thedailybeast.com A homeless man sleeping sleeping in the entrance of an office complex in central Athens, Greece, 09 December 2011. Having a room and a bed where to spend the night is not a matter of course any more to a growing number of people in Greece. According to Greek social workers, more than 20,000 homeless people live in the streets of Athens, a dramatic increase linked with the last two years of ...

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 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 October, even though the annually steel production almost doubled last year, the management of Greek Steelworks SA decided to cut down salaries and dismiss many workers using the crisis as an excuse. «On the 17th of October, our boss was clear: 5 hours a day and 40% salary reduction». Two days later, after a general assembly of 280 attendees the workers' response was «If you proceed, we will go on ...

The dreadful debt saga will only come to a close when Greece takes charge of its predicament Negotiations to reduce Greek debt have been suspended after no agreement could be reached last week. At some point in the near future Greece seems certain to default on its obligations. But the drama surrounding the talks in Athens, Berlin and Paris shows that there will be nothing co-operative about Greek default. ...

Greece’s debt-holders Volunteers wanted A CATCHY new phrase has been added to the Orwellian lexicon of Euro-speak, where terms such as “stability and growth” actually mean the opposite. This is “private-sector involvement” (PSI), which is code for imposing losses on Greece’s private creditors. The International Monetary Fund’s most recent review of the Greek economy, in December, gives an indication of the ...

Development Minister Michalis Chrysochoidis, who has declared he intends to challenge for the PASOK leadership, said on Tuesday that when he was part of the Cabinet in 2010 he did not read the terms of Greece's loan agreement with the European Union and the International Monetary Fund. Speaking to Skai TV, Chrysochoidis said that he was too busy at the time with his duties as Citizens' Protection Minister t ...

Headlines the world over ‘agonise’, on behalf of Greece and Europe, on whether the PSI+ negotiations will come to a conclusion. The presumption is that, if they succeed, Greece will be reprieved and Europe (with France and the EFSF having recently been downgraded) will buy some much needed extra time to put, at long last, its house in order. Nonsense, I say! This PSI+ is yet another assault on Reason. It co ...

By Chloe Hadjimatheou BBC World Service, Athens Greece's financial crisis has made some families so desperate they are giving up the most precious thing of all - their children. One morning a few weeks before Christmas a kindergarten teacher in Athens found a note about one of her four-year-old pupils. "I will not be coming to pick up Anna today because I cannot afford to look after her," it read. "Please t ...