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Post by jdredd on Jun 22, 2011 0:24:52 GMT -5
www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-06-21/euro-decreases-s-p-500-futures-little-changed-amid-greece-confidence-vote.html'The euro weakened from a one-week high against the dollar on concern Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou will fail to pass austerity measures even after winning a confidence vote in parliament." “ Investors seem to be betting that Greece will move one step closer to securing further international financial aid, but the process would be far from smooth as strong protests by citizens against austerity measures will follow,” Lim Chang Gue, a fund manager in Seoul at Samsung Asset Management Co., which oversees about $30 billion. “The stock-market gain appears to be only a technical bounce and I’m not too optimistic for now.” “This vote buys Papandreou a week,” said Daniel Genter, who oversees about $3.8 billion as president of Los Angeles- based RNC Genter Capital Management. “But they’ve got to pass an austerity package within the next 30 days. There’s just not enough confidence right now that they’re going to get it through.” Gamblers laying bets on who will win the power struggle in Greece...the government sell-outs or the people...
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Post by jdredd on Jun 22, 2011 18:58:11 GMT -5
www.economist.com/blogs/newsbook/2011/06/greeces-crisis"Will the new cabinet prove more effective at reforming? The lenders’ demands seem huge: cutting 150,000 public jobs and raising €50 billion from privatisation sales by 2015. Job protection in the public sector and keeping control of state-owned utilities are two of Pasok’s most cherished policies. Mr Venizelos may chip away at the edges by closing down some outdated state entities and selling shares in some profitable state companies. But the sweeping changes required by the EU and IMF are unlikely to happen, at least in the medium-term."
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Post by jdredd on Jun 25, 2011 16:02:40 GMT -5
www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-money-funds-20110625,0,3917128.story "The government debt crisis in Europe that has led to bailouts of Greece, Ireland and Portugal by the rest of the continent has raised fears of a "contagion" that could spread through the global financial system. That's what occurred in 2008 after the failure of U.S. brokerage Lehman Bros., as shock waves rippled out and banks and other lending institutions began to cut off credit to one another. A large money fund, the Reserve Fund, collapsed as investors fled after learning the fund owned debt of Lehman. The U.S. quickly moved to temporarily guarantee all money fund assets. This time, there is no sign that the financial system overall is facing a 2008-style meltdown. But investors' nervousness has been evident in a new surge of buying in the U.S. Treasury bond market, the classic haven in times of market turmoil."
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Post by jdredd on Jun 26, 2011 12:44:29 GMT -5
www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-13921292"Meanwhile, two major investors have warned of the gravity of the situation facing Europe. The joint head of the world's biggest bond fund manager, Pimco, has said Greece's sovereign debt restructuring is inevitable. Pimco's co-chief investment officer, Mohamed El-Erian, warned the nation's problems could "contaminate" Europe. And leading investor George Soros, who reportedly made £1bn when the pound crashed out of the euro's forerunner, the ERM, said the world was on the brink of another disaster. "Let's face it: we are on the verge of an economic collapse which starts, let's say, in Greece but could easily spread," he said." So Soros is one of those investor-gods too...along with some guy named Mohamed. I'm learning something new every day!
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Post by jdredd on Jun 27, 2011 3:06:56 GMT -5
www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-06-26/papandreou-faces-parliament-on-second-austerity-call-as-eu-deadline-looms.html"With 155 votes in the 300-seat legislature, Papandreou needs to unite his lawmakers in two votes on a 78 billion-euro package of budget cuts and asset sales before Greece can tap a fifth loan payment from last year’s 110 billion-euro rescue." "Europe won a vote of confidence from Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, who said during a weekend trip to the continent that China will remain “a long term investor in Europe’s sovereign debt market.” "Early today, members of the Communist Party of Greece draped a banner reading “The People Have the Power: Never Surrender” in English and Greek over the walls of the ancient Acropolis citadel in Athens, chanting slogans against the austerity measures. Tourists took photos of the peaceful demonstration." I wonder if the Greeks will sell the Acropolis to China?
