Of course, we'd need to hear from ET'ers closer to the situation to get any sense of what the outcome may be...

Raoul Ruparel ‏@RaoulRuparel

Have always said #Varoufakis speeches to #Eurogroup read like econ prof lecturing students. Not surprised not liked.

Open Europe @OpenEurope

Slovak FinMin Kazimir asked "what do you expect from Varoufakis today?", says: "The same, the lecturing". #Greece

Dimitris Yannopoulos @DimitrisY

"Lecturing" is a common excuse for shrugging off well-supported arguments that participants are unable to refute. @RaoulRuparel @OpenEurope

AND, the main worry would be whether New Democracy can oust Syriza by proving a referendum is unconstitutional.

I think the idea that the previous bailout is no longer on offer from the Eurogroup is rather irrelevant.

The referendum can easily ask the question: Should Greece request to the Institutions that it be offered an extension of the current memorandum?

Helena Smith, our Athens correspondent, has more details of Tsipras's call to Merkel and Hollande today.

Tsipras apparently told both leaders:

"Democracy is of the highest order in Greece and the referendum will take place regardless of the Euro group decision."

NikiKitsantonis @NikiKitsantonis

Greek gov source: Tsipras spoke w Merkel, Hollande, said whatever Eurogroup decision is Greek people will have oxygen nxt wk, will survive!

On the other hand the EP has no input in these decisions anyway, so...

Apprendre de ses erreurs http://t.co/LU3p3RcPal #Grece #UE

— DSK (@dstrausskahn) June 27, 2015

#Eurogroup statement telling markets it can handle the upcoming #Grexit & urging #Greece to initiate capital controls http://t.co/9Pl2kkcUcD

— Bojan Pancevski (@bopanc) junio 27, 2015

We stress that the expiry of the EFSF financial arrangement with Greece, without immediate prospects of a follow-up arrangement, will require measures by the Greek authorities, with the technical assistance of the institutions, to safeguard the stability of the Greek financial system. The Eurogroup will monitor very closely the economic and financial situation in Greece and the Eurogroup stands ready to reconvene to take appropriate decisions where needed, in the interest of Greece as euro area member.

[The statement is adopted by ministers from the euro area Member States, except Greece].

... "I'm here to take my mother's pension out before the machine runs out of cash," said Erato Spyropoulou, who was standing in a line of about eight people at one of National Bank of Greece SA's ATMs. "It's very worrying what's happening because people don't know what they're being asked to vote for. It's the last nail in Greece's coffin." ...

... About 100 people had lined up at a Piraeus Bank branch at a central Athens street before it opened. Some said they had waited for about three hours. Once word got out that the bank wouldn't open, one elderly woman fainted.

As an ambulance pulled by to take her away, others spewed vitriol at everyone from the Greek prime minister to Germany.

"Tsipras said he would turn things around, but things are only going to get worse," said Stavros, a 61-year-old retired sailor, who was lining up to withdraw his pension. He said he was initially planning to go to the bank on Monday but decided to line up on Saturday when he heard about the government's referendum plans.

He said he won't be able to pay his mortgage if the banking system doesn't open on Monday.

I'm on the Cycladic island of Kythnos, which is 2-3 hours by ferry from Athens [...]

Islanders will be very much effected by the turmoil. Already, there are only about half as many ferryboats running between the islands as there were last year. One of the subsidized lines has already stopped functioning. Boat schedules are constantly being changed and routes dropped, which means all the produce and other supplies that must come by boat are  getting much less abundant, and less fresh.

The islands are in jeopardy if ferries are unable to buy fuel or on strike. Few tourists, no food to feed them if they were there, if all chaos breaks loose ...

With tens of thousands of migrants braving the Mediterranean and Aegean Seas for a change to live in Europe, a report from Greek newspaper Ta Nea puts the dramatic situation in perspective: 407 migrants landed in Greece, mostly traveling illegally from Turkey, in the past 24 hours.

Greece's coast guard tells the newspaper that the migrants landed all over the islands closest to Turkey: Lesbos, Chios, Samos, Agathonisi and Kos. These islands mostly contain vacation resorts and are ill-equipped to provide the resources necessary to maintain these migrants, many who arrive sick or weakened by lack of food and water. The Greek coast guard has previously described itself as "overwhelmed" and "paralyzed" by efforts to find, rescue, and provide for migrants on their way to the country.

