Athens' fondness for weaponry, and willingness of Germany and France to feed it, under fire as Greece struggles with debt crisis. A few months before submarines became the talk of Athens, Yiannis Panagopoulos, who heads the Greek trade union confederation (GSEE), found himself sitting opposite Angela Merkel at a private meeting the German chancellor had called of European trade unionists in Berlin. When it ...

Privileged access to EU summits helped the banking lobby avoid paying for their own excesses At the Euro Summits in July and October 2011[1], crucial decisions “to save the Euro” and “to save Greece” were made. It was agreed to restructure Greek debts and banks were asked to accept a 'haircut' to their profits to avoid a Greek default and the risk that some banks might default as a result. In Summer 2011, t ...

By Marshall Auerback, a portfolio strategist and hedge fund manager   News stories continue to suggest that Greece once again appears on the verge of reaching a deal with its private sector creditors on how much of a loss they would be willing to accept on their bond holdings. The latest numbers suggest a 70% write-down. A pretty striking comedown for what is supposed to be a “voluntary default” and, h ...

By James G. Neuger and Jurjen van de Pol for Bloomberg   European leaders sparred with Greece over a second rescue program, clouding progress toward a permanent aid fund and tougher budget rules designed to stabilize the euro. Greece faced criticism that its economic makeover is faltering, and it fended off German and Dutch calls for a European overseer to take command of its budget after its deficits ...

By Allan Little BBC News Having to pay for its reunification after the fall of the Berlin wall, Germany broke the budget deficit rules in 2003 - did this set a bad example for the eurozone?   Who is to blame for starting the current crisis in the eurozone? Greece? Italy? The real answer may lie further north. It was not the behaviour of the eurozone's southern members that first plunged the single curr ...

By economistmeg.com At the top of my list of to do’s for the past few weeks has been to update the post on Greek PSI that I wrote just before Christmas to include some more recent developments, such as the prospect of ECB participation. Last night, Peter Spiegel from the Financial Times (@SpiegelPeter) published the German government’s proposal for Greece’s “improvement of compliance” with the terms of the ...

On the last day of 2011, a headline in The Wall Street Journal read: “Spain Misses Deficit Target, Sets Cuts.” The cruel forces of poor economic logic were at work to welcome in the new year. The European Union has become a vicious circle of burgeoning debt leading to radical austerity measures, which in turn further weaken economic conditions and result in calls for still more damaging cuts in government s ...

By Kassandra at neurope.eu When, in late October, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy agreed with the-then Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou to grant Greece the €110 billion mega-loan, the latter agreed, in return for the loan, to purchase military supplies from Germany and France, worth €10.5bn. The purchases made were to be in equal parts between Germany and France. T ...

Düsseldorf von Gabor Steingart Greece has to take the responsibility for his debts, but the real depression comes from Brussel, Berlin and Paris. When you were invited by friends, you would like to say afterwards: It was nice. You felt at ease and you were impressed by the things you’ve heard and seen. Unfortunately, looking back in such a pleasant way has turned out to be impossible in the case of the rese ...

Oct. 24 (Bloomberg) -- European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet was interrupted during a speech at a university in Berlin today and booed by people in the audience. A woman began shouting as Trichet spoke in an auditorium at the Humboldt University, causing him to stop speaking briefly before resuming. Banners were held up by students in the audience reading “no more money for the banks” and “say ...