Notes on Greece

 APRIL 19, 2015 5:05 AM

The New York Times

By Paul Krugman

OK, that was intense. I’ll write more about my visit, but right now (from Frankfurt, where I’m laying over for a couple of hours) I want to make a data point. about just how much adjustment Greece has done.

Greece wants EU/IMF deal but impasse could bring referendum: deputy PM

Sat Apr 18, 2015 10:57pm EDT Related: WORLD, GREECE

ATHENS

(Reuters) - Greece aims for a deal with its creditors over a reforms package but will not retreat from its red lines, the country's deputy prime minister told the Sunday newspaper To Vima, not ruling out a referendum or early polls if talks reach an impasse.

Greece Remains Defiant as Creditors Step Up Pressure for a Deal

Apr 19, 2015 3:23 PM EEST

Bloomberg

Greece said it won’t renege on election pledges to end austerity measures as creditors pressed for a compromise to free financing and avert a widening crisis.

U.S. President Barack Obama and European Central Bank President Mario Draghi both called on the Greek government to do more to resolve the standoff amid depleting cash reserves. Greek officials, including Deputy Prime Minister Yannis Dragasakis, stood their ground.

Draghi Says Urgent Need for Greece to Strike Bailout Deal

by Stefan RiecherMark Deen

8:06 PM EEST

April 18, 2015

European Central Bank President Mario Draghi urged Greece to work quickly toward an agreement with its creditors to curb a deepening financial crisis and quash doubts over its membership of the euro.

Even as he warned investors against dumping the single currency, Draghi said Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras’s government must do “much more work” to show it can satisfy the terms of its 240 billion-euro ($259 billion) bailout program.

“It’s urgent,” Draghi told reporters in Washington on Saturday during meetings of the International Monetary Fund. “We all want Greece to succeed. The answer is in the hands of the Greek government.”

ECB’s Draghi Rejects Talk of Greek Euro Exit

At IMF meetings in Washington, European Central Bank chief reiterates euro is irrevocable

The Wall Street Journal

By BRIAN BLACKSTONE And  IAN TALLEY

Updated April 18, 2015 4:37 p.m. ET

WASHINGTON—European Central Bank President Mario Draghi on Saturday rejected speculation that Greece may be forced to abandon the euro, reiterating that Europe’s single currency is irrevocable.

ECB's Mario Draghi Makes A Dreadful Mistake Over Greece And The Euro

APR 19, 2015 @ 1:32 PM 2,697 VIEWS

Forbes

By Tim Worstall

At least this is the way that I am reading this, when Mario Draghi said that the euro is irreversible, a one way street only. Therefore no one should be speculating about Greece leaving the single currency. The reason why that’s such a dreadful mistake to my mind is that it takes away the Great Big Bargaining Cluebat that the Eurogroup has over Greece.

IMF Official Sees Greek Bailout Needing Several More Weeks of Talks

Comments come as U.S. privately urges Greek officials to reach a deal that would satisfy creditors

By IAN TALLEY and  GABRIELE STEINHAUSER

Updated April 17, 2015 8:14 p.m. ET

11 COMMENTS

WASHINGTON—Negotiations over fresh emergency financing for Greece are likely to take several more weeks, even though the cash-needy government in Athens requires a deal to help it meet a big increase in debt payments due in June, a senior International Monetary Fund official said Friday.

Greece's Main Creditors Said to Be Unwilling to Allow Euro Exit

by Nikos ChrysolorasArne Delfs

6:55 PM EEST

April 17, 2015

Bloomberg 

Greece’s major creditors are not ready to let the country drop out of the euro as long as Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras shows willingness to meet at least some key demands, according to two people familiar with the discussions.

Greece Enters Twilight Zone as Visions of Euro Exit Take Shape

by Nikos ChrysolorasJames Hertling

11:37 AM EEST

April 17, 2015

With Greek officials hinting they could be forced from the euro and the country’s creditors growing frustrated with the government’s foot-dragging, analysts are asking what might happen if talks break down.

German officials are “taking just about everything into consideration,” Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said in an interview this week as he urged Greek leader Alexis Tsipras to stop offering his people false hopes. Economists such as UniCredit Bank AG’s Erik Nielsen say it may be just a matter of time before Tsipras’s cash supplies run out and he’s forced to print a new currency.

Grexit Threat Returns as Investors Bet on Greek Default

The Forbes

APR 16, 2015 @ 3:46 PM 671 VIEWS

Dollar bulls are retreating on Thursday after the greenback struggled for traction against several currencies, and investors are increasingly betting on Greece exiting the eurozone in the not-too-distant future.

Don’t Blame Germany for Greece’s Profligacy

Greece would have faced far greater austerity had Germany and the rest of the EU not come to its rescue.

