Think of some ships at sea and a storm is coming. The ships want to clear their decks so they aren't top heavy. For the SS Eurozone to take on 200 billion or so euros of defaulted Greek debt now would make it top heavy. Better to leave it 'off balance sheet' as a contingent liability and worry about it later. Let's say some big European banks are heading for trouble because of some Latin American loans ( Brazil is near collapse) or because they are short the dollar. The SS Eurozone is going to need all the financial ballast it has to keep the ship from capsizing. Greece won't matter if that happens...Bank doing predatory lending. It is all they can do now. These are not loans to Greece they are bailouts for the creditors. If you borrow money you can spend it how you choose. If the lender tells you how you must spend it, then it isn't a loan.  If you are responsible for spending the money you are responsible for paying it back. But here, it is the creditors who are making all the decisions. Nobody is forcing them to lend the Greeks money, so the question is WHY ARE THEY LENDING MONEY TO GREECE?..The Greek people were sacrificed. I have to wonder who made Tsipras make this 180 degree turn. Wouldn't it have been better if Tsipras didn't call for elections if this is the result? His closest allies are Nea Democratia now...It was reported this week that Germany stands to get 85bn out of Greece's misery and the change to the interest arrangements.
Should there be no write off of Greek debt, this crisis will be permanent, but the Eurofanatics cannot let the dream die, whatever the cost......Deutschland Uber Alles never had such resonance...

What should worry everyone is that, for some reason, all the parties are moving this new deal along without the usual haggling and complaints. This appears to be not so much an exercise in kicking the can as 'sweeping the whole mess under the rug'. So one might ask why the need for a quick resolution of an intractable problem?  My guess is a much bigger storm is about to hit. The turmoil in Forex started by the Chinese devaluation of the RMB and the collapse of commodity prices and the shrinking of trade, indicate a major financial crisis is imminent and Greece just does not matter anymore. Greece, if you will is yesterday's problem. A Northern Rock when RBS and Lehman Brothers are crumbling.

Alexis Tsipras resigns and calls September snap election !!!!!!!!!!!

Embattled prime minister will stand down after losing backing from his MPs over Greece's punishing new bail-out agreement ... The rumour mill is well under way, with talk suggesting that speaker of the Greek parliament Zoe Constantopoulou will join a breakaway Leftist faction. Ms Constantopoulou has been a constant thorn in the side of the PM, and is one of the most vocal critics of the new bail-out deal in the government.  However, former minister Yanis Varoufakis - who is not affiliated with the Left Platform - is likely to stick by his prime minister and current finance chief Euclid Tsakolotos.  An election will create more political uncertainty, delay economic recovery and impede reform implementation.  However, it appears to be unavoidable if Greece is to have a government committed to implementing the bail-out agreement. An election will give Mr Tsipras the opportunity to secure a mandate for the reform programme and remove troublesome left-wingers from parliament.  Under Greek electoral law, if an election is held within 18 months of the previous poll, the order in which candidates are listed on ballots is also the order in which they are elected, and that order is set by the party leader.  The mind-boggling scope of the reforms in the new agreement, which extend into virtually every area of the economy and polity, exceed anything visited upon even the post-communist states of eastern Europe. The referendum result of 5 July, in which 61pc of voters rejected austerity measures demanded by Greece's creditors, revealed that there is a large body of opinion that is prepared to countenance a break with the euro. In coming months and years, support for remaining within the euro zone "at all costs" will diminish significantly.

At the moment the Greek government receipts are used to pay for  pensions and public salaries. Afterwards there is practically no money left to pay for social, health, education, traffic, communication,  military etc.  All these items are paid by credits from partners. Interests and debt  repayment is only done by partners.  Without a "haircut" on pensions and public salaries Greece has not even a slight chance to survive..."To relieve the present exigency is always the object which principally interests those immediately concerned in the administration of public affairs. The future liberation of public revenue they leave to the care of posterity." -Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations (1776) 2010. Greece was about to default on its debts. As usual, politicians and bureaucrats blamed everyone but the perpetrators — the politicians and bureaucrats. They claimed that the only way to relieve the crisis of debt was debt itself.  Problem: An excess of borrowing behavior by Greeks.

