http://www.zerohedge.com/contributed/2013-01-14/how-lose-your-entire-savings-instant

How to Lose Your Entire Savings In an Instant

Submitted by Phoenix Capital Research on 01/14/2013 19:38 -0500

By the look of things, Europe’s banking system is breaking down again.

Bankia’s shareholders have received a nasty new year’s surprise. They may lose most of their investments or even all of them says the Spanish bank rescue fund in its latest report.

According to FROB, the Fund for Orderly Bank Restructuring, Bankia has a negative value of 4.2 billion euros, and its parent group BFA is 10.4 bn in the red.

Valuation is key in the recapitalisation of Spain’s banking system, weighed down by massive bad loans accumulated in a property bubble that burst in 2008. Bankia/BFA is set to receive 18 bn euros of European aid, and become the country’s biggest bailout recipient.

http://www.euronews.com/2012/12/27/bankia-worthless-says-new-report/

Greece’s four largest banks need to boost their capital by 27.5 billion euros ($36.3 billion) after taking losses from the country’s debt swap earlier this year, the largest sovereign restructuring in history.

National Bank of Greece SA, the country’s biggest lender, needs to raise 9.8 billion euros, according to an e-mailed report by the Athens-based Bank of Greece (TELL) today. Eurobank Ergasias SA (EUROB) needs 5.8 billion euros, Alpha Bank (ALPHA) needs 4.6 billion euros and Piraeus Bank SA (TPEIR) needs 7.3 billion euros, according to the report. Total recapitalization needs for the country’s banking sector amount to 40.5 billion euros, the report said.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-12-27/greek-bank-capital-needs-at-eu27-5-billion-bank-of-greece-says.html

The above articles tell us point blank that Europe’s banking crisis is neither fixed nor even close to over.

Consider the article on Spain.

A little known fact about the Spanish crisis is that when the Spanish Government merges troubled banks, it typically swaps out depositors’ savings for shares in the new bank.

So… when the newly formed bank goes bust, “poof” your savings are GONE. Not gone as in some Spanish version of the FDIC will eventually get you your money, but gone as in gone forever.

This is why Bankia’s collapse is so significant: in one move, former depositors at seven banks just lost virtually everything.

In the case of Greece, the above article needs some perspective. Sure, €27.5 billion sounds like a lot of money, but just how big is it relative to Greece’s banks.

The entire capital base of the Greek banking system is only €22 billion.

By saying that Greek banks need €27.5 billion Greece is essentially admitting that is needs to recapitalize its entire banking system. Also, you should know that Greek banks arestill sitting on €46.8 billion in bad loans.

There is a word for a banking system with a capital base of €22 billion and bad loans of €46.8. It’s INSOLVENT.

Take note, the EU Crisis is anything but over. The ECB may have pushed it back by a year by promising unlimited bond buying… but that relief rally is coming to an end.

and......

http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_wsite1_1_14/01/2013_478404

Troika's 'prior actions' pass into Greek law

Parliament on Monday approved a series of “prior actions” demanded by the troika in exchange for further rescue loans though a provision for the imposition of labor law changes squeezed through after deputies of the coalition’s junior partner Democratic Left opposed it.
A multi-bill, tightening the budgets of state-controlled firms and ministries, deregulating certain economic sectors and reducing the salaries of parliamentary staff in line with cuts to those of other civil servants passed with 166 votes to 123, with one MP voting present and 10 absent.
A provision for the imposition of a new law giving private sector employers greater freedom to dismiss staff was supported by just 151 MPs.
The prior actions were to be imposed as legislative acts that do not require parliamentary approval but the opposition objected. Another controversial provision is an amendment to Greece’s loan deal. SYRIZA claims it surrenders the country’s rights to protect its assets but the coalition contends that such action would need the approval of Greek courts.

http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_wsite1_1_14/01/2013_478248

