Economist Predicts Greece Will Default in August

Greece will eventually default on its debt because the country is highly indebted, Carl Weinberg, chief economist at High Frequency Economics, said on CNBC this morning.

A restructuring of Greek debt could happen as soon as August, when Greece is due to receive another tranche of funds from its lending agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the European Union, according to Weinberg.

You can’t take a country that’s over-borrowed and make it more creditworthy by lending it more money,” he said. “They’re throwing Greece further and further and further in the hole by not addressing the problem directly and properly".'

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Big Pharma Blackmails Greece; Halts Medicine Supply Over Cash Demands

In the midst of runaway economic problem in Greece, the pharmaceutical industry has decided to blackmail the nation and halt shipments of medicines to Greece until it agrees to pay full price for the drugs. In order to cut costs during its severe debt crisis, Greece had announced it would pay drug companies 25 percent less for their products, but this loss of profit was enough to convince several pharmaceutical companies supplying key drugs to the country to initiate their own medical blockade where they simply refuse to deliver any more medicines.

In doing this, Big Pharma shows its true character. When the profits are flowing and the companies are raking in full-price profits, they're you're best friend. But when budgets get tight and everybody is asked to take a cut, Big Pharma betrays your country and its citizens, withholding medicines in a thinly-veiled blackmail attempt to force you to cough up more cash.'

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Greece Urged to Give up Euro

The Greek government has been advised by British economists to leave the euro and default on its €300 billion (£255 billion) debt to save its economy.

The Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR), a London-based consultancy, has warned Greek ministers they will be unable to escape their debt trap without devaluing their own currency to boost exports. The only way this can happen is if Greece returns to its own currency.

Greek politicians have played down the prospect of abandoning the euro, which could lead to the break-up of the single currency.'

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Ex-Bundesbank Chief Says Greece Will Never Repay Debt, Says Bailout All About 'Rescuing Banks And Rich Greeks'

Finally someone speaks the truth. In an interview with Spiegel Magazine, former Bundesbank chief Karl Otto Pohl, says it how it is: "Without a "haircut," a partial debt waiver, [Greece] cannot and will not ever [repay its debt]. So why not immediately? That would have been one alternative. The European Union should have declared half a year ago -- or even earlier -- that Greek debt needed restructuring." As for the reason for the bailout, Pohl's observation will not be a surprise to our readers "It was about protecting German banks, but especially the French banks, from debt write offs." Is there any hope for Europe now? It appears no, as the right decision was to let Greece go bankrupt: "Investors would quickly have seen that Greece could get a handle on its debt problems. And for that reason, trust would quickly have been restored. But that moment has passed.

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The Greek People are the Victims of a Carefully Engineered Financial Extortion Racket

What is happening in Greece concerns all of us. The people are paying for a crisis and a debt that are not their own. Today it is the Greeks, tomorrow it will be others, for the same causes will produce the same effects if we allow it.

First and above all, we express our full and unconditional solidarity with the people who are suffering from an austerity plan without precedent combined with contempt and an arrogance bordering on racism. The strikes and demonstrations are legitimate, and we support them. This is not the crisis of the Greek people, it is the crisis of the world capitalist system. What the Greek people are experiencing is revealing of today’s capitalism. The plan dictated by the European Union and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) rides roughshod over the most elementary rules of democracy.

If this plan is implemented, it will result in a collapse of the economy and of peoples’ incomes without precedent in Europe since the 1930s. Equally glaring is the collusion of markets, central banks and governments to make the people pay the bill for the arbitrary caprice of the system. [French President] Nicolas Sarkozy still dares to talk of the need to regulate the market, although all the measures he implements are more liberal than ever. The movement is accompanied by a deadening consensus of the Right and the Left. The plan is designed by European governments of the Right and Left – and by Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the managing director of the IMF, an institution that has ravaged the Third World for decades and is now attacking Europe. A plan that is implemented by a Socialist government, [Greek Prime Minister] George Papandreou's, the French side of which is adopted by the UMP [Union pour un Mouvement Populaire, a centre-right party] and the SP [Socialist Party of France] members of parliament combined.

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Germans Turn Against the EU as Eurozone Meltdown Heaps Misery on Angela Merkel

Unlike the lily-livered British red-tops, the main German tabloid, Bild Zeitung, puts nipples on the front page. Day after day for the past week, it has been metaphorically stripping naked the same victim, then pouring cold baked beans over her head. Once-divorced mother-of-none Angela Merkel, 55, from Berlin, a chancellor of Germany, has had probably the worst seven days of her life.

To imagine the full scale of Mrs Merkel's disaster, think of it as a bit like that moment in 2008 when Britain suddenly had to find £46 billion of public money to bail out the banks, overnight storing up years of spending cuts, tax rises and general misery for everyone else. Then multiply the amount of money potentially required, and the amount of pain which could be inflicted, by three.

in the fact that the people the German government has had to rescue aren't even Germans, but Greeks. Add that the deal was done only after the repeated prodding by Mrs Merkel's great European rival, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who reportedly threatened to pull out of the euro. Then there was the problem that as all this was unfolding, Mrs Merkel had to face a vital election.

