Dear Greeks, take the pain we need some new plates and glasses. WTF. The EU beaurocrats added c£100bn of costs to Euro Countries, have no mandate for their policies, are not accountable and are hugely hypocritical. Let us reduce size of hair dryer and vacuum cleaner motors to reduce emissions whilst continuing to ferry people and documents between Brussels and Strasbourg at a cost in excess of £100m per year, which is of course emissions free.  The amount of money that has been P'd away since the European project started is mind boggling. The accounts have never been signed off since this bunch of loons started, due to fraud and a total lack of control. Imagine being a company in any country in the EC on this basis. No chance; closure and prosecution of the Directors.  This is a monster gravy train for those involved, (Kinnocks spring to mind and several ministers from France and Holland who sit on the CAP committee, but just happen to have huge farming interests, which seemingly they don't have to declare. Doesn't fit with the Companies Acts in the UK).  As a Brit living in France I see several perspectives, but genuinely believe that the future of the UK would be best served by leaving this self-serving gentleman's club. It is an altruistic view of life with no regard to real people and exists to provide a good living to those involved, much of it tax free. Evidenced by the demand for a budget increase for the European Parliament whilst all EU members were cutting costs. How far out of touch can they be. The people need to wake up and recognise that each tier of management/ local and central government carries a cost, London Mayors, etc. and so long as it is accountable then no problem. These people are not accountable to anyone and milk the system to the extreme.

By the time the EU dictators, thieves and liars realise that their European nation destroying project has failed Europe will be in flames and those same EU politicians that created the chaos will be on the run to Argentina…history has a nasty habit of repeating itself.The EU has endangered the real torch bearer of peace in Europe. Most European countries have not meet their obligations to the nato alliance. Instead they send massive amounts of resources to the UnDemocratic EU instead. The German Army is in shambles and the UK has been cutting their capabilities to the bone, and rely on US forces to carry out many of the operations that the UK was self sufficient at a couple of years ago.

"It's very difficult to argue today to your population that it's a well functioning system," Is that the understatement of the year or what?...I would guess that within 2 years not even the Germans will be wanting the Euro, AGAIN.   If Closer union is so good for the EU why is it a complete and dismal failure? All that is happening is that all countries are being brought down to the lowest common denominator of the failed and failing countries as cash transfers from successful taxpaying countries is used to support the lazy unemployable and the massive government structures that are so left wing they eat each other in corruption as they grab what they can for themselves.  No though for tomorrow. They live in a booze and sleep gimmie PC cloud of studied ignorance

European Union officials are bracing themselves for the possibility that Greece’s negotiations with its lenders will not be concluded in time for Athens to receive funding to pay a 3.5-billion-euro bond held by the European Central Bank on August 20, meaning a second bridge loan could be needed.

Greece received an initial loan of 7.16 billion euros last week to meet another maturing bond held by the ECB and repay some 2 billion euros to the International Monetary Fund. It had been hoped that a third bailout could be agreed in time for Greece to receive funding before the next ECB-held bond is due on August 20 but some officials believe that talks may not be completed before the beginning of December. Greece’s total funding needs for August stand at around 5 billion euros as another payment to the IMF is also due next month. A European official who wished to remain anonymous told Kathimerini that the European Financial Stability Mechanism (EFSM) may be tapped again next month – as it was last week – to provide bridge financing to the government until a third bailout has been agreed and approved by Greece’s Parliament, as well as others in the eurozone.

In Brussels, European Affairs Commissioner Pierre Moscovici said on Wednesday he is hoping the bailout deal can be signed by mid-August, while accepting that Greece has to meet a “punishing” schedule. “After months of deadlock, we are now making swift progress on the implementation of the euro summit agreement,” said the commissioner.

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.

I just wanted to clarify a few things that keep cropping up in some of the commentators’ posts:

The Greek PM explained everything in a TV interview in Greece a couple of days ago: Grexit was never his intention, the referendum aimed at raising awareness of the fact that Europe has a hard nucleus (Germany) and everything else is controlled from there. He hopes for a more balanced Europe in the future (where more lefty parties join in, eg the Spanish Podemos), he said that the negotiations were extremely tough and twice both him and Merkel (if I remember correctly) nearly left the room because they couldn't agree and were called back in the room by Trusk (??? Sorry, not sure if the surname is correct…), that he never had a plan B and that he never had offers from Russia or China for help.  In the end, he tried to get the best deal for his country (managed to negotiate around 14 out of 20 reforms) and although the measures are extremely tough, he will do his best to implement them.  Regarding Greece leaving the Euro, he looked at a document given there with all the financial consequences and he said that they would be disastrous. The country is not prepared.

