Watch how EU politicians who are earning in excess of FOURTEEN THOUSAND Euro's a month, turn up at the EU headquarters in Strasbourg in their droves, sign in, and then simply go straight back home again.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZ_kHzOYBK0

AND THEN THEY PAY 'NO TAXES AT ALL' ON THEIR ILL GOTTEN GAINS. You tell me, how can this possibly be right?........Euroland is just that, fantasy land, and the UK and the other EU members who don't use the ill currency not far behind, anyone who invests in a Company that spends more than it earns deserves what they get, the same with Government bonds, anyone who backs a Government that spends more than it taxes deserves what they get, no smart money is going to Europe, just more paper generated by fantasy land Governments and the ECB.

THIS BONDSWAP WAS THE FRAUD OF THE CENTURY BECAUSE NOT ONE GREEK POLITICIAN WAS HELD ACCOUNTABLE FOR THIER CRIMES IN STEALING ALL GREECE'S MONEY! ---- By the way, Christine Legarde is still under investigation in France for money laundering millions of Euros from ganster Bernie Taipie for Sarkozy's first election... What a farce the EU & IMF are !!!

When you owe someone money, and have a contract saying you will repay them, then you unilaterally change the terms of the contract and tell the counterparty that they can whistle for the money... that's a default. ....Anything else is pure sophistry !

Greece slashes its debt burden and qualifies for fresh bailout money as part of the €130bn (£109bn) package from the IMF

Greece has won sufficient support from its private-sector creditors to clinch a new bailout package, as it announced on Friday morning that 85.8% of bondholders had agreed to take heavy losses on their investments....At the end of several months of wrangling with creditors, the government reassured markets that it saw take-up for its bond swap deal rising to more than 95% once special clauses were triggered to enforce the agreement. Market players are hopeful the move that will at least briefly quell fears that the Greek crisis will send more shockwaves across Europe and beyond and further harm the global economy....For the bondholders the deal means taking losses of as much as 74% on their holdings but European policymakers have insisted that is a relatively small price to pay for containing the eurozone sovereign debt crisis. Greece is now expected to enforce so-called "collective action clauses" on any holders who had not accepted the bond swap deal.....The deal will mean embattled Greece slashes its debt burden and qualifies for fresh bailout money as part of the €130bn (£109bn) package from the IMF, the E.U. and European Central Bank.....Greek finance minister Evangelos Venizelos thanked creditors for help returning "Greece to a path of sustainable growth".

OK still working this out this morning.... My thoughts, the Greek bond holders have agreed the haircut. But all bonds are insured by CDS----BUT its now up to the banks, the same ones who sold the CDS to decide if they will pay out the insurance? ... This debt swap and the recent flooding of EU banks with a trillion cheap euros seems to be a desperate face saving attempt by EU politicians to keep the increasingly Frankenstein like eurozone patient alive....wowwwww
Surly that can't be right ...!!!!

An eerie calm seems to have settled across global markets in the lead up to today's decision on a Greek bond swap .

The ECB left interest rates unchanged at 1% as it published new forecasts underlining the impact of the sovereign debt crisis on activity in the 17 countries that use the single currency. While the bank's president, Mario Draghi, said a deal was "very close", his economic staff said they now expected eurozone growth this year of between -0.5% and 0.3% (down from a previous forecast of between -0.4% and 1%). In 2013, they forecast growth of between 0% and 2.2% (down from between 0.3% and 2.3%) On inflation, the ECB expects the consumer price index to be between 2.1% and 2.7% (from 1.5% to 2.5%). Analysts said that the pick-up in inflation ruled out any further cuts in the cost of borrowing for the time being. Matters will come to a head soon. The IMF must decide by September whether Portugal needs more money and debt relief. If Portugal now spirals into a Grecian vortex, large haircuts loom. This time EU leaders will have to accept that their own taxpayers will suffer losses - avoided until now - or violate their pledge. Bondholders are not waiting to learn whether Europe will keep its word this time. There has been no rally in Portuguese debt since the ECB flooded banks with €1 trillion. Ten-year yields are stuck at 13.2pc. Return to market access is a distant dream. The risk for Europe is that investors will charge a "political risk" premium to invest in any EMU country subject to EU legal whim. The greater risk is that Euroland's crisis rumbles on as fiscal contraction in Italy and Spain plays havoc with debt dynamics, and reforms come much to late to close the North-South trade gap. Europe's handling of Greece has guaranteed that global funds will rush for Club Med exits at the first sign of trouble. The next spasm of the debt crisis will that much dangerous if it ever comes. As the saying goes: Hell hath no fury like an abused bondholder. More than 75% of private-sector creditors have pledged to take part in Greece's €200 billion ($262.98 billion) debt swap, an official said.

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.

This crazy game has to come to an end and now.

