Titoli di Stato area Euro GRECIA Operativo titoli di stato - Cap. 1 (14 lettori)

[tommy271]

MONETARIO REUTERS

Si è conclusa ieri sera senza sostanziali novità o annunci, nemmeno su un accordo di massima, l'ultima riunione del gruppo di lavoro denominato 'task force' Van Rompuy, che riunisce i ventisette ministri finanziari, con il compito di riscrivere e affinare le regole del patto di stabilità e crescita.
Una nota diffusa al termine dell'incontro precisa che si continuerà a lavorare sulla riforma del patto e il presidente del Consiglio europeo riferirà in occasione del vertice Ue del 16 settembre prossimo.
Interpellati all'uscita della riunione, i ministri finanziari tedesco e francese hanno lasciato intendere che i progressi della riunione di ieri sera non possono essere definiti eclatanti.
In agenda oggi semestre europeo, tassa su transazioni finanziarie, prelievo su banche, approvazione finale del pacchetto supervisione, dibattito su riforma Fmi. Attesa anche l'approvazione della seconda tranche aiuto finanziario di 9 miliardi alla Grecia.(...)

 

[tommy271]

Greece Prepares For the Turk Hordes

by James Dunningam

Greece is upgrading twelve of its AH-64A Apache helicopter gunships to the AH-64D Block II standard. Greece currently has 19 AH-64As and 11 AH-64Ds. The Block II gear includes a digital cockpit and an Internet type communications capability with other troops on the ground or in the air with the same type gear. The AH-64D features the Longbow radar based fire control system. This enables the crew to spot armored vehicles, or stationary targets, in any weather, up to ten kilometers away, and destroy them with Hellfire missiles (max range, eight kilometers). Introduced in the late 1990s, this was a late Cold War development, the perfect weapon to destroying enemy tanks at long range.
The AH-64D got some use during the 2003 Iraq invasion, but since then, the Longbow radar has been more of a liability. The radar system has not been much use for firing Hellfires at targets in residential areas, where you usually want to get a visual, not radar, picture of the target. Moreover, the radar system weighs 500 pounds (about three percent of the weight of a fully loaded AH-64D). In Afghanistan, where the AH-64s fly at high altitudes, where the thin air means less lift, losing three percent of your weight is appreciated. In Iraq, the high heat, and abundant dust, makes the Longbow electronics more prone to breakdown.
But Greece still sees the AH-64D as a valuable anti-armor weapon against its ancient enemy (and current NATO ally), Turkey. The last time Turkey fought a war was in the 1920s. The Greeks lost, and memories fade slowly in this part of the world.


(Strategypage.com)

 

[tommy271]

Greek PM Reshuffles Cabinet, Makes Sweeping Changes



Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou decided to restructure ministries created in October and go through with a decisive reshuffle of his cabinet, government spokesperson George Petalotis said late Tuesday.

As Dow Jones Newswires notes, Papandreou surprised political analysts by making sweeping changes to the structure of ministries as well as the cabinet. It was widely expected that the PM would make limited changes and replace three junior cabinet members.

"But the Prime Minister has bungled the handling of this issue of the reshuffle by making the announcement past 1 a.m. in the morning Greek time. It΄s a rushed reshuffle to try to resolve the difficulties that the political climate presents for the PASOK socialist currently, and tries desperately to balances interest inside his own parliamentary bloc," PASOK insider and leading political analyst George Sefertzis told the news agency.

Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou retained his post but the Economy, Development and Shipping Minister Luka Katseli was transferred to Labor Ministry. Her former post has been dismantled and will be replaced by an office called Ministry of Regional Development and Competitiveness, led by Michalis Chrisohoidis, former Minister of Security.

"Papandreou wants to throw what he has best to generate growth in the recessionary economy," a senior government source said to Dow Jones on condition of anonymity.

"Papandreou has sharply increased the number of deputy ministers in an effort to redistribute the workflow and increase the effectiveness of his cabinet, but his problems may be more those of policy, cabinet cohesion and less the faces," said Sefertzis.

The new ministers will be sworn in Tuesday at 0900GMT, Petalotis said.

