Category Archives: Europe

Quick Update on Greece, Germany, and the IMF

We’d posted earlier this week that odds favored a Grexit. With the Greek bridge loan deal having passed the key hurdle of securing passage in the German Parliament, and Lagarde making it clear that the IMF will support an eventual bailout deal with “restructured” loans (ie, no haircuts), the odds have shifted. It is now more probable that this pillage-of-Greece program stays on track near term, meaning the so-called “third bailout” gets completed.

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Lagarde Distances the IMF From Implications of Leaked Debt Sustainability Report

By Nathan Tankus, a writer from New York City. Follow him on Twitter at @NathanTankus Earlier this week I did a detailed analysis of the way the media misreported Lew and Lagarde’s statements last week regarding Greece. Yesterday this type of misreporting reared its ugly head again when an update to the Debt Sustainability report […]

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ECB Expected to Continue to Strangle Banks, Not Provide More ELA Funding Today, Despite Greek Parliament Passing Austerity Legislation (Updated: ECB Does Not Provide All of Requested Funding, Attaches New Strings)

The ECB is in full sack-of-Carthage mode if it fails to increase the ELA today to give Greek banks some hope of survival and more important for the economy, of providing payment services to citizens, businesses (particularly importers) and tourists

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IMF Throws a Spanner in Proposed Greece Deal, Says Debt Reduction May Not Be Enough

The IMF has dropped a big shoe before the Greek government has passed any of the legislation required as part of its pending bailout. But if this development leads to more wrangling, that means an even longer delay before Greek banks get any liquidity, which means continued strangulation of the Greek economy.

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