ECB President Jean Claude Trichet made on Thursday a clear point on Greek Debt and the additional bailout. “ECB’s position does not change. Participation of private sector is voluntary. We don’t want a ‘selective default”. Trichet was speaking during a press conference and gave this answer when he was asked to comment about Dutch Finance Minister’s statement that “a voluntary participation is impossible”. Trichet’s statement was important then it give a framework for the Eurogroup to prepare a reportedly 100 billion euro additional bailout for Greece.
This clear guidance came to settle things down after Charles Dallara, the managing director of the Institute of International Finance, told Bloomberg “Greece’s creditors may be willing to risk a selective default of the country. It may well be that some rating agencies reach judgements that involve a selective default,” Dallara said in an interview and added “I don’t think that a temporary period of selective default as it has been narrowly framed for sovereigns in the past is necessarily the worst thing that could happen here”.
Dallaras’ surprising statement fell like a small bomb amid concern of worsening of the crisis within the eurozone. CDS and Spreads skyrocketed not only for Greece but also for Portugal and Ireland. Then while Portugal was downgraded in a sudden attack by Moody’s, there are rumors that Ireland might get attacked as well. Greece’s CDS went up to 2,200 basic points, while Portugal’s touched 1,065 and Ireland’s 935 b.p.
The Spreads of ten-year Greek bonds increased to 1,380 units, those of Portuguese and Irish bonds touched 1,000 units.
Meanwhile, the meeting of International financiers and European Union officials in Rome “failed to make progress on Thursday in securing a private sector contribution to a second bailout of Greece, as bond yields continued to climb because of concern about the scheme.” (Reuters).
While EU’s men-in-black prove unable to show political will and find sustainable solutions for the potato they cooked inside the Euro Zone pots, uncertainty prevails with Greeks losing control of their nerves and keep attacking their politicians…
(economic news from sources: wsj.com, capital.gr, in.gr)
And now I also read that the EU want to try to prohibit the ratings agencies from including individual EU countries in their evaluations! Who do these Eurocrats think they are? We need checks and balances and although the ratings agencies are companies serving only their shareholders we need a voice on the global economy that isn’t controlled by governments. This policy, if implemented, would be yet another step on the road to an EU dictatorship. “Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely”.
Nice analysis on The Economist http://www.economist.com/node/18929044
In short:
So, apart from Greeces internal problems there is no real other problem then politics and a ponzy game going on, it seems.