Eurogroup Summit on November 20th - does Greece at least get some type of qualified / initial approval this go round ? However , note no financial decision will be made Tuesday ( once again ) as the dicey details of what is the funding gap and how does it get filled continues to rumble on between the IMF and EU / Germany / ECB... At this point , it seems the kick can routine of passing any decision beyon Spain's Regional Election in Catalonia will be achieved , although after the recent protests in Spain , one wonders why that matters now ?

http://hat4uk.wordpress.com/2012/11/18/euroblown-witches-in-the-wardrobe-as-greece-plunges-through-the-looking-glass/

NOVEMBER 18, 2012 · 11:18 AM

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EUROBLOWN: Witches in the wardrobe as Greece plunges through the looking glass.

Vaxevanis to be retried as Golden Dawn go on a people-pummelling frenzy

Under Greek law, if you The State fail to nobble someone at the first attempt, you can appeal for another go. Funny old way of working, but anyway – as you can imagine with the Greek ‘élite’ – once a few euros have been exchanged between the right and left hands, such appeals are rarely turned down.

Journalist Kostas Vaxevanis

So it is that 48 hours ago journalist Kostas Vaxevanis was told he is to stand trial again because he released details of the notorious Lagarde-List naming of 2,059 Greeks with bank accounts at the Geneva branch of HSBC.

The Prosecution considers as “legally erroneous” the acquittal judgment made by the Court trying Vaxevanis the first time time around. But interesting from the British standpoint is that  sources from the prosecutor’s office said
the appeal ‘comes after complaints by citizens and lawyers.’ This is probably the same sort of pressure that forced Lord McAlpine (entirely against his will) to extract £185,000 from the BBC, and not give it to Children In Need. The Greek ‘complaints’ are not explained, and so Kostas – a modern-day Mr K from The Trial by Franz Kafka – will go through the ordeal again. Clearly the international outrage at his original arrest has now been overtaken by domestic Greek complaints.

Said Vaxevanis at his trial, “Greek people have known for two years now that there is a list of people who are rich, rightly or wrongly, and they are untouchable. At the same time, the [Greek people] are on the other side, they are suffering cuts”. The trial came only days after he was arrested, while tax evaders won’t face prosecution for up to a decade….and probably never. This chimes in an odd sort of way with the rapid reimbursement of a privileged English gent, and the continuing poverty of those who were abused by person or persons unknown in the UK Care Homes scandal.

Respected newspaper Kathimerini described the Vaxevanis farce as an ‘embarrassing double jeopardy re-trial of an investigative journalist who revealed the names of Greeks with secret Swiss bank accounts’. Mr Vaxevanis is lucky he didn’t surprise Antonis Samaras with the list while interviewing him on a TV sofa, as by now he would almost certainly be a national pariah. As it is, he seems to be a national hero: Philip Schofield, eat your heart out.

Sadly, the struggles of Samaras are becoming very serious indeed. He plans to repeal laws granting citizenship to second-generation immigrants who were born in Greece, speak Greek, and go to Greek school. This is of course a sop to Greece’s perniciously influential and systemically woven-in Nazi Party, Golden Dawn. As is the decision by prosecutors, taking their direction from the far-right wing party, to put on trial for blasphemy the organisers, producer, cast and crew of American playwright Terrence McNally’s Corpus Christi, which portrays Jesus Christ and his disciples as gay and living in Texas.

The U.S. Embassy said it “confirmed reports of U.S. African-American citizens detained by police authorities conducting sweeps for illegal immigrants in Athens.” Yesterday, Embassy dwellers were warned by the US State Department to proceed with care, and avoid confrontations with Nazis beating up immigrants. Perhaps Obama code-named this order Operation Samaritan. This too chimes with the US military order of 2005 in London, ordering its soldiers to GTF out of the City once Islamist bombs started going off there. America has always been a generous ally, in very much the same way as Brussels-am-Berlin is a beneficent governing body in the eurozone: for both the eurocrats and the White House seem at ease watching a european State collapse into venal fascist confusion and civil war.

You may think the parallels I draw here with the UK to be risible. That’s OK: I’m used to the blind telling me they just can’t see what I’m getting at.

and.....





http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2012/11/lagarde-says-greece-deal-should-be.html

Saturday, November 17, 2012 11:56 AM

Lagarde Says Greece Deal Should be "Rooted in Reality"; Mish Says Lagarde Should be "Rooted in Reality"

Today's case of the "pot calling the kettle is black" comes from IMF chief Christine Lagarde in a warning to Brussels nannycrats and the ECB Greek deal should be "rooted in reality"

 An agreement among Greece's international creditors on reducing its large debt pile should be "rooted in reality and not in wishful thinking," the head of the International Monetary Fund said ahead of a tense meeting with European leaders.

"I am always trying to be constructive but I am driven by two objectives," she said in an interview, "to build and approve a program for Greece that is solid, that is convincing today, that will be sustainable tomorrow, that is rooted in reality and not in wishful thinking.

Objectives in Conflict

The problem for the IMF, Germany, the nannycrats in Brussels, ECB, and Greece is the "objective" of keeping Greece in the eurozone is one of the things destroying Greece.

