Greece sends updated reforms, pledges to pay IMF on time

ATHENS | BY RENEE MALTEZOU AND COSTAS PITAS

(Reuters) - Greece sent an updated list of reforms to lenders on Wednesday to try to unlock financial aid and avoid a default but euro zone officials said more work was needed before new funds could be released.

Greece is weeks away from running out of cash but its euro zone and International Monetary Fund lenders have frozen support payments until it implements reforms, with talks bogged down over what measures the leftist-led government must take.

A Eurozone Without Greece

It’s time to think more seriously about this possibility.

The Wall Street Journal

By RICHARD BARWELL

April 1, 2015 3:48 p.m. ET

The 24-hour news cycle is causing a cacophony of speculation about Greece leaving the euro, the so-called Grexit. Amid all the arguments about whether Greece will or should exit, there has been a lot less thought given to what would happen if Greece does return to the drachma. It’s time to think more seriously about this possibility.

Greek stalemate to last until after Easter as Goldman Sachs warns of costly Grexit

Investment bank says "damage has been done" as creditors continue to squeeze Athens for more reforms in return for cash

The Telegraph 

By Mehreen Khan4:30PM BST 31 Mar 2015

Greece's bail-out stalemate showed no signs of easing after a long weekend of delay and frustration for Athens officials in Brussels.

Representatives of the Greek government returned to the country on Tuesday having failed to seal an agreement on the economic reforms they will need to carry out in order to satisfy the demands of its international lenders and unlock €7.2bn in bail-out funds.

When Will Greece Run Out of Money?

(Opinion)

12:43 PM EST MAR 31, 2015

By Nektaria Stamouli

The Wall Street Journal

Greece’s government is rushing to compile a list of economic overhauls to satisfy its creditors and secure desperately needed bailout aid. The cash-strapped country was hoping for a quick deal and an immediate disbursement, but European officials hint that several weeks might be needed before an agreement is reached.

But does Greece have that much time? Bills and debt repayments are looming, tax revenues have been weak, and every government ministry is looking under every sofa for cash.

Buffett Says Greek Exit From Euro ‘May Not Be a Bad Thing’

by Noah Buhayar, Doni Bloomfield

11:12 PM EEST

March 31, 2015

(Bloomberg) -- Billionaire investor Warren Buffett said the euro region could withstand Greece’s departure from the currency union.

“If it turns out the Greeks leave, that may not be a bad thing for the euro,” Buffett told CNBC in an interview Tuesday. “If everybody learns that the rules mean something and if they come to general agreement about fiscal policy among members, or something of the sort, that they mean business, that could be a good thing.”

Here's the 'ugly scenario' that's about to happen if Greece doesn't get a bailout deal

By MIKE BIRD

MAR. 31, 2015, 3:00 AM     

Greece's bailout talks aren't going very well.

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras addressed Greece's parliament late on Monday, but he gave little new indication on a deal. Greece tentatively agreed back in February to extend its existing bailout, but a lack of technical detail means its creditors still haven't paid up even as the country is fast running out of money.

So what happens if Greece doesn't get the cash?

Greece fails to reach initial deal on reforms with lenders

ATHENS | BY RENEE MALTEZOU AND LEFTERIS PAPADIMAS

(Reuters) - Greece failed to reach an initial deal with the European Union and the IMF to unlock aid after the creditors dismissed a package of reforms from Athens as ideas rather than a concrete plan, officials said on Tuesday.

The lack of a deal further raises pressure on Athens, which faces the prospect of running out of money in a few weeks unless it can convince lenders to dole out more financial help.

Crunch time: Greece risks rising once again

Holly Ellyatt

A detailed list of concrete reforms from Greece had yet to be submitted to the country's international creditors Monday, prompting analysts to warn that Greece risks are rising – again.

The country's leftwing government outlined some reforms on Friday, but officials from the bodies overseeing its bailout – the International Monetary Fund (IMF), European Commission and European Central Bank (ECB) – were not convinced by its latest attempt to get a final – and desperately needed – tranche of aid.

One euro zone official told Reuters that the list resembled more of a "collection of ideas," than something to be presented to the Eurogroup of finance ministers, while another said a more technical list could be received Monday. The measures have to be approved by the euro zone ministers before more financial aid is released to Greece.

Greek PM says wants 'honest compromise' but not at any cost

ATHENS | BY LEFTERIS PAPADIMAS AND RENEE MALTEZOU

(Reuters) - Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras on Monday appealed for an "honest compromise" with lenders but warned Greece would not agree to an "unconditional" one, after its biggest creditor demanded it do more to show commitment to reform.

Greece Looks to Russia as Deal With Europe Stumbles

By LIZ ALDERMANMARCH 30, 2015

ATHENS — With the prospect of a default looming in Greece, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras is preparing to meet next week with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia as a European deal to give more aid to Athens falters.

