On November 25, two days after a failed German government bond auction in which Germany was unable to sell 35 per cent of its offerings of 10-year bonds, the German finance minister, Wolfgang Schaeuble said that Germany might retreat from its demands that the private banks that hold the troubled sovereign debt from Greece, Italy, and Spain must accept part of the cost of their bailout by writing off some of ...

By Amie Ferris-Rotman for reuters.com ATHENS (Reuters) - For self-made businessman Dimitrios, the threats began with a phone call from a man who said they knew where his daughter was. At first the 57-year-old window installer kept quiet about the calls. When his car was torched in front of his house, he hid the blackened metal shell from his family. But when he awoke to his wife's screams at a huge banner t ...

A lobbyist of the multinational elite was appointed prime minister of Greece, an undemocratic political deviation that must be annulled by massive and decisive popular action. PASOK and Nea Democratia agreed at last, after a marathon of consultations, to commonly appoint Loukas Papademos as prime minister. “Democratic Alliance” and LAOS supported the procedure with enthusiasm, while the “Democratic Left” an ...

Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy draw up package to counter debt crisis but will not reveal details before G20 summit By guardian. French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German chancellor Angela Merkel after meeting in Berlin to discuss how to confront the eurozone bank and debt crisis. Photograph: Martin Meissner/AP The leaders of France and Germany have announced that they are ready to recapitalise Europe' ...

Dear All, The issue of the fortune that the Papandreou family has made by the buying and selling of credit default swaps (CDS) is "old news" in Greece.   The first time that this issue was raised within Greek parliament was by the MP of the Conservative Party (ND) P Kamenos. The revelations that "Mr"  P Kamenos made provided the first base of evidences regarding the very profitably activities concernin ...

By LANDON THOMAS Jr. LONDON — No bank likes to take a loss, especially those in Europe that already suffer from a toxic mix of thin capital, troubled financing and weak loan books. But in the case of the proposed second bailout for Greece — the one that is supposed to make private investors feel the financial pain along with taxpayers — the biggest banks in Europe are on the road now promoting the plan. It’ ...

by www.ftd.de Financial Time Deutschland Deutschlands größtes Geldhaus in einer Dreifachrolle: als Gläubiger, als Ideengeber für die Umschuldung in Person von Josef Ackermann – und nun auch noch als Berater der Griechen. Heikel ist auch die Rolle von BNP Paribas. von Barbara Schäder Frankfurt Die Deutsche Bank wird sich an der geplanten Umschuldung Griechenlands gleich mehrfach beteiligen: Als Gläubiger und ...

Only a Referendum of the People Can Stop Them Now By MICHAEL HUDSON The fight for Europe’s future is being waged in Athens and other Greek cities to resist financial demands that are the 21st century’s version of an outright military attack. The threat of bank overlordship is not the kind of economy-killing policy that affords opportunities for heroism in armed battle, to be sure. Destructive financial poli ...

Interview with economist Yanis Varoufakis with Dutch subtitles. "The Euro system was not designed to take the shock of the great financial crisis of 2008."   ...

Next financial crisis is in public services by Serge Halimi, March 2010 States rescued the banks in country after country, neither asking nor getting anything in return. The banks are now using their newfound strength against the state, threatening to reveal the accounting tricks the banks themselves had recommended to hide some of the debt. After all, interest rates on loans are higher when the financial r ...