Greece takes charge of the European Union

For the next six months, Greece holds the presidency of the European Union. The country is virtually bankrupt, and has been bailed out several times by the EU. Now it's in charge of the EU's daily agenda.

Greece is still in serious economic crisis. Unemployment is at a record high of 27 percent. Taxes are rising, and public spending is down. The country is hundreds of billions of euros in debt. Konstantinos Karagkounis, a member of the Greek parliament, describes the situation as a "humanitarian catastrophe," and the situation is improving only very slowly.

Happy New Year Euro Zone. Now Reform.

December 31, 2013, 5:07 AM ET

ByDavid Cottle

It’s been quite some time since the euro zone could look a New Year in the eye with quite the straight and level gaze it can in dawning 2014.

Chatter about the currency’s implosion has been largely stilled in the mainstream of market discourse, largely restricted once again to dark corners from whence perma-skeptics have always prophesied eurogeddon. Bailed-out Ireland is returning to the bond markets, proving that redemption is possible even for grievous former sinners.  The long-vexed question of what to do about future failed banks even has a blueprint for resolution.

The good news about 2014 (maybe)

By Robert J. Samuelson, Published: December 30

For four and a half years, we have waited for a powerful and self-sustaining economic recovery. More than once it seemed imminent. Then, for various reasons, it vanished, and we returned to a plodding expansion with too much unemployment and too little confidence. Could 2014 be the year when the recovery actually feels like a recovery? Well, it could.

I say this with humility. True, many forecasts have turned optimistic. Economic growth will (finally) accelerate. But similar predictions were made in the past, including by me, and were wrong. The same could happen again. Still, the case for a healthier recovery now seems the most plausible since the recession’s nadir in mid-2009. The reason: Many economic “fundamentals” are improving simultaneously.

Here are four.

More than 2,000 sign up to redundancy plan at Greece's NBG-source

ATHENS Mon Dec 30, 2013 2:46pm EST

Dec 30 (Reuters) - More than 2,000 people have signed up for a voluntary redundancy scheme at Greece's biggest lender, National Bank (NBG), aimed at shedding about 15 percent of its workforce to cut costs, an NBG official told Reuters on Monday.

Hammered by Greece's six-year recession, the country's four major lenders had billions pumped into them to prop them up after a sovereign debt restructuring last year and rising bad loans and are now restructuring to trim their cost base.

Greece: Former minister sentenced to 4-year suspended imprisonment

30/12 13:09 CET

Former Transport Minister Michalis Liapis was sentenced to four year suspended imprisonment, redeemable for 50 euros a day, after being arrested for driving an uninsured vehicle with fake number plates.

Gunmen in Greece Attack German Ambassador’s Residence

December 30, 2013

The New York Times

By LIZ ALDERMAN

Assailants raked the German ambassador’s residence in Athens with gunfire early on Monday in an attack that caused no injuries, Greek police officials said.

The police found 60 spent bullet casings at the scene and detained six people in connection with the incident, which occurred around 3:30 a.m. in an affluent suburb north of Athens. The bullet casings came from two Kalashnikov assault rifles, according to the police.

No one claimed responsibility for the attack, in which four bullets hit a security gate. But anti-German sentiment has been festering among many Greeks struggling with record unemployment and reduced salaries under a harsh austerity plan required for Greece’s international bailout, which Germany had a major role in selecting the terms of.

“Nothing, but really nothing, can justify such an attack on a representative of our country,” the German foreign minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, said in a statement in Berlin. He said Germany took the attack seriously, and a Foreign Ministry spokesman said that the Greek authorities had reacted swiftly and assured Germany they would strengthen security in Athens.

Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany received a phone call from Prime Minister Antonis Samaras of Greece, according to a spokesman for the German government, Steffen Seibert. He added that Greece, which on Wednesday will take over the rotating presidency of the European Union, can count on Germany’s full support.

“The Greek government expresses its abhorrence and utter condemnation of today’s cowardly act of terrorism, the sole and obvious target of which was Greece’s image abroad just a few days before the start of the Hellenic presidency of the Council of the E.U.,” the Greek Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Germany is the largest contributor to Greece’s 240 billion euro, or roughly $330 billion, bailout. Recently, Mr. Samaras has been pressing Germany to reduce and renegotiate Athens’s delinquent debts as it grapples with a wrenching five-year recession — something Germany has refused to do.

That has also fed a persistent low-grade anger over hundreds of billions of euros in reparations that Greeks say Germany owes the country from World War II, money that some say should go toward helping to forgive Greece’s debt bill. Greek newspapers regularly run articles on how much money Germany owes Greece.

Greece has made some progress in improving its finances to meet the terms of the bailout — so much so that it is forecast to have a primary surplus before debt payments in 2014 for the first time in five years. But Greece still faces a mountain of debt that economists say is all but unpayable unless some new form of debt forgiveness is extended to Athens.

Over the weekend, Jens Weidmann, the chairman of the German Bundesbank and a member of the European Central Bank’s Governing Council, ruled out another reduction in Greece’s state debt, saying in a German newspaper interview that Athens still needed to press ahead with a number of reforms as required by the terms of its bailout.

