Greece and Germany are on the frontline in a fierce battle about the future of European economic policy, with Syriza determined to show that ditching austerity is a better recipe for economic recovery than relentless cuts, and Germany determined to make Athens stick to the deficit-cutting agenda – and pay back the €240bn (£180bn) in bailout loans it received from the international community.  As Varoufakis returned to Athens , thousands of people gathered on the streets to show solidarity in the party’s battle with Greece’s creditors.  The fresh outpouring of public concern, with protesters gathering in Syntagma Square, the centre of anti-government riots during repeated crises in recent years, came after the European Central Bank outraged policymakers by restricting access to emergency funds for Greece’s struggling banks.   In Berlin, Varoufakis promised to meet the alarmist warnings of some in the eurozone about the consequences of Syriza’s radical policies with “a frenzy of reasonableness”.   Just before the Berlin meeting the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, had ratcheted up the pressure on the eurozone to find a solution to the crisis by inviting the new Greek prime minister, Alexis Tsipras, to talks in Moscow in May.  Schäuble said Germany would “fully respect the mandate” handed to Varoufakis and his colleagues by the electorate in the general election last month, but Germany had its own democratic pressures.

^{Greece's finance minister spoke to ECB chief Mario Draghi in Frankfurt (Source: Getty)}

In return, Mr Varoufakis assured German voters his government would seek to dismantle the "cronyism and corruption" that has held back the country for decades.

"Germans have to understand that it doesn’t mean we’re turning away from the reform path if we give an additional €300 a year to a pensioner living on €300 a month. When we talk about reforms, we should talk about cartels, about rich Greeks who hardly pay any taxes."

The finance minister ruled out any plea for financial aid from Russia, and called on the German Chancellor to put forward a "Merkel Plan" based on the post-war Marshall loans granted by the United States to rehabilitate Germany after the war.

"I believe the EU would benefit if Germany conceived of itself as a hegemon," said Mr Varoufakis. "But a hegemon must shoulder responsibility for others.

"Germany would use its power to unite Europe. That would be a wonderful legacy for Germany’s federal chancellor."

^{Who owns Greek debt?}

^{(Source: Open Europe)}

The euro-zone economy plunged last quarter at its fastest pace in nearly four years, as weakening global activity and deep recessions along the currency zone's southern border gripped powerhouses such as Germany and France.

The report on gross domestic product from the European Union's statistics office highlights a key risk for the currency bloc as Europe's debt crisis enters its fourth year. Financial market conditions have improved markedly since last summer, due in large part to the European Central Bank's pledge to do "whatever it takes" to preserve the euro. But these gains haven't translated into new business activity.Without growing economies, Spain and Italy will likely see government-debt burdens increase even as they undertake austerity measures such as higher taxes and reduced spending. That could revive doubts in financial markets about the sustainability of their finances. GDP in the euro zone fell 0.6% in the fourth quarter compared with the third, according to the Eurostat report. Economists had expected a 0.4% drop. It was the third straight GDP decline and fifth straight quarter in which the currency bloc failed to expand. For 2012 as a whole, GDP fell 0.5% from the prior year.

GDP in Germany, Europe's largest economy, fell 0.6% from the previous quarter on declining exports and investment. France, the bloc's second biggest, declined 0.3%. Other large economies including Italy, Spain and the Netherlands contracted.

Italy's GDP plummeted 0.9% from the previous quarter, a much sharper rate of decline than the third quarter. Spain's downturn also deepened. Portugal's GDP slid 1.8% in the final three months of 2012, double the third quarter's rate of decline.

ECB officials expect the euro zone to embark on a gradual recovery later in 2013. But the source of that rebound remains elusive. Record-high unemployment in the euro zone has weighed on consumer spending, while fiscal austerity measures are expected to weaken state spending and employment in many euro countries this year. Borrowing costs for small businesses remain elevated in Spain and Italy. In Germany, where unemployment is much lower than other parts of the region, the economy appears to be bouncing back quickly with business surveys signaling a return to growth this quarter, aided in part by stronger exports to Asia. Weakness in late 2012 "is likely to be a springboard for a small V-shaped rebound" as soon as this quarter, said Berenberg Bank economist Christian Schulz.

