Of course, the much anticipated two-year fiscal extension will likely be approved by the EU leaders, allowing for a smoother fiscal consolidation path till 2016.

However, this is not going to solve the debt sustainability problem and this in turn will likely continue to block Greece’s foreseen access to capital markets in 2015 for the first time since spring 2010. Readers are reminded that the country is projected to resume market financing to the order of 10 billion euros in 2015-16. If this does not materialize fully, the funding gap linked to the fiscal extension will get bigger. Moreover, a primary budget surplus equal to 4.5 percent of GDP – necessary for making debt sustainable over the long term by the troika – will constitute an obstacle to the country’s economic growth potential in the future. This is so because excessive resources are diverted from the real economy to the service of the public debt. In this regard, the debt sustainability analysis will have to become more realistic and credible in the eyes of the markets, assuming a much lower primary surplus over the long term. A primary surplus, between 2 and 3 percent of GDP depending on the ups and downs of the economy, looks both more feasible and credible. This in turn means a much bigger intervention than envisaged by the EU at this point to bring down the debt-to-GDP ratio to below the arbitrary 120 percent level in 2020. According to various sources and Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras’s speech in Parliament last week, the EU is willing to look into decreasing the margin over Euribor, the interbank reference rate, Greece pays on its EU bilateral loans amounting to about 55 billion euros. It is also willing to discuss the rollover of their maturities but understandably no haircuts. However, we strongly doubt whether these measures alone can drive Greece’s debt below 120 percent of GDP in 2020 even if the primary surplus is assumed at 4.5 percent from 2016 onward. The case is definitely strengthened if the ECB refunds all income earned on Greek bonds acquired via the terminated SMP bond buying program in the past with some government officials suggesting this is foreseen in the second memorandum. Even so, we don’t think the market will consider the Greek debt sustainable and allow the country access to the markets unless two things happen. First, the projected primary surplus will have to be revised down, between 2 and 3 percent of GDP in the long run, to make the case for sustainable growth more convincing. Second, debt reduction initiatives will have to be enriched to include more than an interest rate decrease, the rollover of maturities and the ECB’s return of income on Greek bonds. Since a haircut on official loans is deemed politically unacceptable, the only other routes left are a big buyback bond program to cut the debt load and the recapitalization of banks by the ESM. Is there enough political boldness to adopt all these debt reduction initiatives at once and adjust the Greek primary budget surplus to lower, more realistic levels? EU politics shows this is not likely before the German election next year and only after Greece has achieved a good track record on program implementation. Still, this is the only way for Greece to restart market funding and the unprecedented fiscal consolidation efforts to pay off. The sooner it is understood by policymakers, the better.

and.....







http://greece.greekreporter.com/2012/10/27/lagarde-list-leaked-greek-politicians-big-names/

Lagarde List Leaked: Greek Politicians, Big Names

By Andy Dabilis on October 27, 2012 In Economy, News, Politics

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Former Minister George Voulgarakis is on the list

A closely-kept secret by the Greek government – the names of 1,991 people who made $1.95 billion in deposits in the Geneva, Switzerland HSBC bank branch – has been released by a Greek investigative journalist and immediately went viral on the Internet, listing several politicians, an advisor to Prime Minister Antonis Samaras, well-known businessmen, journalists, doctors, lawyers and engineers, actors and civil servants – some of them working at the Finance Ministry.

The list contains also the names of three former ministers, of whom one died sometime ago. Also the names of owners of enterprises that have gone bankrupt. But also students studying abroad, pensioners and housewives.

The names were said to come from an original list given by former French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde – now the head of the International Monetary Fund, one of Greece’s Troika of international lenders – to former Greek Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou who said he lost them.

That prompted his successor, Evangelos Venizelos, now the current head of the PASOK Socialists, to produce a copy he said he had on a memory stick and set off an investigation by Greek prosecutors as to whether any of those listed had evaded taxes. It’s not unlawful for Greeks to have accounts in another country as long as they are declared and taxes are paid on them.

Greek authorities did not confirm that the list printed on Oct. 27 in Hot Doc, a weekly magazine published by investigative journalist Costas Vaxevanis, were those on the Lagarde list, given to Greece in 2010 as part of a longer list on a CD that came from stolen records from the bank, the reason Venizelos said he never acted on it, although Lagarde said other countries who found names of their citizens have used it to prosecute tax cheats.

Neither Papaconstantinou nor Venizelos indicated there were any politicians on the list and the government wanted the names kept secret as Samaras is proceeding with a $17.45 billion spending cut and tax hike plan while tax evaders who owe the country $70 billion have largely escaped Greece’s crushing economic crisis. The plan includes more pay cuts, tax hikes and slashed pensions affecting workers, pensioners and the poor while Greece’s politicians, rich elite and tax heats have been relatively unaffected.