While financial markets have calmed recently, he told the newspaper Bild, “this could be some misleading safety. The crisis could be fanned again like a fire.”

His remarks echoed those of the German finance minister, Wolfgang Schäuble, who is widely reviled in Greece. During a visit to Athens this summer, the police locked down the center of the city to pedestrian and car traffic as helicopters flew overhead, leaving the streets in a ghostly state of quiet. The scenes were reminiscent of when Ms. Merkel visited Greece in 2012.

Representatives of the so-called troika of lenders — the European Central Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the European Commission — are scheduled to return to Athens in January to resume talks over a fresh 4.9 billion euro tranche of aid.

The same building as the one struck on Monday was targeted in a rocket attack in May 1999 claimed by the terrorist group November 17, which has since been dismantled.

Although no group has claimed responsibility for the attack on Monday, the incident follows an apparent rise in violent episodes by both far-right and far-left groups in Greece.

Niki Kitsantonis contributed reporting from Athens, and Alison Smale from Berlin.

China cabinet report sees 2013 economic growth at 7.6 percent: Xinhua

SHANGHAI Wed Dec 25, 2013 8:36pm EST

(Reuters) - China's economic growth is likely to come in at 7.6 percent this year, according to a cabinet report cited by the official Xinhua news agency, just above the government's target of 7.5 percent and slightly below last year's 7.7 percent.

Xu Shaoshi, head of China's top economic planning body, told lawmakers in a briefing on the report uncertainties remain in the global economic recovery, and the international market has failed to produce strong demand, Xinhua said late on Wednesday. Domestically, higher labor and environmental costs for enterprises pose challenges, he added.

Turkey's Byzantine Scandal

Corruption charges threaten the country's Islamist leader.

Dec. 26, 2013 3:07 p.m. ET

 The Wall Street Journal

Recep Tayyip Erdogan has spent the past week blaming a burgeoning corruption scandal on foreign plotters. But Wednesday's trio of resignations from his cabinet, which were intended to insulate Turkey's Islamist Prime Minister, had the effect of bringing the scandal to his doorstep.

The Interior and Economy Ministers did their duty by denouncing the investigations and professing the prime minister's (and their own) innocence. But Erdogan Bayraktar, the Minister for the Environment and a confidant of the PM, went out with a bang. Mr. Bayraktar said Wednesday that he was pressured to resign to shield Mr. Erdogan from the scandal, which concerns alleged payoffs to facilitate real-estate development deals. He also suggested that if it was right for him to step aside for the country's sake, then Mr. Erdogan should resign as well.

Greece Struggles to Outlaw Its Golden Dawn Fascist Party

Conservative Government Mounts Risky Effort to Declare Group a Criminal Organization

By MARCUS WALKER and MARIANNA KAKAOUNAKI

Updated Dec. 4, 2013 11:37 p.m. ET
The Wall Street Journal

PIRAEUS, Greece—At a dark crossroads here in September, Greek police kept a safe distance while black-clad activists from the fascist movement Golden Dawn chased and attacked Pavlos Fyssas, a 34-year-old rapper.

The police had long been in the habit of standing by while Golden Dawn's paramilitary squads rolled into action, mirroring the hesitance of Greece's political leadership to deal with the growing movement's muscle. Only after a Golden Dawn member fatally stabbed the rapper did police officers make an arrest, according to 15 police and witness depositions.

A former transport minister in trouble

Greek politics

Dec 20th 2013, 16:15 by K.H. | ATHENS

The Economist

ARE old nepotistic habits finally dying in Greece? The arrest on December 17th of Michalis Liapis, an ex-transport minister and first cousin of a former conservative premier, for driving his SUV with fake number-plates and no insurance, suggests that prominent politicians can no longer count on lenient treatment by the police.

Members of parliament enjoy immunity from prosecution unless their peers vote to remove it, a privilege informally extended to scores of ex-cabinet ministers when they leave politics. Like many Greeks cutting costs because of the crisis, Mr Liapis turned in his number-plates this year to avoid paying road tax after it was sharply increased for owners of luxury vehicles. Stopped by police for running a red light in the seaside town of Loutsa near Athens, he explained he was taking the car for a spin to stop the battery from running down. "I am a pensioner and I too have been affected by the crisis,” he claimed.

Where Is the Rule of the Troika Leading Greece?

Posted: 12/23/2013 10:06 am

Constantine TzanosNuclear engineer, PhD

The Huffington Post

Since 2010, Greece is under the rule of the Troika (IMF, European Commission [EC] , European Central Bank [ECB]), which rules under the terms of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), a document expounding what is expected to be executed by the Greek government.

The life and the future of eleven million people hang from the policies of the Troika, which are dominated by the German dictates of a severely punitive austerity characterized by deep cuts in wages and pensions and heavy taxation of individuals and businesses.

Mission accomplished, says Snowden: Washington Post

Mon Dec 23, 2013 11:35pm EST

(Reuters) - Former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor Edward Snowden, who revealed extensive details of global electronic surveillance by the U.S. spy agency, said in an interview published on Tuesday that he has accomplished what he set out to do.