But surveys of purchasing managers and other business leaders suggest France continues to contract this quarter. French industry has lost global competitiveness in recent years as its labor costs rose, economists say. A raft of tax increases imposed by President François Hollande is adding to the headwinds facing the economy.

The French government is preparing to at least halve its 0.8% GDP growth forecast for this year, officials familiar with the matter told The Wall Street Journal earlier this month. The smaller size of the economy and fall in tax receipts is also derailing government plans to cut the budget deficit to 3% of GDP this year.

"In order to maintain its position at the epicenter of the euro area in economic terms, France has a lot of work to do," said analysts at J.P. Morgan JPM -0.94%in a research note.

BLOWIG HOT AIR ... Greece is far form being OK...Greeks are though...

GERMANY BLOWING HOT AIR - "Greece is getting on track," German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble said in Brussels as the meeting ended. "It is not easy for them."  The agreement reached on Monday night foresees an initial payment of €2.5 billion this month to be followed up by more payments in subsequent months. Greece's creditors are primarily concerned by the slow progress Athens has made on downsizing its public sector, with thousands of additional layoffs pending. The country's privatization program has also generated much less cash than expected, most recently as a result of the government's inability to find a buyer for the natural gas company DEPA. Tax reform and the pursuit of tax dodgers is another area where Greece's creditors have demanded improvement. "It's time to step up the momentum of reform in Greece," said European Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs Olli Rehn.  Still, the public sector cuts are controversial in Greece, with thousands of teachers and municipal workers taking to the streets of Athens on Monday and Tuesday. Some 12,500 state employees are to be placed on administrative leave by the end of September with an additional 12,500 to join them by the end of the year. They will receive 75 percent of their salary for eight months. If they haven't found a new job by then, they will be unemployed.

There is concern that the additional cuts could further damage the country's fragile economy which, while slowly improving, is still stuck in its sixth straight year of recession. Economists forecast that the country could return to growth next year -- a tiny increase of just 0.6 percent -- but some worry that dividing up aid payments could derail the slow recovery. The agreement to continue funding Greece, however, was by no means unexpected. Despite widespread concern with Athens' slow pace of reform, there is little appetite for risking a return of the euro crisis by withholding funding. The situation in Portugal has made European finance ministers even more cautious. Political instability in Lisbon last week recently triggered a spike in the interest rate on Portuguese sovereign bonds. The country was able to avoid a collapse of the government, but Lisbon must nevertheless push through an additional €5 billion austerity package in the coming months, and there are concerns that political worries might return.

Greece too has seen its share of political instability in recent weeks, with the government of Prime Minister Antonis Samaras almost collapsing due to its sudden and controversial shutdown of public broadcaster ERT. One of the parties in his three-party coalition left, leaving him with a tiny three-seat majority in parliament.

It is unclear whether France's proposal to provide direct aid to Greek banks will gain much traction. Some €60 billion of the €500 billion ESM fund has been made available to provide direct assistance to euro-zone banks that need it. But it remains controversial. Furthermore, European leaders only recently agreed to involve shareholders, creditors and individual countries should large banks find themselves in need of help. It remains unclear whether that agreement applies to existing cases like Greece.

The wounded, bleeding elephant in the room in Brussels today is the awful damage that has already been done to Europe's economy.

Local firms in Cyprus saw business dried up as the country's banks remained closed, and customers learned the full scale of the crisis.

The looming capital controls (restrictions on cash withdrawals, bank transfers, etc) will hurt trade, possibly for months. And the destruction of parts of the Cypriot banking sector will take a great, big chunk out of the country's economy.

A well-respected fund manager based in London who blogs/tweets as Pawelmorski says the scale of the economic destruction achieved in the last week is unheard of 'without the use of weapons'.

He wrote yesterday....The combination of laying waste to the financial sector and tearing up the savings of thousands of residents means that Cyprus won’t return to current levels of output for a decade, a funeral pyre which bears comparison only with Greece.   There are four shocks happening at once; the bog-standard austerity shock; the trauma of bank withdrawal controls; the wealth shock; and the structural shock of wiping out the financial sector. The bailout bill is certainly going to get a lot higher too, as a larger amount of debt is piled onto a smaller economy.
The central bank in Cyprus imposed a €100 a day withdrawal limit at cash machines for all local banks on Sunday to avert a run on lenders, as the island's leaders meet its international lenders for last-ditch talks to avert a financial meltdown.

