Greece's Debt May Not Be So Daunting

11 JUL 20, 2015 3:13 PM EDT

By Leonid Bershidsky

Bloomberg

Greece's debt burden has taken on mythological attributes and questions about the dominant narrative have become a form of heresy. I, too, have repeated the line that "even the IMF considers Greece's debt unsustainable." Yet that is a half-truth and it has the potential to distort policy.

The assertion comes from a June 26 International Monetary Fund document that Greece's former finance minister, Yanis Varoufakis, called a "fascinating read." In his bombastic style, he went on to assert: "Never before has a veritable institution advocated policies that clashed so mercilessly with its own research. Never before has the IMF agreed, on economic analysis, with a government it sought to devastate."

Greece Said to Make ECB Debt Deadline as Banks Reopen

by Eleni ChrepaPaul GordonCarolynn Look

July 20, 2015 — 2:01 AM EEST Updated on July 20, 2015 — 4:22 PM EES

Bloomberg

Greece’s government said it’s repaying 6.8 billion euros ($7.4 billion) to creditors and depositors queued at reopened banks in the first signs of stabilization after last week’s bailout deal.

The country ordered payments on Monday to the European Central Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the Greek central bank, a Greek Finance Ministry official said on condition of anonymity. The euro rose on the news.

Repaying the ECB was the deadline Greece couldn’t afford to miss because a default would probably have forced the central bank to pull support from Greek lenders, all but ensuring the exit from the currency union. While banks reopened Monday, Greek financial markets will remain closed at least through Wednesday, two officials said.

How Greece’s David fought the Goliath of Europe — and lost

The Washington Post

By Griff Witte, Michael Birnbaum and Anthony Faiola July 19 at 4:06 PM

ATHENS — On a January evening four days before he became the first radical leftist to lead a country in the European Union, Alexis Tsipras bounded to the stage at an outdoor rally in a grubby corner of Athens and proclaimed the imminent end to “our national humiliation.”

Evidence of Greece’s severely degraded state was all around: the graffiti-saturated walls, the abandoned storefronts, the tattered clothes of the thousands who had turned out that night to cheer a man who vowed to not only remake Greece but also transform all of Europe by inspiring leftist movements continent-wide.

Special Report: The man who cost Greece billions

Mon Jul 20, 2015 5:41am EDT

ATHENS | BY DINA KYRIAKIDOU

Reuters

Once again Alexis Tsipras was struggling to make a decision. For hours on July 13, the Greek prime minister and Europe's leaders had been trying to thrash out a new deal to bail out bankrupt Greece and keep the country in the euro zone.

Now a clean copy of the latest text had been printed, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Francois Hollande and European Council President Donald Tusk were satisfied with the terms. So too appeared Tsipras – but he left the room to check the details one more time with colleagues in his leftist party Syriza.

ECB Weighs Emergency Funding After Tsipras Wins Greece Bailout Vote

by Eleni ChrepaNikos ChrysolorasMatthew Campbell

July 16, 2015 — 1:55 AM EEST Updated on July 16, 2015 — 10:13 AM EEST

Bloomberg

Greek lawmakers passed a bailout agreement that keeps the country in the euro for now, shifting attention to the European Central Bank as it weighs whether to pump more money into the country’s hobbled financial system.

After more than four hours of debate stretching into the early hours of Thursday, 229 members of the 300-seat parliament in Athens approved new austerity measures that are a precondition of as much as 86 billion euros ($94 billion) in aid. Among those who opposed the bill were 32 members of Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras’s Coalition of the Radical Left, or Syriza, a sign the premier may have lost his majority.

Leaving Euro Is Better Than Eternal Greek Crisis

JUL 15, 2015 2:50 PM EDT

By Justin Fox

Bloomberg

You may believe that Greece’s economic pain is mostly the doing of heartless and inept decision makers in Brussels, Frankfurt and Berlin. You may believe that the Greeks’ fecklessness has been so extreme that cutting them any kind of slack will destroy the credibility of the euro.