Olli Rehn -- "the most incompetent of all" commissioners -- the European Union Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner, on Thursday praised the ECB's radical action to pump liquidity into the banking system through billions of euros cheap loans. "The risk of a credit crunch in the European economy has been prevented," he said. But with deposits at the ECB nearly three times the level reached when Lehman Brothers collapsed, the latest figures pointed to the spectre of a freeze that could be even worse than 2008. ...The eurozone's economy shrank 0.3pc in the last three months of 2011, according to the second reading by Eurostat. The Brussels agency said over the whole year, the combined GDP for all 17 members grew 1.4pc compared with 1.9pc in 2010. But the impact of the debt crisis was plain. For instance eurozone exports fell in the fourth quarter - for the first time in two and half years. The Stoxx Europe 600 index closed down 2.7pc on Thursday; France's CAC slumped 3.6pc; Germany's DAX, Spain's Ibex and Italy's FTSE MIB fell 3.4pc. In London the FTSE 100 shed 1.9pc. Gold was pushed up through $1,690 an ounce.

It really is time to call it quits! To continue to bail out banks that do not deserve bailing out with tax payers money is a huge misallocation of resources and an outright crime againsts the ordinary citizen. Bailing out coutries like Greece, is just taking the game to its extreme. --- This crazy game has to come to an end and now. The debts are quite simply going to have to be written off and the banks can fail. My commentary is this: SO WHAT? A legion of banks have failed in the past so why are they all too big to fail now? The bankers should not be allowed to loan money with the surety that they can gamble and never lose like weighted dice. --- Furthermore, this entire credit driven debt charade has to come to an end for the good of all the world's people. We cannot continue this mass transference of wealth from the poor to the super rich to create yet another group of financial Kings, Czars, Emperors and Pharoahs. Loading every human being to the hilt with debt is quite simply downright evil. "Lobster potting" people with mountainous debts from the age they turn into adults until, quite literally, you bury them is as morally decrepit as it is totally wrong. What kind of world do these greedy plutocrats want? Obviously, not one where they have any concience orconcerns over the less fortunate of the planet! --- Perhaps as a man or woman gets richer, wealth is not enough and then power drives them all crazy as they all vie to play with the planet. Well so far every despot and dictator has acheived little other than ruin and disaster for the human race. What we need is a dilution of power not further concentration as a one world Government and currency.

Ah yes - this morning, out of the ER room. Tonight, back in theatre. Why do hacks write nonsense about the EU being 'over the worst' ????

Twelve big lenders have confirmed their participation in the Greek debt swap, according to the catchily-titled Steering Committee of the Private Creditor-Investor Committee for Greece (PCIC). They are: Allianz, Alpha Bank, Axa, BNP Paribas, CNP Assurances, Commerzbank, Deutsche Bank, Eurobank EFG, Greylock Capital Management, ING Bank, Intesa San Paolo and National Bank of Greece. Following reports that German investor representative Deutsche Schutzvereinigung für Wertpapierbesitz has recommended that some holders of Greek debt should reject the proposed debt swap .... Reuters are reporting that most German lenders will accept the proposed haircut of 53.5pc. More from Reuters: While Greek sovereign debt owned by German lenders has a face value of roughly 15 billion euros ($20 billion), in most cases they have already written down that value in their books by about three quarters. FMS Wertmanagement, the biggest creditor with an exposure of nominally more than 8 billion euros, will accept the deal, a person close to the lender said on Monday. FMS, the bad bank set up to hold the toxic assets of bailed-out former bluechip lender Hypo Real Estate, is to formally decide on accepting the debt cut later this week, the person said. Commerzbank, which had originally invested almost 3 billion euros in Greek sovereign bonds but has written down its exposure to 800 million, said last month it had little choice but to take part in the bond swap. At the time, chief executive Martin Blessing said: "The voluntariness (of the Greek debt swap) is about as voluntary as a confession at a Spanish inquisition trial." A true analisys of the private sector activity across the eurozone suggested business activity contracted in February after showing tentative signs of growth a month earlier. Markit's eurozone composite PMI fell to 49.3 – revised down from an initial reading of 49.7 – from 50.4 in January, where anything below 50 shows a contraction. The poor data, which suggest the region is slipping back into recession, pushed markets lower, with the Ibex in Spain down 1.3pc and Italian markets 0.7pc lower. The data also heightened concerns that the austerity measures pushed by European policymakers are merely serving to cut off growth in already hard-hit countries. Markit said its reading for Spain's services sector, which accounts for 70pc of the economy, fell from 46.1 to 41.9, against forecasts for a decline to 45.9. The services sector in Italy fell from 44.8 to 44.1, with employment shrinking at its fastest rate since July 2009, while the Bank of Italy predicted the country's economy was set to shrink by 1.5pc this year. That compares with the Italian government's forecast of a 0.4pc contraction....Ah yes - this morning, out of the ER room. Tonight, back in theatre. Why do hacks write nonsense about the EU being 'over the worst' when (even if it was) this wouldn't excuse its undemocratic approach to every problem....??????

