Greece Talks With Eurogroup Hit “Complete Breakdown”
The Greek negotiations with the Eurogroup are exemplifying the saying, “Things look the darkest before they go completely black.”
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The Gazprom Case: Good Timing or Bad Timing?
Just a week after having sent a Statement of Objections (SO) in the frame of the antitrust case against Google, EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager sent yesterday an SO in the frame of the case against Gazprom. The decision to send a charge sheet against the Russian gas company came after almost three years of investigations, which have also seen EU antitrust officials raiding Gazprom offices in central and eastern European countries.
Read more...Wolf Richter: The Greek People Just Destroyed Syriza’s Strategy
Greek stocks ventured deeper into purgatory. The ASE index dove below 700 intraday on Wednesday for the first time since the crisis days of June 2012. Then word spread that the ECB had raised the cap on the Emergency Liquidity Assistance for Greek banks by €1.5 billion to €75.5 billion. It’s the oxygen line for Greek banks. Without it, they’re toast.
Read more...The IMF’s Big Greek Mistake
Instead of demanding repayment and further austerity, the IMF should recognize its responsibility for Greece’s predicament and forgive much of the debt.
Read more...John Helmer: The Potentate Of Prague — How the War Party in Washington is Losing Eastern Europe, Hillary Clinton Too
Why the richest man in Prague, who is also the Deputy Prime Minister of the Czech Republic, is planning to sue the US government for libel.
Read more...Greece Endgame Nears
Despite the market jitters of last Friday, which were triggered in part by the recognition that the odds of Greece reaching a deal with its creditors are far lower than had been widely assumed, Greek-related coverage has ratcheted down, even as Greece seems certain not to get any funds released in the April 24 Eurogroup meeting and is very likely to miss the end of April deadline for getting its reforms approved by the Troika and Eurogroup.
Read more...Nobel Prize Winner Robert Merton Slams Fed for “Negative Wealth Effect” Policies
Nobel Prize winner Robert Merton and Arlin Muralidhar have charged ZIRP and QE happy central banks with economic malpractice.
Read more...Greece: Default or Grexit?
A Greek default does not mean an inevitable Grexit. But even in the event of a default in the Eurozone, the costs to Greece of staying in the Eurozone are set to rise.
Read more...Richard Wolff: Scapegoat Economics 2015
A new politics organized around scapegoat economics appeals to voters by promising to “protect” them from austerity policies.
Read more...Debunking the Causes of the Eurozone Crisis
The orthodox German view of the Eurozone crisis gets shellacked at an important INET panel.
Read more...Ilargi: Russia’s Central Bank Governor Is Way Smarter Than Ours
Just like the Bank of England hired Mark Carney from Canada, maybe our central bank, the Fed, should hire Elvira Nabiullina from Russia?
Read more...Jeffrey Sommers: Comparing Apples to Oranges: The Baltic States and Greece
Greece’s crisis is a public debt crisis enabled by membership in the Eurozone. The Baltic crisis was a private sector property bubble crisis.
Read more...Don Quijones: “Bad Bank” Mania Spreads in Europe
Yves here. I’m not as negative about “bad banks” as Don Quijones is. He does mention the positive result in Sweden, and I hope Swedish Lex will pipe up in comments to add more insight. But the Spanish case is a horrorshow and others in Europe are troubling.
Read more...Greece Threatens to Miss IMF Payment, Issue Drachma (Updated)
Greece has decided to up the ante in its negotiations with the Troika. The open question is whether the latest move, the press leak via Ambrose Evans-Pritchard at the Telegraph that Greece will miss its April 9 payment to the IMF so that it can continue to make pension payments, and has started to make plans to issue the drachma, are game-changers that Greece hopes they will be.
Read more...Greece Throws Away One of Its Eurogroup Memo Wins, Submits Reforms Reaching Up to a 3.9% Fiscal Surplus
One of the things we’ve stressed is that the Greek government’s repeated claims that it is submitting an anti-austerity reform package is untrue. The Greek government committed to achieving a fiscal surplus of 1.0 to 1.5% and has separately said it will always run a fiscal surplus. We have stressed that running a fiscal surplus is an economic dampener, and is even more damaging in a severely depressed economy like Greece.
So what has Greece done? It has submitted a reform package that it says will meet an even higher fiscal surplus target.
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