Misrule of the Few

How the Oligarchs Ruined Greece


By Pavlos Eleftheriadis FROM OUR NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2014 ISSUE

The Foreign Affairs

Just a few years ago, Greece came perilously close to defaulting on its debts and exiting the eurozone. Today, thanks to the largest sovereign bailout in history, the country’s economy is showing new signs of life. In exchange for promises that Athens would enact aggressive austerity measures, the so-called troika -- the European Central Bank, the European Commission, and the International Monetary Fund -- provided tens of billions of dollars in emergency loans. From the perspective of many global investors and European officials, those policies have paid off. Excluding a one-off expenditure to recapitalize its banks, Greece’s budget shortfall totaled roughly two percent last year, down from nearly 16 percent in 2009. Last year, the country ran a current account surplus for the first time in over three decades. And this past April, Greece returned to the international debt markets it had been locked out of for four years, issuing $4 billion in five-year government bonds at a relatively low yield -- only 4.95 percent. (Demand exceeded $26 billion.) In August, Moody’s Investors Service upgraded the country’s credit rating by two notches.

Euro sells off after report ECB considering corporate bond buys

BY DANIEL BASES

NEW YORK Tue Oct 21, 2014 4:50pm EDT

(Reuters) - The euro fell sharply against the dollar on Tuesday after Reuters reported the European Central Bank was looking at buying corporate bonds as soon as December in its efforts to revive the stagnating euro zone economy.

The move, if realized, would expand the private-sector asset-buying program the ECB began on Monday, which is aimed at fostering lending to businesses in hopes of spurring growth.

Enforcer at Treasury Is First Line of Attack Against ISIS

By JULIE HIRSCHFELD DAVISOCT. 21, 2014

The New York Times

Every morning David S. Cohen descends into a fortified, cavelike complex in the bowels of the Treasury Department to pore through hundreds of pages of leads — from raw intelligence reports to polished threat assessments — to try to penetrate the vast and opaque finances of the Islamic State, the terrorist group capable of producing 50,000 barrels of oil a day.

China Attack Aims at iCloud, Apple’s Service for Storage

By PAUL MOZUR, NICOLE PERLROTH and BRIAN X. CHEN.OCT. 21, 2014

The New York Times

HONG KONG — For Apple in China, trouble seems to be the new normal.

Cybersecurity monitoring groups and security experts said on Monday that people trying to use Apple’s online data storage service, known as iCloud, were the target of a new attack that sought to steal users’ passwords and then spy on their activities.

U.S. Air Drops Arms To Kurdish Forces Fighting ISIS In Kobani

 AP      | By ROBERT BURNS

Posted: 10/19/2014 10:16 pm EDT Updated: 3 hours ago

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. military said Sunday it had airdropped weapons, ammunition and medical supplies to Kurdish forces defending the Syrian city of Kobani against Islamic State militants.

The airdrops Sunday were the first of their kind and followed weeks of U.S. and coalition airstrikes in and near Kobani, near the Turkish border. The U.S. said earlier Sunday that it had launched 11 airstrikes overnight in the Kobani area.

Syrian Kurds Gain Importance In Campaign Against ISIS

Posted: 10/16/2014 8:47 pm EDT     

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/

WASHINGTON -- After more than a month of being outnumbered and outgunned, facing likely doom in Kobani, Kurdish fighters have begun to turn the tide against Islamic State militants with help from airstrikes by the U.S.-led coalition.

ECB eyes extra funding for Greek banks as Athens markets plunge

BY GEORGE GEORGIOPOULOS AND JOHN O'DONNELL

ATHENS/FRANKFURT Thu Oct 16, 2014 11:45am EDT

(Reuters) - The European Central Bank will loosen its terms for accepting security from Greek banks to allow them to tap more of its funding, offering the country's lenders support as stock and bond markets in Athens tumble.

This will provide a powerful incentive for Athens, which has toyed with the idea of quitting its financial aid program earlier than scheduled, to stay under the supervision of international lenders rather than attempt to go it alone.

ISIS Retreating from Kobani, Says Kurdish Official

Rishi Iyengar  4:58 AM ET

TIME

The radical Islamist militants now reportedly control only 20% of the border town, as opposed to about 40% before

The Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS) has suffered setbacks and has begun retreating from parts of the Syrian border town of Kobani, according to a local official, who said Kurdish forces were advancing against the militant group.

Idris Nassan told the BBC that ISIS had previously controlled almost half the town but currently occupies “less than 20%.”

New Ebola Cases May Rise to 10,000 a Week by December

U.N. Health Body Aims to Have Majority of Cases Isolated Within Two Months to Reverse Outbreak

The Wall Street Journal

By ANDREW MORSE

Updated Oct. 14, 2014 5:40 p.m. ET

469 COMMENTS

ZURICH—The Ebola virus is killing 70% of the people who contract the disease, the World Health Organization said on Tuesday, and as many as 10,000 new cases a week could be reported by early December.