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Greek Demonstrators Say 'Plutocracy Should Pay for the Crisis'

So they're wondering how the country managed to amount 300 billion euros of debt - what was that money spent on? Certainly not, they say, on public services or roads. The protestors have the impression that politicians robbed the country blind. With the former government, there was a corruption scandal every two months. So talk of wasted money is still rife. The former health minister ordered 16 million doses of the H1N1 flu vaccine, but only 400,000 were needed in the end.

I saw the slogan ‘plutocracy should pay for the crisis' - which pretty much sums up the feelings of the protestors".'

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The Greek Spirit of Resistance Turns Its Guns on the IMF

But for those on the left, leading the protests with flags emblazoned with the hammer and sickle, the intervention of the IMF has been the tipping point. The majority of Greeks not only see it as the harbinger of harsh economic reforms but the symbol of foreign occupation. For the abundance of conspiracy theorists on both the left and right, its involvement is part of a grander, but seemingly no less implausible, plan to subjugate Greece after draining the country of its resources.

"This has gone beyond economic matters to a battle for national independence," says Manolis Glezos, the leftist who shot to fame snatching the swastika from the Acropolis shortly after Hitler's forces streamed into Athens in 1941.

"Papandreou himself has admitted we had no say in the economic measures thrust upon us. They were decided by the EU and IMF. We are now under foreign supervision and that raises questions about our economic, military and political independence".'

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U.S. Taxpayers Could be Bailing out European Banks as Debt Crisis Worsens

As the European debt crisis picks up steam and batters world markets, various reports are surfacing that the US taxpayer is on the hook for billion of dollars in bailout funds via the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The United States provides approximately 20% of IMF funding, which means the taxpayer could pay $8 billion to prop up Greek banks.'

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EU Is Collapsing Like Tower Of Babel

Monument Securities Chief Economist Stephen Lewis says the chaos in Greece could lead to collapse of the European Union, bringing down with it the dangerous assumption that structures of global governance provide stability in times of financial peril, but the World Bank and IMF vultures will be waiting as ever to feed on the remains of a dying country.'

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'Greece Being Forced to Buy Arms'

A leading European parliamentarian has accused France and Germany of forcing Greece to buy billions of euros in arms in exchange for their bailout money.

France and Germany, while publicly urging Greece to make harsh public spending cuts, bullied its government to confirm billions of euros in arms deals, Franco-German lawmaker Daniel Cohn-Bendit alleged on Friday.

The accusation drew a stern denial from the French government.

Cohn-Bendit said he had met last week in Athens with Papandreou, a long-time friend of his, and accused German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy of blackmailing the Greek leader.'

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Greeks Begin Two-day Strike as Banking System is Saved From Meltdown

Greek public sector workers today began a 48-hour national strike that is a first test of the Government’s ability to enact new austerity measures agreed with the EU and IMF in return for billions of euros in aid.

Ministries, tax offices, schools, hospitals and public services were shutting down ahead of a midday rally of civil servants outside Parliament, organised by Adedy, the country’s main public sector union.

“We want an end to the freefall of our living standards,” said Spyros Papaspyros, the head of Adedy, which represents about half a million workers. “I think this will be one of the biggest protests we’ve seen in the last decade.”

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Merkel Misled Germans

She was initially hailed as the “Iron Chancellor” for holding out against a bailout for the Greeks. But this weekend Angela Merkel was accused of having misled voters after it emerged that Germany would contribute more than €25 billion (£21.7 billion) towards a rescue package.

Merkel was forced to concede last week that Germany would pay the lion’s share of the EU money to be pumped into Greece by 2012.'

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Greece Welcomes Its New IMF Overlords With Day Of Rioting And National Strikes

What do you do when you are the prime minister of a bankrupt country and your only recourse is to get the Washington D.C.-based IMF to come in and tell you you have to cut wages by about 120% and fire 75% of the country (especially after the same Germans you recently demanded WWII reparations from, mysteriously have decided in the eleventh hour to have their last laugh at your expense).

Why, you send in the national guard, armed with fake six-pack ridged bulletproof vests and gas masks, to repeat the miracle of Thermopylae against the marauding population which has suddenly realized that the past 10 years of chimeric happiness were a one-time miracle thanks to Mr Goldman and fat, and somewhat stupid, uncle Almunia.

The next thing you do, once you realize you are about to have a [revolution|uprising|civil war] is to declare a moratorium on your €300 billion of debt, make your people happy and stick it precisely to the same bankers that you complain about every single day for “speculating” against you. Tomorrow Greece will face the trifecta of a much delayed hangover as 1) its bonds hit 9% as the hedge funds who have been buying up in expectations of a snapback capitulate, 2) EuroStat declares its deficit was officially 14%, and 3) a Greek civil servant strike in their fourth national walkout this year.'