I have a feeling that this whole economic situation is going to end up with a "boy who cried wolf" scenario....there have been so many "crisis" stories since 2007 that no one cares any more, then one day we will wake up and the Euro will be on its knees ....then the media will be happy because there will be an actual crisis to report on !

In the mean time...A "French expansionary policy' would have to be paid for with German, Dutch, Finnish money. These payees may agree if as part of the package deal there was real external control at a federal level over spending in France (and Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece) and as a result of this control see a roll back of many aspects of the huge government spending in France where 65% of GDP is direct government spending. What the payees want is a reform of rigid labor markets and money to be spent on supporting projects that will employ people and not on cradle to grave government largesse beloved of French socialists. On the other hand, the French ideal is an agreement where they get pots of other peoples money to allow them to carry on exactly as they where doing and even expand the dirigiste state more. Mr Hollande made lots of election promises (eg hiring 65000 more teachers that he now he is President he knows France cannot afford. He would love Germany to pay. France (and others) will never give up an iota of sovereignty over their economy, so don't expect the Germans and others to agree to mutualize debts....Well...It is really all a big scam. Governments borrowing money that they know they wont pay back, banks doing the same, senior politicians and banksters all know that they will be retired soon, into the sunset with their golden pensions and pots of cash. They wont be around to live in the hell they have created. Meanwhile, the workers, the poor, the unemployed, the pensioners will all pay the price of rising unemployment, failed social systems and rising crime. Eventually there will be an overthrow of the current system, but the crooks will all be gone to Dubai, USA or some other capitalist entity that doesnt ask questions about how they got their money. I live in the UK, the poverty is visibly worse every day and our politicians do nothing. Same everwhere I guess. Pity. Within weeks of taking office at the start of the year he was flooding Europe's banks with €1tn in cheap, short-term credit. Was that the same cheap loan scheme that was known as LTRO? Long Term Refinancing Operation? Either way Angela seems to have it well under control. She will play it her way, loosen the purse strings as and when necessary. The Germans really couldn't give a damn but if, in their desperation, the EU wishes to place the future of Europe in her lap, who is she, a mere frau, to refuse? Interesting times. Time for us to think about where's the EXIT maybe?

The fourth REICH in full action according to the Ribbentrop - Molotov Treaty ... Europe is under the German boot !!!!..

Mario Draghi has defended his Outright Monetary Transactions plan to the Bundestag in the last few minutes.

Draghi promised German MPs that the pledge to buy unlimited quantities of bonds will dispel fears over the euro's future.

The ECB president also began his two-hour appearance in Berlin by repeating his line that politicians, not central bankers, must take the decisive steps to ensure Europe's future

Here's how Draghi defended the OMT, which he insisted did not put taxpayers at risk.

We designed the OMTs exactly to...restore monetary policy transmission in two key ways.

First, it provides for ex ante unlimited interventions in government bond markets, focusing on bonds with a remaining maturity of up to three years. A lot of comments have been made about this commitment. But we have to understand how markets work. Interventions are designed to send a clear signal to investors that their fears about the euro area are baseless.

Second, as a pre-requisite for OMTs, countries must have negotiated with the other euro area governments a European Stability Mechanism (ESM) programme with strict and effective conditionality. This ensures that governments continue to correct economic weaknesses while the ECB is active. The involvement of the IMF, with its unparalleled track record in monitoring adjustment programmes would be an additional safeguard.

The full statement has been uploaded to the ECB website.

Draghi also warned that deflation is a bigger risk than inflation today, which may not convince German lawmakers who fear a return to the 1920s.

European leaders early Friday agreed to have a new supervisor for euro-zone banks up and running next year, a step that will pave the way for the bloc's bailout fund to pump capital directly into banks throughout the single-currency area......
Friday's announcement is a disappointment for some officials at the European Commission, the EU's executive arm, who had hoped to have the supervisor operational at the start of 2013.
The leaders also discussed plans for a common budget for the 17 euro-zone nations that could be used to absorb economic shocks impacting one part of the euro zone but not others. But José Manuel Barroso, the commission president, said: "This is something for the medium and longer term.