AK47 attack on New Democracy's HQ triggers fresh political row over violence

Assailants fired early Monday at least nine shots at the Athens headquarters of New Democracy, the main party in Greece’s ruling coalition, prompting a fresh dispute between the country’s politicians about politically related violence.
One of the shots fired at around 2.30 a.m. from a Kalashnikov assault rifle hit the office of Prime Minister Antonis Samaras, who has led New Democracy since 2009. The bullet smashed through the window and left a mark on the wall.
There were no injuries as the building was empty at the time.
The party’s headquarters are located on Syngrou Avenue in southern Athens and police found a burnt out car a few kilometres away in the suburb of Palaio Faliro.
Officers believe the vehicle, reported stolen, is linked to the attack as the fire brigade was called to the scene at about 3 a.m., shortly after the raid on ND’s headquarters.
“Democracy, New Democracy and the country’s Prime Minister Antonis Samaras cannot be terrorized,” said the secretary of ND’s political committee, Manolis Kefaloyiannis.
The attack on the party’s offices came a day after assailants set off an incendiary device at the home of government spokesman Simos Kedikoglou’s brother. Nobody was injured in that attack even though Giorgos Kedikoglou was at home with his family when it occurred.
Several New Democracy and PASOK offices around Athens were also firebombed over the weekend. A total of 17 incendiary attacks, including on a SYRIZA office in Iraklio, Crete, were recorded over the weekend.
Early on Friday, the homes of five journalists were the subject of attacks. Again, there were no injuries. A group called Militant Minority claimed responsibility for the attack. The organization also claimed an attack on the home of ex-Finance Minister Yiannos Papantoniou in December.
The spate of attacks, as well as police operations to clear squats in central Athens, have been at the center of a full-blown political row between the coalition parties and SYRIZA, which has been accused of having an equivocal stance on the use of violence – a charge that the leftists vehemently deny.

“The difference between inflammatory statements and inflammatory attacks is very small,” said Simos Kedikoglou early on Monday. “There has to be a clear denouncement of violence and verbal violence.”

Kedikoglou added that he had received threatening phone calls recently.

SYRIZA spokesman Panos Skourletis said the party’s condemnation of recent attacks was a “given”. He accused New Democracy of trying to polarize the political climate in order to draw attention from austerity measures and the state of the economy.

He referred to the assailants as “useful idiots” and said that ND was creating a “civil war climate.”

SYRIZA leader Alexis Tsipras is reported to have called Samaras to ask for a full and thorough investigation into the attack on ND's headquarters.

http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_wsite1_1_14/01/2013_478320

Schaeuble warns Tsipras of no alternative to Greece's fiscal adjustment program

SYRIZA leader Alexis Tsipras has been told by German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble during the pair’s meeting in Berlin that Greece needs to stick to its fiscal consolidation program.
"Minister Schaeuble has told Mr Tsipras unequivocally that there is no alternative to the... implementation of the economic adjustment program. Minister Schaeuble urged Mr Tsipras to back the path embarked upon,» a German Finance Ministry source told Reuters.
The two politicians had been at odds in the past over the austerity measures being demanded by Greece’s lenders. Their apparent opposite opinions have generated considerable interest about their meeting.
“The finance minister is of the view that the (Greek) reform process, the success of the reform process, is important and so should be supported by all political forces,» German spokeswoman Marianne Kothe told a news conference on Friday.
“We are using the talks to encourage this,” she said, adding that the meeting had been agreed at Tsipras's own request.
Ahead of the meeting, the SYRIZA leader said it was in Greece’s interests for his party to smooth over relations with the German government.
“SYRIZA wants to have normal relations with the governments that play an important role in Greek and European affairs.”
“The Germans are very practical people,” he added. “They can see that SYRIZA could be the next government and they want to prepare the ground by having direct contact with us. We want the same.”
In an interview with Deutsche Welle’s Greek service over the weekend, Tsipras referred to convincing the German government that there should be a “review” of Greece’s fiscal consolidation program.
Government spokesman Simos Kedikoglou identified this as a departure from SYRIZA’s position that it would tear up Greece’s EU-IMF bailout agreement if it came to power.

“Is this the same person that was promising the Greek people he would cancel with one law the memorandum and loan agreement?” said Kedikoglou.

http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_wsite1_1_14/01/2013_478285

Ex-SDOE chief Kapeleris denies being given Lagarde list by Papaconstantinou

The head of Greece’s Financial Crimes Squad (SDOE) when Giorgos Papaconstantinou was finance minister in 2010, Yiannis Kapeleris, has insisted that he was never given a copy of the Lagarde list.

Kapeleris submitted a written deposition to financial prosecutors Grigoris Peponis and Spyros Mouzakitis, who are also expected to quiz his successor, Yiannis Diotis, for a second time on Monday.

Sources said Kapeleris insisted he was not given a CD or memory stick containing the list of some 2,000 Greek depositors at the Geneva branch of HSBC. He said that he was give a single sheet of paper that was a printout, which he could not use to investigate suspicions of tax evasion.

Kapeleris said he returned the document to Papaconstantinou.