The collapse of our debt based monetary system is a lot closer than many people think.

Moody's Investors Service downgraded Greece's sovereign debt rating yet again on Friday, dropping it to the lowest possible level after a debt-restructuring deal left private creditors facing heavy losses --- REUTERS - Moody’s Investors Service on Friday cut Greece’s sovereign debt rating to the lowest possible level after a debt-restructuring deal that imposes hefty economic losses for private creditors.... Moody’s lowered Greece’s local and foreign-currency bond ratings a notch to C from Ca, becoming the third credit rating agency to downgrade the country following the announcement of the swap deal to lighten its debt burden. Moody’s says that bonds rated C “are the lowest rated class and are typically in default, with little prospect for recovery of principal or interest.” The rating agency added that it did not assign any future outlook. “The announced debt exchange proposal,” the credit rating agency said in a statement, “implies that private creditors that participate will incur substantial economic losses on their holdings of the Greek government debt.” On Monday, Standard & Poor’s cut Greece’s long-term ratings to “selective default,” the second ratings agency to proceed with a widely expected downgrade after the country announced the bond swap. Fitch had announced a cut to its lowest rating above default last week. Greece formally launched the bond swap a week ago. Under the deal, which is part of a second 130-billion-euro rescue package to claw Greece back from the brink of a disorderly default, bondholders will take losses of 53.5 percent on the nominal value of their Greek holdings, with actual losses put at around 74 percent. According to Moody’s, “the announced proposal for private sector involvement, a precondition for the provision of further financial assistance from the euro area, would constitute a distressed exchange, and hence a default, on Greek government bonds.” The rating agency makes a distinction between a distressed exchange - where investors are losing money - and an outright default that is likely to happen when the exchange does not take place. “Both these conditions are met in this case,” Moody’s said. When the Eurogroup’s assessment has been finalized and debt exchanges have been completed, Moody’s will re-assess the credit risk profile and ratings of any outstanding or new securities issued by the Greek government. Moodys’ concludes that “the risk of default even after the debt exchange has been completed remains high,” and any upward movements in Greece’s sovereign ratings after the debt exchange are likely to be small.

hahahaha,,,I am absolutely shocked! Putin, the "underdog", has actually won ? This just proves that it is indeed possible to be "honest and still win" a Russian election. So another 10 years of midget nr 1 = Mr Putin then 5 years of his midget lapdog then another 10 years of Putin then another...I am becoming dizzy just thinking about it. Boy, am I glad that I am not Russian!...Oh no...I am baffled !!!

Spain planning to breach EU budget targets, warns prime minister Mariano Rajoy

Greek banks will probably be barred from normal ECB funding and have to turn to the Emergency Liquidity Assistance [provided by the ECB] instead but for how long, we don’t know. Greece needs around 95pc of its private creditors to accept the deal by the deadline on Thursday in order to secure its €130bn international bail-out package and avert imminent bankruptcy. ...Greek politicians back the use of CACs – which allow the deal to be imposed on all bondholders if 66pc agree to it – being inserted retrospectively if the voluntary agreement falls short. The uncertainty over the deal on Greek debt put further pressure on the euro last week. The single currency fell sharply against the dollar and other major currencies. ... Uncertainty over Spanish willingness to stick to its austerity programme also put pressure on the currency. Last week, the International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA) declared that there had not yet been a credit event in Greece so there was no need for the credit default insurance instruments to be triggered. Should the CACs be triggered this week, the committee will almost certainly have to reconsider its decision.
Government austerity programmes: There are a number of channels through which higher oil prices will impact the public finances ----The governments will face a higher interest burden on the portion of the national debt that is linked to inflation...Slower economic growth will reduce tax receipts and could raise government outlays on unemployment benefits.... The governments may choose though to increase winter fuel subsidies to the needy against a backdrop of higher energy costs... However, it may be harder for the governments to implement the planned increase in petrol duty given the risk of public backlash. Wake up and smell the coffee, for we reached a point, where the price of oil, dictates the ability of the World's economy to function. Thousands of hauler jobs, hinge on the price of diesel, every aspect of our lives are directly impacted by the availability of oil at affordable prices. Politicians are showing complete disregard, for the hardships created by the pricing of oil versus taxation. Governments should set a cap on the prices, to allow growth and protect jobs at risk by market prices.

The EU people are hopeless bungling fools who seem to think that making laws and agreements can, as if by magic, 'create reality'.