The Wall Street Journal

By JEREMY BULOW And  KENNETH ROGOFF

Updated April 16, 2015 7:19 p.m. ET

In the court of world opinion, a large majority seems to believe that even if the Greeks may have been a tad fiscally irresponsible, it is the Germans who have driven Greece into depression through cruel insistence on austerity and debt repayments.

Greece Creditors Grim on Prospects of Deal

Government bond prices plummet as lenders voice dismay on lack of progress in talks

The Wall Street Journal

By MARCUS WALKER

April 16, 2015 10:56 p.m. ET

Greece’s international creditors signaled they are losing hope that Athens will do what is needed to unlock bailout funds before it runs out of money, and Greek government bond prices plunged as concerns rose about default and an exit from the eurozone.

IMF's Lagarde To Greece; Pay Us Or Else

APR 17, 2015 @ 11:44 AM 1,865 VIEWS

Opinion

FORBES

Tim Worstall

CONTRIBUTOR

http://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2015/04/17/imfs-lagarde-to-greece-pay-us-or-else/

It’s long been true that welshing on debts to the International Monetary fund is just something that a civilised country just doesn’t do. Thus there’s little surprise when Christine Lagarde, the head of the IMF, points out to Greece that there’s really no mileage in that country thinking about not paying the IMF back the money it’s owed. Because, you know, that’s just not something that civilised countries do.

Greece Finance Minister Varoufakis refuses Grexit as well as targets economy cannot meet

Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis has rejected both an exit from the eurozone and an agreement on its debt with unreachable economic targets. Meanwhile, the IMF refused a delay in Greek debt repayments.

http://www.dw.de/greece-finance-minister-varoufakis-refuses-grexit-as-well-as-targets-economy-cannot-meet/a-18388771

Following comments from the head of the International Monetary Fund, Christine Lagarde, that the IMF would not agree to let Greece delay a scheduled bailout payment, Varoufakis said, "Our only rational pro-European response is to spend every waking hour... trying to reach an honorable agreement."

Greece's debt crunch

The Economist

Sorry, no extensions

The IMF turns down a Greek request to postpone next month's payments

Apr 16th 2015 | Europe

Greece in talks with Russia to buy missiles for S-300 systems: RIA

MOSCOW

(Reuters) - Greece is negotiating with Russia for the purchase of missiles for its S-300 anti-missile systems and for their maintenance, Russia's RIA news agency quoted Greek Defense Minister Panos Kammenos as saying on Wednesday.

EU Says Talks With Greece Over Bailout are Nowhere Near Resolution

European Commission’s vice president plays down possibility of major advances at upcoming eurozone meeting

The Wall Street Journal

By VALENTINA POP and  STEPHEN FIDLER

Updated April 15, 2015 8:21 a.m. ET

BRUSSELS—Greece’s negotiations with international creditors are going very slowly and are nowhere near the point where bailout money can be disbursed, a senior European Union official said.

The Greek government has complained that it will soon run out of cash if no bailout money is disbursed, a development that would raise the prospect of a default on its debt and even an exit from the euro.

Greece’s poor are back to where they were in 1980

The Washington Post

By Matt O'Brien April 10

In the last seven years, Greece's economic collapse has wiped out all the progress its poor had made in the 28 years before that.

Now there are a lot of ways to think about how historic Greece's recession has been. Its economy has fallen about as much as the U.S.'s did during the Great Depression. Its unemployment rate peaked at 28 percent. And, as Derek Thompson points out, its cities have become filled with smog during the winters, because its people can't afford to heat their homes any other way than burning whatever they can get their hands on. But think about this last one. It probably gets us the closest to having a real idea what it's been like to live through Greece's slump.

Russia's Gazprom Counting On...Greece?

APR 12, 2015 @ 7:14 PM 11,100 VIEWS

Kenneth Rapoza

CONTRIBUTOR

http://www.forbes.com/sites/kenrapoza/2015/04/12/russias-gazprom-counting-on-greece/

Greece’s prime minister Alexis Tsipras has stepped up to help Turkey be the new Ukraine.  Tsipras and his Energy Minister Panagiotis Lafazanis reportedly signed a “memorandum of cooperation” with Gazprom and the Russian government to help with a pipeline to Turkey that will diversify natural gas shipments to Europe away from Ukraine.  Greece will be a transit hub.

Germany and Greece Locked in a Mutual Obsession

By ALISON SMALEAPRIL 14, 2015

The New York Times

BERLIN — Lest Greeks forget, the Germans are watching. Closely.

When the leftist Syriza-led government was elected in Greece on Jan. 25, public broadcasters broke into Germany’s favorite crime series to announce the result. Television stations went live to Athens several times that night.