The man who died in Greece :
The death came as protesters lobbed flares, petrol bombs and chunks of marble at lines of riot police, who responded with tear gas and stun grenades, in confrontations which have become all too familiar in the Greek capital over the last three years.

The clashes erupted in and around Syntagma Square, in front of parliament, during protests against a new wave of austerity cuts that the government plans to introduce in November.

"A 65-year-old man was taken to hospital where efforts to revive him failed," a health ministry official told the AFP news agency.

One report said the man had been found dead in Syntagma Square while another said he was found on a bench several hundred yards from the violence.

GREECE - THE FARCE !!!!...So who's swapping their bonds and who isn't?

A miracle:----95pc of Greek bondholders accept deal allowing a purely "voluntary" restructuring to go ahead --- Athens is desperate to secure a "voluntary" agreement from bondholders - crucial to protecting its word and reputation in international markets, as well as avoiding a dreaded "disorderly" default. Both the hurdle and the deal - creditors are being asked to swap their bonds for new ones worth around a third of the value - are tough. The International Institute of Finance (IIF), the body that has negotiated with the Greek government on behalf of bondholders, said its members "intend to participate" in the deal. The group released several tallies on Wednesday - in the latest of which they said they spoke for bonds "amounting in aggregate to €84bn, or 40.8pc of the €206bn total PSI eligible debt". A raft of international banks have announced their intention to accept the deal, too. But we already know some are voting against. Let's have a stab at it. I think I had a go at this once before. There is surely the risk of a systemic bank run unfolding across the European continent if Greece is "allowed" to leave the Euro? As soon as people realise that if Greece can leave the euro, then why not Portugal, Ireland, Spain and Italy, at which point the value of the euro collapses. The euro becomes infungible overnight. Clearly, anybody at all holding euros in any of those countries would want out as their holdings would potentially be on a trajectory towards a massively devalued currency (the new escudo, the new punt or whatever). A bank run is one thing of course; a systemic bank run is uncharted territory, I assume. If you then throw in all of the euro commercial contractual arrangements threatened by the extinction of the contractual currency itself and you have the mother-of-all catastrophes on your hands. People tend not to behave rationally if they perceive that events are likely to get seriously out of hand imminently. Of course, "allowing" Greece to leave the euro might not have any or all of these unintended consequences, but will Europe's politico-banking mafia take the chance? I don't know. What I do know is that if Greece leaves the euro, Europe is stuffed; and if Greece stays in the euro, Europe is stuffed. This is what happens when politicians and bureaucrats convince themselves that economic fundamentals don't matter when driving through a grand political dream (or nightmare in the case of the EU) without popular awareness and understanding, and democratic consent. Economics always wins in the end because economics describes how people live their lives. Politicians merely fantasize for their own ends, and the apparatchiks feed off them like parasites; the EU in a nutshell.

So who's swapping their bonds and who isn't? .... According to Bloomberg (writing before the latest PCIC statement was released), investors with 58pc of the Greek bonds eligible for the debt swap have so far indicated they'll participate. AP suggests the figure is closer to 48pc, while one Greek website has calculated a participation rate of 76pc. The 32 financial institutions that have signed up to the debt swap aren't necessarily the only ones participating (so far). Other investors that are not affiliated with the IIF committee on Greece may have tendered their bonds privately. I've just had a chat with Nick Matthews, senior European economist at RBS who says "the situation is too liquid" to say whose sums are correct. Investors have until 8pm tomorrow to decide whether to accept the bond swap deal. This will be followed by a conference call held by the Eurogroup of finance ministers at 1pm on Friday. The two banks added are Landesbank Baden-Wurttemberg and the Bank of Cyprus, which issued a separate statement earlier. In case you're wondering why Credit Foncier has disappeared off the original list, it's not because they've changed their mind - the name now appears as parent group BPCE.

