The strategy being pursued by the EuroZone toward Greece seems to combine continued pressure on the Greek government and its finances with moves that support the Greek banking system
At his press conference today with Germany’s Angela Merkel, Greece’s Alexis Tsipras said Greece is about to run out of cash and that Germany owes Greece reparations for Nazi atrocities
So much for the euro rally. After climbing yesterday on a Federal Reserve statement pointing toward a September rather than June initial interest rate hike, the euro is back down today—hard
In Europe EuroZone finance ministers approved Greece’s package of promises in a conference call and in the U.S. Fed chair Yellen signals more patience until first interest rate increase than expected
Today German newspaper Bild is reporting that Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis sent the wrong version of a letter outline Greece’s request for an extension of its bailout. The correct version, Bild is reporting, accepted bailout conditions agreed by the previous Greek government
It’s sausage time in the Greek debt crisis. We don’t really want to know how the sausage—in this case a deal or no deal to head off the pending Greek liquidity crisis—is made. But we’re at a point in this crisis where it’s all about the details of what gets stuffed in the casing.
European, and indeed global, financial markets continue to show 1) that they believe the Greek debt crisis will be settled this week or 2) that they don’t think the possibility of a Greek default and a Greek exit from the euro is any big deal. Greeks, however, continue to pull money out of the country’s banks
Talks between Greece and the EuroGroup finance ministers collapsed today. Creditors are demanding that Greece agree to extend its current bailout package with the existing austerity measures intact before they will resume talks with Greece about any new financing. The new Greece government has branded this requirement as “absurd” and “unacceptable” and has refused to use the bailout package and austerity budget cuts negotiated by the last government as a basis for talks.
European stock markets today decided to go with the optimists who think a Greek debt deal is likely. Stocks in Athens for example rose a big 5.61%. Looking at the fine print in yesterday’s decision by the European Central Bank to extend an additional 5 billion euros in loans to Greek banks, however, I’d have to side with the pessimists.