On Greek island, migrants bring stark contrast to the usual western tourists

Do Not Blink, GreeceAlex Andreou . London and Athens . 27 June 2015The international game of chicken, being played out for the last five years, is reaching its climax. Alexis Tsipras has played a very bad hand extremely well, despite what doomsayers suggest

Greek Prime Minister, Alexis Tsipras, seemed to take the world by surprise last night when he announced that he would move to give a referendum to the Greek people on the debt deal currently on offer by the EU/IMF, so that they could have their say. He made it clear that he was unhappy with the offer, which he described as "unbearable" and "humiliating", and minded to reject it.

Opposition parties in Greece have moved swiftly to condemn the move. These are largely the same people who have been, for weeks, criticising Tsipras for making too many concessions during negotiations and moving towards a deal that they said was terrible.

Some international commentators have, however, noted that Eurogroup discussions are in fact continuing today and that the "team Greece" has suddenly found itself in a position of pulling a rather large ace from its sleeve which nobody thought it had.

What is the truth?

As always, it is somewhere between those two positions. Earlier in the year, I wrote that the EU and especially the IMF had overreached. For shock doctrine to function, one has to leave a majority with something to lose. A tipping point can be reached and, I believe, has in Greece where the vast majority of people sneer at the threat of things like capital controls and savings being wiped out. Quite simply because they have no capital or savings. When that happens, a nation's reaction to humiliation can be unpredictable.

It is true that the referendum leaves Greek people with the choice of types of extreme misery. Will it be an externally imposed misery or a self-determined type? But it is utterly unfair to suggest that this is a position to which Syriza has brought us. It is a position to which forty years of corruption and incompetent government and five years of economically illiterate IMF hegemony have brought us. Faced with the choice of an ever-expanding abyss of austerity, of death by a thousand paper cuts, Tsipras has opted to act as a catalyst and bring things to a quick and decisive end.

There is no doubt in my mind that in twenty years Greece will still exist and most likely be thriving. I do not say this because of glories of the past and "cradle of democracy" arguments.

Worst case Greece dumps Syriza and goes Golden Dawn, even more damning optics for the Troika.

Hard time hiding the horns under a wig after that.

Mythology vs Democracy: The Greek Crisis

After years of the wrong people succeeding, Greece longs for the right people, even if they fail. For the first time, the working class voted in its own self-interest, unconvinced by the vague promise of social mobility and trickle-down. For the first time, a popular government stood up to big interests and said, "We don't see it like that. The EU you want is not the EU we want."

What is happening there matters to all. First, it forces out into the open and brings into sharp contrast the increasing divergence between the wellbeing of markets and the wellbeing of populations. Second, it marks a clear act of economic blackmail by a global de facto establishment - let's call it "The Davos Set" - unhappy at a democratic people opting for an alternative to neoliberalism.

How these tensions resolve themselves will determine whether national elections remain meaningful in any way; whether democratic change is possible or violent revolution is in fact the only effective option.

And there, I think, is the wider lesson from the Greek election. Globalised capitalism and democracy are often uncomfortable bedfellows. We must not assume that one needs - or magically brings about - the other. China is proof that they operate independently. Democracy is often messy. Markets like certainty. It is vital to recognise the existence of this tension.

That is all.

Be nice to America. Or we'll bring democracy to your country.

The one big criticism I have for the Greeks and Syriza is that they still want to remain in the Euro. Why? It has only given them grief and it will continue to do so for a long time. I suspect it's a combination of: (1) Fear of the unknown. What comes after the Euro? Total Chaos? Not a crazy fear but wasn't fear the only thing to fear? (2) Stockholm Syndrome. (3) Sunk cost fallacy. People have bled for the Euro so much that it can't be for nothing. Well it was for almost nothing. (4) Pride/Prestige/Vanity. That is one of the big factors that led to the problem in the first place.

_{Schengen is toast!}

The European Central Bank says it will maintain its emergency funding of Greek banks at the level agreed on Friday.

The ECB said that it stood ready to review the decision on its Emergency Liquidity Assistance (ELA) and would work closely with the Bank of Greece.

BBC economics editor Robert Peston says the ECB is not providing any additional aid to Greece, which will lead to huge pressure for capital controls.

Greek banks depend on ELA, and cutting it could push Greece out of the euro.

An ECB spokesman told the BBC: "Greece still has access to the ELA."

On the question that will be put to the Greek people, much has been said about what it should be. Many of you tell us, advise us, instruct us even, that we should make it a Yes or No question on the euro. Let me be clear on this. First, the question was formulated by the Cabinet and has just been passed through Parliament - and it is "Do you accept the institutions' proposal as it was presented to us on 25th June in the Eurogroup?" This is the only pertinent question. If we had accepted that proposal two days ago, we would have had a deal. The Greek government is now asking the electorate to answer the question you put it to me Jeroen - especially when you said, and I quote, "you can consider this, if you wish, a take or leave it proposal". Well, this is how we took it and we are now honouring the institutions and the Greek people by asking the latter to deliver a clear answer on the institutions' proposal.

