What's At Stake In Greece's Election?

Greece’s creditors stand on the sidelines awaiting the people's verdict.

The Huffington PostBy Danae Leivada

Posted: 09/08/2015 11:33 AM EDT | Edited: 09/08/2015 12:23 PM EDT

ATHENS, Greece -- After making headlines for the past six years with an economic and social crisis that shows no sign of abating, Greece is headed toward a snap election. On Sept. 20, Greeks will go to the polls for the fifth vote in little more than three years and it seems all bets are off again.

The Background

Former Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras of the left-wing Syriza party handed in his resignation last month, bringing an end to the coalition government between Syriza and the Independent Greeks (ANEL) party.

Βαρύγδουπες «αριστερές» ασυναρτησίες

ΠΟΛΙΤΙΚΗ 06.09.2015 : 18:11

Του Πάσχου Μανδραβέλη

Εφημερίδα Καθημερινή\

Απ’ όλες τις μπαρούφες που εκτοξεύονται στον δημόσιο διάλογο οι πιο επικίνδυνες είναι οι τάχαμου αριστερές. Οχι γιατί είναι ριζοσπαστικές. Κυρίως διότι τυλίγονται σε τόσες πολλές και βαριές λέξεις, σε τόσες πολλές ασυναρτησίες, που κάνουν τις μπαρούφες να μοιάζουν σημαντικές. Ετσι, σε μια ερώτηση δέκα λέξεων της κ. Σίας Κοσιώνη (ΣΚΑΪ 3.9.2015) για το δίλημμα «ευρώ ή δραχμή», η κ. Ζωή Κωνσταντοπούλου, αφού είπε ότι «θα σας απαντήσω πολύ ξεκάθαρα, όπως ξεκάθαρα απαντώ πάντοτε», μίλησε ακατάπαυστα επί 3,5 λεπτά. Εκστόμισε 370 λέξεις, ξεφούρνισε δεκάδες ψέματα και έκανε διαρκώς νοητικές ακροβασίες.

Migrant crisis: Greece acts over Lesbos 'explosion' fears

BBC

The Greek government and the UN refugee agency have brought in extra staff and ships to deal with some 25,000 stranded migrants on the island of Lesbos.

A processing centre has been also set up on an abandoned football ground to help the migrants to get to Athens.

A Greek minister said on Monday Lesbos was "on the verge of an explosion".

Meanwhile, hundreds of migrants broke through police lines on Hungary's border with Serbia and started walking towards the capital, Budapest.

The migrants faced down pepper spray used by police as they broke out of a holding centre in a cornfield and marched down a motorway towards Budapest. They later agreed to be taken by bus to another reception centre.

New poll gives Syriza narrow lead in Greece's snap election

Mon Sep 7, 2015 2:44pm EDT Related: WORLD

ATHENS

Greece's leftist Syriza party has a 0.5 percentage-point lead over the conservative New Democracy party before a snap election on Sept. 20, according to a poll published on Monday.

Former prime minister Alexis Tsipras's Syriza is on course to win 27 percent of the vote and New Democracy should get 26.5 percent, the poll by Pulse for the bankingnews.gr website found.

Greek Opposition Leader Says Would Join Coalition With Tsipras

 Nikos Chrysoloras Eleni Chrepa

September 7, 2015 — 7:00 AM EEST

Bloomberg

Evangelos Meimarakis, leader of the opposition New Democracy party, said he’ll invite his rival Alexis Tsipras to form a coalition to safeguard Greece’s place in the euro area, no matter the outcome of this month’s vote.

“I believe in consensus and cooperation,” Meimarakis, 61, said in a Bloomberg television interview on Sunday. “We have proven throughout these years that when it’s for the good of the country, for safeguarding its place in the euro area, we’re willing to cooperate.”

What Draghi Said on QE, Market Volatility, Greece

 Deborah Hyde

September 4, 2015 — 11:19 AM EEST

Bloomberg

Mario Draghi addressed questions on recent market volatility and scope for further ECB action after the central bank downgraded growth and inflation forecasts and raised the limit of a country’s debt it can buy citing downside risks to the euro-area economy.