This is what I understood anyway.  Until very recently the northern Europeans were completely unaware of Greek culture & society which allowed Greeks to constantly go on about how they invented, democracy, philosophy etc. Now we know that that was 2000 years ago and that what we are dealing with now is more like (in fact very much like) Macedonia, Albania and Bulgaria. Corruption, clientelism and tribalism are rife. This Balkan form of organisation works to an extent but it can't provide the standard of living that Greeks have come to expect after 30 years of "money for nothing". That is why they only have two options: stay in the euro (and change dramatically over the next few years in order to find a societal, economic and political organisation that can sustain high standards of living) or leave (in which case they can do whatever they like but most likely will suffer a drop in living standards which will bring them in line with their immediate neighbours).

It is correct though, that the current mess is also, to a large extent down to the constant cash injections Greece has received from ignorant westerners. First because they wanted to revive ancient Greeks, then because they wanted to mess with the Ottomans, then to keep the communists out and finally (the chain of justifications comes full circle) because Greece (or rather the symbolism that it represents) is an integral part of our European identity.

The US Federal Reserve plans to raise interest rates this year on the back of an improving American economy, and that is taking the shine off gold. ... Why? Because gold is a store of wealth for investors, but generates no returns from regular interest payments or dividend income. Investors have been happy to park their money in gold over the past six years while returns from other 'safe haven' assets have remained low and the economic backdrop has remained volatile. But, with borrowing costs set to rise, commodities, such as gold, are losing favor with investors, as higher returns can start to be generated elsewhere. The UK interest rate is 0.5pc. In the US, the interest rate, set by the Federal Reserve, is 0.25pc. US Federal Reserve chairman Janet Yellen has suggested interest rates should rise by the end of the year, while Mark Carney, the governor of the Bank of England, also signaled that UK interest rates could begin to rise around the beginning of 2016, if not earlier. .. The US dollar has been growing stronger, boosted by a resurgent American economy and the prospect for a rate rise in the next few months. The US dollar index, which tracks the price of the US dollar against the world’s currencies, has increased by more than 20pc within the past year.   The value of the US dollar typically follows an inverse relationship with commodities. When the dollar strengthens against other major currencies, the prices of commodities - such as gold - typically drop. When the dollar weakens, commodities generally move higher. The main reason for this is because most commodities are freely traded in international markets and prices are quoted in US dollars.  Foreign buyers will purchase commodities with dollars, so, when the value of the dollar drops, they will have more buying power, and demand increases. Similarly, when the value of the dollar rises, they have less buying power and commodities become more expensive, muting demand and sending commodity prices lower. .. The slowdown in the Chinese economy, the world's largest consumer of commodities, has also caused the gold price to fall steadily since 2011.  China has increased its reserves of gold bullion by 60pc since 2009. However, on Friday the People’s Bank of China revealed it has been buying far less gold than expected. China updated its gold bullion reserves for the first time since 2009 last week, showing that while reserves had increased, the 57pc gain to 1,658 metric tons was smaller than the 3,500 tons analysts had been expecting.

I'm not sure the Germans will see  - between Draghi, the IMF, the US, the French, the FT, the Economist etc etc the pressure on them for debt relief is coming up fast. It was a calm delivery, but like a stiletto between the shoulder blades. Given the Germans have conceded maturity extension is legally possible, that is where Draghi and the IMF are positioning the debate. The question is whether the maturity extension is so great as to amount to an enormous upfront write off of not. The Germans say not. But as I read it 2 out of 3 of the Troika - the IMF and ECD - are clear it needs to be the former, and of the EU the governments are split with some like France and Italy going with the ECB and IMF, and some with the Germans in resisting that. With the Bundestag out of the way the pressure will mount enormously in coming weeks, especially with the IMF's not so subtle threat it will not be joining the bailout if this is not addressed. At this moment it looks like the Germans, after all, could be the big losers. And my suspicion is, reading Draghi, they will fear that too, and be furious. The great irony is it was the Germans who insisted on having the IMF in the deal over Tsipras' objections.