Goal: To have saved the Big Banks, mainly in France and Germany. Plan: To allow Greeks to default to non-banking creditors; have the European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund lend even more money to Greece in order to give Big Banks time to rid themselves of basically worthless Greek debt; then, when Greece finally defaults, charge the taxpayers in the European Union, that phony paradise of united social democracies, for the losses to the ECB and IMF. Measurement: Success for bankers, bureaucrats, and politicians. Failure for taxpayers. There were alternatives more fair and just; for example, see "Debt & the Race to the Bottom" at ... http://nationonfire.com/catego... In 2015. Greece defaults. Consequence? Another rescue from the EU in exchange for more Greek promises.

All kinds o BS from the delapidators in Brusells...

Greece is close to reaching a deal with its creditors to secure a €86bn lifeline that will keep it afloat for the next three years and secure its place within the eurozone, according to the country's prime minister.   As shares in Greece's benchmark index continued to plummet, Alexis Tsipras said meetings between the government and Greece's creditors had made good progress.

"We are in the final stretch," said Mr Tsipras. "Despite the difficulties we are facing we hope this agreement can end uncertainty on the future of Greece."   Greek bank shares plunged for a third day on Wednesday, after the end of a five-week shutdown sparked the biggest stock market drop on record.  The Athens stock exchange closed down 2.44pc at 643.86 on Wednesday, after falling by as much as 4.4pc, while an index of the country's top four banks fell 25pc to 246.50.

Bank shares have now fallen close to the maximum 30pc allowed for three straight days.

 

Point 1: discussion of debt relief is a red herring. At the primary level - ie: before ANY debt service is accounted for - Greece is very negative: tax collection 25% below budget, no state suppliers have been paid since 7th March, GDP falling rapidly. Until the basic economy is managed properly, any debt service is academic.

Point 2: the banks are very bust. 55% of their 'capital' is Deferred Tax Assets - which everybody knows is phoney capital: it only has value if their future is profitable, no value on a winding up. Non-performing loans are declared at 50% but in reality are much worse. Banks are deliberately refinancing dead loans in order to make them appear 'performing'. The market knows this: the four bank shares were suspended 30% 'limit down' on Monday, Tuesday and two of the four are already suspended again today (Eurobank and NBG managing to remain above suspension so far Wednesday by way of two token €2m buy orders).

There really needs to be a bankruptcy process for a country, like Chapter 11 for corporations. Bailout 3 (if it happens - which I doubt) will simply pour more money down the drain, failing to address the above issues thoroughly.

Nobody does Shirty better than Germans...always grumpy, always moody, always annoyed - from astute Self-Righteous perspective.   Example: Schaeuble - Shirty in the quintessential sense.

Another Example: Merkel - Shirtiness in the quintessential Germanic sense.   Corporate Germans, Germanic cultured Corporate entities used dirty propaganda to bad-mouth Greeks. The character-assassination of the modern-Greek National-Character is finest example of their (propaganda) work. They tried to make the Greeks look bad, but in the event...they made themselves look even worse.   Hermanic attitudes towards Greece and the Greek-Hellenic peoples have been duly noted, at highest echelons of diplomatic and political office.   Germany and the Germanic cultured parts of Europe did not score highly in that arena.   The running of Europe cannot be left in the sole domain of the Teutons...Greeks, Latins and Celts know that now!   So France, Italy, Greece and silent-partner(s) band together to counter Hermanic domination of Evropi. Old-Europe standing shoulder to shoulder against common foe.   The Greek crisis, is simply a proxy for the €uro crisis. Significantly 'the' crisis has now shown the gulf that exists between the two architects of the €, i.e, France and Germany.

Germany has realised, it can not work with the French. Schauble in particular is looking at more natural fiscal partners to call upon and to work with.  No prizes for guessing who that might be.