The embarrassing release came only a day after Supreme Court deputy prosecutor Nikos Pantelis asked for Parliament to be briefed regarding any politicians on list. Former minister Giorgos Voulgarakis, from Samaras’ New Democracy Conservatives, whose name is on the list, said it was “disinformation” and “mudslinging” and declared via his Twitter account, “Neither my wife nor I have any offshore companies or foreign bank accounts.”

BURN AFTER READING

Not only Greeks but also name of foreign nationals are on the list – apparently having transferred money to HSBC from Greek banks. Hot Doc stressed that people on the list should not be considered tax evaders unless it is proved they did not pay taxes on the deposits.

But it said: “It is apparent that a large portion of deposits are not justified with the income of depositors. Proof is that most accounts were closed after the bank briefed on the data leaking.” Vaxevanis wrote that he had received the list content on a USB memory stick “by somebody” who wrote to HOT DOC that s/he “believed that the list has been misused for political and economic purposes for two years.”The HSBC data were stolen by former bank employee Herve Falciani in 2007.  While countries like France, UK and Germany pursued tax evaders, Greece kept moving it from one place to another until Papaconstantinou said it was lost, and he blamed his aides and it became apparent that no politician wanted to get involved.

There was no immediate reaction from the government, which is rushing to finalize the new austerity plan and ram it through Parliament before a meeting of Eurozone finance ministers on Nov. 14 so that a pending $38.8 billion loan installment can be released.

The Hot Doc website stated:  “Our controls led to the conclusion that this is the list of Greek depositors to HSBC until 2007 when the leak started. So this list was identical to the Lagarde-List. But we cannot check if this is the (original) list received by Papaconstantinou or a list being formed later after the removal of some names in an potential attempt to hide evidence.”

Until now, one journalist said that he had no bank account abroad and a well-known lawyer declared that his family had transferred money abroad in the late 1980’ss to cover surgery expenses for a family member. Another journalist said he had no money abroad at that time, while a former New Democracy minister and his wife dismissed any connection to the list. While the Hot Doc list did not show how much money was deposited by each individual, that information was reportedly on the original list.

and how this impacts Samaras.....

http://www.businessinsider.com/lagarde-list-of-swiss-bank-accounts-leaked-2012-10

*   *   * 

A few names on the list could create problems for the current prime minister, Antonis Samaras, who is desperately trying to bring parliament together over a controversial package of spending cuts in order to secure the next disbursement of much-needed bailout cash from troika lenders.

The big one is Georgios Voulgarakis, the speaker of the Greek parliament and a high-ranking member of Samaras' political party, New Democracy.

The New York Times has more on Voulgarakis, citing Hot Doc, the Greek magazine that published the list:

The magazine also carried a long report on Mr. Voulgarakis. According to Hot Doc, the parliamentary speaker opened an account at HSBC in 2003 that was jointly managed by him, his wife and an offshore company based in Liberia.

According to the magazine, the deposits do not show up on Mr. Voulgarakis’s tax declarations.

Mr. Voulgarakis, a former government minister who was investigated but later exonerated in another high-profile corruption inquiry, issued a statement saying, “I declare categorically that neither my wife nor I have any offshore companies or foreign bank accounts.”

Another name on the list is Stavros Papastavros, an advisor to Samaras.

Finally, the list contains the names of officials in the finance ministry, which has been at the center of the crisis in Greece. The list went inexplicably missing for more than a year after outgoing finance minister Papakonstantinou passed it to incoming finance minister Evangelos Venizelos in 2011.

One wealthy Greek businessman in the defense industry and another former government official involved in defense deals who both recently turned up dead in alleged suicides were not included in the list.

However, the Greek magazine that published the list, Hot Doc, stressed that it couldn't be sure whether the list had been edited before being given to the magazine.

A Daily Kos blogger cites local media in saying that the Greek government has already issued a warrant for the arrest of the publisher of Hot Doc:

While the official reason given by the Hellenic Police regarding the warrant issued against [Kostas] Vaxevanis is the violation of privacy laws relating to the personal information of the individuals on this list, the general opinion in Greece, particularly on the country's active blogosphere and social media landscape, is that Greek authorities are attempting to silence Vaxevanis and to "punish" him for publishing the Lagarde list.

Notably, unofficial versions of the list have been circulating on the Internet in recent weeks, while yesterday evening, zougla.gr, a website run by journalist Makis Triantafillopoulos, published the list just hours before the special edition of Hot Doc containing the list reached newsstands. As of the time of this writing, no similar warrants have been issued against Triantafillopoulos, who in Greece is largely regarded as a politician with very close ties to the political ruling class, for publishing the list.

Scans of the magazine pages on which the full list of names is published can be viewed at zougla.gr.