Here is the updated list of financial institutions: Ageas, Allianz, Alpha Bank, AXA, Banque Postale, Bank of Cyprus, BBVA, BNP Paribas, BPCE, CNP Assurances, Commerzbank, Credit Agricole, DekaBank, Deutsche Bank, Dexia,, Emporiki Bank of Greece, Eurobank EFG, Generali, Greylock Capital Management, Groupama, HSBC, ING, Intesa San Paolo, KBC, Landesbank Baden-Wurttemberg, Marfin Popular Bank, Metlife, National Bank of Greece, Piraeus Bank, Royal Bank of Scotland, Societe Generale, Unicredit.

...Greek papers this morning are saying the famous 6th tranche of aid (the €8bn euro needed to cover public sector payments by Nov 10th when the government has admitted it will run out of cash) is now in question following Prime Minister George Papandreou's deeply controversial decision to put last week's latest EU/IMF rescue package for the country to popular vote. Prominent commentator Ioannis Pretenderis, in the usually pro-government Ta Nea, wrote that: The prospect of a referendum is catastrophic. First because it throws the agreement struck on October 26th up in the air and will lead the country to bankruptcy. At this moment, in the general European uproar, not even the sixth aid installment is guaranteed. Secondly, because it cunningly turns the question of the governance of the country into one about its European perspective. Third and worst of all, because it turns the European future of Greece that was always a given into something that is questionable. Already, the damage is huge almost irreparable. I don't know the motives or thought process that lead Papandreou to make this decision. Already, the damage is huge, almost irreparable. Such stinging rebukes are being much echoed in the ranks of Papandreou's ruling Pasok party which has been in melt-down since the surprise announcement was made. An emergency meeting of the entire cabinet, called by the embattled leader after the defection of an MP showed all the signs of becoming a full-on mutiny, went on into the early hours as ministers voiced their shock and disgruntlement over the decision. With tensions running so high Pasok insiders say it' far from assured that the government will receive a make-or-break vote of confidence that Papandreou has called for midnight Friday...

LONDON (Dow Jones)--Consumers in the euro zone΄s three largest economies are looking fragile at best as the region΄s debt crisis continues, according to data released Tuesday. Confidence among French and German consumers improved slightly in the latest surveys despite underlying concerns. But Italian consumer confidence hit its lowest level in more than three years. In Germany, the forward-looking consumer climate index for November ticked up to 5.3 from 5.2 in October, beating economists΄ forecasts for a 5.1 reading. German consumers feel shielded from the debt crisis as long as the labor market remains strong, market research group GfK said. But consumers in the euro-zone΄s largest economy are increasingly worried about the economic outlook. The economic expectations sub-component of the index fell in October to a 26-month low, dropping to -6.2 points from 4.8 points in September. "Ongoing discussions relating to the government debt crisis and the threat of Greek insolvency, which will also put pressure on banks, continue to unsettle Germans," GfK said. French consumer sentiment for October, meanwhile, improved unexpectedly, but national statistics agency Insee said consumer confidence remains well below its long-term average. The French sentiment index rose to 82 in October from 80 in September. Economists polled by Dow Jones News wires had expected a reading of 79. Barclays Capital European economist Francois Cabau attributed the increase to the survey΄s monthly volatility and said there is "only limited scope" for marked improvement by the end of the year. In Italy, consumer confidence fell in October to its lowest level in more than three years as fiscal austerity and a domestic political impasse weighed on household sentiment. The consumer confidence index declined to 92.9 in October from 94.2 in September, national statistics institute Istat said. Istat΄s figure reflects a dramatic revision of its data series, which is now benchmarked to the year 2005. Consumer confidence in September was previously reported as 98.0. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones News wires expected Italian consumer confidence to fall by only half a point. The new October figure represents, in the revised data series, an almost 10-point drop from June, when Italian sovereign debt yields began to climb dramatically and credit rating companies began to raise vocal concerns about the country΄s political stability.