Credit Default Swaps (CDS) allow hedge funds and other actors in the markets to make large amounts of money in the event of a default of an entity that can be a company, or a government. They are a bit like allowing people to take out fire insurance on my house despite the fact that they have nothing to do with me, and don't own my house at all. And, of course, if hundreds of different people have taken out fire insurance on my house, it will hardly be a surprise if one day my house "accidentally" catches fire…Is this why there is so much pressure on the Greeks to either accept totally outrageous levels of austerity, coupled with interest rates for long-term loans that have just reached 25.91%?....How can we find out how much money has been bet on Greek default? Well, you can access data at the DTCC website - the Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation. Have a look at their Table 6 that gives CDS data for the top 1000 Reference Entities. You can even download the whole lot as an excel file. They actually provide details about transactions every week. Amazingly up front, when you think about it. For the week ending 3rd February 2012, the total Gross Notional amount outstanding was $14,862,048,912,869 - roughly $14.8 trillion. You can find the amounts for all 1000 entities, one of which is the "HELLENIC REPUBLIC" for which the value is $69,382,164,345 ($69 billion), based on a total of 4,183 contracts. So, I'm not quite sure how to interpret these numbers, but it looks that there are maybe over 4000 people/hedge funds that are looking forward to cashing in their checks for $69 billion if they could get the Greeks to blink in this very dangerous game of poker that is being played on the world stage…..And who will be paying the $69 billion? Anyone like to guess that the banks that have been taken on the bets will need taxpayers to pick up the bill?

Europe is broke.They all need massive amounts of money to keep functioning at all.
The Europe's fiscal pact is not worth the paper is is written on, because everybody will do what they think is good for them. ---- Threfore the whole thing is a FARCE.
Germany provided some liquidity/1 trillion/ so they think it is all done and settled and reforms due in Spain and Italy meanwhile/NOT/ : I wonder what palnet the Germans live on?
Can anyone remember how many times Chelly and the rest of the Euro-clowns insisted that Iceland was going to join the Euro, was applying to join the Euro, would imminently join the Euro, and on and on....Spain is already planning to breach its budgetary targets, defying European leaders on the day they signed their historic fiscal pact.. Mariano Rajoy, prime minister of Spain, said the budget deficit would be 5.8pc of GDP in 2012 - more than 30pc higher than the 4.4pc target agreed by Brussels. In a move that was heralded in Spain as defiance against the German-led austerity drive, Mr Rajoy said he had decided to set a new target rather than extract €44bn (£36.6bn) from the budget at a time of economic crisis. Mr Rajoy said it was now a "sensible and reasonable" target. "This is a sovereign decision made by Spaniards," he said. It was one of their proudest predictions, and like all Euro-clown predictions, prediction was the point. There didn't need to be a fact, having a prediction was enough. A fact only happens once, but a prediction is a day after day thing....And the message was simple. In a crisis, the Euro will save you....oh yeaaaah...!!!!

Monday 5 March: Euro-zone February services PMI data. Tuesday 6 March: Revised EU fourth-quarter GDP growth data. Wednesday 7 March: German bond auction. Thursday 8 March: Bank of England interest rate decision. European Central Bank interest rate decision and press conference. German January industrial production data. Last day for banks to sign up in Greek PSI offer. Friday 9 March: Euro-zone finance ministers may hold conference call to sign off on Greek bailout. Monday 12 March: Euro-zone finance ministers meet. Greece aims to complete PSI by this date. Tuesday 13 March: German March ZEW economic sentiment indicator. Italian and Greek T-bill auctions. International Monetary Fund board likely to discuss participation in Greek bailout. Tuesday 20 March: EUR14.4 billion of Greek government bonds mature. Spanish and Greek T-bill auctions. Euro-zone finance ministers expected to hold talks on the region's bailout funds.

The International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA) has ruled that a "credit event" has not occured for Greece.

The ISDA decision of no default is very significant. It means that insurers will not payout when a voluntary credit restructuring arrangement is reached. I am not going to argue the rights or wrongs of this but it may be a game changer.It means that future defaults are more likely as private investors will be reluctant to accept restructuring deals. Private investors will also be more reluctant to invest in further debt. A knock on effect is that the market in Credit Default Swaps is likely to dry up quickly and affect the insurance business bottom lines quite drastically. The eurozone needs to drop Greece quickly as the Euro itself is now at risk. Even Germany has no money and must borrow to lend. This is not acceptable to private investors. Printing more money is not going help matters anymore as future lenders are likely to want to do so in US Dollars which is the world anchor currency. Printing more money will only lead to the devaluation of the Euro and an increase in debt. It is time for the eurozone to accept that this European project is a failure and ditch it. The Brussels eurocrats should start looking for new jobs. Well ISDA have surpassed themselves.... so what does it take to constitute a credit event....You but a bond for 1,000,000 and you get back 250,000 doesn't sound to me like anything other than a credit event...... What a bunch of shysters..Thinking about it, haven't the ISDA just rendered all CDS worthless? In effect, haven't the ISDA just closed down a thriving financial industry - The CDS market. Lets face it, nobody is going to buy them after this...If I had paid out for CDS and was then asked to accept back 30% of what I was expecting, I think I would deem that a "Credit" event...... and look to the courts if the ISDA didn't agree....If Greece isn't a credit event, then nothing short of a nation sinking into the sea will be deemed a credit event....CDS from this announcement forward, aren't worth the paper they are printed on...The ISDA has indeed rendered all CDS worthless. Anyone holding CDS insurance on Portuguese, Spanish bonds etc now knows that the insurance they took out is not worth the paper it is written on as they could lose the vast majority of the value and not be able to claim back one Euro. What will that do to bond yields? And without credible CDS insurance, the dodgy banks holding Club Med bonds must now be regarded as being in a far worse financial state! The only thing preventing higher bond yields is the carry trade following the creation of unlimited credit by the ECB at 1%. How much more credit will the ECB have to release to keep that up?
The house of cards that is the EZ looks even more shaky now...

