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Greek crisis: surrender fiscal sovereignty in return for bailout, Merkel tells Tsipras
guardian ^ | Sunday 12 July 2015 15.23 EDT | Ian Traynor and Jennifer Rankin in Brussels, and Helena Smith in Athens

Posted on 07/12/2015 1:17:55 PM PDT by BenLurkin

A weekend of high tension that threatened to break Europe in two climaxed on Sunday night at a summit of eurozone leaders in Brussels where the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, and President François Hollande of France presented Greece’s radical prime minister, Alexis Tsipras, with an ultimatum.

In what a senior EU official described as an “exercise in extensive mental waterboarding” to secure Greek acquiescence to talks on a third bailout in five years worth up to €86bn (£62bn), the two leaders pressed for absolute certainty from Tsipras that he would honour what was on offer.

...

The Eurogroup document said experts from the troika of creditors – the International Monetary Fund, European Commission and European Central Bank – would be on the ground in Athens to monitor the proposed bailout programme. The trio would also have a say in all relevant Greek draft legislation before it is presented to parliament. Furthermore, the Greeks will have to amend all legislation already passed by the Syriza government this year that had not been agreed with the creditors.

(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...


TOPICS: Government
KEYWORDS: globalgovernment; oneworldorder
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1 posted on 07/12/2015 1:17:55 PM PDT by BenLurkin
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To: BenLurkin

Ha ha.

Lots of spoiled trust fund kiddies run up against the same thing as they spend all of their distribution checks.

When they want more money from their executor, they have to fall into line.


2 posted on 07/12/2015 1:20:52 PM PDT by Southack (The one thing preppers need from the 1st World? http://tinyurl.com/ktfwljc .)
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To: berdie

later


3 posted on 07/12/2015 1:23:22 PM PDT by berdie
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To: BenLurkin

in other words...the eu owns you.


4 posted on 07/12/2015 1:27:44 PM PDT by Sacajaweau (s)
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To: BenLurkin

This is letting the rest of world sneak a peek at what the Globalists intend for all nations.

Angela Merkel just made a really big boo-boo.


5 posted on 07/12/2015 1:30:53 PM PDT by SatinDoll (A NATURAL BORN CITIZEN IS BORN IN THE USA OF TWO USA CITIZENS)
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To: SatinDoll

Yep.


6 posted on 07/12/2015 1:33:02 PM PDT by RushIsMyTeddyBear (I'm fed up.)
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To: SatinDoll

I think the mask is completely off now. The globalists see no more need to hide. Now that their minions in Washington have crippled America — the globalists see nothing in their way.


7 posted on 07/12/2015 1:33:29 PM PDT by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is either satire or opinion. Or both.)
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To: BenLurkin

You just explained why Donald Trump is running for President.


8 posted on 07/12/2015 1:37:07 PM PDT by SatinDoll (A NATURAL BORN CITIZEN IS BORN IN THE USA OF TWO USA CITIZENS)
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To: BenLurkin

Not sure what “collateral” Greece could put up? Maybe their could let the Germans have their WWII military bases back?

There really are no good guys here. A pox on all their houses.


9 posted on 07/12/2015 1:38:53 PM PDT by rbg81
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To: BenLurkin

Surrender FISCAL sovereignty, all the rest of power on society you can keep. The German said this? Did she giggle and smirk as she said this?


10 posted on 07/12/2015 1:39:43 PM PDT by DesertRhino (I was standing with a rifle, waiting for soviet paratroopers, but communists just ran for office)
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To: BenLurkin

Once people swap self reliance and independence for a turn on the government teat the decision to withdraw is almost as difficult as the actual withdrawal.

That’s the essence of the Obama Plan to convert America.


11 posted on 07/12/2015 1:42:46 PM PDT by Iron Munro (We may be paranoid but that doesn't mean they aren't really after us)
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To: BenLurkin

Oxi!!!!

http://www.greece.org/ahepa/d22/portland/vpboxi_2.html


12 posted on 07/12/2015 1:48:09 PM PDT by Honorary Serb (Kosovo is Serbia! Free Srpska! Abolish ICTY!)
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To: BenLurkin

Send the Greek government a copy of Trump’s book.
Art of the Deal!
And send one to Obama and John Kerry too.


13 posted on 07/12/2015 1:48:15 PM PDT by rwoodward ("god, guns and more ammo")
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To: rbg81

There are no good guys. Does -anyone- believe that the German and EU central bankers were tricked by the Greeks? That they believed Greece to be a productive well managed society??
The Euros advanced these loans knowingly, precisely so this day would come and they could get their tentacles of control into them. There simply is no rational argument that the EU thought Greece could service these debts.
Its especially rich to watch EU bankers demand “moral risk”, and not being a bum,, when THEY took immense bailouts from the US Fed in 2008.

Greece has a few options. Sell basing rights to Russia or China. Sell China rights to drill their eastern med gas and oil fields. This is all good entertainment and you are right, there are no good guys here. Sell Apple rights to the Parthenon,,,

My only question is, when will Greece, owing money to EU bankers, mean that the US taxpayer must make it all good.