Resque - Europe's leaders are claiming a victory in the eurozone crisis after agreeing new deals that halve Greek debt and increase the firepower of the main bailout fund to around €1trn. Athens will be handed a new €100bn bailout early in the new year. The accord was reached in the early hours of Thursday after hours of fractious debate. At one stage talks broke down with holders of Greek debt but they ended up accepting a loss or "haircut" of 50% in converting their existing bonds into new loans. Investors are likely to welcome the breakthrough. Sharp gains are predicted for European markets on opening, with the FTSE 100 being called up 75 points and similar rises expected on the German and French stock markets. Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, helped broker the deal in talks with the bankers that also included the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, and the IMF managing director, Christine Lagarde. Merkel said the swap would take place in January. Sarkozy said private sector investors would refinance Greek's remaining debt at preferential rates while governments would find €30bn to go alongside €100bn from the private sectors. The French president and German chancellor both insisted that the €440bn bailout fund, the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF), could find its firepower increased by four to five times. Since the fund has about €250bn left this could amount to €1trn – or US$1.4trn in Sarkozy's words. "We have reached an agreement which I believe lets us give a credible and ambitious and overall response to the Greek crisis," Sarkozy told reporters as the meeting broke on Thursday morning. "Because of the complexity of the issues at stake it took us a full night. But the results will be a source of huge relief worldwide."

The draft eurozone summit statement (to be issued after Sunday's talks) is circulating and it confirms that a lot of agreement still has to be reached on the three core issues: private sector involvement in Greek debt (increased haircuts), bank recapitalisation and, above all, "increasing the efficiency of the EFSF". The first and last of these will be the hot topic at tomorrow's eurogroup meeting starting at 1400CET while the middle one (banks) is on the agenda for the ecofin meeting on Saturday morning (attended by George Osborne and the other nine "outs"). These sections are left pretty well blank or in brackets, including the agreement to give the Greeks their sixth bailout tranche worth €8bn and the prospect of a new EU-IMF programme with Athens to be concluded by the end of November. It's also worth noting the reaffirmation of "our unequivocal commitment" that PSI "is and will continue to an exceptional solition applying only to Greece as its unique condition requires a unique solution." And there's talk of the other eurozone countries reaffirming their "inflexible determination" to abide by sustainable fiscal conditions etc. There are these gaps but it is clear that Herman Van Rompuy, European Council president and proposed eurogroup president too, wants a full-scale political deal on Sunday - in tome for Monday's market openings. "The crisis, however, is far from over, as shown by the volatility of sovereign and corporate debt markets. Further action is needed to restore confidence. That is why today we agree on additional measures reflecting our strong determination to do whatever is required to overcome the present difficulties," the draft communique says. And the statement indicates that eurozone countries are discussing plans for national budgets to be based on growth forecasts produced independently from government (the OBR model) and, in case of consistent upward bias, governments will be forced to use European commission forecasts. And, yes, the commission and eurozone partners will be empowered to impose changes on budgets if countries are too far out of line regarding their deficit. As we try to get more on that Troika report into Greece (several news agencies are picking up the same story, but there seems to be little more detail immediately available), one thing worth noting is that the German finance minister has said there is no agreement on EFSF leverage. This, of course, is the idea that €440bn could become €2tn if the fund could borrow from the ECB, or just guarantee the first 20% of losses or some other way of doing it. Reuters is saying Wolfgang Schäuble saying there is no agreement as yet.

ATHENS—Greece was paralyzed by a massive two-day strike Wednesday as groups ranging from civil servants to pharmacists and bakers walked off the job ahead of a key parliamentary vote Thursday on new austerity measures. Across the country, public services were frozen, with central and local government offices closed, schools and courts shut, and hospitals operating at bare minimum staff levels. A couple walks by pilling garbage during the second week of a strike by municipality workers and garbage collectors in Athens on Wednesday. Transport services were disrupted as ferry operations were suspended by a dockworkers' strike, while national rail services ground to a halt, and Greece's two major airlines—Olympic Air and Aegean Airlines canceled dozens of flights owing to a 12-hour walkout by air traffic controllers. Tens of thousands of Greek retailers and small businesses joined in, shutting their shops in protest over recent tax hikes and government cuts that have pushed the country deep into recession and led to a dramatic rise in the number of businesses declaring bankruptcies. The 48-hour strike, called by private-sector umbrella union GSEE and its public-sector counterpart ADEDY, is the second time this year that the two unions have called a two-day walkout over government austerity measures. It follows weeks of almost daily strikes, demonstrations and sit-ins, as well as a two-week-long protest by municipal workers that has left uncollected garbage piling up on the streets of Athens and other cities. "We have reached the limits of our endurance and, what is worse, is that there is no ray of hope," said Stathis Anestis, spokesman for GSEE. "We want to send a message that these austerity policies have been a catastrophe for Greece." Under pressure from its international creditors, Greece's government this month submitted legislation that would further cut public-sector jobs and wages, slash pensions for high-income earners, curtail collective-bargaining rights for workers and enact a new levies on taxpayers, among other things. On Thursday, Parliament will vote on the bill just days before a Sunday summit of European leaders that is expected to produce a comprehensive solution to the bloc's debt crisis, and which will also decide whether to release badly needed aid for Greece. At stake is an €8 billion ($11.0 billion) tranche of aid from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund that Greece needs in the next few weeks. The government has said that without the funding, it will run out of money by mid-November.

