I guess the IMF is speechless too. So far there has been not official statement to the decision of Greek prime minister George Papandreou to put the new loan agreement in a referendum.
Formally, the response of the representative of the European Union Carolina Kotova was “no comment” and “We are in contact and await formal notification from the Greek authorities.”
Charles Dallara, the chief of world banks IIF was asking what would be the question of the referendum.
And the IMF is trying to recover from its surprise.
Deutsche Welle reported citing sources from the German government that they were “startled”.
The EURO plunged -5% and the Wall Street didn’t feel any better.
German media reported that George Papandreou overturns the decisions of the Oct 26th EU-Summit. Weekly DIE ZEIT wrote : Greece’s bankruptcy nears.
British media report that a fresh crisis in on the way.
Associated Press spoke of “gambling”.
Hope Greece’s lenders will recover soon form the surprise and will make some statement tomorrow, the day after tomorrow, next month…
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i know its wrong and everything but isnt it at least a little bit satisfying to realise that finally europeans feel how everyday greeks feel. with laws changing daily goverments changing their mind every 5 minutes. all i can say is we seem to be taking it better than the europeans. is that because we have had years of practice with chaos and uncertainty? i mean when i first read the news about referendum i laughed. it was a natural laugh, kinda like what else will they think of. and im sure the banks are happy we all know how much they like uncertainty and not beeing in control. all i know is that it will make for a very interesting winter.
it’s the practice – everything is ‘practice’ lol
the next step is convincing merkel to go to a civil service office. a tax office or one of the ministries to get a paper signed. if she is still sane after the hours of waiting and beeing sent from office to office the greek people can award her with the “live like a greek for a day” award or as we know it the “mono stin ellada” award.
The past ten years, Greece citizens collected over 8 billion pension which was paid to people who no longer were alive.
In most cases it involved ordinary families who kept receiving pension fund after a relative of the family died.
Is this the practice ?
For some? Yes. Couple of farmers in Messenia collected last year about 4,5 million euro in VAT-refunds for stuff they did not produce. And could not have produced because of the size of their land. This was happening all over the Peloponnese. On an island they had more than 600 people who were legally blind. All blatant stuff. It happens.
Raw GENIUS!
At first I thought Papandreou was nuts bringing up a referendum at this time.
Then I realized – this man has committed a masterstroke! The timing, the total surprise, the way Papandreou led the inept and clueless Europeans along, the pure shock when the Troika found out that they had just been sucker-punched! Brilliant!
Now that Greece has finally regained the whip hand, G-Pap can drop his next kung-fu move – Greece has maybe two months left before a hard default. So the referendum gives G-Pap the blackmail tool he needs to force the Troika to renegotiate new and milder bailout terms. Plus, who can argue with “more democracy?”
If the renegotiation is successful, either the referendum is cancelled or will go through successfully. Renegotiation fails, and Greece defaults and Euroinstitutions get a black eye. No renegotiation, and the referendum succeeds, in which G-Pap finally has a mandate, or fails, in which we get a default, which was inevitable anyway. At least if Greece defaults now, Papandreou can pass the buck onto the Troika and the people.
From the G-Pap perspective, any outcome is better than the status quo.
A powerful thug move! The Troika cannot compete.