With Greek government bonds at multi-year highs (up 300% in the last year), the Athens Stock Index still up 100% in the last year, and leaders all over the Euro-zone proclaiming the crisis is over (and that Greece has "made big strides"); we thought it perhaps useful to look at the reality behind the propagandized talk and manipulation. The sad truth is Greece is rapidly dissolving into a 'fourth world' nation with unemployment rates (broad and youth) at unprecedented levels, poverty widespread, and homelessness rife. Perhaps, as Germany today stated that there will be no more debt reduction for Greece, it is 'math' in the first image that the TROIKA and the Greek representatives should pay special attention to...
40-year-old Yiorgos, who became homeless in 2010 after his grocery shop went out of business, sleeps outdoors in central Athens February 3, 2013.
42-year-old Alexandros, from Serres in northern Greece, sits in the abandoned car he lives in, at the port of Piareus near Athens April 10, 2013. Alexandros owned a plant shop in Athens until 2010, when it was forced to close, he became homeless soon after.
Homeless people sleep outdoors in central Athens April 14, 2013.
A homeless scrap collector sleeps outside in central Athens May 26, 2013.
Stephanos became homeless in late 2012 when the clothes shop, where he had worked for over a decade, closed down and he had no income to pay for his flat. He now lives next to a church in central Athens and eats in soup kitchens. Stephanos smokes a cigarette as he sits on a rug in central Athens May 16, 2013.
36-year-old unemployed clerk Michael sits in the sun near a bridge in central Athens May 24, 2013. Michael worked as a hotel clerk for over fifteen years but when the hotel closed he was unable to find work and in late 2011 became homeless, two months later he was diagnosed with lymph node and thyroid cancer. He now lives outside a church.
51-year-old Romanian truck driver Adrian, who lost his job in 2010 when the lorry company he was working for closed down, sits with his head in his hands in central Athens January 18, 2013. Adrian survives by collecting scrap and lives in an abandoned warehouse in Athens central vegetable market.
50-year-old Giorgos sits with his belongings under a bridge, where he lives with a group of other homeless people, in central Athens May 25, 2013. Giorgos was forced to close down the billiard hall he owned in 2006, and spent time in prison for not paying his social security debts.
35-year-old Vassilis, who has been treated for severe physiological issues, sits in the afternoon sun under the bridge where he has lived for the last year and half in central Athens May 25, 2013.
58-year-old Matheos stands next to the makeshift shelter where he has lived since late 2011, on a hill in central Athens January 23, 2013.
56-year-old Boris Potev, a Bulgarian immigrant, lies on a mattress amid garbage in an Athens suburb April 9, 2013.
Michael, a 36-year-old unemployed man, poses by an abandoned open-air cinema in central Athens February 8, 2013. Michael worked as a hotel clerk for over fifteen years but when the hotel closed he was unable to find work and in late 2011 became homeless. Two months later he was diagnosed with lymph node and thyroid cancer. He now lives outside a church.
Marialena, a former drug addict who is on a methadone rehabilitation program, pushes away her boyfriend Dimitrios who is trying to clean up her self-inflicted wounds, under a bridge in central Athens May 15, 2013.
42-year-old Marialena, a homeless AIDS sufferer and former drug addict who is on a methadone rehabilitation program, drinks coffee after waking up next to her boyfriend Dimitrios in central Athens May 26, 2013. Dimitrios, 51, was a dancer in a famous Greek folk dancing troupe until he lost his job three years ago and became homeless.
http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_wsite1_1_06/06/2013_502993
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European Commission defends handling of Greek debt crisis in wake of IMF report
By Nikos Chrysoloras
A few hours after the International Monetary Fund acknowledged “notable failures” in tackling Greece's first international bailout, the European Commission on Thursday defended its handling of the crisis.
“We fundamentally disagree,” EC spokesman Simon O'Connor said of the IMF report adding that an earlier restructuring of the Greek debt, as suggested by the Washington-based organization, would have led to “devastating consequences.”
“The report ignores the interconnected nature of the euro area member states,” O'Connor said.
“A private sector debt restructuring would have certainly risked systemic contagion if we had done it at that stage,” he said adding that such move would have “severely undermined” the program.
The spokesman also rebuffed criticism that not enough is made to identify growth enhancing structural reforms.
“We fundamentally disagree,” he said while stating his optimism about the future of Greece's economy.
“Today the reform program is on track and there are growing signs of stabilization and increasing confidence in Greece,” he said, adding however that “much remains to be done.”
The IMF acknowledged on Wednesday that it underestimated the damage done to Greece's economy from spending cuts and tax hikes imposed in the first bailout.
A report looking back on the bailout said the IMF veered from its own standards to overestimate how much debt Greece could bear, and should have pushed harder and sooner for private lenders to take a “haircut” to reduce Greece's debt burden.
http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_wsite2_1_06/06/2013_503103
Athens must cover funding gap of 4.6 bln euros in 2014
IMF insists on a swift solution; small bond issue is an option
By Sotiris Nikas
Greece and the eurozone have three months to come up with a way to bridge the country’s funding gap of 4.6 billion euros, the International Monetary Fund warned in a report published earlier this week. Otherwise, the IMF added, it will not be able to continue supporting the Greek bailout program as there will be no secured funding for the next 12 months.