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Big Fat Greek Debt: The Bailout

The financially stricken Greek government is beginning talks with the EU and the International Monetary Fund about a possible bailout. Greece has found borrowing from banks too costly recently and is struggling to refinance old debts. Let's get some analysis with economist and author William Engdahl.

Outrage as British Taxpayers Face £600 Million Bill to Fund EU Bail-Out of Greece's Sinking Economy

Greece was last night handed a generous national bailout by its euro partners which will end up costing British taxpayers more than £600million a year.

In a move aimed at shoring up dwindling confidence in the stricken country, the 16 eurozone members announced they would lend 30billion euros this year alone.

But another cash injection from the International Monetary Fund means Britain will have to pay part of a further £13billion bill to prop up Greece in the money markets.

Because the UK contributes 5 per cent of the IMF annual budget, this would equate to a £650million bill for the taxpayer.

Mats Persson, research director of Open Europe - an independent think-tank that promotes reform of the EU - said: 'This move will take Europe into uncharted territory and no doubt cause outrage amongst British taxpayers.'

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The Greek Financial Crisis and the European Timetable

Now that the Lisbon Treaty of 2009 is behind us, after it was forced through Ireland, after the Irish were told to keep voting on this until they said "yes"; now the European Union moves on to the next item on its timetable. The next step is to create a centralized Ministry in Brussels for Finance and Taxation, thereby further eroding the diminishing national sovereignty of the now twenty-seven member states; and what better way to do this than to organize a specific potshot against the little country of Greece?

After the Berlin Wall fell, the former Warsaw Pact countries have now been Westernized, and so Greece has fallen back to its traditional position in, one could say, the Cinderella portion of Europe, southeast Europe, the Balkans. So, as Brussels may then have decided, here is our current whipping boy, our current scapegoat, Greece.'

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Britain Faces Losing Power Over Its Own Budget Under New Plans For an 'Economic Government of the EU'

Britain could be forced to have its Budget signed off by European leaders under plans to impose an 'economic government of the EU', it emerged yesterday.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel is pressing for 'oversight' of national economies to be included in controversial arrangements that were agreed by EU leaders yesterday.

She wants to introduce financial penalties for states with persistently high budget deficits, giving the EU a high degree of control.

This could see Britain forfeiting the £2billion annual 'structural funds' paid out to some of the nation's poorer areas by Brussels.'

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Has Germany Just Killed the Dream of a European Superstate?

German and Dutch leaders have concluded in the nick of time that they cannot defy the will of their sovereign parliaments by propping up a country that lied about its deficits, or risk court defeats by breaching the no-bail-out clause in Article 125 of the EU Treaties.

Chancellor Angela Merkel has halted at the Rubicon. So has Dutch premier Jan Peter Balkenende, as well he might in charge of a broken government facing elections in a country where far-right leader Geert Wilders is the second political force, and where the Tweede Kamer has categorically blocked loans for Greece.

failure of EU leaders to cobble together a plausible bail-out – if that is what occurs at this week’s Brussels summit – is a 'game-changer' in market parlance. Eurogroup chair Jean-Claude Juncker said last month that such an outcome would shatter the credibility of monetary union. It certainly shatters many assumptions.'

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Euro Crisis - Latvia And The PIGS

Down on the Euro Animal Farm, some animals are more equal than others, finds Eric Walberg...

Two million people took to the streets of Athens last week in the country's second general strike this month, protesting the austerity measures proposed by their socialist government. All of Greece came to a 24-hour standstill and the airport was closed as a result of the action. The only public transport was the commuter train so that protesters could reach the demonstration.

The crisis broke last autumn after Prime Minister George Papandreous took office and discovered the country was bankrupt. The conservative government had cheated to get into the European Union euro zone in 2001, cooking the books. What on paper -- creative accounting courtesy of Goldman Sachs -- was a budget deficit of 3 per cent and public debt 60 per cent of GDP, by 2009 had ballooned to 13 per cent and 125 per cent.

Initially, the EU tried to finesse the issue, declaring solidarity with Greece. But the financial sharks are sharpening their teeth, smelling blood. Their response to the Greek problem is naturally to rush to profit from it. Greece's "credit rating" has already been lowered, meaning any new bonds will carry a much higher price tag for the government (read: people). That of course makes it all the harder for Greece (read: the people) to actually pay the bankers. And when the country defaults, the EU will be forced to cough up in any case. Win, win for the fat cats. What EU leaders meant by solidarity was not that they were going to pour public money into Greece, as they have been pouring into their banks over the past year and a half, but that they intended to squeeze the money "owed" the banks out of the Greek people, relying on IMF oracles.'

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