Greece, EU see need for 'national reform plan' to fix economy

BY KAROLINA TAGARIS

ATHENS Sun Feb 15, 2015 10:46am GMT

(Reuters) - Greece has agreed with its European partners that there needs to be a "national reform plan" to deal with decades-long issues of the economy, its government spokesman said on Sunday.

But he added in a wide-ranging interview on Greece's Skai TV that the new government will not clash with the public based on orders from outside.

Greece and its euro zone partners are in difficult negotiations over demands by the new government of leftist Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras for an end to austerity and a renegotiation of Greece's debt.

Greece will do 'whatever it can' to reach deal with EU: spokesman

ATHENS Fri Feb 13, 2015 5:15am EST

(Reuters) - Greece will make every effort to reach an agreement with its euro zone partners at Monday's meeting of euro zone finance ministers on how to transition to a new support program, its government spokesman said on Friday.

"We will do whatever we can so that a deal is found on Monday," Gabriel Sakellaridis told Skai TV. "If we don't have an agreement on Monday, we believe that there is always time so that there won't be a problem."

'Grexit' would be no easy ride for austerity-weary Greeks

BY JEREMY GAUNT

ATHENS Thu Feb 12, 2015 8:53am EST

(Reuters) - "Grexit" would be sudden, sharp and probably conducted in the dark of night; if Greece were to quit the euro, it would also mark the beginning of a long, hard road - for some harder still than the one already traveled.

The new leftist government wants to keep the country in the currency union, as do its euro zone counterparts. But if they fail to agree a deal to replace or extend a bailout program that expires on Feb. 28, Greece faces the risk of a euro exit - "Grexit" in market shorthand - forced by bankruptcy and default.

Lessons From Argentina’s Default

The New York Times

From Alan Cibils is the chair of the political economy department at the Universidad Nacional de General Sarmiento in Buenos Aires.

As an economist who lived through the Argentine crisis nearly a decade ago, I am distressed by the trouble in the euro zone because it has many of the same ingredients that led to the Argentine debacle.

Greece, EU Strike Friendlier Tone After Hopes of Quick Deal Are Dashed

Last-Minute Change of Mind Dashed Hopes of Quick Resolution to Standoff With Creditors

The Wall Street Journal

By VIKTORIA DENDRINOU And  GABRIELE STEINHAUSER

Updated Feb. 12, 2015 7:34 p.m. ET

75 COMMENTS

BRUSSELS—Leaders from Greece and the rest of the eurozone struck a conciliatory tone Thursday, a day after the country’s new government dashed hopes of a quick resolution to the standoff between Athens and its creditors.

Greece and Germany Are Working Toward a Compromise

by Rebecca ChristieEleni and ChrepaBirgit Jennen

(Bloomberg) -- Greece and Germany are pursuing a deal on the conditions required to continue the Greek bailout as each side signals a willingness to compromise, according to government officials taking part in the talks.

Hitting the ground running—backwards

Greece and the euro

http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21643139-unless-syriza-changes-course-greece-inexorably-heading-out-euro-hitting-ground

The Economist

Unless Syriza changes course, Greece is inexorably heading out of the euro

WHEN the far-left Syriza party won the Greek election last month, the hope was that the new prime minister, Alexis Tsipras, would moderate his demands so as to compromise with his country’s creditors. After all, he (like the vast majority of Greeks) wants to stay in the single currency. But even as he prepared to meet fellow European Union leaders for the first time this week, he was making a Greek exit from the euro ever more likely.

Argentina’s Lessons for Greece

Raquel Fernández

(Raquel Fernández is Professor of Economics at New York University. )

Jonathan Portes

(Jonathan Portes is Director of the National Institute of Economic and Social Research.)

Read more at http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/greece-lessons-from-argentina-by-raquel-fern-ndez-and-jonathan-portes-2015-02#1AQmWPCTlxsfb6aH.99

NEW YORK – Thirteen years ago, Argentina was in dire straits. Its peso was pegged to the dollar at a level that far exceeded its value. Its external debt was unsustainable. And political pressure from the United States prevented its weak government from renegotiating a bailout program that even the International Monetary Fund knew was unrealistic.

The Greek Austerity Myth

FEB 10, 2015 23

Daniel Gros

BRUSSELS – Since the anti-austerity Syriza party's victory in Greece's recent general election, the “Greek problem" is again preoccupying markets and policymakers throughout Europe. Some fear a return to the uncertainty of 2012, when many thought that a Greek default and exit from the eurozone were imminent. Then as now, many worry that a Greek debt crisis could destabilize – and perhaps even bring down – Europe's monetary union. But this time really is different.

 One critical difference lies in economic fundamentals. Over the last two years, the eurozone's other peripheral countries have proven their capacity for adjustment, by reducing their fiscal deficits, expanding exports, and moving to current-account surpluses, thereby negating the need for financing. Indeed, Greece is the only one that has consistently dragged its feet on reforms and sustained abysmal export performance.

Syriza Isn’t Giving the Greeks the Whole Story

Elevated talk may bolster the Tsipras government’s domestic support, but it does nothing to inform voters about Europe’s political reality.

The Wall Street Journal

By YANNIS PALAIOLOGOS

Feb. 10, 2015 2:28 p.m. ET

Athens

The moment of truth has arrived. The six days starting with Wednesday’s meeting of eurozone finance ministers in Brussels will determine the ability of Greece’s new government to come to terms with its European partners and avoid a catastrophic Greek exit from the currency bloc.

Greece to Propose a Debt Compromise Plan to Creditors

By LIZ ALDERMAN and NIKI KITSANTONISFEB. 9, 2015

The New York Times

ATHENS — Hoping to defuse a standoff that has set Europe and financial markets on edge, Greek officials intend to propose a detailed compromise plan at an emergency meeting with creditors on Wednesday in Brussels, a finance ministry official here said on Monday.

