Greece missed another deadline to approve conditions for a second €130bn bail-out on Tuesday night, after a meeting with political leaders was postponed until Wednesday because of last-minute haggling with international lenders over emergency spending cuts. A government official said Lucas Papademos, the technocrat prime minister, would hold the talks on Wednesday morning and expected a deal to be presented for approval at a meeting of eurozone finance ministers later in the week. But the delay over agreeing €3bn of extra spending cuts fuelled anxieties that Athens may be forced into a messy default next month. It also triggered concern over whether Greece remains committed to fiscal and structural reform after two years of failing to implement measures agreed in return for billions of euros in financial support. Greece has already missed two deadlines this week because of the politicians' brinkmanship, further exasperating its European paymasters and jeopardising its second bail-out along with a voluntary restructuring of €200bn of government debt.
A government official said Lucas Papademos, the technocrat prime minister, would hold the talks on Wednesday morning and expected a deal to be presented for approval at a meeting of eurozone finance ministers later in the week.
But the delay over agreeing €3bn of extra spending cuts fuelled anxieties that Athens may be forced into a messy default next month. It also triggered concern over whether Greece remains committed to fiscal and structural reform after two years of failing to implement measures agreed in return for billions of euros in financial support.
Greece has already missed two deadlines this week because of the politicians' brinkmanship, further exasperating its European paymasters and jeopardising its second bail-out along with a voluntary restructuring of €200bn of government debt.
This - if true - would fit into the power-grabbing neoliberal theory of ECB rather then the ideologically blinded theory of ECB. Having killed as much as they can of the state and services, having pushed salaries down and unemployment up, they would now turn around and act as lender of last resort to avoid Greece from leaving the euro, which would move it away from ECB's power.
Still think the central banksters needs to be investigated for treason. A vote for PES is a vote for EPP! A vote for EPP is a vote for PES! Support the coalition, vote EPP-PES in 2009!
The idea is for the ECB, in effect, to exchange the Greek bonds it holds for bonds of the European Financial Stability Facility, the euro zone's temporary bailout fund. The ECB will hold the highly rated EFSF bonds on its balance sheet in place of the Greek bonds it bought as part of its Securities Market Program. The EFSF will not hold the Greek bonds on its balance sheet, but will return the bonds to Greece and Greece will then agree to repay the EFSF for the purchase price of the bonds. The arrangement could reduce Greece's debt by as much as €11 billion, euro-zone officials estimate--the difference between the ECB purchase price of the bonds and their face value--though the actual reduction could be smaller. An expected accord that now appears close to conclusion would reduce debt to private bondholders by an estimated €100 billion, provided there is a large take-up of the offer by private creditors.
The EFSF will not hold the Greek bonds on its balance sheet, but will return the bonds to Greece and Greece will then agree to repay the EFSF for the purchase price of the bonds.
The arrangement could reduce Greece's debt by as much as €11 billion, euro-zone officials estimate--the difference between the ECB purchase price of the bonds and their face value--though the actual reduction could be smaller. An expected accord that now appears close to conclusion would reduce debt to private bondholders by an estimated €100 billion, provided there is a large take-up of the offer by private creditors.
Still think the central banksters needs to be investigated for treason.