Here's the checklist of what Draghi said at yesterday's press conference:

Inflation

HICP rates will remain very low in the near term, may even turn negative toward end of year also due to base effects of oil; impact will be “transitory” due to oil.

Inflation likely to pick up during 2016 and 2017 although more slowly than anticipated thus far.

Downside risks to September projections remain.

The euro area's uninspiring recovery

Sep 2nd 2015, 13:29 BY P.W. | LONDON

Economist

EARLIER this year, a genuine revival in the euro area appeared to be under way. European equity markets were buoyant and consumers had become more confident. The recovery, which had been faltering and feeble since the spring of 2013, looked set to accelerate. That bout of optimism has proved fleeting and there is now increasing doubt about whether the euro area can pull itself out of a rut of low inflation and sluggish growth. The European Central Bank (ECB) is not expected to act on September 3rd when its governing council meets. But it may well indicate a preparedness to provide more stimulus, if necessary.

Turmoil in China, weak inflation may open door for more stimulus from European Central Bank

http://www.usnews.com/news/business/articles/2015/09/01/wobbly-euro-economy-may-get-bigger-push-from-central-bank

By DAVID McHUGH, AP Business Writer

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — When is a trillion euros not enough? Could be soon, in Europe's shaky economy.

Analysts are already talking about when and how the European Central Bank might extend its 1.1 trillion-euro ($1.2 trillion) stimulus program that has been running for the past six months in an attempt to boost the modest recovery in the 19 countries that use the euro.

Greece Names George Chouliarakis Interim Finance Minister Foreign ministry will be headed by diplomat Petros Molyviatis

By STELIOS BOURAS

Aug. 28, 2015 5:55 a.m. ET

The Wall Street Journal

ATHENS—Greece named economist George Chouliarakis as the country’s interim finance minister Friday, handing him control of the country’s purse strings until next month’s elections.

Mr. Chouliarakis was Greece’s representative in the meetings of eurozone finance ministry officials and has played a leading role in Greece’s negotiations with officials from the International Monetary Fund and European institutions. He is considered to be a constructive interlocutor by European officials.

Greece's Syriza to win election but face setback, poll shows

Fri Aug 28, 2015 10:53am EDT Related: WORLD, GREECE

ATHENS | BY GEORGE GEORGIOPOULOS AND ANGELIKI KOUTANTOU

Reuters

Former Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras' leftist Syriza will emerge as the biggest party after next month's election but without the sizeable margin it was hoping for, the first major opinion poll since he resigned last week showed.

The survey also found that almost two thirds of voters felt Tsipras should not have sought a fresh mandate and that his favored coalition ally would not make it into parliament.

That suggested his gamble to call early elections to consolidate his power base could backfire, though over quarter of voters remained undecided, making the final outcome far from clear.

Syriza was supported by 23 percent of those polled, with the conservative New Democracy party second on 19.5 percent, according to the survey, carried out by pollsters ProRata and published in Friday's Efimerida Ton Syntakton newspaper.

Greece Names Interim Prime Minister to Lead the Country to Snap Election

Announcement likely to be posted Friday outside Greek parliament calling for Sep 20 election

By NEKTARIA STAMOULI

Updated Aug. 27, 2015 11:21 a.m. ET

2 COMMENTS

ATHENS—Greece Thursday officially entered the pre-election period for the second time this year, as the head of the country’s Supreme Court Vassiliki Thanou Christopoulou has been named caretaker Prime Minister, with the task to lead the country to elections.

Greece’s President Prokopis Pavlopoulos “is obliged to give the mandate for the formation of the government with the widest possible acceptance in order to hold elections to the President of the Supreme Court Mrs. Vassiliki Thanou,” the presidency said in a statement.

Euro as New Haven Moves Opposite to Stocks by Most in Decade

 Anooja Debnath

August 27, 2015 — 10:00 AM EEST Updated on August 27, 2015 — 2:03 PM EEST

Bloomberg

The tumble in equity markets in the past week has boosted the euro, confirming its new-found status as a haven asset.

The 19-nation currency is moving in the opposite direction of the Stoxx Europe 600 Index and the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index by the most in a decade, according to 30-day correlation data compiled by Bloomberg. The euro has appreciated against all of its Group-of-10 peers in the last three months, including traditional refuge currencies like the Japanese yen and Swiss franc.

