Greece told deeper austerity needed to secure additional loans

[singular_me]

no end to austerity, it was just a bad joke.

================
11th March 2015
‘Euro zone finance ministers met Monday to discuss a set of proposals from the Syriza-led Greek government based on the austerity programme both sides signed on February 20. Greece was required to submit a list of austerity measures deemed acceptable to its creditors as a precondition for receiving a pending loan of €7.2 billion and any further loans.

The Eurogroup meeting ended within 90 minutes. In a clear sign that there would be no retreat from finalising an austerity package, the finance ministers agreed that “technical talks” between Greece and its main creditors, the European Union (EU), European Central Bank (ECB) and International Monetary Fund (IMF), would begin Wednesday.

Speaking at a press conference following the meeting, Eurogroup Chairman Jeroen Dijsselbloem said, “We have spent the last two weeks discussing who will meet whom, where, and in what configuration. It’s been a complete waste of time…”’

............... The response of the euro zone ministers to the Greek government reveals the ruthless character of this capitalist body. Greek voters, who elected Syriza based on the party’s election promises to end austerity, have been told their votes count for nothing. The financial aristocracy and its institutions will tolerate nothing that impedes the transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich.

The response of the ruling class to Greece’s catastrophe exposes the fraudulent perspective on which Syriza secured its election victory. Syriza claimed its agenda of negotiating a debt restructuring programme on the basis of remaining in the European Union would be persuasive to sections of the ruling elite and was the only realistic way forward. Instead, Syriza was made to grovel and capitulated in a matter of days.

The Greek government moved quickly Sunday to quash comments attributed to Varoufakis in an Italian newspaper that if Athens’ proposals were not accepted, new elections or a referendum on EU membership could be contemplated.

Even after having his letter of proposals to the Eurogroup ridiculed, Varoufakis spent the weekend attempting to shore up illusions in the EU. Forced to acknowledge that his proposal to replace Greece’s current debt with bonds linked to nominal growth had met with “silence,” he pleaded, “I’d like for Europe to understand that this would be a way of paying back more money, not less.”

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http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2015/03/10/gree-m10.html


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[mick silver]

Germany brushes off Greek calls for World War Two reparationshttp://l.yimg.com/a/p/us/news/editorial/d/0c/d0c3eb8ca18907492a4b337b5cec5193.jpeg (http://www.reuters.com/) By Madeline Chambers 15 minutes ago









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Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel speaks during the lecture meeting at Asahi Shimbun headquarters …





By Madeline Chambers
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BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany dismissed Greek demands to pay World War Two reparations after leftist Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras accused Berlin of using legal tricks to avoid paying compensation for the Nazi occupation of his country.
Resurrecting the highly-charged issue has done little to soothe already strained German-Greek relations as Athens strives to persuade euro zone partners to renegotiate terms of a 240 billion euro bailout.
Compounding tensions, a Greek minister said he was ready to endorse a court ruling allowing Athens to seize German state-owned property to compensate victims of a World War Two Nazi massacre of 218 Greek civilians in the village of Distomo..
Berlin is keen to draw a line under the issue and officials argued on Wednesday that Germany has honored its obligations, including a 115-million deutsche mark payment to Greece in 1960.
"It is our firm belief that questions of reparations and compensation have been legally and politically resolved," Chancellor Angela Merkel's spokesman Steffen Seibert said on Wednesday.
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(http://news.yahoo.com/photos/greek-prime-minister-tsipras-exits-presidential-palace-attending-photo-124059001.html)Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras exits the Presidential palace after attending a dinner hosted by …

"We should concentrate on current issues and, hopefully what will be a good future," he said, adding that the dispute did not, however, affect euro zone talks with Greece on its bailout.
However, German media jumped on the demands to highlight the depths to which relations have plunged. Top-selling Bild daily, critical of Greece's failure to implement reforms, splashed "Greeks Demand Billions for Nazi Crimes" on its front page.
Politicians also expressed exasperation, with Bavarian conservative Hans Michelbach saying: "The subject has been closed since the 1950s. If it came to Greek violations of German property, Germany would know how to defend itself."
Resentment in Greece about Nazi atrocities runs deep and the Greek media have depicted Merkel and her finance minister in Nazi uniforms. Nazis destroyed hundreds of Greek villages and killed more than 20,000 civilians between 1941 and 1944.
Germany argues that the 1990 "Two plus Four Treaty", signed by then-East Germany and West Germany and the four World War Two allies before reunification, draws a line under future claims.
Not all Germans agree. Annette Groth of the radical Left party said Berlin should honor 11 billion euros linked to an "occupation loan" which Nazi Germany forced the Bank of Greece to make.
"It is Germany's moral duty to pay the money, even if there are different opinions on international law," she told Reuters.
(Additional reporting by Andreas Rinke and Gernot Heller; Editing by Mark Heinrich)