14 posted on 07/12/2015 1:49:28 PM PDT by DesertRhino (I was standing with a rifle, waiting for soviet paratroopers, but communists just ran for office)
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To: BenLurkin

And people wonder why the Greek populace keeps saying ‘NO’ to their government and to the EU?

There are many routes to slavery, this appears to be another one of them.


15 posted on 07/12/2015 1:51:52 PM PDT by The Working Man
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To: Sacajaweau

“in other words...the eu owns you.”

And given how the Greeks have drawn on the “productive” part of the EU, and then proceeded to pi$$ away what they’ve been given, I’d say that the EU should put Greece in receivership and run it until things are fixed. Personally, looking at the Greek history, my guess is that unless the money being handed out is done a little at a time, Greece will continue on it’s merry profligate spending ways until they’ve used up this money.


16 posted on 07/12/2015 1:58:58 PM PDT by vette6387
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To: Sacajaweau

I still believe in national sovereignty and I think most here on FR do.

All the spin about a Leftist government in Greece is designed to get us to do mental gymnastics like the TARP game of 2008 when W Bush was leading us to say the government had to take taxpayers money to save the ‘free enterprise system’.

‘free enterprise system’ should mean free and separate from government.


17 posted on 07/12/2015 2:03:21 PM PDT by Nextrush (FREEDOM IS EVERYBODY'S BUSINESS, REMEMBER PASTOR NIEMOLLER)
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To: BenLurkin

if an accurate report,
let nobody now mistake
what the “EU” is really all about


18 posted on 07/12/2015 2:08:22 PM PDT by faithhopecharity (For in much wisdom is much vexation; and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow.)
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To: BenLurkin
Two days of high-stakes negotiations between the finance ministers of the currency bloc resulted in a four-page document that included controversial German elements leaked on Saturday. Those measures included Greece leaving the euro temporarily by taking a “time-out” from the currency bloc if it refuses terms for talks on the new bailout or, in the event of agreement, that Greece sets aside €50bn worth of assets as collateral for new loans and for eventual privatisation. Both passages, however, did not enjoy a consensus among eurozone leaders.

Under the terms set before Tsipras on Sunday night, the Greek parliament has to endorse the entire package on Monday and then pass several pieces of legislation by Wednesday, including on pensions reform and a new VAT regime, before the eurozone will agree to negotiate a new three-year rescue package....

“The main obstacle to an agreement is trust,” said Pier Carlo Padoan, finance minister of Italy, one of the countries most sympathetic to Greece.

Arrrggghhhh! Of course Finance Minister Padoan is "most sympathetic" to the plight of Greece. If Greece's existing hundreds-of-billions of debt were to be cancelled, and still they get yet another dose of "free money" from more productive counties in the Eurozone, Italy would be the next country to sign up for that program. Perhaps Portugal and/or Spain would be next.

The Eurozone is undermining itself before our very eyes. It is paying the penalty for the original sin of thinking that monetary and fiscal policy can be safely separated. I.e., one single monetary system, but with fiscal policy left up to the individual countries composing the Eurozone.

They should have known that plan could never work, in the long run.

So now, lots of people are grumbling about those hard-nosed, flinty Germans, who happen to be among Greece's main creditors. The resources of Germany have been pouring through these banks into Greece, in the form of loans that Greece promised to repay according to an agreed schedule. But then, Greece did not adopt fiscal policies that could lead to that result. And now, they have their "hats in their hands" again, in default, and as "needy" as ever, for the third time in five years.

So I think Finance Minister Padoan is exactly right on-the-money RE: the "trust" issue.

On the other hand, if the problem is distrust that the loan will be repaid, could any loan going forward be secured by Greek capital assets?

As collateral for a new loan, conveyed to the creditors as guarantee of loan repayment, what would, say, the Parthenon, be worth? The banks would have their security; for if Greece fails to hold up its end of the bargain, the banks would own the Parthenon, and could "privatize it" — thereby recovering their funds and potentially making a ton of investment banking fees into the bargain.

Of course, the Guardian article accentuated the reported angst and division in the Eurozone, notably between Germany, France, and Finland, about the "Grexit."

I suspect such concerns are overblown. It seems they mostly boil down, at some level, to a battle of ministerial egos and reputations in the first place. The fact is, the Greek economy accounts for 2% of the annual GDP of the combined Eurozone economies. This is a tail trying to wag a dog....

And so far, they have been paid very handsomely for doing that. But this arrangement is completely unsustainable, thus it must end.

Though the Greeks will suffer the most for their stubborn political fecklessness over so many decades (which probably dates back to Plato), I hope they can find consolation in the fact that the pain will be widely spread and shared, well beyond their borders.

Thanxalot, Tsipras and your goons in Syriza!

19 posted on 07/12/2015 2:37:07 PM PDT by betty boop (Science deserves all the love we can give it, but that love should not be blind.)
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To: BenLurkin

The EU would have been better advised to say “no bailout all under any conditions,” and let the Greek chips fall where they may, rather than try to meddle in Greek affairs by saying, “we will bail you out if you do x, y, and z.”


20 posted on 07/12/2015 2:39:09 PM PDT by Socon-Econ
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