The reporting in germany on the government response to developments at the IMF conference:
-Merkel refused to comment on the suggestion of a two year extension, saying she'd await the troika report.
-Schäuble ruled out OSI, sounded extremely unconvinced about a two year extention for Greece, and basically said things were going better than the media presented it.
-Brüderle (FDP Floor-Leader) said that he didn't see a majority in the Bundestag for a 3rd Greek Bailout. Which is polite language for "we're not voting for it". The CSU would be against, but has made no public comment. Plenty in the CDU would be against too, but the majority will hold to Merkel's line. The SPD are for it, as I think are the Greens.
-Schäuble ruled out OSI, sounded extremely unconvinced about a two year extention for Greece, and basically said things were going better than the media presented it.
-Brüderle (FDP Floor-Leader) said that he didn't see a majority in the Bundestag for a 3rd Greek Bailout. Which is polite language for "we're not voting for it". The CSU would be against, but has made no public comment. Plenty in the CDU would be against too, but the majority will hold to Merkel's line. The SPD are for it, as I think are the Greens.
So it looks like another one of those wrapped-together-with-sticky-tape temporary coalitions, to get it through the Bundestag. And probably bundled together with other applications from Spain, Slowenia, Cyprus.
European Central Bank policymaker Jörg Asmussen has argued against Greece leaving the eurozone, at the IMF/World Bank shindig in Tokyo. Asmussen argued that Athens was making good progress. The Greek authorities have to demonstrate that they can continue to stick to their commitments... This is the best way out of its crisis: for Greece to reform within the euro area....CNN is also focusing on the growing divisions between the IMF and the eurozone over austerity....Its correspondent, Andrew Stevens, writes from Tokyo:The EU will produce its own conclusions about the impact of austerity measures next month. Whether that brings us any closer to a consensus is hard to judge.....Remember the old joke about economists: if you laid all the economists in the world end-to-end you still wouldn't reach a conclusion. But this is no joking matter. Millions of Europeans have fallen into poverty or at least economic hardship as a result of the current austerity programs.