Either way, by this point you can probably agree that it was a mistake for Greece to join the European common currency in 2001. Maybe you think it was a mistake because doing so put the Greeks at the mercy of a bunch of austerity-crazed Northern European politicians. Maybe you think it was a mistake because the Greeks cheated to get in to the euro and have no business pretending to be part of a modern developed economy. I’m guessing hardly anyone would argue, though, that Greece and Europe would be worse off today if drachmas had never been traded in for euros.

Greece, Its Back to the Wall, Adopts Austerity Steps

By SUZANNE DALEY and JAMES KANTERJULY 15, 2015

The New York Times

ATHENS — Under threat from the nation’s creditors to move quickly or lose any chance of obtaining a desperately needed new bailout package, Greece’s Parliament approved painful new austerity measures early Thursday, virtually guaranteeing that life would get harder for millions of Greeks.

With banks closed and the economy on the verge of collapse, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras had urged the adoption of the measures, saying that while it was a difficult deal the creditors were offering, it was the only one available and would avert a humanitarian and fiscal disaster.

Saving Greece, Saving Europe

JUL 13, 2015

By BARRY EICHENGREEN

BERKELEY – Whatever one thinks about the tactics of Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras’s government in negotiations with the country’s creditors, the Greek people deserve better than what they are being offered. Germany wants Greece to choose between economic collapse and leaving the eurozone. Both options would mean economic disaster; the first, if not both, would be politically disastrous as well.

Greek crisis: One sentence that explains the epic disaster Syriza has been for Greece

Updated by Ezra Klein on July 13, 2015, 2:30 p.m. ET

http://www.vox.com/2015/7/13/8949925/greece-syriza

This, from Wonkblog's Matt O'Brien, is the pithiest summary I've seen of the disaster Syriza has visited upon Greece:

Syriza has incurred a lot of the costs of leaving the euro—like a financial crisis—at the same time that it’s kept the costs of staying in the euro.

That's exactly right — and it has to count as one of the greatest policymaking failures in recent economic history.

Greece May Have to Sell Islands and Ruins Under Its Bailout Deal

Simon Shuster / Athens @shustry  July 13, 2015

TIME

Of all the aspects of Monday’s bailout deal that Greeks found humiliating, nothing drilled into their sense of pride quite like their government’s promise to sell off “valuable Greek assets” to the tune of 50 billion euros. The seven-page agreement, which European leaders thrashed out over the weekend, made no mention of where Greece is supposed to find that much property to sell. But as they scrambled for options, officials in Athens saw no way around the blood-curdling prospect of auctioning off Greek islands, nature preserves or even ancient ruins.

Greece Needs €74 Billion in Fresh Funding

Assessment comes from three institutions overseeing the eurozone bailout program

The Wall Street Journal

By GABRIELE STEINHAUSER and  VIKTORIA DENDRINOU

July 11, 2015 4:42 a.m. ET

BRUSSELS—Greece will need €74 billion ($82.55 billion) in fresh funding, the three institutions overseeing the eurozone bailout program said in their assessment of the country’s request for a new aid package, according to three European officials.

Setting a Deadline for Greece Proves Much Easier Than Sealing a Fate

By ANDREW HIGGINSJULY 8, 2015

The New York Times

BRUSSELS — After five years of crises, conflicts and deadlines that have come and gone without resolution, Greece and the European countries that have been propping it up financially have come to what they all insist is a final reckoning, with just days to decide whether Greece stays in the euro system or is cast out.

No Should Mean No to Protect the Euro From Greece

JUL 8, 2015 7:25 AM EDT

By Mark Gilbert

Bloomberg

Even before Greece's referendum last weekend, European Union leaders said it would be interpreted as a vote on whether to stay in the euro. So it's curious that Greece has been given five more days to come up with a credible plan to receive another bailout package. It's also downright dangerous for the European project's future integrity.  While German Chancellor Angela Merkel doesn't want to preside over a fracture of the European Union's finest achievement, she needs to concede the inevitable: The euro will be better off without Greece, and Greece may well be better off without the euro.

Can Greece Rescue Itself?