The timing has raised questions of whether the visit is an ordinary component of the new Greek government’s multipronged foreign policy, or a pivot toward Russia for financial aid in the event that Greece’s talks with European officials collapse.

ECB Nerves Fray on Greece as Supervisors Rile Central Bankers

by Jeff Black

2:01 AM EEST

March 30, 2015

(Bloomberg) -- Inside the five-month-old union between monetary policy and financial oversight at the European Central Bank, nerves are beginning to fray.

As officials under ECB President Mario Draghi seek to replace deposits fleeing Greek banks without blatantly financing the state, the efforts of the institution’s new Single Supervisory Mechanism to do its part are irking the old guard. Central bankers say they are concerned that overly-strict orders to lenders could worsen the Greek turmoil.

Greek Markets Show All at Risk Should Mistake Trigger a Default

by Lukanyo Mnyanda

3:01 AM EEST

March 30, 2015

(Bloomberg) -- In Athens, the unspeakable is at risk of becoming the inevitable.

Market metrics show Greece is in danger of sinking under the burden of its debt, putting repayments of about 500 billion euros ($546 billion) owed to European taxpayers, rescue funds, banks and bondholders in jeopardy.

Greece Discloses Expected Proceeds From Planned Piraeus Sale

Greece expects to raise at least $545 million from sale

By COSTAS PARIS

Updated March 29, 2015 10:31 a.m. ET

The Wall Street Journal

LONDON—Greece has told creditors it expects to raise at least €500 million ($545 million) from the privatization of the Piraeus port, according to Greek officials.

The privatization plan has been controversial, and politicians in Greece’s new leftist-led government have publicly expressed conflicting signals about whether it would go ahead, spooking creditors. Privately, however, senior Greek officials have said it would proceed.

Greek Economic Reform Proposals Don't Make The Grade: Grexident Edges Closer

Tim Worstall Contributor

Forbes

We’ve at least one report that the proposals that the Greek Government has put forward over economic reforms to unlock more aid have been found, well, not quite enough. The way that this is going is simply confirming my long held opinion that the most likely way of Greece defaulting and leaving the euro is Grexident: that is, not by any sort of plan, but almost by accident as the various negotiators fail to reach agreement. At the heart of my view over this is the thought that the Greek negotiators, Tsipras, Varoufakis and others from Syriza, think they can get more from the troika (and, in reality, the Germans) than they actually can. Their offers thus fall short as they offer what they think they can get, rather than what is likely to be accepted.

Greece’s Fate Lies in Athens’ Hands, Not Berlin’s

Athens needs to carefully craft ways to comply with the bailout process, not try to change it

By SIMON NIXON

March 29, 2015 4:10 p.m. ET

5 COMMENTS

One of the Greek government’s biggest mistakes since taking office in January has been to assume that its fate lay in German hands. For the first two months, it refused to deal with the “troika” of international lenders—comprising the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund—since renamed “the institutions,” now known as “the Brussels Group.” It was reluctant even to negotiate with the Eurogroup of European finance ministers, which has had political responsibility for overseeing all eurozone bailouts.

How Greece pushed Europe's creditors to the edge

After weeks of ugly threats and stalling tactics from both sides, Athens is approaching crunch time in deciding its economic fate

The Telegraph

By Mehreen Khan8:30AM BST 29 Mar 2015

Arriving for his first official visit to Berlin last week, Greece's Prime Minister would have been forgiven for thinking his maiden trip had not come at a better point in the eurozone's debt drama.

The boyish Leftist academic turned politician was regaled with red carpet treatment by host Angela Merkel.

List of Economic Overhauls Greece Must Flesh Out by Monday

by Marcus Bensasson

9:52 PM EET

March 27, 2015

(Bloomberg) -- Greek government officials plan to hold talks in Brussels over the weekend with representatives of the country’s creditors to put the finishing touches on an economic overhaul plan the government hopes to finalize by Monday.

Greece’s German Allies Aghast as Tsipras Fails to Assure

by Birgit JennenPatrick Donahue

2:36 PM EET

March 27, 2015

(Bloomberg) -- Even Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras’s friends in Germany are getting exasperated with his government after a visit to Berlin fueled skepticism that he can do what’s needed to end the impasse over his country’s finances.

While the atmosphere was good in talks between Tsipras and Chancellor Angela Merkel this week, an improvement in tone may not help resolve a standoff over the reforms required to unlock aid, according to a German government official familiar with the chancellor’s strategy on Greece who asked not to be named because the meeting was private. Members of Merkel’s Social Democratic coalition partners, who have sought to strike a more moderate tone on Greece than her party, were left unconvinced that he can resolve the crisis.

Opinion: Greek crisis nears a turning point

Published: Mar 27, 2015 3:30 a.m. ET

 By DARRELL DELAMAIDE

POLITICS COLUMNIST

Market Watch

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — The simmering crisis in Greece has the potential to become one of those seemingly small events that leads to big consequences.