Varoufakis did call upon the most powerful mind in the universe... his own... and called upon the next greatest economic thinkers to help him develop a cunning plan to overcome the plodding intellects of Schauble, Legarde and Djisselbloem arrayed against him. The best these mental giants could come up with was a criminal scheme to seize and plunder the Bank of Greece, have some Columbia professor secretly 'hack' into the computers of the Greek tax collection system to set up a illegal bank with no capital to hold citizens 'deposits' and call it Plan B!    This is getting tiresome reading these 'sanitized' definitions of the Tsipras/Varoufakis "Plan B". The actual plan was this. Tsipras would appear to be negotiating in 'good faith' for a deal to release some 7.2 billion in EU funds in order to meets its debt payments. Behind the backs of his negotiating partners he authorized his Finance Minister to prepare a surprise default to cause maximum damage to the Euro system and use criminal methods to achieve it. These were to include seizing the Bank of Greece and its mint, possibly to allow the counterfeiting of at least 10 Euro notes, arresting its Governor and plundering any remaining assets it had. Employing the services of US based computer hackers to surreptitiously access and alter the code of the Greek tax collection services in order to establish a banking system outside of and not authorized by the European Central Bank.  Now defend that as just being a normal and prudent policy for ANY government to engage in!

The European Union is a submarxist/corporatist construct  based on failed 19th cent mechanistic social engineering theory  and controlled by an unelected 'elite'.  It is anti-democratic, which it disparages it as 'populism'  and regards both individual personal sovereignty and the national expressed sovereign democratic choice of the population as 'egotism'.

The question is - why would anyone in their right mind in the 21st cent want to be a part of such an outdated social relic construct?  ''The most puzzling development in politics during the last decade is the apparent determination of Western European leaders to re-create the Soviet Union in Western Europe.”― Mikhail Gorbachev... So yet another truth about the whole EU emerges, It reveals how any democracy is made useless, and deflected from its purpose by EU undemocratic one size inflexible impositions for dominating social and economic policies. It is indeed a very real fascism, no matter what the EU or its cogs and gears affiliations and hierarchy declare.  The light is dawning upon more and more people so as to reject this EU totally, and not just parts of it as Cameron claims to do.  This Greek scenario seems to remind and indicate a WW 2 position for conquered lands. If the Nazis rolled in and dominated and pillaged all, their installed government could say this is why we shoot and enslave you, because you are of no other purpose if you are not obedient to our dictatorship. They could do this with a friendly smile and their unique socialist realist advertisements are just a part of their doctrine, declaring they are saving your nation from itself. The EU is of such a corporate board room mentality straight out of New York with Wall Street and a UN made into puppets by its human rights that are part of the setup and fail, yet override democracy everywhere.  But then in reality they created the EU; its master is the federal USA corporatocracy.  Greece as all European countries, are entitled to freely find their own level of enrichment's or austerity according to the talents and efforts of the culture and people.  It concludes that the EU is a giant fascist bulldozer for any self determination. The push for integration will come regardless of this kind of view, however sensible it may be. Brussels has boundless ambition and no brakes. The point is to participate in the backlash of which he speaks, and to use it to to damage to the monster. The Treaty of Rome was not, as it were, built in a day - and the walls of the prison it creates will likewise need to be gradually undermined. The Greek crisis has brought worthwhile progress in that endeavor.

The former head of Portugal’s Banco Espirito Santo, Ricardo Salgado, was put under house arrest on Friday after being questioned by a magistrate over his role in the bank’s collapse, his lawyer said.  Francisco Proenca de Carvalho called the measure “disproportionate” in remarks to the press after the 12-hour questioning.  On Monday the former banker was questioned by the state prosecutor, who decided to send him for further questioning in front of an investigating magistrate.  The prosecutor referred in particular to suspicion of forgery, breach of trust, tax evasion and money laundering, in a statement released on Friday. Portugal uses EU bailout cash to shore up troubled Banco Espírito Santo.  Once one of Portugal’s largest lenders, BES collapsed after reporting a record loss last year and its three holding companies declared themselves insolvent, facing allegations of accounting fraud.  The bank’s woes threatened to drag down Portugal’s economy, which had only gingerly emerged from a three-year bailout, prompting the government and the European Union to swiftly come to the rescue. The assets of the ailing bank were transferred into Novo Banco as part of a €4.9 billion (US$5.4 billion) bailout of BES, including €3.9 billion from the government.  For a year numerous enquiries have been opened by the Portuguese authorities to determine who is responsible for the scandal.   Salgado was forced out as head of BES after 23 years in June 2014 amid allegations of accounting irregularities at one of the bank’s Luxembourg-based holding companies.   Banco Espirito Santo shareholders seek explanation  At a parliamentary session in December, Salgado denied “having given instructions” to falsify the BES accounts.   But the Bank of Portugal has since started a series of proceedings against most BES executives, including its former chief, suspected of “malicious acts” and “ruinous management”.  The authorities have also seized property belonging to the Espirito Santo family, Portugal’s last banking dynasty, and its financiers.  The questioning of Salgado comes a year to the day after his arrest in connection with another financial matter, where he was indicted for money laundering before being released on bail of €3 million.

