Eurozone debt crisis

[Iron]

'20.33 We are hearing rumours that Germany, the Netherlands and Finland want guarantees from small Greek political parties that the bail-out measures will be kept in place, or for the elections in April to be called off.'

From http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/debt ... -live.html

RIP Democracy in Southern Europe.

Jeff

[mister man]

Greece passes crucial bailout vote as country burns - http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/fina ... burns.html

BTW, I see the BBC still don't know the difference between rioters and protesters, despite describing as protesters the rioters in the UK last summer:

'The vote came amid violent scenes in capital, Athens, and elsewhere, with protesters outside parliament throwing stones and petrol bombs'. (From http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-17007761)

Jeff

i think you will find that protesters are despondant, whilst rioters are desperate.

[Euler]

Iceland has been upgraded and their debt is now investment grade

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-17075011

[Iron]

In 2008, Iceland's three banks failed under their enormous foreign debt, which at one point was larger than the Icelandic economy.

The value of the Icelandic krona plunged, which made its exports more competitive. The new government of 2009 was allowed to carry on borrowing and spending for another year before spending cuts kicked in.

That is in contrast to the austerity measures that have been imposed on Greece, Portugal and the Irish Republic since their respective bailouts.

All those countries share the euro and so cannot devalue their currencies.

I hope Greece takes note...

Jeff

Iceland has been upgraded and their debt is now investment grade

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-17075011

[superfrank]

by definition not everyone can devalue.

currency wars are the result of using inflation (via QE) to erode debt, but there are limits (and consequences) to this approach.

the £ is still 'winning' the race to the bottom atm, but the Euro is catching up after they started to print. Merv responds by printing yet more, the FED will soon do likewise and then the ECB will do more and the cycle continues.

i'll eat my hat if inflation drops below 2% this year as Merv contends - even the phoney CPI measure.

[Iron]

Eurozone ministers back 130bn-euro bailout for Greece - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-17109044

If I were Greek, I'd vote for any party that wanted to leave the Euro, even if they were a bunch of extremist nutjobs (assuming that the EU doesn't cancel this year's elections to prevent me from doing so)...

Jeff

[Euler]

.

[superfrank]

Greece bailout: German MPs give strong backing
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-17176616

Under the front-page headline "Stop", Germany's mass circulation Bild newspaper made a direct appeal to parliament: "Don't keep on going the wrong way."

An opinion poll for Bild's Sunday edition suggested that 62% of those surveyed wanted MPs to vote against the package.

representative democracy. bah.

[Euler]

Nice piece in the Economist: -

To escape from its troubles, Portugal will have to abandon many of the things that made them bearable

http://www.economist.com/node/21548977? ... ntysociety

[Iron]

EU summit: Greek second bailout delayed another week - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-17219379

Talk about taking things to the wire! Doesn't Greece run out of money in just a couple of weeks, without a new bailout?

Jeff

[superfrank]

"Everybody Knows The Spanish Are Lying About The Figures" - senior source in Berlin.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/european- ... s%E2%80%9D

"Everybody knows that everyone in Europe is lying about everything" - Tyler Durden!

[Iron]

Greek default looms as voluntary debt deal looks set to fail - http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/fina ... -fail.html

[Iron]

UK in line to pay €4bn to Greece under Lagarde plan - http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/fina ... -plan.html

[Euler]

http://www.johnmauldin.com/images/uploa ... 031012.pdf

[Euler]

I see the markets are back in panic mode again.