Diotis is seen as a key figure in the investigation after a forensic examination of the USB stick containing the list of Greek depositors, which had been given to prosecutors by PASOK leader and ex-Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos, revealed that the data had been transferred onto the device on July 8, 2011.

At the time the flash drive is thought to have been in SDOE’s possession. Diotis had succeeded Kapeleris by that time.

Prosecutors are trying to find out who doctored the information to remove accounts belonging to three of Papconstantinou’s relatives. On Thursday MPs will vote on whether Papaconstantinou, Venizelos and ex-prime ministers George Papandreou and Lucas Papademos should be investigated by a parliamentary committee.

SYRIZA wants Venizelos to be probed. Keftist MP Zoe Constantopoulou claimed on Saturday that the PASOK leader had taken part in a meeting with Papaconstantinou, Papandreou and Diotis to discuss tax evasion on the same day that the data was transferred to the USB stick – July 8, 2011.

This claim was rejected by PASOK sources who said that several meetings took place on that day and none related to tax evasion or the Lagarde list.

http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_wsite2_1_14/01/2013_478279

Store owners unhappy about new rule allowing customers to walk out if receipt not issued

Store owners have reacted angrily to a new regulation that allows customers to walk out without paying for goods and services, including food and drink, if they are not provided with a receipt, as the government seeks to clamp down on tax evasion.

The rule, which came into force over the weekend, also obliges traders and businesses to put up signs in English and Greek that inform customers they have the right to refuse to pay if they are not give a receipt.

Anyone not displaying the sign faces a 1,000-euro fine.

The National Confederation of Greek Commerce (ESEE) proposed on Monday that store owners should put up another sign that reminds customers they face prosecution for theft if they leave the premises without paying.

The head of the confederation, Vassilis Korkidis, said the new rule would encourage "freeloaders" from all over the world to come to Greece with the aim of obtaining goods or services without charge.

ESEE stressed in its statement that illegal street trading, rather than stores, are a source of tax evasion. It also said that the law allows customers to call authorities or to walk out of a store if they are refused a receipt but not to refuse to pay for goods they take with them or services that have been provided.

The organization said that a more constructive solution would be to ensure that all shops and businesses have cash registers and are monitored to ensure they issue receipts.

http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_wsite2_1_13/01/2013_478234

Electricity rates climb by 9 percent

Power rates are going up by about 9 percent for most consumers, applying retroactively from January 1, as the Energy Ministry has decided on the first installment of rate hikes that Public Power Corporation (PPC) has asked for and the country’s creditors have insisted on.

The Ministry announced on Sunday that the average total increase amounts to 8.6 to 9.2 percent for most households, while for commercial, agricultural and industrial consumers the increase amounts to 10-15 percent.

That means that for most households the power bill will go up by about four to five euros per month.

The January increase on electricity rates amounts to 3 percent, but the burden on power bills will be around 9 percent due to the increase in charges for pollutants, that are now passed on from electricity producers to consumers, and to the rise in the levy for renewable energy sources' development.

At the same time the government is expanding the application of the so-called social rates, meant to offer a discount to special groups in society. The social rate will now secure more consumers a 42 percent discount on regular prices.

Further rate hikes are expected on May 1 and on July 1. July will also see the full liberalization of the electricity industry.

And.....

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2013/jan/14/eurozone-crisis-christine-lagarde-recovery-greece

The latest in Italy

Silvio Berlusconi, appearing on the 'Telecamere' TV Programme on 11 January 2013. Photograph: Camilla Morandi/Rex Features

Silvio Berlusconi continues to dominate the political scene in Italy, with around six weeks to go until the Italian general election.

The encouraging news for Berslusconi is that his right-wing coalition has gained ground since his People of Freedom party secured an alliance with the Northern League party, and launched a media charm offensive.

The latest polling by the Tecne research institute found that the PdL/Northern League have 24% of the vote, up from 22.4%.

Mario Monti's own centrist coalition has fallen back to 14.5%, from 15.8%.

The centre-left alliance led by Pier Luigi Bersani remains the lead, but has also lost some ground -- at 37.8 from 38.6%.

Berlusconi must also be watching the courts as well as the polls. The latest development there is that Karima El Mahroug, or "Ruby the Heartstealer", has made a dramatic return to Italy to give evidence in the former prime minister's sex abuse trial.

Berlusconi's lawyer, though, are pushing for the case to be delayed until after February's elections. More here: Silvio Berlusconi's lawyers call for sex trial suspension