Watching the battle play out between Greece and Europe's financial leadership, observers in the United States might wonder how it is Greece got itself into this mess. Could such a thing ever happen here?...  No, it could not. The reason lies in the different structure of the United States and the European Union, and has led to much confusion in the United States, as politicians have warned that if this or that policy isn't enacted, America could become “Greece on steroids.”  The key difference is that the United States has its own central bank -- the most powerful one in the world. Greece, meanwhile, does not. And while the states of the United States are genuinely united -- a common banking system, common federal budget and common political system -- the eurozone is a federation of countries with a common currency that, in the face of crisis, must largely fend for themselves.

When countries’ economies slow down, they have two sets of tools at their disposal: monetary policy (adjustment of the money supply) and fiscal policy (adjustment of government expenditures). Central banks fill the demand gap of a recession by printing currency, and governments do it by spending more than they save...  A broad array of economists believe this fiscal austerity has devastated Greece’s economy. In the years since Greece implemented its creditors’ austerity policies, its economy has shrunk by almost one-third, and adult unemployment remains above 25 percent.

Greece’s budget tightening would not be as much of a drag on its economy if it had monetary stimulus at its disposal. By devaluing currency, a country can boost its exports and domestic consumer demand. Iceland, for example, was able to recover economically despite a massive fiscal contraction because it had its own currency and could print as much of it as it wanted.

But Greece is on the euro, and the European Central Bank, which controls the euro, has not afforded Greece anywhere near enough stimulus. During much of the recent economic recovery period, the ECB’s cautious monetary policies reflected the inflation concerns of Germany.

Unlike its counterparts in the United States and Great Britain, the ECB raised interest rates twice in 2011, which is believed to have contributed to the continent’s double-dip recession -- and hit struggling economies like Greece’s especially hard.

After the war Germany had its debts written off . So why cant they do this for Greece ? Its Ironic for Merkel to say no to Greece , When her own country was helped . And who put Merkel in Charge ? Because if the truth was only known this EU is just a name the German's are hiding behind to carry on with their world Order , Which everyone thought had stopped after the War . But no , It is still in the pipeline for Germany to be the most powerful country in the Whole world . Uniting Countries and stealing their identities , To make a mega state and Army to stand up to Russia and China . While fleecing every country under her Hitler rule . This needs to stop now . We traded before , And we can carry on Trading under our own Rules . Give these countries there identities back and condemn all the leaders for Treason ... I just hope that members of the Greek Government get to read these comments Wake up for Gods sake, Greece, this is your golden opportunity to go down in history as the country that stood up to the new " banking Nazis " Get back to the drachma - the entire world will be behind you - movements will start almost spontaneously to assist you Vote this dreadful fascist proposal DOWN DOWN DOWN If not Greece will be subject to decades of misery - Do you not realise that the euro is doomed and is being held together by the vested interests mainly germanic interests ??? Why would Eoirpens suffer in order to be part of a currency which will eventually fail