Ireland can now expect lies and threats from the EU

The Irish have anounced they are holding a referendum, meanwhile "Van Rompypumpy" stated; "In the old days, exaggerating just slightly, the European Community used to exist on one planet, and national politics on six, nine, twelve, fifteen other planets. This is over now. The debt crisis, difficult and painful as it is, brings home the fact that the Union is us," Van Rompuy told a gathering of national and EU deputies discussing economic policy across the bloc. He noted that decisions by one national parliament - be it in Germany, Ireland, Slovakia or Portugal - are now being watched all over Europe when it comes to approving tax-payer funded bail-outs or adopting deficit reduction measures."Maybe not formally speaking, but at least politically speaking, all national parliaments have become, in a way, European institutions," Van Rompuy said. I can only imagine he was smiling. EU Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso, also present at the debate, said that what was needed now in Greece was for "leaders to speak the truth and confront people with the alternatives." Fiscal stimulus is not the solution, with markets watching every move, but "smart fiscal consolidation", he said, meaning more austerity. As usual No plan B. Uncaring inept idiots. ---- Greece and Ireland can now expect lies and threats from the EU. ----This time EU leaders, forseeing the risk of an Irish referendum defeat, agreed to make the treaty legally binding once 12 of the eurozone's 17 members ratify it. That way, if Ireland is alone to reject it, the other eurozone countries can still adopt it for themselves. "Ireland traditionally has been the only EU member bound by its constitution to subject each EU treaty to a nationwide vote".....In Ireland, democracy means that if you vote 'No' in any of these referenda then the ballot will be held again and again until you feckn' well vote 'Yes'Financial crises will come and go. On the other hand, sovereignty, freedom, democracy, self-determination are simply priceless. Which will you choose Ireland? We need one country, just one country to find the moral fibre to vote no, no, NO! ---------- NO to redundancy pay for 40,000 Eurocrats.......

Begining today Greece is being told by it's German Governor (Horst Reichenbach) how to run its budget and how to spend its funds.

Spain ended 2011 with a deficit of 8.51pc of GDP, well above its 6pc target, Finance Minister Cristobal Montoro says. That will make it harder to meet its public deficit goal for this year of 4.4pc. Standard & Poor's has released a statement that explains the thinking behind placing the EFSF on a negative outlook. To paraphrase: if the countries that back the EFSF aren't AAA-rated, then how can the EFSF be? ...Following the lowering of the ratings on France and Austria on Jan. 13, 2012, the rated long-term debt instruments already issued by the EFSF are no longer exclusively supported by guarantees from the EFSF guarantor members rated 'AAA' by Standard & Poor's or 'AAA' rated liquid securities. Instead, the EFSF's instruments are now covered by guarantees from guarantor members or securities rated 'AAA' or 'AA+'. Therefore, on Jan. 16, 2012, we lowered the long-term issuer credit rating on the EFSF, and the issue ratings on its long-term debt securities, to 'AA+' from 'AAA'. ....The vast majority of German MPs voted for the €130bn rescue package, despite it being ever more unpopular among the electorate, who know Germany will foot the bulk of the bill. A new poll in the Bild am Sonntag newspaper found 62% of Germans are against the rescue package, an increase from 53% in September. Of the 591 MPs present for the debate, 90 voted no and five abstained. It was the seventh time the Bundestag has voted on German aid to faltering countries since the debt crisis began. As anti-German sentiment grew on the streets of Greece, Bild, the biggest selling German tabloid, printed on Monday STOP! in large letters on its front page, urging parliamentarians not to "carry on down this wrong path" but to vote against the bailout---From today Greece is being told how to run its budget and how to spend its funds. That is the price for avoiding a return to the drachma. Before any money is released Greece has to implement 3bn euros in spending cuts. The EU has said that delivery of the funds depends on Greece honoring its promises in a "timely and effective manner". Euro zone governments have also agreed to lower the interest rates on the loans they made for the first bailout. That should reduce Greece's debts by a further 2.8%. The European Central Bank has agreed to forego profits on its holdings of Greek debt, another saving for Greece.