The Unserious Air War Against ISIS

The campaign against Serbia in 1999 averaged 138 strike sorties daily. Against Islamic State in Iraq and Syria: seven.

The Wall Street Journal

By MARK GUNZINGER And  JOHN STILLION

Oct. 14, 2014 7:04 p.m. ET

Since U.S. planes first struck targets in Iraq on Aug. 8, a debate has raged over the effectiveness of the Obama administration’s air campaign against Islamic State. The war of words has so far focused on the need to deploy American boots on the ground to provide accurate intelligence and possibly force ISIS fighters to defend key infrastructure they have seized, such as oil facilities. But debate is now beginning to focus on the apparent failure of airstrikes to halt the terror group’s advances in Iraq and Syria—especially Islamic State’s pending seizure of Kobani on the Syrian border with Turkey.

White House insists anti-Isis strategy is on track despite setbacks on the ground

Isis advances on Baghdad and Kobani despite 21 air strikes

Turkey bombs Kurdish targets in south-east of country

Dan Roberts in Washington and Constanze Letsch in Istanbul

The Guardian, Tuesday 14 October 2014 20.31 BST

The Guardian

The US-led campaign to combat Islamic State (Isis) fighters in Syria and Iraq is facing a growing crisis of confidence as setbacks on the battlefield coincide with efforts to improve allied coordination and calls for President Barack Obama to escalate the military attacks.

WHO: Ebola Is Modern Era's Worst Health Emergency

 AP      | By By JIM GOMEZ

Posted: 10/13/2014 7:29 am EDT

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — The World Health Organization called the Ebola outbreak "the most severe, acute health emergency seen in modern times" on Monday but also said that economic disruptions can be curbed if people are adequately informed to prevent irrational moves to dodge infection.

ISIS May Have Chemical Weapons

Posted: 10/13/2014 9:01 pm EDT  

Akbar Shahid Ahmed

akbar.ahmed@huffingtonpost.com

WASHINGTON -- The Islamic State militant group may possess chemical weapons that it has already used to extend its self-proclaimed caliphate, according to photos taken by Kurdish activists and examined by Israeli researchers.

Fear and firepower: Bloodlust biggest weapon in ISIS arsenal

By Perry ChiaramontePublished October 14, 2014

FoxNews.com

The terrorist army of Islamic State has missiles, tanks and bombs, but the potent weapon that allows a relatively small force to keep much of Iraq and Syria in its grip is bloodlust - in the form of beheadings, crucifixions and mass executions.

Greek recession deeper initially but milder later, revised data shows

ATHENS Fri Oct 10, 2014 6:35am EDT

(Reuters) - The recession in Greece that began in 2008 was deeper than thought in the early phase but turned milder than estimated in the last two years, revised data showed on Friday.

Russia Interventions Cross $3 Billion as Rate Bets Surge on Oil

By Vladimir Kuznetsov  Oct 10, 2014 1:44 PM GMT+0300

Bloomberg

Russia’s currency interventions have exceeded $3 billion this month as sanctions and an oil-price slump batter the ruble, boosting bets policy makers will raise interest rates to stem the drop.

The central bank sold $1.5 billion on Oct. 8, according to data on its website today, the most for a single day since a $4.41 billion intervention that preceded the Crimea referendum to join Russia in March. Wagers for interest-rate increases soared to a six-year high as Brent oil’s slide to four-year lows sent the ruble sliding further past 40 per dollar.

Ruble Rout Pounding Russia’s Retailers as Prices Soar

By Matthew Campbell and Ilya Khrennikov  Oct 10, 2014 11:53 AM GMT+0300

Bloomberg

The generally upbeat story -- and current hardship -- of Russia’s middle class since the end of the Cold War can be partly told through Dixy Group.

Greek Bond Investors Look to Confidence Vote for Respite

By Nikos Chrysoloras and Antonis Galanopoulos  Oct 10, 2014 11:14 AM GMT+0300

Bloomberg

After a monthlong rollercoaster for Greek government bonds and stocks, the country’s lawmakers are poised to give investors a brief respite.

Greece Seeks $508 Million by Securitizing Real Estate

By Sharon Smyth and Eleni Chrepa  Oct 10, 2014 1:02 PM GMT+0300

Bloomberg

The Greek fund charged with selling state assets will attempt to raise 400 million euros ($508 million) by securitizing real estate in a move designed to attract investment to the debt-stricken country.

The Hellenic Republic Asset Development Fund will sell shares in a company with about 300 properties ranging from retail, office and tourism-related real estate including land for development, Andreas Taprantzis, the fund’s executive director, said in an Oct. 8 interview in his Athens office. The company will then sell debt backed by the properties.

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