No one who understands the EU and how it operates, can understand why people say they would like to stay in it. There is one possible answer which is, the people being asked have no idea what the EU is or what it does. If before a person is allowed to express an opinion they were asked to name the president of the EU Commission or the President of the EU Council or the President of the EU Parliament, maybe that qualifying question would weed out the people with informed opinion from the people who have no idea what the question being asked is all about....The reason why the EU is popular right now, is because everyone can see where a grandstanding negotiation tactic got Greece in the meeting with Juncker. A man you call ridiculous. Frankly, he appears more like a man with no time for non-sense. Whether it comes out of London or Athens he will have no non-sense, and any attempt at hard-line negotiation will lead in a worse deal. The playing field is very asymmetric. Britain has a lot more to lose from no deal than the EU. People are coming to realize that. People feel the bite of austerity. Just imagine how easier it would have been to balance the budgets if the UK had French borrowing costs....I'm curious as to why the EU is supposed to becoming more popular in the UK in the face of continued EZ crisis and failure like the unworkable third Greek bailout, the curse of continuing mass unemployment in the Club Med countries, the growing division in the EZ, the continued isolation of the UK and the total reluctance to negotiate better terms on UK membership. In short the EZ, and with it the EU, is in a bad place which is getting worse. So why is the EU apparently getting more popular in the UK?  The only logical reason the EU can be getting more popular in the UK is that the majority of us enjoy watching the EU tear itself apart whilst our own economy with our own currency is becoming relatively stronger....European elections are a joke. The majority of MEPs are there BECAUSE they support the project of One-Party European governance by the Commission. The 30% that protested were just making a futile gesture. Come on. That is no more a parliament than the Supreme Soviet was. The EU cannot last on that basis. Nor will it reform.

Following weeks of stock market turmoil, China has confounded expectations that its economic growth would slow further in the second quarter, with gross domestic product rising by 7%.
Analysts had widely predicted that economic growth would dip from 7% in the first quarter to around 6.8% in the second.  However, GDP held steady, officials from China’s National Bureau of Statistics claimed on Wednesday morning. The figure still represents the lowest level of growth since the 2009 global financial crisis but is in line with Beijing’s official target for 2015 of “around 7%”... 

However, there were immediate doubts over the growth figure’s reliability with the announcement sparking renewed debate over the trustworthiness of Beijing’s statistics.

The fact that the figure was exactly in line with the Communist party’s 2015 full-year growth target “raises suspicions,” said Yang. “There is the issue of credibility, certainly.”   China’s premier, Li Keqiang, tried to put a brave face on the recent stock market collapse during a meeting on Friday with economists and business leaders in Beijing.

“China’s economy still boasts remarkable tenacity, potential and flexibility,” Li said, according to state media. “There is little doubt that China’s potential for medium-high growth remains underpinned by strong, long-term fundamentals. The global economic recovery is full of twists and turns. China should push forward its own development with stronger confidence and greater efforts.”
However, Beijing has faced criticism for its handling of the crash. Chinese president Xi Jinping has vowed to reduce Beijing’s role in the economy but as stocks plunged earlier this month the Communist party took drastic measures, including temporarily halting initial public offerings.  ....No-one, even in China, believes this number. Party apparatchiks deliver a number to suit the forecast, to do otherwise would cause Xi to lose face and further erode trust in the crashing stock market. The real number is probably around 5%.

The EU however is an unelected septic tank.The Common Market (that we were given a vote on but deliberately and criminally lied- to by our own politicians who saw nothing but a huge trough to get their fat faces in) was actually a good idea. What we have actually got is a Fourth Reich....The EU "owns" about 200 billion in EFSF bonds it sold to finance Greece the past few years. The member states will have to pay the principal and interest as it comes due. Fortunately, were Greece to leave the EU, the money to do so is available since Greece is a net drag on the EU budget and the money the EU now sends to Greece through its various programs and agencies would be more than enough to cover the EFSF bonds. That the loss of these revenues would further crush the Greek economy is unfortunate but that is Greece's problem not Europe's!...That the Euro and the EU are a horrible construct is beyond doubt. Roger Bootle made a compelling case a couple of days ago that the EU, even if there were full political and fiscal union, has become a drag on economic growth with its regulatory apparatus and fixation on 'harmonizing' everything. However, the Euro and the EU do exist and they have to be managed as best as can be done. Greece is incompatible with either institution and, if it does not withdraw voluntarily from both the EZ and the EU, it must be expelled.  Greece is going to have revolving door governments for as far as the eye can see simply because the mess it is in is intractable. It is also the case that the EU cannot be ALL Greece ALL the time as it lurches from crisis to crisis and sends an increasingly bizarre cast of characters to EU summits and meetings. Europe needs to turn its back on Greece and deal with its own internal problems....The structural weakness of the EU has been exposed. An even "closer union" will not fix the Problem and a Stalin like strong man will be required to keep the corrupt mess from falling apart. A bloc is a bloc is a bloc.