To those who say that, effectively, this is a referendum on the euro, my answer is: You may very well say this but I shall not comment. This is your judgement, your opinion, your interpretation. Not ours! There is a logic to your view but only if there is an implicit threat that a No from the Greek people to the institutions' proposal will be followed up by moves to eject Greece, illegally, out of the euro. Such a threat would not be consistent with basic principles of European democratic governance and European Law.

Greek banks are to remain closed and capital controls will be imposed, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras says.

Speaking after the European Central Bank (ECB) said it was not increasing emergency funding to Greek banks, Mr Tsipras said Greek deposits were safe.

Greece is due to make a €1.6bn (£1.1bn) payment to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Tuesday - the same day that its current bailout expires.

It is hard to advise Greeks how to vote on 5 July. Neither alternative - approval or rejection of the troika's terms - will be easy, and both carry huge risks. A yes vote would mean depression almost without end. Perhaps a depleted country - one that has sold off all of its assets, and whose bright young people have emigrated - might finally get debt forgiveness; perhaps, having shrivelled into a middle-income economy, Greece might finally be able to get assistance from the World Bank. All of this might happen in the next decade, or perhaps in the decade after that.

By contrast, a no vote would at least open the possibility that Greece, with its strong democratic tradition, might grasp its destiny in its own hands. Greeks might gain the opportunity to shape a future that, though perhaps not as prosperous as the past, is far more hopeful than the unconscionable torture of the present.

I know how I would vote.

Greek debt crisis: Alexis Tsipras asks for new bailout - live updates | Business | The Guardian

GREECE PROPOSES A THIRD BAILOUT

The Greek government has proposed a new Two-Year bailout programme, according to news breaking in Athens.

This two-year programme would be supplied under the European Stability Mechanism (Europe's bailout fund)

And - crucially - would run alongside a debt restructuring. And it wouldn't include the International Monetary Fund.

In a statement from Alexis Tsipras's office, cited by Reuters, Greece says it is still at the negotiating table, and seeking "a viable solution, under the end, aimed at staying in the euro."

... Predictions for how long before it is unanimously howled down?

Minutes?
Hours?

_{It is rightly acknowledged that people of faith have no monopoly of virtue - Queen Elizabeth II}

In all the political blame game of this week, one fact has been mostly overlooked: Seldom have macroeconomic difficulties been as persistently mismanaged as those of Greece over the past five years. Since the beginning of the crisis, Greece has performed markedly worse than the most of the hardest-hit crisis countries in the past half century - worse than Ukraine over the past decade (when it was confronted with all the well-known security issues in Eastern Ukraine and the occupation of Crimea by the Russians), worse than the economic-policy-pariah Argentina after its default in 2002 and worse than Burundi during its decade-long civil war in the 1990s and early 2000s.

Clearly, this dismal performance cannot be primarily blamed on institutional problems in Greece: Greek institutions might be weak, and corruption wide-spread, but would anyone seriously claim that institutional conditions in Athens are worse than those in Argentina in the 1990s or those in Burundi when Hutus and Tutsi killed each other by the thousands?

The mistakes in the Greek bailout programmes are by now well documented: For a long time, the troika postponed a necessary debt restructuring. When the debt restructuring came, the troika did not allow public creditors to be included, so the Greek debt level remained unsustainable. The troika also badly underestimated the detrimental impact of austerity on Greek output. And it focused on labor market reforms when the real problem were vested interests and monopolies in product markets, cutting into Greek wages without really improving competitiveness and exports.

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble told lawmakers in Berlin that Greece would stay in the euro for the time being if Greek voters reject austerity in a referendum scheduled this week, according to three people present.

Schaeuble also said the European Central Bank would do what's needed to protect the euro if Greeks voted against the bailout terms in the July 5 referendum, according to the people, all of whom participated in the closed-door meeting on Tuesday. They asked not to be identified, citing the private nature of the discussion.

Germany's stance suggests that policy makers in Berlin are preparing for Greeks to reject the offer by creditors for continued aid to the euro area's most-indebted nation. Schaeuble said in that event Greece may be able tap about 32 billion euros ($36 billion) in European Union support funding to boost its economy, according to the participants.

"Our goal remains to keep Greece in the euro, regardless of the referendum result," Antje Tillmann, a lawmaker for Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union, said by phone. "It's up to Greece itself to decide whether it wants to stay in the euro zone."