JUL 6, 2015 4:48 PM EDT

By The Editors

Bloomberg

Greece has given Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras what he asked for: It has rejected the terms offered by its creditors for further financial help. With this vote, the country has taken a bold stride toward a political and economic precipice.

It's now for Tsipras to decide whether Greece goes over the edge. To avoid it, he will need to astonish the creditors and everybody else by reinventing himself -- immediately. In the meantime, Europe must plan for Greece's exit from the euro system.

Greece faces last chance to stay in euro as cash runs out

Tue Jul 7, 2015 2:44am EDT Related: WORLD, GREECE

BRUSSELS/ATHENS | BY PAUL TAYLOR AND COSTAS PITAS

Reuters

Greece faces a last chance to stay in the euro zone on Tuesday when Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras puts proposals to an emergency euro zone summit after Greek voters resoundingly rejected the austerity terms of a defunct bailout.

With Greek banks rapidly running out of cash and the European Central Bank slowly tightening the noose on their funding, Tsipras must persuade the bloc's other 18 leaders, many of whom are exasperated after five years of Greek crisis, to open rapid negotiations for a major new loan to rescue his country.

Rift Emerges as Europe Gears Up for New Talks on Greece Bailout

By LIZ ALDERMAN and JACK EWINGJULY 6, 2015

The New York Times

ATHENS — Germany continued to maintain a hard line with Athens on Monday, just a day after Greek voters decisively rejected a bailout deal from its creditors. But some European countries showed a willingness to soften the push for austerity that has proved so contentious.

The growing rift among European leaders threatens to complicate any new negotiations, as the Greek government moves to restart talks for an international bailout. It also adds to the pressure on Greece, which is close to financial collapse with both the banking system and the government quickly running out of money.

Greece Hits the Self-Destruct Button

 JUL 6, 2015 9:13 AM EDT

By Megan McArdle

Greece has decisively voted "no" or "oxi" in the #greferendum. I mean, decisively. By Sunday afternoon here in the U.S., the election map was a solid sea of orange for the "no" side.

I am shocked. I probably shouldn't be. I've been pointing out for a while that countries often do seemingly crazy things to themselves when they are mad at foreigners. The worst possible analysis of any sort of international situation is to say "Obviously, they're not going to do that, because that would be crazy!" There were probably a lot of reporters standing around saying that in 1914, while the crazy people went off and started World War I.

Global Debt Exceeds $100 Trillion as Governments Binge, BIS Says

by John Glover

March 9, 2014 — 1:00 PM EET

Bloomberg

March 9 (Bloomberg) -- The amount of debt globally has soared more than 40 percent to $100 trillion since the first signs of the financial crisis as governments borrowed to pull their economies out of recession and companies took advantage of record low interest rates, according to the Bank for International Settlements.

Stocks, euro fall but no rout after Greek 'No'

Mon Jul 6, 2015 4:39am EDT Related: GREECE

LONDON | BY NIGEL STEPHENSON

Reuters

Shares fell in Europe and Asia, the euro stumbled and yields on weaker euro zone economies' bonds rose after Greece overwhelmingly voted against conditions for a rescue package, but there was no rout and contagion was limited.

Investors sought low-risk assets including Bunds, but the yield premium of Italian 10-year debt over Germany remained below last Monday's eight-month highs.

The Catharsis of a Greek Exit

JUL 6, 2015 4:04 AM EDT

By Mark Gilbert

Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis's  resignation -- even after Greek voters firmly backed the government's refusal to accept its creditors' demands for economic austerity -- is the clearest sign yet that Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras is serious about getting a new bailout deal. Unfortunately, it's probably too late to keep Greece in the euro.

The euro zone now faces a horrible choice. Tsipras will resume negotiations claiming to have a fresh democratic mandate, making it unlikely he'll accede to the tax and pensions changes he's previously rejected. So a new bargain would look awfully like Greece getting its own way -- a reward for bad faith and bad behavior. Kicking Greece out of the euro, on the other hand, would prove once and for all that euro membership can be revoked. Nevertheless, the latter option remains the better of two bad choices.