The election of a radical government by a public exhausted from five years of debilitating recession, the war of words conducted by that government in the face of the iron fist of establishment power in the European Union, and the expected resolution either in the form of a total retreat by the Greek government and its collapse or an exit from the euro all this seems relatively small on the scale of global events.

But few expected the assassination of an Austrian royal heir to start World War I, or the shelling of a military depot in Gdansk by German forces in 1939 to lead to the conflagration of World War II, or, for that matter, the strike in 1980 by Polish trade union Solidarity in that same port city to lead to the unraveling of the Soviet empire.

he Greek crisis could well become a similar turning point in history.

Amid all the posturing, dogmatism and bad faith in the standoff between the government of Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and European and international monetary officials is a genuine challenge not only to the postwar integration of Europe but the entire foundation of the peace ushered in during that period.

So if you’re sick and tired of hearing about Greece, think again.

WSJ Opinion: Did Saudi Arabia Just Start a War?(3:11)

Center for a New American Security Senior Fellow Robert D. Kaplan on the Saudi-led air assault on Yemen, and the prospects for a wider sectarian conflict. Photo credit: Getty Images.

For the first time since the early 20th century, there are the elements of a genuine revolution brewing in Europe, a continent plagued by violence throughout its history.

The bumbling, short-sighted policies of the German government under Chancellor Angela Merkel and the spineless Brussels bureaucracy dominated by Berlin are in many ways similar to previous miscalculations by European leaders that plunged Europe and the world into disaster.

And it is not helped by a U.S. foreign policy in disarray under the weak and uneven leadership of a president ill-equipped to deal with global realpolitik.

The Greek government itself seems to be operating in a parallel universe of false hopes. The economy minister, George Stathakis, said he is optimistic Greece will reach an agreement with international lenders next week even though their stated goals remain diametrically opposed.

he head of the Greek central bank, Yannis Stournaras, who was installed by the preceding government that was voted out of office, still maintains that an exit of Greece from the euro is not an option, even though it is emerging as the only viable solution if the country wants to get back to any form of economic security in the foreseeable future.

Far from finding allies in the other distressed countries of southern Europe, Greece has accused governments in Spain and Portugal of undermining its efforts to reverse austerity policies out of fear that the establishment parties in those countries will meet the same fate as the Greek mainstream parties defeated in the January election by Tsipras’s far-left Syriza.

But there is also opposition to Athens’ course from within the governing party. Stathis Kouvelakis, who teaches political theory at King’s College in London and is a member of Syriza’s central committee, says the party has to face up to the reality of its recent retreat on its election pledges and the nature of the forces arrayed against it.

In particular, Kouvelakis notes the successive steps taken by European Central Bank to restrict the flow of liquidity to the Greek economy, shutting down or limiting Greek access to various types of ECB financing.

“It should be clear, however, that these moves would bring about a dynamic that would breach fundamental constraints of the monetary union and would inevitably lead to the exit from it,” Kouvelakis wrote in his latest post at Jacobin. “In any case, the ECB’s relentless blackmail with its provision of liquidity places onto the agenda every day the issue of regaining sovereignty over monetary policy.”

It was the stranglehold that prompted Tsipras in a recent interview with Der Spiegel to refer to the ECB “still holding onto the rope that is around our necks.”

But Kouvelakis argues that covering over the issues by renaming the troika “the institutions” or by using weasel words like “creative ambiguity” is not going to solve the problem.

The initial euphoria over Syriza’s victory has quickly faded, but it can be revived, he says, if the party faces reality.

“In order for this to happen, however, the horns of battle have to blow again, and the ensuing struggle has to be waged with all due seriousness and determination,” he wrote, “not with PR stunts and rhetorical contortions.”

He cited the widely quoted words from Interior Minister Nikos Voutsis earlier this month before the Greek Parliament, when he said “the country is at war, a social and a class war with the lenders” and that in this war “we will not go like cheerful scouts willing to continue the policies of the memorandum.”

This is the kind of talk the world needs to hear from Greek officials, Kouvelakis says, “not the language of facile optimism that creates illusions and causes confusion that tomorrow may prove costly.”

Who thinks this can end well? Who knows what the consequences will be?

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/greek-crisis-nears-a-turning-point-2015-03-27?page=2

Neither Grexit, nor Grexident. Euro and 'drachma' in parallel?

BRUSSELS | BY JAN STRUPCZEWSKI

(Reuters) - Greece is unlikely to exit the euro, either intentionally or accidentally. But it might be forced to introduce an alternative means of payment, in parallel to the euro, to pay some domestic bills if a reform-for-cash deal with its creditors is not secured soon, several euro zone officials said.

Athens has lost access to bond markets and international creditors are not willing to lend it more money until it starts implementing reforms. An official familiar with the matter told Reuters this week that without fresh funds, the government will run out of money by April 20.