OMG! How could Greek voters be so stupid and kick out the previous government when “things” were going economically better? Ops! I suppose, Greek voters knew very well, that it was the country that was doing better in terms of accounting and numbers and creditors’ demands but that the common people, the citizens of this troubled country were living in hell trying to survive, cover their basic needs, feed and dress their kids and buy diapers and medicine for their bed-ridden elderly. I suppose, Greek voters knew very well, that the lenders’ slogan was and still is: “Save the country and our banks, ruin the people!”
IMF not insisting on further debt relief for Greece – Schaeuble
German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said on Tuesday that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) had warned recently that Greek’s financial situation was worsening but denied that it was insisting on further debt relief.
Speaking to the foreign press association in Berlin, Schaeuble refuted reports that IMF official Poul Thomsen had told euro zone finance ministers at a recent meeting in Riga that returning Greece to a sustainable debt path would require debt relief.
“The IMF of course did not make such a comment,” Schaeuble said, noting however that Thomsen had been clear that Greek finances were deteriorating because of a pause in reforms linked to the election there.
Thomsen did say things “had become more difficult,” Schaeuble said. (via CNBC)
PS a ruin is a ruin is a ruin…
According to other source (Financial Times), mr. Thomsen specifically mentioned debt relief.
Eurozone leaders turn their wishful faces towards the ECB. They hope that ECB would lift the ceiling about how much it accepts short-term Greek debt (T-bills) on its balance sheet.
This way Greece could crawl ahead for a couple of months. However, such a move would hardly change anything, except Greece’s debt burden would only balloon bigger. I thought the crisis was always Greece’s debt being too high already, but I might have missed something there…
You haven’t missed anything, the msm is burying this story as fast as it can.
IMF’s global credibility is on the line because of the total destruction of the Greek economy under IMF multipliers & prescriptions. It is further under threat because of the creation of the AIB which Asian & Latin American economies immediately signed up to following their respective destructive IMF experiences. Meanwhile inside IMF the BRICs warned against the consequences of the program in 2012, so there is also internal insurrection.
The important thing is that in Greece’s case IMF agreed not to apply the only element of its programme which is constructive: IMF’s first step is always debt restructure. Why it did not is supposedly because IMF was not in charge but a co-partner – a very poor excuse which a global monetary agency cannot justify or hide behind forever, given that it spent years enforcing its program against the evidence and in spite of internal leakage of BRICS and others objections. A mean person as ktg would say might think it had a connection to Christine Lagarde leaving her job under Sarkozy as French finmin midway through the crisis to take over IMF directorship….and France having the highest exposure to Greece. It still does today (+60bn).
So IMF is initiating an audit of its Greek program (which will be anodyne). It is also standing by the need for a haircut because it has to for credibility….but not too loudly, just enough to say later that it did. At the same time an audit will ‘target’ Thomsen’s performance as Greek rep. He is now head of Europe inside IMF. I’m sure Thomsen will survive. Smoke & mirrors.
On the other hand ECB could agree to haircut its 100bn of Greek debt with no loss or harm to itself. This could be on the table.
Thanks for some excellent comments.
Just one point – one of the common ingredients in the IMF recipe used to be devaluation. In itself it did not help, but it was used to win time for the affected country. In Greece’s case this was of course not possible, since what had been important for Greece was to lower its price level versus the other eurozone countries.
So here we have IMF providing a “solution” for Greece without two of its usual elements. And of course all this because the German and French banks needed to be rescued.
Same thing a few years later in Cyprus – at least if one believes this essay (with some very interesting graphs):
http://www.oftwominds.com/blogapr13/Cyprus-template4-13.html
Meanwhile back in 2012 Eurogroup promised Greece a debt restructure & exit from the program once it had a fiscal surplus. Which is why Finmin Stournaras put Greece through hell in 2013 to achieve a fiscal surplus. Of course neither promise came true. However the first fiscal surplus was not real, but an accounting fudge and was used to proclaim that Greece had Recovery for internal EZ political propaganda purposes. With ND/PASOK & Stournaras willing collaboration.
The following years though, Greece HAS had a fiscal surplus. This has now been eaten up in the last 3 months not because SYRIZA is incompetent but engineered by the ECB on Feb 12 when it cut off Greece’s ability to finance itself through T-bills. A wholly political decision of ECB and outside its mandate, 100% illegal.
A horrible reality of endless lies, rule-breaking & politicking at every level.
So IMF & Thomsen have returned to this 2012 debt restructure promise now because of credibility problems inside IMF (see my other comment). Just not very loudly & brushed over with confusion & conflicting stories.
Finally, note that IMF is using its haircut claim to insist on even stricter & deeper austerity (a new program) – based on Greece’s present failure to have a fiscal surplus!!
Please, pray for default.
And yet the Greek voters want to stay in the Euro… (sigh!)
Yes, I understand the fear of the unknown, especially when all the experts warn of the dangers facing Greece if it exits the Eurozone, but Greeks, better than any other people, ought to know the story of Procrustes. That story did not end well, and the similitude between Procruste’s bed and the Euro must now be more than evident.
Exactly!!
Syriza, are they different? Or just the same as your former politicians?
Read a fellow Greek article on the following website.
http://greece.greekreporter.com/2015/05/10/in-greece-governments-change-but-everything-remains-the-same/
Quote:
Also, the good old Greek nepotism is back. Family members of the prime minister, of cabinet members and other key SYRIZA politicians are “taken care of.” From the brother of Alexis Tsipras to the mother of House Speaker Zoe Konstantopoulou, many relatives have now high government positions with equally high salaries. Maybe this is the strategy of SYRIZA to fight unemployment.
Ministers hire girlfriends and relatives, special committees are formed in order to include SYRIZA members, young people with or without degrees get positions as consultants in ministries, special positions are created in state organizations to accommodate “our people.” When the question came to the House from New Democracy and PASOK MPs, the answer was typical of Greek politics: “When you were in power, you were doing the same.” Corruption remains the same, it just has a new face now.
I hoped this would change. So also people without a political preference would have a chance for good study results (teacher gives a higher figure if you are from his party) and a job. And if you don’t know what I mean with this, you probably don’t recognise this kind of corruption?