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Post by jdredd on Jun 28, 2011 2:59:28 GMT -5
www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-13935400"A 48-hour general strike has begun in Greece, as parliament prepares for a key vote on tough austerity measures. Huge crowds of protesters are expected on the streets of Athens, while public transport is set to grind to a halt." "The unions are angry that the government's austerity programme will impose taxes on those earning the minimum wage, following months of other cuts which have seen unemployment rise to more than 16%. "These measures are a massacre for workers' rights. It will truly be hell for the working man. The strike must bring everything to a standstill," Thanassis Pafilis, a Greek Communist Party MP, told the Associated Press." " Polls suggest that between 70% and 80% of Greek people oppose the austerity plan." "The new Finance Minister, Evangelos Venizelos, acknowledged that the cuts were "unfair" but said they were absolutely necessary."
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Post by jdredd on Jun 28, 2011 3:06:03 GMT -5
www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-13937481"For months there have been protests in Greece. Hardly a day has passed without strikes. There is rising resentment at a recession that only seems to deepen. They have had a year of austerity and now the Greek people are being asked to endure a second of cuts and tax increases. All the signs are that the Greeks have reached a limit. Last year 400,000 jobs were lost. Almost every street in Athens has boarded-up shops where owners cannot pay their loans. The despair and bitterness are palpable." "Everything hangs in the balance. In the meantime much of the economy - with the exception of tourism and some exports - is unravelling. Greek banks lost 8% of their private sector customer deposits this year. I have met several people who are moving their funds outside Greece. Even with a "yes" vote in the parliament there have to be doubts whether all these measures - particularly the privatisations - will be implemented. It is difficult to see how the debt mountain will be reduced. That is why most economists believe a default is inevitable - further down the road. That is perhaps the real game here. Play for a delay, a postponement in the hope that Europe's banks will be healthier and more able to take a hit two to three years from now."
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Post by jdredd on Jun 28, 2011 3:10:59 GMT -5
english.aljazeera.net/news/europe/2011/06/201162216394527465.html"The Greek cabinet has approved a 2012-2015 austerity budget plan as well as laws for its application, a condition to get an international bailout, government sources say. The decision on Wednesday came a day after George Papandreou's government survived a vote of confidence in parliament, following weeks of consecutive protests against planned tax hikes and budget cuts." "As they voted, several thousand protesters outside Parliament chanted "Thieves! thieves!" and riot police guarded the building. "I understand the anger, the fear, and the question whether we will make it,'' Papandreou said. "My answer is that we have been making it every day for the last 20 months, with difficulties and mistakes, with a price to pay and with sacrifices but we are succeeding."
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Post by jdredd on Jun 28, 2011 15:35:47 GMT -5
www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-13935400"Police have fired tear gas in running battles with stone-throwing youths in Athens, where a 48-hour general strike is being held against a parliamentary vote on tough austerity measures." " The newly named IMF chief, Christine Lagarde, has urged Greek politicians to unite to avoid a debt default. "If I have a message this evening about Greece, it is a call to the Greek opposition... to join in national unity with the party which is currently in power," she told France's TF1 television station. "The country's destiny is at stake." "The situation that the workers are undergoing is tragic and we are near poverty levels," said Spyros Linardopoulos, a protester with the PAME union at the blockade. "The government has declared war and to this war we will answer back with war." Hmmmm...I wonder what the IMF's role in all this is. Time for more research.
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Post by animal on Jun 28, 2011 15:41:08 GMT -5
workers announced a 2 day strike now.... I thought they needed money and was what they were pissed about?
Sorry to break up your run of talking to yourself....
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Post by jdredd on Jun 28, 2011 15:46:06 GMT -5
workers announced a 2 day strike now.... I thought they needed money and was what they were pissed about? Sorry to break up your run of talking to yourself.... No prob...if no one wants to come out and play, or should I say they only want to play on their terms, talking to myself is my only option. They can all happily ignore me that way, so it's win-win.
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Post by animal on Jun 28, 2011 15:49:02 GMT -5
back to my statement... how does a 2 day strike help these people worried about losing money?