(Capital.gr)

 

[tommy271]

Experts unconvinced on debt plan

Fund manager says Greece is insolvent; Germany’s IFO warns cutbacks could lead to ‘civil war’

Greece’s debt problems may not be solvable, according to a leading fund manager, while another expert predicted that the country faces the risk of a civil war due to its financial woes.
The Greek government still faces a “substantial” default risk, as insolvency will prevents the nation from repaying its debt when its bailout program expires in three years, Pacific Investment Management Company (Pimco) fund manager Andrew Bosomworth said yesterday.
“Greece is insolvent,” Bosomworth, the Munich-based head of portfolio management at Pimco, which oversees the world’s largest bond fund, told Bloomberg.
“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 extra yield that investors demand to hold Greek 10-year bonds over the German equivalent is now 902 basis points, compared with 785 basis points at the end of June. Greek 10-year debt yielded 11.24 percent yesterday. The Spanish spread is at 173 basis points, Portugal’s is at 331 bps and Ireland’s is at 340 bps.
Highlighting the skepticism surrounding Greek efforts to solve the crisis, the head of Germany’s prestigious think tank IFO Institute for Economic Research, Hans-Werner Sinn, predicted last week that further austerity would push the nation to the brink of “civil war.”
The “least bad” option, he said, would be for Athens to drop the common currency.
“The policy of forced ‘internal devaluation,’ deflation and depression could risk driving Greece to the edge of civil war,” Sinn said.
“It is impossible to cut wages by 30 percent 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.”
On Saturday, European Central Bank chief Jean-Claude Trichet said that if Greece were to leave the eurozone and revert to the drachma, that would be the “worst possible option.”


(Kathimerini.gr)


***
Sempre sulla questione Pimco & Co.

 

[tommy271]

Chartering a course in choppy waters, TOP Ships lightens debt levels and locks in revenues


The global economy’s health and the potential oversupply of ships rank among the top concerns of Greek shipowners. Evangelos Pistiolis, CEO of Nasdaq-listed TOP Ships, said ‘instability is everywhere’ and that he plans to slash debt by $50 million to $325 million by the end of next year. Analysts like the move but note that risks continue to linger.

By Stelios Bouras - Kathimerini English Edition


The global economy’s recovery is “fragile,” according to the head of TOP Ships, an operator of bulk carriers and tankers, who plans to keep lightening his company’s debt load in view of the choppy conditions ahead.
“I don’t see the world economy as being great for the next couple of years,” Evangelos Pistiolis, CEO of Nasdaq-listed TOP Ships, told Kathimerini English Edition in an interview in Athens yesterday. “There is instability everywhere. You see small things effect the stock market heavily; this shows how fragile things are.”
TOP Ships owns 13 vessels, eight tankers and five dry-bulk carriers, ships used to transport items such as iron ore, coal and grain.
With contracted revenues seen rising to $353 million (274 million euros) in 2017, from $91 million in 2010, the company operates all its vessels on long-term charter, which means that it locks in a fixed daily income for its ships for a period of normally between one to seven years.
This helps minimize exposure to market fluctuations and ensures a steady cash flow, crucial to reducing debt, currently at $375 million, down from $405 million at the end of 2009.
The industry, however, has seen daily freight rates fall on concerns about the health of the global economy and a potential oversupply of ships. With average delivery time for a vessel at three years, owners started ordering ships in massive numbers in late 2006, anticipating a surge in demand. These ships have started to enter the seas, boosting supply levels but demand growth has been less than first thought.
“[The global industry] has a large order book, a very large order book. Surprisingly, up until the present, it has been absorbed quite well, mainly due to large expansion rates in China and India,” Pistiolis said.
Greek shippers, who own a fifth of the global fleet, have been busy expanding but at a slower pace than their sector peers. Recent data showed the fleet owned by Greek shippers grew just over 5 percent in June to 2,125 vessels, while the global fleet’s growth rate accelerated to 14-15 percent in the last year.
Downward pressure on freight rates is likely to continue after a massive drop over the last two years, triggered by the collapse of Lehman Brothers.
Figures from Athens-based shipbroker Cotzias show that the average daily amount paid for a dry-bulk cargo vessel of 60,000-79,000 deadweight tonnage, fell in July to $19,638 from $27,076 in June and $34,091 in May. It stood at around $95,000 in July of 2008.
“I see a further downside from current levels. My feeling is that for some years things will be a bit depressed,” Pistiolis said.
With conditions encouraging the adoption of more conservative strategies, according to the CEO, TOP Ships will tackle its debt load in a bid to boost shareholder value. TOP Ships plans to lower its debt by $50 million over the next 16 months to $325 million. It has about $25 million in cash.
“By paying down debt, you boost your [share’s] net asset value, this is my strategy and what I intend to do,” he said.
Analysts believe the firm is on track to reduce leveraging but highlight risks that could derail its plans, such as poor customer negotiations or any untimely ship sales that may arise along the way. Adam Fleck, an analyst at Chicago-based research company Morningstar, said any missteps by the company could leave it in a difficult position, adding that “the margin for error remains quite slim.”
The company’s financial picture improved in the first half of the year but figures remain in the red. In the first half of 2010, the company narrowed its losses to $0.9 million, from $14.5 million in 2009 and losses of $24.3 million in the first half of 2008.