Politics & Government
Germany
Nazi Germany


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[mick silver]

Greek minister: 'radically opposed' to some privatizationshttp://l.yimg.com/os/152/2012/04/21/image001-png_162613.png (http://www.ap.org/) By ELENA BECATOROS 44 minutes ago




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ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Greece's new government is "radically opposed" to the privatization of certain businesses, particularly in the energy and infrastructure sectors, a senior cabinet minister said Wednesday as reforms talks with creditors were due to begin.
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Selling state-owned enterprises is one of the actions Greece has been asked to take to raise funds and reduce debt in exchange for rescue loans from the eurozone and International Monetary Fund.
Talks between Greece and its creditors began on a technical level in Brussels on Wednesday to cement a series of reforms Athens must implement in order to get the remaining bailout funds released and avoid bankruptcy.
"We are radically opposed to the privatization, particularly of the strategic sectors and businesses of our economy, and primarily in the sector of infrastructure and energy," said Panagiotis Lafazanis, the energy and environment minister and a government hardliner, at a conference in Athens.
Lafazanis added that "honestly, I haven't understood why for some schools of thought, privatizations have become synonymous with reforms."
He argued that what he called the "neoliberal deregulation in the energy market, which occurred particularly during the recent (bailout) years with the insistence of the (European) Commission and the troika" had prolonged and exacerbated Greece's financial crisis and energy poverty in the country.
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(http://news.yahoo.com/photos/greeces-energy-environment-minister-panagiotis-lafazanis-addresses-audience-photo-111511966.html)Greece's energy and environment minister Panagiotis Lafazanis addresses the audience during an e …

"Troika" refers to the Commission, International Monetary Fund and European Central Bank, who together oversee the 240 billion euro rescue loans Greece began receiving in 2010.
The word "troika" got a bad name in Greece after mid-level officials from those institutions would visit Greece to carry out debt inspections. The new government has refused to deal with those officials, saying they are not welcome in Greece. On Wednesday, it said the team of lower-level technical experts with whom Greek officials would be negotiating on reforms would now be known as the 'Brussels Group.'
Greece's new radical left government, voted in on Jan. 25 on promises to abolish budget austerity measures, has pledged not to take any unilateral action without consulting its European creditors and those overseeing the country's bailout, and to adhere to a series of policy reforms.
It made the pledges in February in return for a four-month extension to the European part of its bailout, which was to have expired at the end of February.
But some ministers and party members have insisted the governing Syriza party's pre-election promises must be adhered to.
Lafazanis has frequently repeated his opposition to privatizations. Last month, he said the privatization of the country's power grid and power utility, DEH, would be halted as final binding bids had not yet been submitted.
In his speech Wednesday, Lafazanis said his country wanted diverse energy sources but would not be dependent on "any large power and of any coalition of countries."
"Greece is too small a country to remain a type of dependent 'troikan' economic protectorate ... with the status of an energy banana republic."


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International Monetary Fund
Panagiotis Lafazanis


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[singular_me]

my guess is that within the next 6 months, greeks will opt for a revolution. this new gov is even worse than the previous one. Thats pure digression... debt liquidation is the only way out.

=============
Europe Has A Modest Proposal For Greece: ‘Don’t Pay Wages For One Or Two Months’
Saturday 14th March 2015

‘Which explains why as we reported yesterday, Greece passed a law to plunder pension funds, one which would allow the government to fully invest reserves of pension funds and other public entities kept in Bank of Greece deposit accounts in Greek sovereign notes.

None of this is news: that Greece will run out of cash absent another check from the Troika, pardon Instituions, pardon creditors, is clear. The only question is what happens after, if Europe indeed leaves Greece hanging.

Today, the Greek media is ablaze with just what Europe’s proposed solution to this issue may be. As Protothema and Capital report, the Troika proposed that Athens halt the payment of salaries and pensions for one to two months. This, according to Europe, would promptly tackle the problem of liquidity and find a solution to Greek problem of how to pay back bailout loan tranches to creditors when suffering from liquidity problems.’.........
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-03-13/europe-has-modest-proposal-greece-dont-pay-wages-one-or-two-months



Germany says Greece may face exit from eurozone
Saturday 14th March 2015
http://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2015/03/13/401656/Greece-may-choose-for-euro-exit

[Horn]

Greek minister: 'radically opposed' to some privatizations

Many of those less producing nations would co-op their electric co. in the past then charge customers more when and if they needed.

The recent decades of globalism is to strip that insulation away from them. And move real power away from the state.

Greece must be at the end of their rope of charging more for utilities? Or even a teared system to charge graduating leveled higher fees.