Skip to main content

Angela Merkel is pushing Greece beyond the pain threshold | Kevin Featherstone | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk

Excellent, sober analysis of the Greek (Eurozone) crisis by Kevin Featherstone

Angela Merkel is pushing Greece beyond the pain threshold

This is a crisis made in Athens, but it is in no one's interest to drive Greece into political chaos


Kevin Featherstone
guardian.co.uk, Friday 30 April 2010 13.00 BST




This week Greece and the eurozone entered an unknown time zone, of uncertainty and failure. The international financial markets are increasingly convinced that Greece will default on its debt. In the City, analysts estimate Greece will need aid of about €70bn (£60.6bn) this year, €60bn next year and €56bn in 2012. In "hedge fund" offices, the task for the Greek government appears overwhelming: its no longer if, but when it will default. But no one knows whether a default by Greece would require its exit from the eurozone.
In effect, Greece already defaulted this week. As soon as its bonds were declared to be "junk" – with no one wanting to buy them – Greece was excluded from the markets. The seven-year €5bn note that Greece issued just a few weeks ago is already trading at a 22% loss. The talk is of "haircuts": cutting losses in the expectation that the markets will get worse.

Read more in the Guardian Comment is Free
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Cyprus Spring?

Back in February, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davuto ğ lu met Greek Cypriot academics  and representatives of civil society in Ankara to discuss developments and prospects of the Cyprus issue. And only a few days ago, journalists from Alithia, Politis and the Cyprus Mail, former Cyprus-EU chief negotiator Takis Hadjidemetriou and United Democrats leader Praxoulla Antoniadou Kyriacou, as well as a number of Turkish Cypriot journalists, met Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdo ğ an and EU Minister Egemen  Bağış in Istanbul. This is the closest to what one could call track II encounter and exchange process between the two countries and, as such, it should not be underestimated. Apart from the novelty of this unprecedented activity involving, amongst others, the Turkish Prime Minister addressing Greek Cypriots, one could not but notice the messages that he and his colleagues conveyed. Erdo ğ an reportedly stressed his view that time is right for a solution as the two...
2 comments
Read more

Pristina Postcard

On Tuesday 17 February 2009 the new Republic of Kosova celebrated its first birthday. The celebrations in the capital, Pristina, were relatively low key. Walking in Rruga Nënë Terezë or throughout the rest of the Qendra, or even in the other, less central districts of the city, one could not but notice the festive mood. A sea of Kosovar and Albanian flags, interspersed with a few American and British ones, hang ing from street poles, or attached on car boots and shop fronts added lively colour to the otherwise grim town. Families strolling in the town’s boulevards, street vendors displaying and noisily promoting their wares around Rruga Ilir Konusheci and beyond recreated a pleasant Sunday, festive yet mundane feel. The busier Bill Clinton Boulevard was sometimes gridlocked as hooting cars with Kosovar flags excitedly moved up and down. But, leaving these manifestations aside, the occasion was a low key affair. The Kosovo assembly met to commemorate and celebrate the d...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Name Issue Revisited: an examination of the Greek-Macedonian dispute

The Name Issue Revisited, an Anthology of Academic Articles  is finally now out. Part I: The Name Issue in the Context  of International Law Matthew CR Craven – What’s in a Name? The Republic of Macedonia  and Issues of Statehood............................................................................... 17 Jean-Pierre Queneudec – The Name and Symbols of the State  in International Law....................................................................................55 Larry Reimer – Macedonia: Cultural Right or Cultural Appropriation?..................... 61 Carlos Flores Juberías – Putting the Name Issue in a Comparative Perspective ..........79 Jana Lozanoska – The True Substance of the Name Issue: Consequences  of an Invented Dispute for the Republic of Macedonia...............................95 Budislav Vukas – The 1995 Interim Accord and Membership of the  Republic of Macedonia in International Organizations................................
Post a Comment
Read more