Greece political shockers - Are opinion polls reflecting the collapse of the Coalition ( with both New Democracy and Pasok hammered , Syriza and Golden Dawn surging ? ) Samaras losing support of New Democracy ? When do the endless bailouts in Greece end anyway ? How can Europe have Banking Union when half of the Eurozone is insolvent ? When does the ten percent IMF plan to loot European assets kick in - and why was it leaked ahead of time ?

http://hat4uk.wordpress.com/2013/10/17/greece-exclusive-double-shock-for-samaras-government-in-new-polls-party-rumblings/

GREECE EXCLUSIVE: DOUBLE SHOCK FOR SAMARAS GOVERNMENT IN NEW POLLS & PARTY RUMBLINGS

BY JOHN WARD OCTOBER 17, 2013 NEW DEMOCRACY SPLIT DISLOYAL TO SAMARAS NEW POLL PUTS GOLDEN DAWN NAZIS IN 2ND PLACEPASOK DISAPPEARS UP VENI'S BUM SAMARAS NOW LIES THIRD

Pasok collapses, Syriza leads

Golden Dawn surges into 2nd place

New Democracy diehards set to desert Samaras

Previously 100% reliable Athens sources this morning relayed to The Slog findings from ‘secret ballot’ quantitative research polling undertaken by the American Embassy there. The results spell trouble for Prime Minister Antonis Samaras…..and present Brussels with even bigger problems.

In a sensational development today, results from an opinion poll allowing respondents to keep their final voting intentions ‘secret’ during the interview show some astonishing developments since the Coalition ‘crackdown’ on Golden Dawn. This is the state of the Parties as recorded by the study (%):

Syriza (Left)  23.5

Golden Dawn (Far Right) 17.5

New Democracy (Conservative) 13.5

KKE (Communist) 5.5

ANEL (Conservative) 4.5

PASOK (Venizelos) 2.9

Plan B (Anti-Troika) 2.5

DIMAR (Pro-Pasok) 2.2

Others c. 20

Undecided c. 10.0

As I posted recently, it seemed likely that the “collapse” in Golden Dawn support had been overstated by open questioning: given the chance to keep their extremism quiet, older more traditional Greeks are siding with GD’s “patriotism” and avowed policy of helping the old on a district-by-district basis. Whatever any of us may feel about the neo-Nazis, this strategy has very successful. We must also reluctantly take our hats off to American psephologists, who probably still lead the world in the study of voting behaviour….and how to tell lies from truth.

As both the Lenders and the IMF represent America more or less directly, we can be sure that Brussels and Berlin are already aware of this result.

Meanwhile, in an as yet unconfirmed report, bizarrely I am told that ‘a significant number of members of the parliament, who belong to New Democracy, but they are coming from the part of New Democracy which is the old part that belongs to Konstantinos Karamanlis (the founder of New Democracy and that who took the country after the Junta of 1974) are very very disappointed with what ND has become under Samaras.They may be in secret discussions which may include even the possibility of supporting Syriza, if Syriza is going to fight Troika’.

Farts have a tendency to backfire, and that truism seems to apply to Antonikis more than most. What looked at first sight like a smart move (bash the Nazis) has predictably stirred the hornets’ nest bigtime.

I’d love to record that Antonis Samaras is, as we say in English, “too clever by half”. But the overwhelming majority of my Greek friends suggest the opposite is true.

http://hat4uk.wordpress.com/2013/10/17/eu-and-us-default-narrowly-averting-the-inevitably-impossible/

EU and US DEFAULT: Narrowly averting the inevitably impossible

BY JOHN WARD OCTOBER 17, 2013 EU CAR SALES SURGE IN NEUTRAL EUROZONE DEFAULT INEVITABLE US DEFICIT CEILING DEAL

Phew, the relief: the US looks like it is going to narrowly avert a default that was never going to happen. Yesterday I only averted a Tsunami by being in the Northern Hemisphere, and today I expect to narrowly avoid knocking down a herd of cows because there aren’t any here. Mind you, there’s only half the Aegean between me and them, so I must be wary. I’ll be giving a press conference this afternoon, and hope at that time to put my family’s concerns at rest.

Jeremy Warner in the Daily Telegraph says Spain isn’t bust after all, but for once he’s not just being stupid: he’s pointing out with a degree of irony that the IMF is trying to reassure international lenders by showing a dramatic forecast for the deficit to be down some 75% by 2018. The snag is that the forecast assumes every last one of the economic and fiscal reforms will be enacted in Spain. And that the Caja banks have finally cracked the lead-to-gold transmutation thing. So in this instance, we have another country narrowly avoiding a default, but this time one that’s inevitable.

I start today with these two articles of “news” because they I think neatly sum up what’s wrong with Sovereigns and the media. And banks, bourses, politicians, educators, citizens and, well, pretty much everyone really. They put out, and often believe, any old tosh. The King really is in the altogether, but now it’s just getting silly.

Antonis Samaras tried a fortnight ago to persuade the Greeks that one tiny surplus in one period was an economy back on track. I have to opine here that Greece will narrowly avoid paying back the debt to the Troika, because the Troika deal makes it literally impossible so to do. I’m am also nevertheless confident that Greece will narrowly avert the need to default next March by getting another bailout. I think this because with Spain, Italy and Portugal narrowly averting any progress in their economies, the last thing the Germans will do is poke a hornets nest down Hellenic Way.

This move will narrowly avert any chance of turning the economically dead eurozone’s fortunes around, and narrowly avert leading to a Banking Union that cannot possibly happen while half its members are broke.

This is, I think, when the 10% eurozone-wide levy I posted about yesterday will come into play. Several threaders and emailers somewhat haughtily pointed out to me that the IMF ‘leak’ is actually a document that was published ten days ago. To which my response is twofold: first, why isn’t it advertised on the IMF website? And second, if the idea is not to give depositors any advance warning of the levy, why float it now in a public document? To me, this reality only confirms my long-held view that Christine Lagarde is both devious and stupid. Thus far in her tenure at the IMF, in fact, she has narrowly averted developing any technical expertise.

But finally, let’s cheer ourselves up on this wet Thursday with the knowledge that (according to Reuters) EU car sales “surged” in September. Do we think they accelerated, went into sixth gear, and really got motoring? Er, no – not really.

Almost all the growth was in the UK. There was an extra production day in the month. Discounting is massive. Dealers are ‘registering’ cars and then using accountancy to make them look like sales. And during the eight months before just this one, the market slumped by 4%. September’s figures – wait for it – narrowly averted being the worst since 2002.

Those of you who wish to face reality should narrowly avert reading, listening to or watching any mainstream media during the day.