Nowhere do expressions of solidarity with Syriza resonate as much as in Spain, where Podemos is seen as a credible threat to the ruling conservative government. While Spain’s austerity policies have won it plaudits from eurozone leaders, they have proven less popular at home. Podemos has taken advantage of dissatisfaction with the country’s high unemployment rate to win mayoral races in Barcelona and Madrid, Spain’s two largest cities. The two wins could portend a victory in general elections later this year. Analysts believe Spain’s ruling conservatives have taken a hardline approach in negotiations with Greece at least in part out of fears that a bailout deal that is too accommodating for Greece will be a boon to Podemos at the polls. Podemos’ leader Pablo Iglesias told the Wall Street Journal in an interview earlier this month that consequently, Podemos’ rise has hurt Syriza in negotiations. “Since Podemos has existed, defeating the government of Greece has been converted into another instrument for trying to pressure us,” Iglesias said.

On Saturday, Greece’s Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras called for a July 5 referendum on Greece’s creditors’ latest bailout proposal, after dismissing the offer as an “ultimatum that insults the Greek people.” The support from fellow left-wing groups in other countries comes amid mounting pressure on Greece from eurozone officials and financial institutions after the announcement of the referendum. The European Central Bank halted its emergency lending to Greek banks, prompting the Greek government to limit bank withdrawals to prevent banks from running out of cash -- a procedure known as imposing “capital controls.”

A €131m program which will help break down digital barriers in the Digital Single Market (DSM) was adopted in the European Parliament’s Industry, Research and Energy Committee today.

"Many new digital services in Europe such as electronic mobile health applications crucially depend on EU-wide standards and smooth operation across our internal borders. This new programme will help interoperability and give more flexibility and thus take us a huge step forward to achieving a true internal Digital Single Market", said Michał Boni MEP, the EPP Group Shadow Rapporteur on the dossier.  The Industry Committee adopted the update of the so-called ISA2 Programme which will bring public administration, businesses and citizens all over the EU closer to speaking the same language when they use digital services on their computer, tablet or smartphone. The ISA Programme was first introduced in 1995 and the new ISA2 Programme covers the period from 2016-2020. The aims of the programme are to establish electronic connections, foster cooperation among public administrators in Europe, make information accessible on the internet and to help implement electronic services across Europe. "Better connections in the digital Europe are essential because more and more citizens are working and relocating inside the EU and businesses trade and operate cross-border. They often have to deal electronically with administrations in different Member States", Boni concluded.  Boni emphasised that many areas in the EU such as the internal market, environment, justice and home affairs, customs and taxation, health and public procurement will benefit from the new ISA2 Program.

As the Greek banks are emptied of hard cash, as Greece’s creditors clench all that can be clenched in expectation of ruin, and as our economically illiterate masters in Brussels flail about in their desperate desire to prevent a public relations catastrophe (too late, by the way), where does this leave Britain?  The UK's  Prime Minister was amidst the deaf in Europe last week, pretending to negotiate with people who refuse to listen to him. A typical response was that of the nonentity Martin Schulz, president of the European Parliament, who hectored him about the “hate”, “downright lies” and “national resentment” that he claimed informed the British debate about the EU.

Herr Schulz grew up in West Germany, but seems fluent in the methods of the Stasi. I doubt his outburst has swayed many preparing to vote in the referendum, other than in a direction he would not want. Herr Schulz’s main beef is that we wish to restrict free movement of people: he hints at our hostility, if not racism, towards Bulgarians and Romanians.

As I noted here last week, the thing most British people seem to want from a “renegotiation” is the right to control our borders: and it will not be granted.