The Greek Ministry of Finance released on Friday the highly anticipated offer document, firing the start on a colossal effort to find Greek bondholders and persuade them to participate in a €206bn debt swap. Athens needs bondholders to agree to the deal within days as part of its effort to unlock the €130bn bail-out funds needed to avert default on March 20. Wolfgang Schaeuble warned that the bailout, which was agreed late on Monday night, might not work. In a letter to German politicians, the finance minister said: “It may also not be the last time the German Bundestag will have consider financial aid to Greece. However, the chances of success with alternatives appear to me to be significantly lower at the current time.” Before heading to the G20 finance ministers’ meeting in Mexico this weekend, Mr Schaeuble suggested he was prepared to consider combining the eurozone’s two bailout funds, the European Financial Stability Mechanism (EFSF) and the European Stability Mechanism (ESM), to protect Spain and Italy. Lucas Papademos, Greece’s technocrat interim prime minister, chaired a cabinet meeting on Friday afternoon that approved the deal after the Greek parliament voted it through on Thursday evening. “We are making a titanic effort to secure financial support for the country,” said Mr Papademos as he left the meeting. Bondholders will be asked to voluntarily take a 53.5pc hit on their bonds by swapping them for new instruments worth 46.5pc of their current value. Bondholders will receive two-year bonds issued by the EFSF and new Greek bonds that will mature over 20 years from 2023. The new bonds will pay a coupon of 2pc for three years and 3pc for another five, followed by 4.3pc for the final 20 years. Saturday 25 February: Group of 20 finance ministers, central-bank governors meet in Mexico Monday 27 February: Belgian bond auction, Italian T-bill auction. German lower house extraordinary session to vote on Greek bailout. Wednesday 29 February: Allotment of ECB three-month, three-year long-term refinancing operations. Finland due to vote on Greek bailout. Thursday 1 March: Euro-zone finance ministers meet. Euro-zone February manufacturing PMI data. Spanish and French bond auctions. Thursday 1 March 1 to Friday 2 March: E.U. leaders' summit. Wednesday 7 March: German bond auction. Thursday 8 March: ECB interest rate decision. Monday 12 March: Euro-zone finance ministers meet. Greece aims to complete PSI by this date. Tuesday 20 March 20: €14.4bn of Greek government bonds mature.

The International Monetary Fund is likely to offer minimal funds for a second Greek aid package

A dangerous development (for the whole Europe) - the faith of Greece is decided in the German Parliament - (is this the IVth. Reich ?) - Government spokesman Pantelis Kapsis, speaking to AFP: --We have a very, very good cooperation with the German government and it has contributed a lot in finalising the accord. Greece relies on this cooperation and hopes this will be borne out by the vote of the German parliament...The Greek Parliament meanwhile, has just passed a law on the debt swap with private bondholders. To complicare the issues, the IMF has consistently underestimated the depth of the Greek recession. At some point, it becomes rational for Greeks to ask, is the euro worth this kind of punishment? The new law - just passed by the Greek Parliament - is a key piece of the Greek plan and will help push through €107bn in debt write downs. The Government hopes that 66% of private creditors will agree to the haircut, allowing Athens to impose a Collective Action Clause to force the rest to follow. AFP points out that the Parliamentary vote was not in doubt as the two coalition government partners, the Socialists in PASOK and the conservative New Democracy party, have 193 of 300 seats in parliament. Three leftist parties as well as the extreme right opposed the bill, saying it would "be profitable for banks and monopolies and not the population," according to deputy Thanassis Pafilis. The package is no guarantee that the problems in Greece will be solved. Greece will have to take extensive measures and show that it implements the necessary reforms. By the way, it is uncertain when Greece will again get market access, making it therefore impossible to rule out that Greece needs extra public sector support.

Die Griechen sollen ihr Defizit 2009 falsch ausgewiesen haben - allerdings nicht zu niedrig, sondern zu hoch. Die angeblich falsche Zahl bekam allerdings den Segen der EU. Das Parlament untersucht den Fall. Ein parlamentarischer Untersuchungsausschuss soll in Athen untersuchen, ob die Zahlen zum griechischen Staatsdefizit 2009 manipuliert worden sind. Die Einsetzung des Gremiums beschloss das Parlament in der Nacht zu Donnerstag. Ermittlungen des Athener Staatsanwaltes Grigoris Peponis brachten die Affäre ins Rollen. Er verdächtigt den Chef der griechischen Statistikbehörde Elstat, Andreas Georgiou. Aber auch der frühere Ministerpräsident Giorgos Papandreou könnte in Misskredit geraten.