It is wishful thinking that Greece is going to stay in the eurozone. I am all for a large dose of "reality" but the objectives of the Troika and the nannycrats in Brussels does not permit reality.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock



and......

http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_wsite1_1_17/11/2012_470528

Focus shifts to aid talks  As creditors seek compromise on Greece, PM pushes prior actions, coalition unity With a crucial Eurogroup summit due to take place in Brussels on Tuesday, when Greece hopes to get at least initial approval for the release of vital rescue funding, Prime Minister Antonis Samaras has been focusing on projecting a united front to the country’s foreign creditors despite continuing upheaval within his coalition. The approval of new aid –- likely to comprise three installments “bundled” into a 44-billion-euro loan rather than the 31.5 billion euros originally anticipated –- remains the top priority for Samaras. But sources indicated that a final decision on new funding is unlikely to be taken until the end of this month due to an ongoing dispute between the International Monetary Fund and Germany regarding the funding gap created by a two-year extension granted to Greece to achieve fiscal adjustment targets and over how the country’s huge debt can be made sustainable. The IMF continues to favor some kind of new haircut to Greek debt, a prospect opposed by Berlin. Once a decision is reached, it must be approved by the other 16 eurozone states, which will take at least a week. On Saturday, Eurogroup Chairman Jean-Claude Juncker, one of the most consistent defender’s of Greece’s reform efforts, said that EU and IMF officials were “working intensively on a compromise on Greece and are making progress.” He also slammed Austrian officials for suggesting that a Greek eurozone exit was looming. “We must show solidarity with Greece and watch our words,” Juncker said. In the meantime Samaras wants his ministers to proceed with the “prior actions” demanded by the troika, including an overhaul of the tax system, the creation of a committee to oversee the budget execution and the acceleration of privatizations. As for a government reshuffle expected in coming weeks, Samaras is said to be keen to draw in new ministers from his junior partners, PASOK and Democratic Left, in order to bolster a sense of coalition unity and ward off the specter of snap elections next spring. http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_wsite2_1_16/11/2012_470454 Commissioners to be assigned to keep strict control over banks Greece’s agreement with its creditors, according to the memorandum it has signed, provides for the appointment of a commissioner in each bank slated for recapitalization, whose role will be to have complete control over policy so that lenders operate under a mandate set by the European Commission. Commissioners will be appointed by a respected international auditing firm, to ensure their objectivity, and no one, including the government, will be able to intervene in their work, as they will answer only to Brussels. Sources say that all banks will be assigned a commissioner by the same firm that will undertake the project. Within the jurisdiction of these powerful commissioners is also the authority to control the advertising expenses of credit groups. More importantly, however, they will also perform detailed inspections on lending issues, including loans to members of governing boards and their relatives. A specific limit on lending will be set for each bank, and this will be inviolable. The memorandum clearly states that the commissioners will have full command on the administration of credit groups: “Every bank’s policy will have to clearly ensure that all of its clients are treated fairly, according to procedures based on credit risk and the credit capacity of each borrower,” the clause in the agreement says. Any departure from this definition will obviously be forbidden, and the reaction of current bank management is anticipated with great interest. Among the commissioners’ competencies will be monitoring the funding of state corporations, public companies and political parties, in an effort to emancipate the credit system from its political ties. Monitoring officials will issue quarterly reports sent directly to the European Central Bank, the European Commission and the International Monetary Fund. Banks will “have to provide to the commissioners full access to their books, data, documents and every technical detail necessary for them to perform their duties,” the new bailout agreement states. “To meet this target, every bank will have to supply one or more offices in its headquarters so as to facilitate meetings upon a demand by the commissioners.” Monitoring officials will have the power to interrupt the flow of loan issuing when deemed necessary, with the use of certain technical criteria. Banks’ deposits policy will also be in the spotlight, which means that the interest rate tactics will be examined in detail. The same applies to the banks’ subsidiaries. After the imminent 26-billion-euro recapitalization process, salaries in banks will also have to be contained, in the general spirit of wage reduction, “just as has happened with the other European banks that have received state support,” the memorandum states. The policy for bonuses, meanwhile, will be dictated by long-term results. For their part, shareholders should expect no coupons or dividends until the end of the program, and any thought of acquisitions or expansion policies will have to be postponed until much later. Greece will eventually need another haircut, Bundesbank chief says Debt-wracked Greece will eventually need another “haircut,” the head of Germany's central bank - the Bundesbank - said Friday, adding however that a write-off is not in the cards at the moment. “A debt haircut would not solve Greece's problems,” Jens Weidmann told a gathering of business representatives in Berlin on Friday. However, he added, “it will be necessary in the end to regain access to capital markets.” Offering Greece a haircut right at this moment, Weidmann, who is also a governing council member of the European Central Bank, told the meeting, would ease pressure on the country and weaken its reform drive. House price decline accelerates The decline in Greek house prices accelerated in the third quarter as demand for property weakened amid rising unemployment. Prices fell 12 percent in the third quarter from a year earlier, including a drop of 12 percent in the capital Athens and 11 percent in Thessaloniki, Greece’s second-largest city, the Bank of Greece said on Friday in an e-mailed report. The third-quarter decline followed a 10 percent drop in the second quarter and 9 percent in the first three months of the year, according to revised data published by the bank. The number of property transactions involving loans from financial institutions fell to 4,948 in the quarter from 6,356 in the previous three months and 9,641 in the same period of 2011, according to the report. That was down 22 percent on the quarter and 49 percent on the year. [Bloomberg]