 

LUXEMBOURG (AP) — Europe was scrambling Friday to pick up the pieces after another failed meeting over Greece's bailout that reinforced fears that the country was heading for bankruptcy and a possible euro exit.  Several European countries said openly they are getting ready for the possibility of Greece leaving the euro. And though there was no sign of panic in the streets of Greece over that prospect, officials say Greeks are taking money out of banks in growing amounts.  As a result, the European Central Bank has scheduled a teleconference of its governing council to discuss emergency credit for Greek banks — just two days after it increased the amounts it was willing to provide. The ECB has been steadily increasing the credit it allows Greek banks to draw on.  The ECB could turn off that support if it thinks Greece is going bust, but that's not expected ahead of Monday's emergency meeting of the eurozone's 19 leaders. The country needs a deal to get more bailout loans from creditors before June 30, when it has the first of a series of debt repayments it cannot afford.

Without a deal, the ECB would be under intense pressure to stop pumping money into a banking system that might collapse.  Relations between the creditors and the Greek government, which was elected in January on a promise to end the crippling austerity cuts demanded since 2010 in return for the bailout money, have soured significantly in recent days, with each side blaming the other in stronger language for the impasse.  In Athens, there were no visible signs of distress, or larger than usual lines at banks or supermarkets, despite reports of large withdrawals and transfers, which can also be made electronically.  An EU official said 2 billion euros ($2.3 billion) had been taken out of Greek banks in the last three days.  "Money is going out of the Greek banks faster than at any time before," said the official, who spoke only on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the situation.

Syriza ran on an anti-austerity platform, knowing [1] the dates and amounts of repayment of Greek debt, [2] the condition of the Greek economy, and [3] that Greece's creditors had never stated that they would agree with Syriza's anti-austerity platform and [a] change the amount of the loans due, [b] change the dates on which the loans were due, or [c] offer Greece more money even if it did not pay its loans in full and on time. Syriza gambled with the Greek people as its chips and bet that 3a, 3b, or 3c above would occur simply because of the intimidating, bullying, insulting and narcissistic tactics of Varoufakis and Tsipras. In the end, Syriza lost its bet because Greece's creditors refused to be intimidated, and they said: "Fine, Varoufakis and Tsipras, you keep your anti-austerity platform; we'll keep our money. Have a good day." Syriza has what it told Greek voters they would have: anti-austerity. Therefore, about what can Syriza and those who voted for it complain? Syriza has only itself to blame - as do those Greeks who voted for Syriza. They shall have no future loans from creditors, and they shall be responsible for finding the money to run their anti-austerity economy. Where will Syriza find such money to run their anti-austerity economy? Nowhere, because the money does not exist and never existed: Greeks do not and shall not pay taxes, so there is no revenue, and no private or governmental lender will loan Greece money. In the end, and ironically, Greece shall have its anti-austerity, but it shall not have an economy and, therefore, its economy shall be the greatest anti-austerity economy in the world. If any Greek Erinyes are searching for someone to blame for this, they can start with Varoufakis and Tsipras. And what shall happen next? "Let all the poisons, which lurk in the mud, hatch out."

FINLAND - Faced with a bloated state, below-par growth, and prices and costs that have risen at a much faster pace than the rest of the eurozone, the medicine is a familiar one.  "The key to resolving the serious problems in the economy lies in structural reforms, fiscal consolidation and improved cost competitiveness," the Bank of Finland's latest health check of the economy said last week.

The phrase could have been taken from Greece's own long austerity prescription, but with an ageing population, state spending approaching 60pc of gross domestic product (GDP) and tax revenues far short of this, something has to change, and quickly. Finland, which has become known as one of the eurozone's lead preachers of fiscal prudence, will embark on a €10bn (£7.2bn) round of belt tightening over five years. Well, Finland and Estonia are economically (and culturally) closely wed, Greece and Cyprus like.  Finland and Russia. Well Finland is the only EU member nation to border Russia and not be a NATO member. I suspect they are wary of Russia but have a greater understanding of Russia's somewhat justified paranoia and anger with broken ' influence space' NATO invasions since the 1990's. They seek the old USSR relationship probably which worked well for Finland. Your last sentence captures this. BTW by many polls the most pro-EU Nordic - not members yet (and they were in the list with Denmark, UK and Ireland in the 1960's - is Norway.  Following April's elections, Juha Sipila, the prime minister, Timo Soini, the eurosceptic foreign minister and Alexander Stubb, the finance minister, have pledged to create more jobs, to get the economy moving and avoid a "lost decade" from a lack of reforms.   Finland is out on its own compared to the other Nordic countries in joining the Euro. Norway isn't even in the EU, Sweden has done well keeping the Krona and Denmark has kept their Krona but ties it to the Euro, a tie that could easily be broken if the proverbial hits the fan. Finland is looking rather isolated. Of course the Baltic states are in the Euro but they have all paid a heavy price for membership.  Would I be right in thinking that Finland is being hurt by Russian retaliatory sanctions rather more than other countries? Whilst they must have an historical healthy fear of Russia, I would imagine they are far more scared about the West restarting the Cold war in extreme earnest because of western interference in the internal affairs of Ukraine.