[email protected]

 

[tommy271]

Deposits down

Deposits by businesses and households held in Greek banks in July dropped to 212.3 billion euros from 216.5 billion euros in the previous month, the Bank of Greece said. That’s the seventh straight monthly drop this year, the Athens-based central bank said in a statement posted on its website today.


(Bloomberg)

 

[tommy271]

Ue:nuotiamo insieme o affondiamo insieme


Lo dice Barroso, proporremo tasse su attivita' finanziarie



(ANSA) - STRASBURGO, 7 SET - 'O nuotiamo insieme o affondiamo insieme'. Lo ha detto il presidente della Commissione Europea Barroso davanti all'Europarlamento. 'Abbiamo superato la prova' - ha affermato parlando sullo Stato dell'Unione - 'chi aveva previsto il crollo della Ue aveva torto', ha precisato. La Commissione Ue - ha indicato - presentera' proposte concrete per tassare le attivita' finanziarie entro l'autunno. 'Voglio un'Europa forte nella scienza e nell'innovazione', ha aggiunto Barroso.

 

[tommy271]

Bloomberg: Europe’s Banks ‘Tied’ To Greek Debt



Even after the EUR110 bil. bailout scheme for Greece, and the massive EUR750 bil package for endangered EU member states, investors are wary about Europe’s sovereign paper skittish about the banks that hold the region’s debt, Bloomberg says in a special report.

A default by Greece could lead the collapse of banks with large sovereign-bond holdings, Konrad Becker, a financial analyst at Merck Finck & Co. in Munich, told the news agency.

“A default by one EU country would lead to an evaporation of trust in banks,” he said.

“If investors aren’t willing to invest in banks anymore, then many banks will go bust in months, not years.”

These jitters have led to the interbank market freezing, since banks are nervous on lending each other.

“The amount banks have parked at the ECB is just outrageous,” says Florian Esterer, a fund manager at Zurich- based Swisscanto Asset Management AG.

On the other hand, bankers seem to have the upper hand vs governments.

“Bankers have got Europe’s governments in their pockets, primarily because politicians cannot change the way lenders do business without undermining confidence in sovereign debt,” says Chris Skinner, chief executive officer of Balatro Ltd.

Furthermore, investors do not seem convinced on the severity of the stress test exercise that tested 91 European Banks last July.

“The stress tests weren’t severe enough,” says Julian Chillingworth, who helps manage $21 billion at Rathbone Brothers Plc, an investment firm in London.

“Many bond investors aren’t convinced the Greeks are out of the woods.” And if the Greeks haven’t emerged from their crisis yet, then neither have the European banks that hold their debt.

(Capital.gr)

 

[g.ln]

cedimenti

ancora cedimenti di prezzo in particolare sulle scadenze 19. Non siamo lontanissimi dai minimi di quest'anno. Attendo il pomeriggio prima di incrementare.
Ciao, Giuseppe

 

[ferdo]

ancora cedimenti di prezzo in particolare sulle scadenze 19. Non siamo lontanissimi dai minimi di quest'anno. Attendo il pomeriggio prima di incrementare.
Ciao, Giuseppe

già, macchinette che spazzano in lettera