According to sources, eurozone agencies and officials in Athens have already started examining ways in which the estimated funding gap for 2014 could be covered. One concerns the issue of Greek state bonds.
Finance Ministry officials believe that Greece could go ahead with a small issue of bonds in the summer of 2014, although it is highly likely that such an option would not satisfy the IMF given that it does not offer the immediate solution the Washington-based fund is asking for.
As the IMF explained in its report, from June 2014 a funding gap will be created amounting to 4.6 billion euros for the whole of the year. Unless a way is found to cover it before the next inspection visit by the representatives of the country’s creditors – at end-July or end-August – the country’s funding will not be secured for the following 12 months and the Fund will not be able to continue supporting the Greek program according to what its charter provides for.
The Euro Working Group of eurozone finance ministry officials will examine the matter in its next meeting on June 13, as the IMF is exerting huge pressure regarding this problem.
Notably, the funding gap issue will not disappear next year, as the IMF report suggests there will be another gap in 2015 amounting to 6.5 billion euros. That means the total gap in the 2014-15 period will reach an estimated 11.1 billion euros.
The funding gap is also the reason why the Fund insists there is no room for easing fiscal measures such as reducing value-added tax in food service. It stresses that any easing would mean the fiscal targets will not be met.
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http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_wsite1_1_06/06/2013_503083
Minister signs decree to curb small demonstrations
Public Order Minister Nikos Dendias on Thursday signed a presidential decree aimed at preventing small-scale demonstrations from blocking major thoroughfares in big cities, an initiative opposed by unionists and the main leftist opposition SYRIZA.
The signed decree, which is to be submitted to the scrutiny of the Council of State, imposes restrictions on “particularly small” demonstrations in cities with populations in excess of 100,000, noting that such gatherings will not be permitted to obstruct major roads.
Dendias’s initiative followed meetings with the leaders of the country’s two main labor unions, GSEE and ADEDY, and with Athens Mayor Giorgos Kaminis as well as with representatives of the Athens Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Athens Traders Association. Businesses in the capital have long lobbied for action to curb protests, which have a negative impact on their trade.
http://www.keeptalkinggreece.com/2013/06/03/great-expectations-on-tax-lowering-crashed-by-the-wheel-of-imf-steamer-christine-lagarde/
With the Troika representatives back in Athens, Greece reportedly gives a battle to achieve the lowering of Value Added Tax in catering services and goods from currently 23% down to 13%.
So far the signals from the country’s main lender International Monetary Fund are not promising. Christine Lagarde was clear on her statement issued on May 31st 2013 on the occasion of the bailout tranche approval
“Pressures to reduce taxes using the space from any fiscal over-performance should be resisted.”
““Greece is well underway to complete its ambitious fiscal adjustment plan, and is on track to meet its 2013 fiscal targets. A critical priority is to tackle tax evasion by pressing forward rapidly with reform of the revenue administration to improve operational independence and make the burden of adjustment more equitable. Pressures to reduce taxes using the space from any fiscal over-performance should be resisted. Decisive steps are needed to reform public administration, including through targeted staff reductions, to lower costs, improve efficiency, and increase fairness.”
However the Greek government is confident that it will achieve the VAT reduction arguing that this is the only way to be competitive to tourist destinations in neighboring countries. Finance Minister Yiannis Stournaras will officially submit a request.
Powerful steamers crash Great Expectations
In fact I didn’t want to write about taxes today but about a film I watched on Saturday. Great Expectations. The most recent adaption of Charles Dickens novel.
Great Expectations
(1861) a novel by Charles Dickens about a young man called Pip who wants to become rich and successful. He is given money by an unknown person (Magwitch), and as a result he becomes a less nice person, but after several difficult experiences, he finally realizes that he must work hard to make enough money to live well, and he becomes a kind, generous man.
What is Great Expectations about? Quite often from this blog I have drawn a parallel between Dickens’ world of social hardship and injustice and modern Greek reality. Dickens is classic. Because what he describes it can be valid for all times.
So what is Great Expectations about? Is it about a poor boy wanting to become a rich gentleman in the Victorian era? Is it about to want to help a benefactor escape the arm of law? Or is it about a debt-ridden country tied up like a hog by its lenders? Is it maybe about a government desperately trying to keep up its pre-elections promises it gave a year ago? Or is it about a government desperately in need of a success?
Drama
In a scene of the most thrilling dramatic effect, Pip and his friend Pocket try to help his benefactor Magwitch escape from England on a German steamer. As Pip and Pocket row towards the ship, another boat with rowing policeman approaches them and tries to hinder them.
Although the scene is kind of difficult to follow due to the darkness of the night and the water, a two- or three-second long scene sets the drama highlight of how a Great Expectation can be crashed.
With the strong maelstorm, with a powerful whirling motion the steamer pulls Pip’s boat straight into a fatal collision.
You hear the oars of the police boat beating the water in rhythm, you hear the rotating blades of the steamer announcing with violence the inevitable disaster. Hera and there a weak a scream.
Then the crash. The collision. The steamer demolishes the boat. The end of one of the many Great Expectations…
PS the streamer’s name was NOT Christine Lagarde…
and I wish, I could find this powerful scene on Youtube. But I couldn’t.
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