Germany said European Union leaders won’t provide the complete fix to the euro-area debt crisis that global policy makers are pushing for at an Oct. 23 summit. German Chancellor Angela Merkel has made it clear that “dreams that are taking hold again now that with this package everything will be solved and everything will be over on Monday won’t be able to be fulfilled,” Steffen Seibert, Merkel’s chief spokesman, said at a briefing in Berlin today. The search for an end to the crisis “surely extends well into next year.” Group of 20 finance ministers and central bankers concluded weekend talks in Paris endorsing parts of an emerging plan to avoid a Greek default, bolster banks and curb contagion. They set the Oct. 23 summit of European leaders in Brussels as the deadline for it to be delivered. On the summit agenda is how any recapitalization of Europe’s banks “might be carried out in a coordinated way” and how to make the European Financial Stability Facility, the EU’s rescue fund for indebted states, as effective as possible, Seibert said. The leaders will also discuss ways to tighten economic and financial policy, he said. The euro retreated from a one-month high against the dollar after Seibert’s comments, following last week’s biggest gain in more than two years on speculation that European policy makers are stepping up efforts to stop the crisis. German 10-year bonds rallied and the Stoxx Europe 600 Index pared an advance of as much as 1.5 percent and was up 0.3 percent at 12:47 p.m. in Frankfurt.

Why do they always say that ? - if the eurozone breaks up, the EU will not survive? The EU did just fine before the euro hit the scene.
And check this out: "Without the EU,...Mr Rostowski predicted there could be a new war within a generation." So they give the EU all the credit for avoiding war on the European continent over the last 70 years. But correlation does not imply causation, does it? 70 years is really not a very long time, is it? The European peace of the last 70 years could more plausibly be attributed to the vibrant postwar economic environment, to the presence of a large, dangerous and nearby enemy (USSR) and to many other factors, rather than the Brussels bureaucracy. In a continent of free speech, one might be allowed to allege that Eurokrats would rather see half the Greek population destitute before they themselves might be forced to work to retirement rather than cash in on the pig trough stuffed with European sinecures. Let us please hope that this madness ends soon and that the populations of Europe begin to realize that it is just not sustainable.

About the E.U. ? I'm afraid that the only way we will see the end of the euro & the final flourish of the eu is through market forces! The members of that corrupt organisation will fight tooth & nail to protect their ivory towers. We will never see any united statement that they have failed only a continuing, pathetic stream of comments on european unity both politically & economically! Put this stinking corrupt organisation out of its misery & kill it dead!

In one of the biggest banks in the centre of Athens a clerk is explaining how his savers have been thronging to pull out their cash. Wary of giving his name, he glances around the marble-floored, wood-panelled foyer before pulling out a slim A4-sized folder. It is about the size of a small safety-deposit box – and those, ever since the financial crisis hit Greece 18 months ago, have become the most sought-after financial products in the country. Worried about whether the banks will stay in business, Greeks have been taking their life savings out of accounts and sticking them in metal slits in basement vaults. The boxes are so popular that the bank has doubled the rent on them in the past year – and still every day between five and 10 customers request one. This bank ran out of spares months ago. The clerk leans over: "I've been working in a bank for 31 years, and I've never seen a panic like this." Official figures back him up. In May alone, almost €5bn (£4.4bn) was pulled out of Greek deposits, as part of what analysts describe as a "silent bank run". This version is also disorderly and jittery, just not as obvious. Customers do not form long queues outside branches, they simply squirrel out as much as they can. Some of that money will have been used to pay debts or supplement incomes, of course, but bankers put the sheer volume of withdrawals down to a general fear about the outlook for Greece, one that runs all the way from the humble rainy-day saver to the really big money.