As panic selling appeared in global stock markets earlier this week, the single currency rose to its strongest against the dollar since mid-January. The inverse relationship, or negative correlation, has intensified, said Stuart Bennett, London-based head of G-10 currency strategy at Banco Santander SA.

Euro ministers give blessing to Greek bailout, wooing IMF on debt

Sat Aug 15, 2015 7:02am EDT Related: WORLD, GREECE

BRUSSELS/ATHENS | BY ALASTAIR MACDONALD AND LEFTERIS PAPADIMAS

Euro zone finance ministers have agreed to lend Greece up to 86 billion euros ($96 billion) after Greek lawmakers accepted their stiff conditions despite a revolt by supporters of leftist Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras.

Assuming approval by the German and other parliaments, 13 billion euros should be in Athens next Thursday to pay pressing bills and a further 10 billion will be set aside at the European Stability Mechanism, earmarked to bolster Greek banks' capital.

Greece and the euro

A third bail-out gets the green light

Aug 15th 2015, 12:51 BY P.W. | LONDON

The Economist

A MONTH ago Greek membership of the euro was in peril, as Wolfgang Schäuble, Germany’s powerful finance minister, argued that Greece should leave the monetary union for at least five years in what he euphemistically called a “time out”. Any such exit, which would almost certainly have turned out to be permanent, would have undermined a founding principle of the monetary union—that those joining the euro do so irrevocably. Even after euro-zone leaders meeting at a crucial summit managed to agree upon a framework for a bail-out agreement on July 13th the chances of it actually being concluded and avoiding a “Grexit” seemed slim. Mr Schäuble made clear in the following week that he still thought Greece should be temporarily expelled from the euro while Alexis Tsipras, the Greek prime minister, said he did not believe in the agreement he had just made at the summit.

Dismal Debt Outlook for Greece Raises Pressure on European Creditors

Forecast comes amid surprise data showing Greek economy grew instead of shrinking in second quarter

The Wall Street Journal

By MARCUS WALKER And  STELIOS BOURAS

Aug. 13, 2015 2:48 p.m. ET

ATHENS—A bleak debt forecast for Greece is raising pressure on Europe to grant the country softer loan terms, exacerbating tensions among its creditors as they try to seal a new Greek rescue deal within days.

The new forecast, prepared by European Union officials in a document seen by The Wall Street Journal, predicts sharply higher Greek debt than Europe had previously hoped and shows just how far Greece is from escaping its marathon crisis.

Greece's Debt Relief Bill Rises To €100 Billion And The IMF Ain't Helping

AUG 5, 2015 @ 7:27 PM 1,536 VIEWS

Tim Worstall

CONTRIBUTOR

http://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2015/08/05/greeces-debt-relief-bill-rises-to-e100-billion-and-the-imf-aint-helping/

After we all thought that the Greek debt crisis was over we’re seeing disturbing signs that it isn’t, not at all, quite over as yet. It’s not just the absence of the fat lady in the horned helmet signing as yet that indicates it either. We have two rather different processes going on, both of them leading to the possibility that the solution just isn’t going to be found and that exit from the euro and default will follow. The first is that the IMF is now doing what it always should have done, which was obey its own charter. This means it should not fund any deal which is not sustainable: something it clearly ignored in funding the last deal. The second is that the Greek economy has deteriorated even more than anyone thought it had meaning that the necessary debt relief bill is even higher. Quite possibly to the point where no one’s willing to bear it.

The Euro’s Failed Dream of a Wonderful Life

The euro looks like a solution that will be costlier than the problems it was meant to address

By STEPHEN FIDLER

Aug. 6, 2015 5:29 p.m. ET

What would Europe be like if the euro had never been born? Unlike George Bailey in the 1946 film classic “It’s a Wonderful Life,” we don’t get the chance to go back and find out.

In the movie, the kindly but suicidal George is taken by his guardian angel to see what the world would have been like without him. The small town in which he grew up and from which he never manages to escape is unrecognizable. Instead of the idyllic Bedford Falls, he finds the violent and crime-ridden Pottersville.

