Wednesday 18 January 2012

More Greek news


Why wouldn’t they?! They already have an unelected bankster PM.

Greece prepares to give way to banks to secure debt deal
Greek government and international officials have signalled they will yield to the demands of banks and hedge funds in order to secure a bond deal before the end of the week.


17 january, 2012

Amid fresh warnings of Greek default, Charles Dallara, director of the Institute of International Finance (IIF), flew from Washington to Athens on Tuesday night to try to agree a deal before the European finance minister's summit on Monday.

Sources close to the bondholders told The Daily Telegraph there was "enough movement" from officials representing Greece, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), European Central Bank (ECB) and the European Union (EU) to persuade Mr Dallara to meet with them.

Bondholders are resisting pressure to take losses of more than 50pc on their bonds. They are also pushing for higher coupons on fresh Greek paper.

The IIF, which has been representing private sector bondholders during the tortuous talks, said it was committed to "seeking an agreement on a voluntary debt exchange for Greece" and appealed to officials to "work in good faith toward this end with a sense of urgency".

Greece must reach a deal with bondholders to secure the €130bn bail-out it needs before Athens runs out of money in March.
However, the country is likely to default anyway, a director of Fitch has warned. Edward Parker, head of the credit rating's sovereign group, told reporters: "It is going to happen. Greece is insolvent so it will default."

Referring to private sector involvement (PSI), he added: "We don't think this PSI is the way to go and we would treat it as a default. It clearly is a default, however they try to spin it."

Mr Parker said disorderly default, triggered by a failure to agree a deal with bondholders, would be "really damaging". He added: "We are certainly not expecting [this] to happen because, clearly, in a rational situation you would think Greek politicians and European policy makers would ensure that it doesn't."

Ewald Nowotny, a member of the ECB's governing council, said he hoped "all participants will understand the responsibility they have".

Tension around the talks has been exacerbated by the fragile state of Europe's bail-out mechanisms. Leaders leapt to the defence of the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF), the bail-out fund tasked with supporting indebted states which was itself stripped of its AAA rating by Standard & Poor's on Monday.

The EFSF still managed to sell €1.5bn six-month treasury bills on Tuesday.

Japan's finance minister Jun Azumi said the bonds were still "attractive" but he urged Germany and France to push for a better financial "firewall" to prevent contagion. Berlin and Paris said there was no need to boost the EFSF despite the downgrade.

Stockmarkets rose on the back of strong economic data from Germany, China and America. The Stoxx 50 closed up 1.49pc.

Traders were also encouraged when Spain auctioned €4.9bn of short-term debt and Greece raised €1.625bn in 13-week treasury bills.

David Cameron is meeting Mario Monti in London on Wednesday. The prime minister of Italy has pleaded for international help to reduce Italy's borrowing costs.




Fitch Says Greece Will Default By March 20 Bond Payment

17 January, 2012

It's all over but the crying at least as far as Greece is concerned. 

First, it was S&P's Kraemer telling Bloomberg yesterday the country is finished, now today for dramatic impact, we get Fitch's repeating the doom and gloom, stating that the country will likely default before its March 20 payment. From Bloomberg: "Greece is insolvent and will default on its debts.

Fitch Ratings Managing Director Edward Parker said. The euro area’s most indebted country is unlikely to be able to honor a March 20 bond payment of 14.5 billion euros ($18 billion), Parker said in an interview in Stockholm today. Efforts to arrange a private sector deal on how to handle Greece’s obligations would constitute a default at Fitch, he said.  “The so called private sector involvement, for us, would count as a default, it clearly is a default in our book,” Parker said. “

So it won’t be a surprise when the Greek default actually happens and we expect it one way or the other to be relatively soon." Europe’s debt crisis is likely to be “long and drawn out,” Parker said." 

And here we go again, with official attempts to make what appeared apocalyptic as recently as a month ago, seem trite, boring and perfectly anticipated. 

In other words, the fact that this like every other piece of bad news that should be priced in, is priced in, is priced in. And so on, at least according to the kleptocrats, until we finally learn that nothing is priced in but endless market stupidity.





Greek Crisis Has Pharmacists Pleading for Aspirin as Drug Supply Dries Up

11 January, 2012


For patients and pharmacists in financially stricken Greece, even finding aspirin has turned into a headache.

Mina Mavrou, who runs a pharmacy in a middle-class Athens suburb, spends hours each day pleading with drugmakers, wholesalers and colleagues to hunt down medicines for clients. Life-saving drugs such as Sanofi (SAN)’s blood-thinner Clexane and GlaxoSmithKline Plc (GSK)’s asthma inhaler Flixotide often appear as lines of crimson data on pharmacists’ computer screens, meaning the products aren’t in stock or that pharmacists can’t order as many units as they need.

“When we see red, we want to cry,” Mavrou said. “The situation is worsening day by day.”

The 12,000 pharmacies that dot almost every street corner in Greek cities are the damaged capillaries of a complex system for getting treatment to patients. The Panhellenic Association of Pharmacists reports shortages of almost half the country’s 500 most-used medicines. Even when drugs are available, pharmacists often must foot the bill up front, or patients simply do without.

The financial crisis is brewing a “Greek tragedy” of slowing access to medical care and worsening outcomes for patients, Martin McKee, a professor of European public health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, wrote in an October article in The Lancet.

The Greek Ministry of Health didn’t respond to repeated requests for comment.

For article GO HERE

No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.