Personally, I don’t trust the banks to even get their hair cut to the extent they’re promising. They remain the spivs and dissemblers they’ve always been – and bank accounting is the most surreal (as in open to every trick in the book) of any business with which I’ve ever worked. To count obviously bad debts as assets is, let’s face it, a truly Swiftian idea. So probably, S&P is right to be saying Greece won’t make it. I mean that in the sense that it will be proved right with little or no risk to its reputation. For a commonsense "southerner" like me, it’s glaringly obvious Greece will default: it won’t make the asset sales targets it needs, and it won’t make the growth targets either.The ratings agencies agree with The Slog – not a position I’m that happy with, because on the whole they’re just as mad as the lenders and borrowers they monitor. However, there is no point in shooting the messenger, and one or two players in this mess are in touch with reality: German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble admitted yesterday, in a circular to his Christian Democratic Party colleagues, that ‘the euro-zone debt crisis isn’t over, and that more discipline is needed’. Er ist eine gute Eier, Herr Schäuble. The Treasury had to pay sharply higher rates to sell off €8bn in bonds including 4.80pc on bonds due in 2014 that had last sold for 3.68pc, and 5.77 percent on bonds due in 2021 compared with 4.94pc before. Italy's benchmark FTSE MIB index fell as much as 2pc, while the difference between the rate of return on Italian and German 10-year sovereign bonds - a key measure of the financial risks as perceived by investors - rose to near-record highs of around 330 basis points. The euro also fell by a cent against the dollar to $1.4269 and by 0.7cents against sterling to £0.8745. Investors are concerned that the Italian economy, suffering from high public debt, low growth and growing infighting in the government could follow Greece, Ireland and Portugal into a debt spiral that has thrown the eurozone into crisis. Tensions on the Italian bond market went down after a second bailout for Greece was agreed at a summit in Brussels last week but have returned on concerns over the details of the Greek rescue plan and US debt fears...I say..through away the phony currency - euro!!

With unemployment officially nudging 790,000 – although believed to be far bigger with the closure of some 150,000 small and medium-sized businesses over the past year – there are fears that Greece, the country at the centre of Europe's worst financial debacle in decades, is slipping inexorably into political and social crisis, too. Rising racist tensions and lawlessness on the streets this week spurred the soft-spoken mayor of Athens, Giorgos Kaminis, to describe the city as "beginning to resemble Beirut".With unemployment officially nudging 790,000 – although believed to be far bigger with the closure of some 150,000 small and medium-sized businesses over the past year – there are fears that Greece, the country at the centre of Europe's worst financial debacle in decades, is slipping inexorably into political and social crisis, too. Rising racist tensions and lawlessness on the streets this week spurred the soft-spoken mayor of Athens, Giorgos Kaminis, to describe the city as "beginning to resemble Beirut".

ATHENS—Greece was paralyzed by a nationwide general strike Wednesday as hundreds of thousands of workers, shopkeepers and civil servants walked off the job in a 24-hour protest over the government's austerity program. The strike affected public services, with government ministries, local government offices, courts and schools all closed, and hospitals and many state-owned enterprises running with reduced staff. Mass transit around the capital ground to a halt as bus, trolley, tram and subway operations were suspended, and Athens's electric rail operated on a reduced schedule. More than four dozen domestic flights were canceled ahead of a four-hour walkout by air traffic controllers, and ferry operations to Greece's islands were also suspended. "The austerity measures are beginning to affect all of society even more now. The economic situation is becoming very difficult for both Greek businesses and for workers," said Anthony Livanios, an independent political economist and commentator. "Even so, the government appears determined to continue with its policies." Recent public opinion polls showed seven out of ten Greeks expect the austerity program to continue even beyond 2013 when the current bailout deal with the EU and IMF ends. The ruling Socialists have seen their popularity drop sharply in the past year, although they still retain a 3.5 percentage-point lead over the center-right opposition.