La récession frappe à nouveau les pays de l'euro, pour la seconde fois en trois ans. La zone monétaire verra son PIB se contracter de 0,3% en 2012, d'après des prévisions de la Commission européenne qui ne paraissent épargner que les deux plus grosses économies: la France et l'Allemagne. La révision en baisse - Bruxelles tablait encore à l'automne sur une hausse de l'activité de 0,5% - s'étend à l'ensemble de l'Union européenne. La France échappe au retournement avec un pronostic de croissance de 0,4%, à peu près en ligne avec les dernières prévisions du gouvernement Fillon (+ 0,5%). À défaut d'être une locomotive, l'Allemagne permet à l'UE d'éviter le pire. Avec une croissance attendue de 0,6 %, la première économie européenne tire ses voisins directs de l'enlisement, à l'image de la France, de l'Autriche (+ 0,7%), du Danemark (+ 1,1%) ou encore de la Pologne (+ 2,5%). Il existe deux exceptions de taille à l'effet d'entraînement: les Pays-Bas qui plongeraient de 0,9%, et la Belgique de 0,1%.

The house of cards grows progressively larger...Who's going to be the first to sneeze?

IMF chief, Christine Lagarde, wants the European Stability Mechanism to embrace funds still untouched within the current rescue fund, the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF). Germany threatened to undermine this week's €130bn (£110bn) deal to bail out Greece by refusing to bolster the firewalls set up to prevent the eurozone debt crisis from spreading. As markets dipped all over Europe amid fears that Greece would never be able to meet its debt obligations, Angela Merkel's chief spokesman said Berlin saw "no necessity" to enhance the planned €500bn European stability mechanism (ESM), the new bailout fund due to be in place from July. Highlighting how unpopular aid for Greece is in Germany, opposition to the bailout deal was growing within Merkel's coalition on Wednesday. Several MPs from Merkel's conservatives and her junior partner, the Free Democrats (FDP), said they planned to oppose the package, meaning that she would be unlikely to win next week's parliamentary vote on the deal without the humiliation of relying on her socialist and green opponents . The European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) was created by the euro area Member States following the decisions taken on 9 May 2010 within the framework of the Ecofin Council. The EFSF’s mandate is to safeguard financial stability in Europe by providing financial assistance to euro area Member States. EFSF is authorised to use the following instruments linked to appropriate conditionality:

-- Provide loans to countries in financial difficulties
-- Intervene in the debt primary and secondary markets.
-- Intervention in the secondary market will be only on the basis of an ECB analysis recognising the existence of exceptional financial market circumstances and risks to financial stability
-- Act on the basis of a precautionary programme
-- Finance recapitalisations of financial institutions through loans to governments

To fulfill its mission, EFSF issues bonds or other debt instruments on the capital markets. EFSF is backed by guarantee commitments from the euro area Member States for a total of €780 billion and has a lending capacity of €440 billion. EFSF has been assigned the best possible credit rating by Moody’s (Aaa) and Fitch Ratings (AAA). EFSF has been assigned a AA+ rating by Standard & Poor’s. EFSF is a Luxembourg-registered company owned by Euro Area Member States. It is headed by Klaus Regling, former Director-General for economic and financial affairs at the European Commission.

Fitch downgraded GREECE - the proposal to reduce Greece's public debt burden constitute a rating default

Greece will default. That is the verdict of ratings agency Fitch, which has just downgraded the country two notches to "C" on the back of the "haircuts" announced yesterday in Greece's bailout package. This lowers the country further into "junk" status (or below investment grade) - where it has been since January 2011. Fitch says it will re-rate Greece once the debt-swap has completed, likely to "RD" - or restricted default. More from Fitch: In Fitch's opinion, the exchange, if completed, would constitute a 'distressed debt exchange' (DDE) in line with its criteria and consequently yesterday's announcements set in motion the agency's process for reviewing Greece's issuer and debt securities ratings. The sovereign IDR has accordingly been lowered to 'C' from 'CCC' indicating that default is highly likely in the near term. The ratings of the securities subject to the exchange have also been lowered to 'C' from 'CCC'. Fitch considers that the proposal to reduce Greece's public debt burden via a debt exchange with private creditors will, if completed, constitute a rating default, and result in the country's IDR being lowered to 'Restricted Default' ('RD') upon completion. The ratings of GGBs affected by the exchange, including those not tendered but restructured under CACs, which are expected to be imposed retrospectively on bonds issued under Greek law, will also be lowered to 'D' ('default') at this time.

