Titoli di Stato area Euro GRECIA Operativo titoli di stato - Cap. 1 (4 lettori)

[tommy271]

PASOK slips some jokers in local poll deck

Regional, municipal candidates named

COSTAS KATOMERIS/EUROKINISSI

A row of empty chairs is seen on the third and final day of PASOK’s national council meeting yesterday. The proceedings were eclipsed by the announcement of the party’s candidates for the 13 regional authorities in November’s local polls.

There was an indication yesterday of how November’s local elections could see incremental but significant changes on Greece’s political landscape, as PASOK named a former New Democracy minister, an independent and a nonpolitical candidate on its ticket for the polls.
After weeks of speculation, the Socialists announced their candidates for the 13 regional authorities and for the country’s biggest municipalities. PASOK opted for former Ombudsman Giorgos Kaminis as its candidate for mayor of Athens. The decision to pick Kaminis, an ex-law professor, breaks new ground on several levels.
Firstly, it is unusual for a major party to back a nonpolitical candidate who is not a high-profile celebrity or a sportsperson. Kaminis is a respected figure after serving as Ombudsman for seven years, during which he and his team dealt with citizens’ complaints about a range of services.
Kaminis stepped down from his position last month after being approached by the head of the Democractic Left party, Fotis Kouvelis, about the possibility of running for mayor.
The second aspect that makes Kaminis’s candidature an interesting political litmus test is that he will have the backing of both PASOK and Democratic Left, a leftist party that was formed this summer by disgruntled members of the Coalition of the Radical Left (SYRIZA). It represents both a rare coming together of different political forces but also a test of whether these parties can cooperate together, albeit at the local level.
Kaminis will be up against New Democracy’s candidate and current mayor Nikitas Kaklamanis. A former colleague of Kaklamanis’s in the previous New Democracy government, Petros Tatoulis, has been given PASOK’s backing as he challenges to become head of the regional authority in the Peloponnese. Tatoulis, who is standing as an independent, was ousted from ND in November 2008 after repeatedly criticizing then Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis. The prospect of Tatoulis, a self-declared centrist, now cooperating with PASOK is another unusual move in Greek politics.
Another independent who will also receive PASOK’s support is winemaker Yiannis Boutaris, who is standing for a second time for mayor of Thessaloniki. In 2006, he stood as a candidate with the Ecologist Greens and gained 16 percent of the vote. The respected businessman was also involved in the formation of the centrist party Drasi.

(Kathimerini.gr)

 

[tommy271]

Focus on ‘professional’ yachts


ANA.gr


The Finance Ministry is preparing to draft a regulation in the coming days to better monitor taxpayers. It particularly targets those who sell property without revealing the real sale price, those who obtain revenues from illegal activities and the owners of yachts who attribute them to companies that are nonexistent in practice. There are 2,500 cases of yachts whose owners have claimed to tax authorities that they are used for professional purposes and the Financial Crimes Squad (SDOE) aims at examining these in detail. SDOE special secretary Ioannis Kapeleris will in the next few days send notes to the owners of these yachts asking them to pay tax on those companies and that they close them down.

 

[tommy271]

Greece’s ‘Winter of Discontent’

Economic developments could lead to significant social and political changes in the distant future

ANA.gr

Public discontent is expected to grow this fall, since all factors indicate that pressure on various financial indexes is also going to increase, diminishing the disposable incomes of many people and leading to a further rise in unemployment.