What Greece Needs to Prosper

Edmund S. Phelps, the 2006 Nobel laureate in economics, is Director of the Center on Capitalism and Society at Columbia University and author of Mass Flourishing.

http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/what-greece-needs-to-prosper-by-edmund-s--phelps-2015-08

NEW YORK – Some economists overlook the modern idea that a country’s prosperity depends on innovation and entrepreneurship. They take the mechanistic view that prosperity is a matter of employment, and that employment is determined by “demand” – government spending, household consumption, and investment demand.

Greece may seek up to 24 billion euros in first new aid tranche: paper

Sat Aug 1, 2015 2:18pm EDT Related: WORLD, GREECE

ATHENS

Reuters

 REUTERS/RONEN ZVULUN

Greece may seek 24 billion euros in a first tranche of bailout aid from international lenders in August to prop up its banks and repay debts falling due at the ECB, a pro-government Greek newspaper said in its early Sunday editions.

Athens is now in talks with the European Commission and the International Monetary Fund to secure up to 86 billion euros ($94.48 billion) in bailout aid. It will be its third bailout since 2010.

Tsipras Survives for Now as Party Rebels Blast Greece Rescue

by Nikos ChrysolorasEleni Chrepa

July 31, 2015 — 10:53 AM EEST Updated on July 31, 2015 — 12:05 PM EEST

Bloomberg

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras staved off an immediate challenge to his premiership, though failure to appease his party’s hard-left fringe brought early elections into view.

After 12 hours of talks, the central committee of the anti-austerity Syriza party decided in the early hours of Friday to hold an emergency congress in September, in which Tsipras’ move to accept a strings-attached rescue program from international creditors will be put to the vote. Leaders of the party’s Left Platform protested that will be too late to stop the bailout, but failed in their bid to force a party congress this weekend.

Italy is the most likely country to leave the euro

Washington Post

By Matt O'Brien July 30 at 2:56 PM

What do you call a country that has grown 4.6 percent—in total—since it joined the euro 16 years ago? Well, probably the one most likely to leave the common currency. Or Italy, for short.

It's hard to say what went wrong with Italy, because nothing ever went right. It grew 4 percent its first year or so in the euro, but almost not at all in the 15 years since. Now, that's not to say that it's been flat the whole time. It hasn't. It got as much as 14 percent bigger as it was when it joined the euro, before the 2008 recession and 2011 double-dip erased most of that progress. But unlike, say, Greece, there was never much of a boom. There has only been a bust. The result, though, has been the same. As you can see below, Greece and Italy have both grown a meager 4.6 percent the past 16 years, although they took drastically different paths to get there.

Bailout Money Goes to Greece, Only to Flow Out Again

By JACK EWING and LIZ ALDERMANJULY 30, 2015

The New York Times

FRANKFURT — The Greek businessman was nervous as he carried a suitcase stuffed with cash through passport control at the Athens airport a few months ago. But the distracted and overworked customs officials waved him through.

A few hours later the man touched down in Frankfurt, where he quickly deposited the money in a German bank.

Το αφανές κόστος της «επανάστασης»

ΠΟΛΙΤΙΚΗ 30.07.2015 : 12:38

Του Πάσχου Μανδραβέλη

Εφημερίδα Καθημερινή

Θέλουμε να ελπίζουμε ότι ανάμεσα σ’ αυτούς που χόρευαν και πανηγύριζαν το βράδυ του δημοψηφίσματος (5.7.2015) στο Σύνταγμα δεν ήταν κάτοικοι των υποβαθμισμένων περιοχών της δυτικής Αθήνας. Κι αυτό διότι τα γέλια θα τους βγουν ξινά. Οχι μόνο επειδή η κυβέρνηση «κοινωνικής σωτηρίας» τούς πότιζε επί έναν μήνα τοξικά του Ασπρόπυργου, χωρίς να κάνει το παραμικρό. Θα έχουν κι άλλες επιπτώσεις στην καθημερινότητά τους από τη «μεγαλοπρεπή διαπραγμάτευση» του κ. Γιάνη Βαρουφάκη και την «αριστερή αντίσταση» του κ. Παναγιώτη Λαφαζάνη. Το μετρό, για παράδειγμα, ένα έργο πνοής για την πρωτεύουσα και σωτήριο για τα χαμηλά βαλάντια, μπαίνει στο χρονοντούλαπο της τραπεζικής αργίας, που τόσο αφρόνως και ηρωικώς προέκρινε η κυβέρνηση.

