The European Central Bank has also taken a tough line with Athens, banning the acceptance on Greek bonds as collateral for its cheap loans. Greece is now asking the ECB to raise the cap on the emergency funding (ELA) it provides to the country's banks as capital has fled the country. The ECB could provide some relief for lenders at an emergency meeting to discuss ELA on Thursday, according to Bloomberg. Half a billion taken from the HFSF (=the Greek banks' recapitalization fund) won't go far. Greece needs to repay 1.2bn by end March, and still doesn't have enough to pay salaries and pensions. Now they're trying to raid the social security funds, starting with 150m out of the unemployment fund, but meeting resistance from the guy who oversees it. (He realizes he'll never get it back.) Syriza are drawing on an old and tricksy law, but it looks to me as if they may have to pass further legislation to get at that money. OK, they 'only'(!) need 448m to repay the IMF in April - but then 747m in May, 1.5bn in June, 448m in July, plus 2bn ECB, plus 1.3bn EZ central banks repayments, 3bn ECB in August. Tax coffers are e-m-p-t-y. The FT (apparently firm believers in fairies) think that "by April the left-wing government may have advanced far enough with structural economic reforms to draw down part of a 7.2bn loan tranche being withheld..."
Oh, come on! WTF, FT!
Guys, guys, enough already - it can't be done with a few iphone-wielding students shopping a few tavernas to the tax office.
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