By Dimitris Kontogiannis - Kathimerini English Edition


As the Greek economy slides even further into recession, with more shops and businesses closing down and the number of unemployed rising, some analysts have started wondering whether the country will live its own “Winter of Discontent.”
Although it remains to be seen, it is unlikely to resemble the British one of 1978-1979.
The expression Winter of Discontent became known worldwide due to the widespread strikes in the winter of 1978-1979 in the United Kingdom as the trade unions demanded greater pay rises while the Labour government of James Callaghan sought to hold them below 5.0 percent to fight inflation.
The strikes ended in February 1979 but these events are generally agreed to have helped the Conservative Party led by Margaret Thatcher to win the 1979 general elections.
To be exact, the phrase Winter of Discontent was coined by the editor of the Sun in an editorial at the time but the actual phrase comes from the opening line of William Shakespeare’s play “Richard III”: “Now is the Winter of our Discontent/ Made glorious summer by this son of York…”
Of course, Greece today has little in common with the Great Britain of 1978-1979.
Greek trade unions are not as powerful as the British unions at the time nor are they as strong as they once were a few years or even a decade ago.
This is because their rank and file appear to understand the severity of the country’s economic situation and have shown little desire for demonstrations and other industrial action, while their leaders have usually seemed receptive to the demands of their political parties.
This is especially true since the stronger unions can be found in the public sector and at least some of their members appear to be gradually appreciating the privilege of lifetime employment at a time that the number of people without employment continues to rise in the private sector.
Consequently, the most dynamic opposition to the government’s economic austerity program may come from unions associated with the leftist opposition and some in state-owned utilities with monopolistic power, such as the Public Power Corporation. Therefore, the Socialist government is not likely to face any significant challenge to its economic policies due to general strikes, unlike its British counterpart in the 1978-1979 period. This however does not mean it will not face the rising discontent of the populace, which may be expressed in the polls for local authorities in early November.
This popular discontent is likely to be fueled by a likely surge in theft and other crimes, according to some analysts.
Within this kind of environment, the government’s argument that the economy is likely to shrink by less than 4.0 percent, as projected in the International Monetary Fund - European Union approved plan, and the foreseen budget deficit target of 8.1 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) will not have the same positive impact on the average Greek’s frame of mind as was hoped.
Many market participants think that the positive impact on consumers from the real GDP decreasing by 3.0 percent instead of the projected 4.0 percent will be very small if unemployment continues to climb to 14 percent or more in the next few months.
Already there are signs that some small companies are taking advantage of new labor laws which make it less costly to fire employees, contributing to the rising trend in unemployment.
Even the optimists are now estimating that the Greek economy will not be able to start getting out of its slump before next summer at best. The pessimists, however, believe this will not be possible before 2012. The latter’s main source of concern is the depressed consumer and business sentiment which has come on the heels of a restrictive fiscal and incomes policy and the absence of growth policies and initiatives.
Therefore, the rise in unemployment rather than widespread strikes by trade unions may present the biggest challenge to the Greek government and society in the coming months and may help to undermine social support for the present austerity program.
The fact that even market participants, and not just leftist partisans, openly question the merits of the current IMF-EU plan for the Greek economy, even in the medium-term, makes one wonder how long it will take before this notion takes hold in other segments of society.
So, Greece’s Winter of Discontent of 2010-2011 is unlikely to resemble the British one of 1978-1979.
It may not lead to the same type of political change seen in the United Kingdom at the time. However, it may sow the seeds of societal and political change in the distant future. Only time will tell.

 

[tommy271]

IFO’s Head: Further Austerity Would Bring Greece To Brink Of "Civil War"



Further austerity would push the nation to the brink of "civil war", the head of Germany΄s prestigious thinktank IFO Institute, Hans-Werner Sinn, said according to Guardian.

The "least bad" option would be for Athens to exit the common currency, he said.

"The policy of forced ΄internal devaluation,΄ deflation and depression could risk driving Greece to the edge of civil war," Sinn told the gathering of political and business leaders in lake Como, Italy.

"It is impossible to cut wages by 30% without major riots … Greece would have been bankrupt without the rescue. All the alternatives are terrible, but the least terrible is for the country to get out of the eurozone, even if this kills the Greek banks."

(Capital.gr)

***
Gaudente docet ...

 

[tommy271]

GEROULANOS IN ISRAEL

Culture and Tourism Minister Pavlos Geroulanos aspires to forge good relations with foreign countries all over the world. As a consequence, he is going to hold a series of meetings in Israel today as the government looks to capitalize on a recent improvement in relations between the two countries. Greece has recently seen a rise in Israeli visitors, at a time when Israeli tourists going to Turkey have dropped on the back of worsening relations between Tel Aviv and Ankara. Geroulanos will meet with his Israeli counterpart Stas Misezhnikov as well as local tour operators.


(Greek Reporter.gr)

 

[tommy271]

Borsa Atene: Ase a +1,3%, bene bancari


MILANO (MF-DJ)--L'indice Ase della Borsa di Atene e' in rialzo dell'1,3% a quota 1677,93 punti, registrando volumi per 48,7 mln euro.
A trainare il mercato greco sono ancora una volta i titoli bancari e alcune blue chip, commenta un analista. Le mid e le small cap si mantengono invece invariate.
In territorio positivo Eurobank, che guadagna il 4,4%, Alpha il 3,3%, Opap il 3%, Ppc il 2,3%, Piraeus il 2,2%, Coca Cola Hellenic l'1,8% e National l'1,5%.

