Europe is destroying Greece’s economy for no reason at all

The Washington Post

By Matt O'Brien June 23 at 2:32 PM

History repeats itself, first as tragedy, then as farce, and finally as trolling. That, at least, is the case in Greece, where its lenders want it to cut its pensions rather than hike its business taxes, because they're afraid those increases would, as the Financial Times's Peter Spiegel reports, "crimp economic growth."

Oh, so now they're worried that austerity hurts the economy. Too bad they weren't a little more concerned about that before it made Greece's economy shrink 25 percent.

Greece's Punishing Deal

JUN 23, 2015 9:25 AM EDT

By Marc Champion

On Monday, the Greek government put before its euro-area partners (I use the term loosely) the first serious proposal for a deal on renewing its aid package since coming to power in January. Amid the general optimism that an agreement may now be in sight, thus avoiding the uncertainties of a Greek default and exit from the euro, there was also a strain of barely suppressed fury among some of Greece's peers.

Greece Given 48 Hours to Reach Deal as EU Weighs Debt

by Mark DeenArne DelfsChristos Ziotis

June 22, 2015 — 10:29 PM EEST Updated on June 23, 2015 — 10:57 AM EEST

Bloomberg

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has 48 hours to bring a deal with his country’s creditors to the finish line and end a five-month standoff over aid that risks splitting the euro.

After a day of marathon talks on Monday, leaders from Greece’s 18 fellow euro-zone countries agreed that Tsipras’s government was finally getting serious about striking a deal after it submitted a set of reform measures that began to converge with the terms demanded by creditors.

As the political discussions continue, the European Central Bank on Tuesday raised the limit on emergency funding available to Greek banks, according to a person familiar with the matter who asked not to be identified because the decisions are private.

Signs of last-minute Greece deal lift optimism

Mon Jun 22, 2015 4:12am EDT Related: GREECE

LONDON | BY JAMIE MCGEEVER

Reuters

Global stocks, the euro and peripheral euro zone bonds all rose on Monday, lifted by a wave of optimism that Greece and its international creditors will strike a last-minute deal that will see Athens avert default.

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras will meet the heads of the European Commission, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund on Monday ahead of a summit of euro zone leaders later in the day aimed at reaching a deal over debt talks.

Weekend of Fear in Greece as Banks, People Live Day To Day

by Mehul SrivastavaMaria Petrakis

June 20, 2015 — 12:30 PM EEST Updated on June 21, 2015 — 11:20 AM EEST

Bloomberg

Dorothea Lambros stood outside an HSBC branch in central Athens on Friday afternoon, an envelope stuffed with cash in one hand and a 38,000 euro ($43,000) cashier’s check in the other.

She was a few minutes too late to make her deposit at the London-based bank. She was too scared to take her life-savings back to her Greek bank. She worried it wouldn’t survive the weekend.

“I don’t know what happens on Monday,” said Lambros, a 58-year-old government employee.

Nobody does. Every shifting deadline, every last-gasp effort has built up to this: a nation that went to sleep on Friday not knowing what Monday will bring. A deal, or more brinkmanship. Shuttered banks and empty cash machines, or a few more days of euros in their pockets and drachmas in their past - - and maybe their future.

Greece and Germany Agree the Euro Can't Work

51 JUN 21, 2015 11:00 AM EDT

By Clive Crook

Bloomberg

Ahead of Monday's European Union summit, the only thing you can rule out is a happy ending. Whatever happens at the leaders' meeting -- even if a deal of some sort emerges -- the EU has suffered lasting and perhaps irreparable damage. The available choices run from bad to terrible.

The costs to Greece and to the EU of a default followed by Greece's ejection from the euro system could be huge. But even if the worst doesn't happen, Europe has suffered a total breakdown of trust and goodwill. That can't easily be undone -- and it's a dagger pointed at the heart of the entire project.

Paul Krugman Is Right; Greece Should Leave The Euro

JUN 20, 2015 @ 6:40 PM

Forbes

Tim Worstall ,

What with the nearing denouement of the Greek debt crisis the real question is, well, what actually should be done? And that in turn means that we’ve got to decide whose interests should be paramount. There’s perhaps three groups that we should be thinking about and how we weight their interests is going to tell us what should in fact happen.