I don't think that many sane people think that Greeks will remain in the Euro-Zone

If the €130bn bailout from the troika of the European commission, the ECB and the IMF is delayed – or withdrawn altogether – it's likely that Greece will have to go back to the drawing board and start negotiations with its private sector creditors all over again. For one thing, the write down, or "haircut", of up to 70% on Greek bonds that's at the heart of the negotiations is being bought at the expense of up to €30bn in sweeteners, financed by the euro-zone bailout fund, the European Financial Stability Facility. Without that cash, the Institute of International Finance, the Washington-based body representing the banks in the talks, would be likely to walk away – or at least to offer up a much smaller haircut.....More importantly, though, if the wider bailout offer is withdrawn, the incentives for investors would change fundamentally-----So let me get this straight. The creditors are willing to take a 70% haircut so long as they are given a €30 billion 'sweetener'?? I may be a little slow here but wouldn't that make the final haircut somewhat less than 70%? It's like we are in wonderland with these guys claiming they are giving one thing but in fact quietly taking another. Anyway, it all looks immaterial now the revised figures from the IMF are showing that Greece's debt will now be 129% of GDP by 2020, such is the spectacular collapse of the economy. It seems the only thing growing in Greece is defense expenditure - no doubt buying German arms. Germany cannot approve a bailout on these projected figures....Well, better let them default and get on with the rebuilding ASAP.

Breaking news:
Greece's cabinet agreed on Saturday to launch a debt swap for private creditors on March 8 with the aim of completing it by March 11, a government official said. The swap is to accompany a 130-billion-euro rescue package that Athens hopes to agree with its euro zone partners on Monday and will mean that creditors take a 70 percent cut in the real value of their holdings...........Here comes the D-Day!

Used car salesmen....

In a show of unity at a meeting in Paris, Mr Cameron and Mr Sarkozy highlighted their common military goals by suggesting they could intervene in Syria if the country’s rebels “unite and organise” in a revolution. Mr Sarkozy said he now understood where Britain’s “red lines” lie when it comes to being part of Europe. He even said he “admired” Britain’s staunch defence of the City....Both men also expressed concern over Syria’s “butchery” of its own people and said they would work harder to make links with rebels in the nation. They did not rule out joint military action in Syria but said the current circumstances were not right. “The main obstacles are not to do with such and such country’s attitude at the UN,” Mr Sarkozy said. “The fact is we cannot bring about a revolution without the Syrian people. We cannot bring this about if the Syrian opposition does not unite and organise to help us help them.”...Used car salesmen have now been elevated to honest, chivalrous, patriotic and English gentlemen.I would not trust these two sharpies to sell me a scooter....So, Sarkozy now believes that stand up comedy is the way forward in winning the French Presidential election !?

I wonder how much more the people of Greece can take before they collectively snap.

Greece's hopes of quickly securing a €130bn bailout looked to be dashed on Monday after a weekend of rioting and parliamentary tumult when the Papademos government pushed through a new austerity package. Eurozone finance ministers are expected to meet in Brussels on Wednesday and had been preparing to endorse the rescue programme for Greece. But in the wake of the drama in Athens, it became clear that the eurozone was not yet ready to wave through Greece's second bailout in two years. Olli Rehn, the European commissioner for monetary affairs, made plain that the Athens vote was not a clincher. It was a "crucial step" towards qualifying for the second "programme", but not the final step. It looked as though a definitive decision would be left to an EU summit on 1 March. The German parliament has to support the new bailout and will not debate it until 27 February. Eurozone finance ministers met last week, postponed a Greek decision, delivered an ultimatum to Athens on what it had to do, and called another meeting for Wednesday that had been expected to agree the bailout. But the best that Greece can now hope for is an agreement "in principle"....Well, it was a "crucial step" towards qualifying for the second "programme", but not the final step.... Only to be expected I suppose. This is what blackmailers always do. Move the goalposts when you give them what they want. The Greek government were expected to sign off on a deal that enslaves a whole generation in less than 24 hours to the accompaniment of wails of exasparation from the Troika of lenders (headed by "Horst Rechenbach" - a German ) they were dragging their feet in 'typical Greek fashion' (when will Europe ever break away from this lethal stereotyping?). But now that they are doing the same, they are "just being careful". ---- This is a Greek tragedy. We are witnessing financial sadism on the part of the IMF, ECB and the Germans. Merkel is up for re-election and these shocking austerity measures are to appease her German electorate and secure victory in the forthcoming elections.Look at the Greek government. They are now an unelected rabble led by a former Goldman Sachs crony. These austerity measures are being implemented in order to pay off the International bankers. They will not work because the Greek economy is shrinking( we will be next in this country, going down that very same road) You have to ask yourselves the question why is Greece increasing its military hardware when the people are heading for starvation? Answer...........The Germans have badgered the spineless Greek government into buying German armaments while the country goes down the pan. I feel for the Greek people and the real culprits are the bankers and spineless politicians who should all be in prison, not only in Greece but here also. Its seems civil unrest will be the order of the day all around the world in the coming decade. We are entering a very dark age. Sunday nights vote was meaningless. Elections are due in April, and for those who voted for the measures last night the majority will not be re-elected. Quite what the make up of the new Greek parliment will look like it anyones guess, but it is highly doubtful they will honour any vote taken last night. These measures will not be implimented. I know that, you know that, so do all the EU finance ministers, the Troika know that, so what will they do? ... Turn their faces and vote for the bailout, even when they know it is unworkable.