 

[tommy271]

Greece Default Risk Is `Substantial,' Pimco's Bosomworth Says

By Josiane Kremer - Sep 6, 2010 12:42 PM GMT+0200

Mon Sep 06 10:42:54 GMT
Greece still faces a “substantial” default risk as insolvency prevents the nation from repaying its debt when its bailout program expires in three years, Pacific Investment Management Co. fund manager Andrew Bosomworth said.
“Greece is insolvent,” Bosomworth, Munich-based head of portfolio management at Pimco, which oversees the world’s largest bond fund, said in a telephone interview today. “I see it as being quite a substantial risk that Greece eventually defaults or restructures.”
In a best-case scenario, Greece’s government debt will swell to 150 percent of gross domestic product, Bosomworth said. The European Union-led rescue package assumes the Athens-based government will tap investors for 82 billion euros ($106 billion) during the life of the bailout program, “and that’s I think going to be very difficult,” he said.
“Debt servicing as a share of government revenue will increase substantially, particularly if current yield levels do not decline,” Bosomworth said.
The extra yield that investors demand to hold Greek 10-year bonds over German equivalents is now 902 basis points, compared with 785 basis points at the end of June. Greek 10-year debt yielded 11.24 percent today. The Spanish spread is at 173 basis points, Portugal’s is at 331 basis points and Ireland’s is at 340 basis points.
Greek Yields
The premiums investors charge to hold Spanish and Irish debt over German bunds are wider than before the EU announced its rescue package on May 10.
If the interest rates of other southern European countries “stay where they are, they are going to have some problems as well,” Bosomworth said. “You have the contagion risk and until we know precisely how this contagion risk will be contained, it is a pretty risky strategy staying in the other countries as well.”
The euro slumped 21 percent from a November 2009 peak through a June trough this year as the threat of contagion from Greece’s financial crisis prompted investors to sell other euro- region assets. The country ran up a budget deficit of 13.6 percent of GDP last year on debt of 115.1 percent of total output, the European Commission estimated in May. Greece’s debt will swell to 124.9 percent this year, the commission said.



(Bloomberg)

 

[Grisù]

Greece Default Risk Is `Substantial,' Pimco's Bosomworth Says

Quante fesserie ripetute tutte nello stesso articolo.

La Grecia non fallirà o meno alla fine del programma di salvataggio e neppure per il peso degli interessi sul debito. L'incompetente in questione dimentica che la dinamica del debito già emesso non risente degli attuali spread e neppure le emissioni recenti che sono a poco di più del 4% poichè brevi. Il tema dell'insolvenza è infine una scemenza patentata, tutti i paesi occidentali sono teoricamente insolventi se il mercato non dovesse rispondere alle aste oppure se i titoli non venissero acquistati dallo stato stesso con una miserevole politica economica come quella USA.

Questi aspetti non indicano tuttavia che la Grecia potrà farcela restando nell'euro ma questa sarà più per una scelta propria che decisione del mercato. Si arriverà al punto che, o le politiche restrittive daranno esiti migliori del previsto consentendo parallelamente politiche di rilancio per l'economia, oppure il degrado sociale porterà il paese in direzione diversa.

Tale scenario potrà avvenire tra alcuni mesi, un anno oppure dieci e sarà la politica a deciderlo e non analisi economiche ridicole come quella del gestore citato nell'articolo.

 

[tommy271]

Quante fesserie ripetute tutte nello stesso articolo.

La Grecia non fallirà o meno alla fine del programma di salvataggio e neppure per il peso degli interessi sul debito. L'incompetente in questione dimentica che la dinamica del debito già emesso non risente degli attuali spread e neppure le emissioni recenti che sono a poco di più del 4% poichè brevi. Il tema dell'insolvenza è infine una scemenza patentata, tutti i paesi occidentali sono teoricamente insolventi se il mercato non dovesse rispondere alle aste oppure se i titoli non venissero acquistati dallo stato stesso con una miserevole politica economica come quella USA.

Questi aspetti non indicano tuttavia che la Grecia potrà farcela restando nell'euro ma questa sarà più per una scelta propria che decisione del mercato. Si arriverà al punto che, o le politiche restrittive daranno esiti migliori del previsto consentendo parallelamente politiche di rilancio per l'economia, oppure il degrado sociale porterà il paese in direzione diversa.

Tale scenario potrà avvenire tra alcuni mesi, un anno oppure dieci e sarà la politica a deciderlo e non analisi economiche ridicole come quella del gestore citato nell'articolo.

Io posto opinioni pro e contro.

Resto tuttavia dell'avviso che un default/haircut sia da escludersi nel breve periodo.
Credo però che accanto alla politica di rigore e di risanamento dei conti serva un piano "Marshall" per il rilancio dell'economia che altrimenti rischia di avvolgersi nella spirale depressiva.
Dunque investimenti dall'estero (Cina, Libia, Medioriente, Russia ecc) accompagnata da un anticipo sui fondi strutturali UE.
Insomma bisogna creare lavoro. Compito difficile, ma non impossibile, visto le ridotte dimensioni economiche del paese e l'esborso finanziario richiesto.

 

[sethi]

Concordo con Tommy ma non nell'immediato , prima devono dare un ulteriore proiva di cambiamento e serietà sopratutto fiscale