Weekend of Fear in Greece as Banks, People Live Day To Day

by Mehul SrivastavaMaria Petrakis

June 20, 2015 — 12:30 PM EEST Updated on June 21, 2015 — 11:20 AM EEST

Bloomberg

Dorothea Lambros stood outside an HSBC branch in central Athens on Friday afternoon, an envelope stuffed with cash in one hand and a 38,000 euro ($43,000) cashier’s check in the other.

She was a few minutes too late to make her deposit at the London-based bank. She was too scared to take her life-savings back to her Greek bank. She worried it wouldn’t survive the weekend.

“I don’t know what happens on Monday,” said Lambros, a 58-year-old government employee.

Nobody does. Every shifting deadline, every last-gasp effort has built up to this: a nation that went to sleep on Friday not knowing what Monday will bring. A deal, or more brinkmanship. Shuttered banks and empty cash machines, or a few more days of euros in their pockets and drachmas in their past - - and maybe their future.

Everything you need to know about why Greece might leave the euro

The Washington Post

By Matt O'Brien June 20 at 8:00 AM

Greece's government doesn't have enough money to pay back what it owes, but the bigger problem is that Greece's banks might not either. And that's the real reason Greece might be forced out of the euro.

The consequences of Greece’s impending breakdown

By Lawrence Summers June 20 at 12:45 PM

The Washington Post

Lawrence Summers is a professor at and past president of Harvard University. He was treasury secretary from 1999 to 2001 and an economic adviser to President Obama from 2009 through 2010.

When, as now appears likely, Greece financially separates from Europe, it will at one level be no one’s fault. The Greek leaders will rightly explain that having imposed more austerity on themselves than any industrial country has suffered since the Depression, they could not do more without light at the end of tunnel in the form of a clear commitment to debt relief. European leaders will rightly explain that they adjusted their positions repeatedly to accommodate the Greeks. They will stress that their publics would not permit Greece to play by different rules than the rest of Europe. And the International Monetary Fund will rightly explain that it would have blessed any plan agreed to by Greece and Europe that added up.

The Endgame in Greece

By THE EDITORIAL BOARD

JUNE 19, 2015

The New York Times

A meeting of eurozone finance ministers on Thursday, which was billed as the last chance to stave off a Greek default and a Greek exit from the euro, collapsed in rancor and recriminations less than an hour after it started. Eurozone leaders then promptly scheduled a summit meeting for Monday to deal with the crisis. After five years of this, the world can be forgiven for not heeding the serial cries of “wolf.” Only this time, there really is a wolf at the door.

Greece Stares Into Unknown as Tsipras Insists a Deal Can Be Done

by Corina RuheStephanie BodoniNikos Chrysoloras

June 19, 2015 — 11:32 AM EEST Updated on June 19, 2015 — 1:40 PM EEST

Bloomberg

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras insisted a deal to avert a default can be reached at an emergency summit of European leaders on Monday as his country clings to the euro after almost five months of brinkmanship.

Markets swayed as investors parsed each new twist for signs of a possible accord. Banks stocks reversed gains and led the Athens Stock Exchange lower on Friday as the European Central Bank prepared to discuss whether to maintain a lifeline at an emergency session. Greece’s existing bailout agreement expires on June 30, the day it’s due to make a payment to the International Monetary Fund.

EU Leaders Need an Emergency Plan B for Greece

JUN 19, 2015 2:00 AM EDT

By Mohamed A. El-Erian

Bloomberg

After finance officials failed to reach an agreement on Greece on Thursday, European leaders wisely decided to hold an emergency summit Monday. Although the main objective is to break the deadlock opposing Greece and its creditors, this gathering should have a second important goal: unifyimg 18 euro-zone members around a Plan B if efforts to salvage the 19th member, Greece, falter again.

The primary aim of the summit is to deliver the long-sought accord that would keep Greece solvent, and within the currency union. Without such an agreement on both policies and emergency financing, it would be a matter of days before Greece's banking system imploded. Then the government would have to impose capital controls, default on debt and supplier obligations, and issue IOUs to meet domestic payments.