Greece’s Alexis Tsipras Faces Battle to Avoid Syriza Split

Ruling party’s central committee to decide whether to hold inner-party referendum

The Wall Street Journal

By NEKTARIA STAMOULI and  VIKTORIA DENDRINOU

Updated July 29, 2015 12:57 p.m. ET

10 COMMENTS

ATHENS—Greece’s ruling Syriza party is sliding toward a split as far-left dissidents resist Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras’s acquiescence to creditors’ demands, endangering his fragile government and complicating the country’s bailout negotiations.

Pressed by left, Greece's Tsipras vows 'thus far and no further'

ATHENS | BY RENEE MALTEZOU AND ANGELIKI KOUTANTOU

Thu Jul 30, 2015 2:00am BST Related: WORLD

Reuters

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, struggling to contain a revolt in his left-wing Syriza party, said on Wednesday that his government would not implement reform measures beyond those agreed with lenders at a euro zone summit this month.

Tsipras faces a tough Syriza central committee session on Thursday with many activists angered by his acceptance of bailout terms more stringent than those voters rejected in a July 5 referendum.

In a clear warning to Syriza rebels, Tsipras said he could be forced to call early elections if he no longer had a parliamentary majority, and suggested an emergency party congress could be held in early September.

Tsipras Seeks to Avert Party Split as Greece’s Creditors Arrive for Talks

By NIKI KITSANTONISJULY 29, 2015

The New York Times

ATHENS — As representatives of Greece’s international creditors started arriving on Wednesday in the Greek capital for a new round of tough negotiations, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said the country would get relief from its huge debt burden as early as November. He also hit out at dissenters within his party, saying that securing a new bailout deal was a priority.

Amid growing opposition within his leftist Syriza party over the prospect of fresh austerity required under Greece’s third financial rescue in five years, Mr. Tsipras accused dissenters of seeking to manipulate the result of this month’s referendum on bailout terms by claiming it was tantamount to a mandate for a Greek exit from the eurozone. “The Greek people voted no to a bad deal, they did not vote for an exit from the euro,” he said.

The Threat That Could Save the Euro

By confronting Athens with the possibility of an exit from the currency, Berlin may finally have prompted overdue reforms.

The Wall Street Journal

By MICHAEL HEISE

July 28, 2015 1:54 p.m. ET

Greece may have reached a preliminary settlement with its creditors, but peace and stability have not yet been restored in the eurozone. Recriminations are still flying between Greece and its creditors, and negotiations for a third bailout package will be fraught with difficulty. Meanwhile, the creditor countries are themselves split. Some, like Germany, insist that the principles underlying monetary union are more important than the membership of any one country. Others, such as France, say that more flexibility is needed to keep the euro together.

Merkel's Bavarian ally says Grexit would cause 'utter chaos'

Wed Jul 29, 2015 3:38am EDT Related: WORLD, GREECE

BERLIN

Reuters

A Greek exit from the euro zone would cause "utter chaos" but would have to be accepted if Athens was not willing to implement reforms, Chancellor Angela Merkel's Bavarian ally Horst Seehofer told German newspaper Die Welt on Wednesday.

"No one can predict the consequences of a Grexit other than that a lot of Greece's debts would have to be written off and at the same time monetary help would be necessary," Seehofer, state premier of Bavaria, said to the paper.

Opinion: After Greece, everyone will want a Plan B to leave the euro

Published: July 29, 2015 3:00 a.m. ET

Market Watch

MATTHEW LYNN'S LONDON EYE

It sounds like a Jason Bourne movie. The Varoufakis Legacy, however, named after the recently departed Greek finance minister, might well be slightly more exciting that the fourth installment in the Bourne series was. Featuring hi-tech hacking, a sinister German villain, a complex financial heist, blackmail, bullying and last-minute rescues, it has every element of an action movie, minus only a high-speed car chase through the streets of Athens.