UK planning for possible Greece exit from the eurozone

Robert Peston

Economics editor

BBC

The prime minister this morning chaired a meeting of senior officials to discuss the impact on the UK of possible Greek exit from the eurozone - and to take steps to ensure British banks and companies would not be excessively damaged.

Η λιτότητα και ο θάνατος

ΠΟΛΙΤΙΚΗ 08.02.2015 : 18:11

Του Πάσχου Μανδραβέλη

Εφημερίδα Καθημερινή

Η αλήθεια είναι πως σχεδόν όλοι -πλην κάποιων ψυχασθενών- είμαστε κατά του θανάτου. Ευτυχώς, η πρόταση περί κατάργησης του αναπόφευκτου δεν υπήρξε ποτέ σε προεκλογικό πρόγραμμα, έτσι ώστε να βρεθεί κάποιος κυβερνήτης που θα έλεγε «σκέφτομαι να πρωτοτυπήσω και να εφαρμόσω όσα προεκλογικά εξήγγειλα». Αναφέρουμε τη λέξη «κυβερνήτης» διότι κάποιος που θα επιχειρηματολογούσε πειστικά ότι «θα καταργήσει τον θάνατο» θα είχε ισχυρότατη λαϊκή εντολή. Πάνω από 90% θα τον ψήφιζαν, αλλά το ποσοστό αυτό μάλλον δεν θα ήταν και ιδιαίτερα πειστικό επιχείρημα απέναντι στον Χάρο.

Europe Weighs the Costs Of Casting Greece Aside

Officials Debate the Financial and Strategic Consequences of a Greek Exit

By STEPHEN FIDLER

Updated Feb. 5, 2015 5:16 p.m. ET

How much does Greece matter to Europe? It’s a question being asked by European officials as the brinkmanship over the country’s bailout program intensifies.

The answer is important because it will help determine how far governments will go to accommodate the economic demands of new Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, and whether they will be willing to court an outcome that could lead Greece to leave the euro and possibly the European Union.

Why Greece’s leftist Syriza will bow down to market pressures

COMMENTARY by  Nicholas Economides  FEBRUARY 5, 2015, 12:21 PM EST

http://fortune.com/2015/02/05/why-greeces-syriza-party-will-bow-down-to-market-pressures/

As talks break down between Greece and international lenders, it’s clear there are few options left for the country’s economy to stay afloat.

Greek stocks and bonds plunged on Thursday after the European Central Bank said that it would stop accepting Greek bonds as collateral for central bank loans. Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis had pleaded with ECB chairman Mario Draghi to allow Greek banks to buy $11.4 billion more in Treasury bills so that Greece is financed for a few more months. Draghi refused and deferred it to the Council of Finance Ministers of the Eurozone. If the ECB objection stands, the Greek government may ask depositors to directly buy 3- and 6-month Treasury bills, a plan very unlikely to succeed. Therefore, Greece could run out of money as soon as March.

Greece and the ECB

The enforcer

How the European Central Bank can dictate terms to the Greek government

The Economist

AS PART of his campaign to present a more conciliatory face to Greece’s European creditors, Yanis Varoufakis, the new Greek finance minister, dropped by the European Central Bank (ECB) in Frankfurt on February 4th. He met Mario Draghi, its president, in an encounter Mr Varoufakis described as “fruitful”. But there are sweet fruits and bitter ones. After his visit, the ECB’s governing council served up a bitter variety by deciding to make life tougher for Greek banks, already beset by big outflows of deposits. The decision was a warning shot to the new government over its unwillingness to abide by Greece’s bail-out arrangements.

ECB cancels soft treatment of Greek debt in warning to Athens

BY JOHN O'DONNELL AND JAN STRUPCZEWSKI

FRANKFURT/BRUSSELS Thu Feb 5, 2015 5:03am EST

(Reuters) - The European Central Bank abruptly canceled its acceptance of Greek bonds in return for funding on Wednesday, shifting the burden onto Athens' central bank to finance its lenders and isolating Greece unless it strikes a new reform deal.

The move, which means the Greek central bank will have to provide its banks with tens of billions of euros of additional emergency liquidity in the coming weeks, was a response to what many in Frankfurt see as the Greek government's abandoning of its aid-for-reform program.

Europe’s Greek Test

JAN. 30, 2015

Paul Krugman

The New York Times

In the five years (!) that have passed since the euro crisis began, clear thinking has been in notably short supply. But that fuzziness must now end. Recent events in Greece pose a fundamental challenge for Europe: Can it get past the myths and the moralizing, and deal with reality in a way that respects the Continent’s core values? If not, the whole European project — the attempt to build peace and democracy through shared prosperity — will suffer a terrible, perhaps mortal blow.

A major step towards a Greek compromise

- Finance Minister Varoufakis’s proposal provides a good basis to start discussions

by Zsolt Darvas on 3rd February 2015

 Bruegel.org

Following a week of fright after the Greek elections, during which various statements by the new Greek government have raised the spectre of Grexit, Finance Minister Varoufakis made a surprising proposal yesterday: the government will no longer call for a headline write-off of Greece’s public debt, but instead proposes to change the terms of current European loans to Greece, to aim for a primary surplus (much) smaller than the Trokia target and fight against tax evasion.

Greek Finance Minister Heads to Germany After Retreating From Tough Stance

By James Hertling

 (Bloomberg) -- Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis arrives in Germany with the wind at his back: the biggest rally in stocks since the days of the drachma and a plunge in the week-old government’s borrowing costs.

All he had to do was drop a demand for a debt writedown, retreating from a central campaign promise.