"For me, in terms of personal satisfaction, the mission's already accomplished," he told the Washington Post. The newspaper said it spoke to Snowden over two days of nearly unbroken conversation in Moscow, "fueled by burgers, pasta, ice cream and Russian pastry."

With Its Economy Hobbled, Greece's Well-Educated Drain Away

by JOANNA KAKISSIS

December 23, 2013 6:17 PM

Thanos Ntoumanis and his wife, Laura, are crashing at his parents' apartment in Greece's northern city of Thessaloniki.

The couple have packed their home and are moving to Germany. Thanos, a 38-year-old psychiatrist, is joining some 4,000 Greek doctors who have left the austerity-hit country for jobs abroad in the past three years. It's the largest brain drain in three decades.

"I won't say that I'm never coming back," he says. "I do need some distance, though. I don't want to get to that tipping point. I don't want to get to that point where I hate it here."

"You'll come back," says his mother, Pepi Mavrogianni, trying to break the gloom. She's a retired pediatrician in a "Hippocratic Oath" T-shirt. She brings out a tray of warm cheese pies.

Glimmers of hope for Greek future

23 December 2013 Last updated at 00:56 GMT

By Mark Lowen

BBC News, Athens

With predictions of growth in 2014 and unemployment down slightly, there is a feeling of optimism from the government in Athens - but Greeks say they know there are still difficult days ahead.

They come just before sunset - those magical few minutes in which Athens bathes in a deep purple glow.

It is a light I have never seen anywhere else. I often wait for it, looking out at the late afternoon sun.

It sets behind the Acropolis, where the ancient Gods were worshipped, glinting onto the Aegean nearby. Rays dance across the mountains.

China grants renewed press cards to several Western journalists facing expulsion

By William Wan, Published: December 19

The Washington Post 

BEIJING — Several Western journalists facing expulsion from China were given renewed press cards Thursday by the Chinese government, allowing them to apply for visas to remain in the country.

The move appears to end a weeks-long standoff between the government and journalists that included a personal appeal by Vice President Biden to China’s president this month.

Journalists from the New York Times, Bloomberg News and other organizations were facing the loss of their Chinese visas around the end of December, at which point they and their families would be forced to leave the country.

Media: Play Fair With Economic Reporting on Greece

Posted: 12/16/2013 8:43 am

The Greek government is forecasting 0.6% economic growth in 2014, after six straight years of economic contraction.

huffingtonpost

Ordinarily, 0.6% economic growth would not be great news. But the return of the Greek economy to growth is modestly good news after a torrent of terrible news. Under the European austerity plan imposed on Greece as a condition of remaining in the Euro, the Greek economy has shrunk by a third since 2007, which is similar to the Great Depression contraction of the U.S. economy between the stock market crash of 1929 and the election of FDR.

Debt-laden Greece prepares "Spartan" EU presidency to burnish image

BY HARRY PAPACHRISTOU

ATHENS Tue Dec 17, 2013 8:00am EST

Dec 17 (Reuters) - Barely 18 months after it almost crashed out of the euro zone, Greece takes over the rotating presidency of the European Union with the hope of using the podium to show it is bouncing back.

Greece, which takes on the job for six months from Jan. 1, has a reputation for being the Europe's biggest problem child and will be negotiating for debt relief from other European states while it holds the presidency.

The position requires the holder to organise hundreds of ministerial gatherings and policy negotiations, giving Athens an opportunity to drive the agenda, if only for a few months.

China confirms near miss with U.S. ship in South China Sea

BY SUI-LEE WEE

BEIJING Wed Dec 18, 2013 4:23am EST

(Reuters) - China on Wednesday confirmed an incident between a Chinese naval vessel and a U.S. warship in the South China Sea, after Washington said a U.S. guided missile cruiser had avoided a collision with a Chinese warship maneuvering nearby.

Experts have said the near-miss between the USS Cowpens and a Chinese warship operating near China's only aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, was the most significant U.S.-China maritime incident in the disputed South China Sea since 2009.

Antarctica may have a new type of ice: diamonds

BY ENVIRONMENT CORRESPONDENT ALISTER DOYLE

(Reuters) - A kind of rock that often contains diamonds has been found in Antarctica for the first time, hinting at mineral riches in the vast, icy continent -- where mining is banned.

No diamonds were found, but researchers said they were confident the gems were there.

"It would be very surprising if there weren't diamonds in these kimberlites," Greg Yaxley of the Australian National University in Canberra, who led the research, said in a telephone interview.

Leading Drug Company to Quit Paying Doctors for Promotional Talks

GlaxoSmithKline, which makes Advair for asthma, Lovaza for high triglyceride levels and the diabetes drug Avandia, is under pressure facing all drug companies for greater transparency in payments to doctors, a provision of Obamacare

Scientific American

By Charles Ornstein and ProPublica

In a major departure from industry practice, GlaxoSmithKline, the sixth-largest global drug maker, announced Tuesday that it will no longer hire doctors to promote its drugs.

The company also will stop tying compensation for sales representatives to the number of prescriptions written for drugs they market. The changes will be made worldwide over the next two years.