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Post by jdredd on Jun 28, 2011 16:01:35 GMT -5
back to my statement... how does a 2 day strike help these people worried about losing money? Well, you have brought up the down side of any strike. In my totally biased opinion, strikes almost never occur unless forced upon workers by intransigent management or governments, whom on many occasions believe a strike might be the best way to weaken a Union, and are often right. In this case, the government probably thinks one more strike is just the price of once again bending over for the bankers to get the payoff and will amount to nothing. And they are probably right.
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Post by jdredd on Jun 28, 2011 19:28:36 GMT -5
english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/06/20116314159855509.html"Sooner than expected, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) will have a new managing director. For more than a decade, I have criticised the IMF's governance, symbolised by the way its leader is chosen. By gentlemen's agreement among the majority shareholders - the G8 - the managing director is to be a European, with a US citizen in the number two post and at the head of the World Bank. The Europeans typically picked their nominee behind the scenes, as did the Americans, after only cursory consultation with developing countries. The outcome, however, was often not good for the IMF, the World Bank, or the world. Most notorious was the appointment of Paul Wolfowitz, one of the main architects of the Iraq War, to lead the World Bank. His judgments there were no better than those that got the United States involved in that disastrous adventure. Having placed fighting corruption at the top of the Bank's agenda, he left in the middle of his term, accused of favoritism." "Today, the imminent crisis is in Europe, where the European Central Bank (ECB) seems to be putting its own balance sheet and those of European banks - loaded with debt from Ireland, Greece, and Portugal - above the well-being of these countries' citizens." "Now the ECB needs to think about how to help everyone, not just the bankers who bought the bonds. The new thinking should put people first, and banks' shareholders and bondholders second. Even if the shareholders and bondholders lose everything, with the right restructuring, we can still save the banks and protect taxpayers and workers." "Much as I would like to see someone from the emerging markets and the developing world head the IMF, the first priority is to choose a leader with the requisite skills, commitments, and understandings in an open and transparent process, someone who will continue along the reform path on which the Fund has embarked." "One of the leading candidates to be the IMF's next managing director has turned out to be a Frenchwoman, Christine Lagarde, who, as France's finance minister, helped lead her country through the Great Recession. She has been an outspoken advocate of financial-sector reforms, and has won the respect of all of those with whom she has worked. Politics is not always kind to good candidates. The world should be thankful that there is at least one. Where she was born should not be an impediment to her prospects."
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Post by jdredd on Jun 29, 2011 17:57:22 GMT -5
www.economist.com/node/18867440"GOOD news from Iran is rare, and the IMF is seldom a font of happy tidings about anything. So when a mission from the Fund cheered the Islamic Republic’s economy earlier this month, heaping praise on the policies of its ruthless government, eyebrows spiked upwards as in a comic scene in a Persian miniature. The shock was even sharper given that the IMF, whose biggest shareholder happens to be the Great Satan, America, is a pillar of global capitalism, a system that Iran’s maverick president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, gleefully lambasts as evil." "The reason for the praise is Iran’s exemplary execution of a task dear to the IMF’s heart: structural reform. The Islamic Republic describes things differently. Speaking on the occasion of Nowruz, the Iranian new year in March, the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, declared this to be the “year of economic jihad”. Whatever its name, the sweeping reform of a ruinous, three-decade-old system of state subsidies that Iran began last December seems to be radically reshaping the country’s economy for the better. Not only has it relieved the government of a huge financial burden. It has slashed local energy demand, reducing chronic pollution and leaving more oil for export. It has dramatically raised disposable incomes for the poorest without placing extra burdens on the rich, spreading social equity while boosting consumption and bolstering the banking system." "Until December, economists estimated the annual cost of subsidies on food, fuel and electricity at $60 billion-100 billion, a quarter of Iran’s GDP and equal to or greater than the value of annual energy exports. Most of this burden was carried as an implicit subsidy to domestic energy consumers, with the price of diesel fuel, for example, set at the equivalent of two American cents a litre, and petrol selling for less than bottled water. The predictable results were soaring energy consumption, waste, smuggling, pollution, market distortion and inexorably rising bills for the state."
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