Posted on 07/08/2015 5:24:31 AM PDT by Wiz-Nerd
As we reported yesterday, following the latest European leaders summit, Greece was given until the end of the week to come up with a proposal for sweeping reforms in return for loans that will keep the country from crashing out of Europe's currency bloc and into economic ruin.
"The stark reality is that we have only five days left ... Until now I have avoided talking about deadlines, but tonight I have to say loud and clear that the final deadline ends this week," European Council President Donald Tusk told a news conference.
It did that moments ago when Greece officially submitted a request for a three-year loan facility from the European Stability Mechanism also promising to implement tax reform, and pension measures at the beginning of next week, which had been the biggest sticking point in negotiations for the past 5 months. And to think Syriza's main election promise was no more bailouts and the Greek people resoundly said not to just this over the weekend.
As Bloomberg reports, the loan will be used to meet Greece’s debt obligations, and to ensure financial system stability. Greece proposed immediate implementation of measures, including tax, pension reforms as early as next week. Govt to detail its proposals for specific reform agenda on July 9 at latest or tomorrow.
I thought they told the EU to stick it where the sun don’t shine last week.
The dog and pony show had to come first :-)
I’ m serious this time,Really!
So the votes of the people don’t matter after all. Doesn’t matter—Greece is hosed either way.
I wonder how the Greek population is going to feel about their leaders accepting more unpayable loans and more slashes in their personal finances, after they voted against that.
The Euros are fools if they trust this Marxist to do what he’s totally against.
From the European angle (I live over here so I caught tons of coverage)....it was a five-star shocker to all non Greek political folks (particularly in Germany) when they said they’d have to have a quick up-and-down vote. This was announced like on a Tuesday, to have the vote nationally on Sunday. You can imagine some state or some US federal election gimmick where they say you’ve got five days to grasp a complicated mess and just show up to vote “yes” or “no”.
Total number of votes either way....roughly 6.1 million. Roughly 65-percent of the public who are registered to vote.
The German public looked over media coverage and came down pretty negative about this whole deal. No one believes the Greeks are capable of paying past loans, or future loans. No one believes they can even change their pension system or social retirement deal.
The curious thing that an American in Europe observes from this....no Greek really stood there and asked what happens on the next ten days after the election? The banks are mostly closed....ATM machines will allow you around 100 Euro (120 dollars) a week. If you had over 8,000 Euro in your bank account....they seized the overage to cover bank operations. You can imagine how peeved folks are, but here’s the odd thing....it was expected for months and the bulk of all businessmen and wealthy folks already emptied their accounts and hid their money.
I watched an interview yesterday with a Greek business guy. He says EVERYTHING has stopped. You can’t buy meat or fruit without cash. You can’t arrange for the import of vital drugs or medical equipment without cash. You can’t arrange for a ferry to pick up your cargo, without cash. No cash? No operations. As he said....the bulk of businessmen are sitting there and drinking coffee, Ouzo, and wine. No one is doing anything. At best, he thinks they’ve got about two weeks before people go ‘nuts’.
My perception is that all of this was figured out by the Greek political folks six months ago and this is just a strategy to punish the EU and the EURO as much as possible. They did the same type strategy to force the Americans to leave the Greek bases and told the public it was a good thing....later, when nothing was used to replace the Americans who left....the question came up as to why create a fake agenda, and no one could answer that. I think it’s the same way here. Punish the EU, the Germans and the EURO....with a fake agenda.
They might even be able to convince enough members of the EU to just allow them to keep the EURO for months and months, dragging it down as much as possible. As for regular Greek people.....they really don’t have any hope left with this mess.
“Greece officially submitted a request for a three-year loan facility from the European Stability Mechanism also promising to implement tax reform, and pension measures”
Cue up Wimpy’s “I’ll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today.”
Funny how it never seems to get to three.
I think the Greeks said, "our train is out of control and we'd just as soon have OUR engineer in charge as the EU engineer." I'm not sure they are unwilling to fix their system if it is unavoidable. I just think they want to be the ones to make the choices, not the EU. But we'll see.
Interesting. Thanks.
Maybe. Or maybe it was the Greek people saying, “if this system is going to really fail, we want to be at the controls instead of the EU.” Even in failure, there is something about being master of your own ship.
The majority of Greek ‘workers’ are government employees. They know that if Greece is forced to submit to EU policies, they will be either fired, laid off, or their department will be sold to a private entity, where they will have to actually work for a living.........................
Yes, the captain always goes down with the ship.........................
The Americans had no choice but to leave when the host country asked them to. But the Americans had no control of the Greek economy like the EU does. They hold all the cards and Greece must do as they are told. When over 50% of Greeks are employed by the government, in some way or another, their tax base is essentially zero. Government workers, of all stripes, do not add to the treasury, they only deplete it........
When you can’t buy gas....when you can’t buy bread....when you can’t buy meat or anything substance....when you can’t buy vital drugs to keep your kid or grandma alive...when none of this can occur because there is no cash to hand you....who exactly is the master of the master of the ship?
I could have 100,000 Euro in the bank....but it’s not releasable to me unless they have the bills to issue you via the ATM or bank.
This really says a lot about society, where we’ve taken acceptance, and just how quick our whole life can fall apart. Imagine yourself as a Greek with a need for insulin. With what you got in the house...how many days of survival do you have, and if you have cash....do it spend it on rent, insulin, gas or food?
I’m skeptical now of the Greek argument of taking charge of their mess. They’ve had five years and over 300,000,000,000 Euro to get things arranged and problems solved. Epic failure is the only words available for their achievements. Either through health issues, depression or suicide....you can figure 5,000 to 10,000 Greeks won’t be around by the end of the month.
Years ago I was at a dinner in Paris. I was seated next to a Greek architect. He was an older, dignified gentleman in a lovely tuxedo. He proceeded to tell me about the leisurely pace of life in Greece as opposed to the US. He said it was not unusual to go to dinner at 9 p.m. and stay five or six hours. Since he said this was even on work nights I wondered at the Greek work ethic.
How do you say, "boob bait for the bubbas", in Greek?
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