The entertainment value aside, however, Yanis Varoufakis also leaves behind him a far-more significant legacy, and one that will shape the course of the eurozone economy for at least a decade ahead.

Greece Isn't a Morality Tale

2 JUL 29, 2015 2:00 AM EDT

By Mark Buchanan

Bloomberg

One of the more troubling elements of the recent drama over Greece's debt was the urge by many to see a deficiency of national character, rather than euro-zone economics, as the problem. Right-leaning opinion, not only in Germany but around the world, put the trouble down to Greek corruption and, worse, laziness:  The bad people of Greece retire too early and produce less per capita than the European average, despite working longer hours.

Ρωμιο -Anonymous χάκερς

28-7-2015  12:33

Του Πάσχου Μανδραβέλη

Καθημερινή

Ας​ το πούμε όσο πιο ευγενικά και ήπια μπορούμε: ο άνθρωπος είναι για δέσιμο. Οχι γιατί είχε σχέδιο δραχμής, που κανείς δεν του ζήτησε, ούτε επειδή τα είπε φόρα παρτίδα σε μια τηλεδιάσκεψη η οποία μαγνητοσκοπείτο και το ήξερε. Είναι για δέσιμο επειδή πίστευε ότι με ένα χάκερ και την ασύγκριτη -για τον ίδιο- ευφυΐα του, το ελληνικό κράτος θα άλλαζε εν μια νυκτί και θα γινόταν ένας υπεραποτελεσματικός μηχανισμός που θα μπορούσε να διαχειριστεί τη μετάβαση σε άλλο νομισματικό σύστημα.

Greece Made Preparations to Exit Euro

By JACK EWING and NIKI KITSANTONISJULY 27, 2015

The New York Times

FRANKFURT — Already struggling with internal conflict, Greece’s government is facing new criticism over secret preparations that would have allowed the country to leave the euro if necessary.

In a recording released on Monday, Greece’s former finance minister detailed a contingency plan to create an alternative banking system that could switch to a new currency. The system would be “euro-denominated but at the drop of a hat it could be converted into a new drachma,” the former finance minister, Yanis Varoufakis, said on the recording of a July 16 interview with an influential investment organization.

Tsipras’s Paradox Is Six Months of Pain and Enduring Popularity

by Maria Petrakis

July 27, 2015 — 12:00 AM EEST

Bloomberg

His party is split, government undermined and the economy lies in tatters. Yet in the rubble of Greece, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras reigns supreme.

In the six months since he became prime minister, Tsipras breezed past challengers at home, new and old, as he followed an election victory with backing for his anti-bailout message in a referendum. After yielding to his European peers, next month he may be signing a third financial rescue that he opposed, while capital controls keeping money in Greece remain.

Escaping the Greek Debt Trap

5 JUL 27, 2015 2:00 AM EDT

By Barry Eichengreen , Peter T. Allen & Gary Evans

Greece's debt is unsustainable. The International Monetary Fund has said so, and it's hard to find anyone who disagrees. The Greek government sees structural reform without debt reduction as politically and economically toxic. The main governing party, Syriza, has made debt reduction a central plank of its electoral platform and will find it hard to hold on to power -- much less implement painful structural measures -- absent this achievement.

Moreover, tax increases and spending cuts by themselves will only deepen the Greek slump. Other measures are needed to attract the investment required to jump-start growth. Reducing the debt and its implicit claim on future incomes is an obvious first step.

Greek PM Tsipras under pressure over covert Syriza drachma plan reports

ATHENS | BY ANGELIKI KOUTANTOU

Sun Jul 26, 2015 9:05pm EDT Related: WORLD, GREECE

Some members of Greece's leftist government wanted to raid central bank reserves and hack taxpayer accounts to prepare a return to the drachma, according to reports on Sunday that highlighted the chaos in the ruling Syriza party.

It is not clear how seriously the plans, attributed to former Energy Minister Panagiotis Lafazanis and former Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis, were considered by the government and both ministers were sacked earlier this month. However the reports have been seized on by opposition parties who have demanded an explanation.

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.