Greece’s creditors on Thursday issued their starkest warnings to Athens since the start of a five-month stand-off over the country’s soon-to-expire €172bn bailout,  with the International Monetary Fund withdrawing its negotiating team and European leaders saying the time for compromise had ended.   In a series of meeting in Brussels, Mr Tsipras was told his cash-strapped government must quickly decide whether to accede to more economic reforms or face bankruptcy. “We need decisions, not negotiations, now. It’s my opinion that the Greek government has to be, I think, a little more realistic,” said Donald Tusk, the European Council president, who met Mr Tsipras privately on Wednesday.  “There’s no more space for gambling, there’s no more time for gambling. The day is coming, I’m afraid, where someone says the game is over.”

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/b913...

So it appears things are far more serious than the Telegraph is reporting, they are almost at a time when they will be offered a simple take it or leave it situation, with the ECB printing press already fired up I believe enough has already been done to minimise any damage a Grexit may have caused in the past...Varoufakis understands very well the type of individuals he is having to deal with from IMF, and I can assure you he will not give them an inch.  He understands 'precisely' how nations such as Greece have ended up as heavily endebted as they have. I mean, it is not as if they are on their own for gods sake.  Almost every nation on the face of planet earth is now in the same boat, so you cannot say that it has occurred by chance.  In fact, going by the terrible state of the entire global financial system, one can only come to the inevitable conclusion that the situation we now find ourselves in was created on purpose.  A system designed to benefit 'the few', at the expense of the many. I say "go on Greece, blow this stinking ship clean out of the water".  Financially cripple the elites, do us all a big favor.

I don't understand the Finns. Why face up to reality, take responsibility for themselves and work out a sustainable way forward? That's no fun. Why not just falsify the accounts and then borrow lots of money from other people with no intention of ever paying it back? As we can see, the latter approach is working well for Greece...Finland is in trouble, and in the words of the central bank this week, the situation is "grave". While France has often been branded Europe's "sick man" and Greece's problems are well known, Finland's economy is still 5pc smaller than before the financial crisis. The country will barely crawl out of a three-year recession this year, while unemployment is forecast by the OECD to grow in 2015. Faced with a bloated state, below-par growth, and prices and costs that have risen at a much faster pace than the rest of the eurozone, the medicine is a familiar one.  "The key to resolving the serious problems in the economy lies in structural reforms, fiscal consolidation and improved cost competitiveness," the Bank of Finland's latest health check of the economy said last week. The phrase could have been taken from Greece's own long austerity prescription, but with an ageing population, state spending approaching 60pc of gross domestic product (GDP) and tax revenues far short of this, something has to change, and quickly. Finland, which has become known as one of the eurozone's lead preachers of fiscal prudence, will embark on a €10bn (£7.2bn) round of belt tightening over five years. Well, Finland and Estonia are economically (and culturally) closely wed, Greece and Cyprus like.  Finland and Russia. Well Finland is the only EU member nation to border Russia and not be a NATO member. I suspect they are wary of Russia but have a greater understanding of Russia's somewhat justified paranoia and anger with broken ' influence space' NATO invasions since the 1990's. They seek the old USSR relationship probably which worked well for Finland. Your last sentence captures this. BTW by many polls the most pro-EU Nordic - not members yet (and they were in the list with Denmark, UK and Ireland in the 1960's - is Norway.