Still Deadlocked With Greece, Europe Sets Emergency Summit Meeting

By JAMES KANTERJUNE 18, 2015

The New York Times

LUXEMBOURG — European leaders will try again in an emergency summit meeting on Monday to break the deadlock between Greece and its international creditors after a meeting of eurozone finance ministers ended on Thursday with no deal on Greece’s bailout.

Without additional aid, Greece faces the prospect of effectively going bankrupt by the end of June, when it owes a payment of 1.6 billion euros, or about $1.8 billion, to the International Monetary Fund, and when the European part of its bailout program ends.

Greek Central Bank Issues Dire Warning on Bailout Talks

Report warns of ‘uncontrollable crisis’ without a deal; ECB drawn into fray

By STELIOS BOURAS And  BRIAN BLACKSTONE

Updated June 17, 2015 6:54 p.m. ET

81 COMMENTS

ATHENS—Greece’s central bank, in unusually stark language that angered the ruling party, warned Wednesday that failure to clinch a deal with international creditors on desperately needed funding could “snowball into an uncontrollable crisis” for the country.

Η αξιολόγηση που δεν έκλεισε ποτέ

ΕΛΕΝΗ ΒΑΡΒΙΤΣΙΩΤΗ, TΑΣΟΣ ΤΕΛΛΟΓΛΟΥ

Καθημερινή

Το ηλιόλουστο πρωινό της 7ης Νοεμβρίου 2014 στις Βρυξέλλες, ο τότε Ελληνας υπουργός Οικονομικών Γκίκας Χαρδούβελης βρίσκει στο κινητό του τηλέφωνο ένα email–ορόσημο, όπως θα φανεί αργότερα, από την τρόικα. Ηταν για πρώτη φορά τόσο σαφές ότι η αξιολόγηση δεν θα έκλεινε, καθώς η τρόικα φαινόταν να σκληραίνει τη στάση της ζητώντας την εφαρμογή όλων των συμφωνηθέντων χωρίς καμία απολύτως ευελιξία.

GREXIT: END OF THE ILLUSION

Pieria

http://www.pieria.co.uk/articles/grexit_end_of_the_illusion

Posted by John Weeks on Jun 15th 2015,

That is the real story. It is very simple - force the Greek government to withdraw in circumstances that allow the Troika to deny culpability. Without knowing it, we have been following the manoeuvres by the Troika to achieve that end. The drawn-out nature of the conflict is a Troika strategy, to drain the Greek government of money until it must accept what Prime Minister called "absurd" demands or choose an increasingly costly exit from the euro zone.

What Happens if Greece Misses Payments?

The Wall Street Journal

7:05 pm ET

Jun 15, 2015

By  MATTHEW DALTON and  GABRIELE STEINHAUSER

With little sign of progress in talks on Greece’s international bailout, some European policy makers are considering whether Athens could default but stay in the eurozone. The whole situation is fraught with unknowns, however. Here are some of the complications:

Greece, Eurozone Seek to Resolve Differences as Deadline Looms

Finance ministers to meet in Luxembourg in effort to reach agreement on Greek bailout

The Wall Street Journal

By VIKTORIA DENDRINOU

June 18, 2015 2:27 a.m. ET

LUXEMBOURG—Eurozone finance ministers have another chance to break the deadlock in talks over Greece’s international bailout Thursday, but neither side has shown any sign of shifting its position, even as warnings grow of the potential impact of a Greek default and exit from the euro.

The Endgame in Greece

JUN 16, 2015 30

Project Syndicate

Jeffrey D. Sachs

Jeffrey D. Sachs, Professor of Sustainable Development, Professor of Health Policy and Management, and Director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University, is also Special Adviser to the United Nations Secretary-General on the Millennium Development Goals. His books include The End of Poverty, Common Wealth, and, most recently, The Age of Sustainable Development.

Read more at http://www.project-syndicate.org/columnist/jeffrey-d-sachs#wqrkiiQVKEBjoR1A.99