Greece hammered by the markets

Constantin Gurdgiev interprets the 2 year Greek bond yields – This is it, folks. No where else to run. Greek interest on public debt would swallow over 19 percent of their GDP annually! Ouch! FWIW, that is almost half what a normal country would take in tax revenues, being used to meet unproductive interest payments.. In The Telegraph Ambrose Evans-Pritchard argues that the ECB will have to intervene soon and begin purchasing sovereign government debt. The European Central Bank may …

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Galbraith and Schiff go head to head

Interesting head-to-head, reprising John Maynard Keynes and Fredrick Hayek, between James Galbraith and Peter Schiff on CNBC – Galbraith and Schiff seem to regard the straight-jack of the Euro as equivalent to the old gold standard, typically Galbraith views this as something akin to Keynes’ barbourous relic. Greece’s inability to print money is a problem, while Schiff sees this as essentially a good thing that forces countries and citizens to live within their means. What’s most interesting however, is that …

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German anger at paying for luxury Greek pensions

Bild on the Greek bailout – It is only a matter of days until Germany starts handing out billions in aid to the Greeks, according to Chancellor Angela Merkel. But for some experts, Greece is just a bottomless pit. And now anger is increasing in Germany, with many asking why they should pay for things like the luxury Greek pension system. They highlight superior Greek pensions, that German workers will now be paying for – The fact is that in …

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Ireland 1 – Formerly mighty Blighty 0

Hot on the heals of a Henry McDonald article proclaiming the south to be a country on the edge of bankruptcy and a people seething with anger over the greed and profligacy of the nation’s political and financial elite. Marc Coleman dons the cudgels for Ireland and counters that Ireland is on a path to real recovery, while the timing of the British election has meant that the UK economy has become a fools paradise with hard decisions delayed. Whether …

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Then and now – Ireland & The Argentine Economic Crisis

Argentina entered recession in 1999 and defaulted on it’s public debt in 2001. According to Wikipedia In the meantime, government spending continued to be high and corruption was rampant. Argentina’s public debt grew enormously during the 1990s, and the country showed no true signs of being able to pay it . Enormously eh? It hit the heady heights of.. Ratio of debt to GDP grows to 41% in 1998, then 47% in 1999. Ratio of debt to GDP grows to …

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DoE Cuts: “to help minimise or avoid the need for redundancies”

Never mind any possible future cuts, the BBC reports that a fall in the “level of receipts from planning applications fell from £22.5m in the 2007/08 financial year, to £15.7m in the 2009/10 financial year” has prompted consideration of a reduction of 269 posts in the Planning Service.  Don’t worry though… “Our current estimate is that in total a further 80 posts, outside the Planning Service, are surplus and will be redeployed,” the DoE spokesperson added. In a statement a spokesperson …

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Greece activates EU-IMF bailout

The Greeks have called in the IMF. RTE report that Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou has asked for the activation of an aid package from the European Union and International Monetary Fund aimed at pulling the eurozone member out of a debt crisis.

Irish 2009 budget deficit goes upwards to 14.3% (past Greece)!

Ireland surges past Greece into first place for 2009 European fiscal deficits. Per the Eurostat report In 2009 the largest government deficits in percentage of GDP were recorded by Ireland (-14.3%), Greece (-13.6%) the United Kingdom (-11.5%), Spain (-11.2%), Portugal (-9.4%), Latvia (-9.0%), Lithuania (-8.9%), Romania (-8.3%), France (-7.5%) and Poland (-7.1%). No Member State registered a government surplus in 2009. The lowest deficits were recorded by Sweden (-0.5%), Luxembourg (-0.7%) and Estonia (-1.7%). In all, 25 Member States recorded …

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Recessions – good for your health?

A couple of weeks back, writing in the Sindo, Gene Kerrigan made the not unreasonable assertion that severe recessions cause unnecessary deaths. We saw all this before. During the Eighties, savage cuts inflicted lasting pain and cost lives — someone had to pay for the crisis. Meanwhile, known to the establishment — who were up to their necks in it — the fortunes of the elite were safeguarded using massive tax frauds. An article in yesterdays Guardian refutes this – …

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Roubini sceptical on Eurozone debt

Known as Doctor Doom because he correctly identified the imbalances that led to the credit crunch, Nouriel Roubini appears to be unimpressed with attempts to solve the emerging sovereign debt crisis in the Eurozone. Over at RGE monitor he warns – A Modern Greek Tragedy May Soon Turn Into a Broader PIIGS Disaster These issues within the eurozone stem primarily from a loss of competiveness, high wage growth and labor costs which outstripped productivity, undisciplined fiscal policies and, crucially, the …

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IMF propose new bankers tax

In a new report to the G20, the IMF recommend that two new special taxes should be levied on banks and bankers to meet the cost of any future financial crises. The two taxes target bankers pay and bank profits. Per the Times report The first tax, a Financial Stability Contribution, would be a levy to fund any future government support. The second would be a Financial Activities Tax on the sum of the profits and remuneration of financial institutions. …

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Lisbon Essay (31): Checks, balances and a stronger social dimension

And in the last of our Lisbon essays, Labour Party leader Eamon Gilmore rather trenchantly asserts that Lisbon is not about transfering power from Dublin to Brussels. It is he believes, in contrast to Jimmy Kelly in LE26, enhances a social Europe by setting the Charter up as a watchdog on all EU institutions when it comes to the framing and passing of law. And in contrast with Joe Higgins’ concerns in LE4 he believes it would provide a bulwark …

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Lisbon Essay (27): If it’s No, Europe will simply find a way to move on without us…

Dan O’Brien, senior Europe editor at the Economist Intelligence Unit in London, posts from Berlin where he is covering the aftermath of the Germany election. He takes a sounding of insider opinion on Ireland and Lisbon, in several of Europe’s major capitals. The general assumption is that Irish voters will, as they did with Nice, change their minds in tomorrow’s poll. Most negative opinion is constellated around Paris and Berlin. In brief, that negativity centres around a disbelief that a …

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Lisbon Essay (26): A ‘No’ vote would show solidarity with the Charter and a social Europe

Jimmy Kelly of the Unite Union is one of the most respected figures of the No platform. His position is relatively straightforward. In Ireland workers protections lag hugely behind that of much of Europe. In particular he argues that the Charter for Fundamental Rights is being sold as a fait accomplai, when in fact there is no obligation for national governments to comply with its imperatives: “In effect, the Government is asking us to support the ‘form’ of fundamental rights …

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Lisbon Essay (25): As Iceland discovered the EU is the firebrigade…

Jason O’Mahoney lays out a scenario he believes the No side is studiously avoiding: what happens to Ireland’s national interest within Europe if there is a No vote and Lisbon is abandoned for a more centralised, bi or tri-lateral decision making processes in its stead. The Treaty itself is dry and technical because it is dry and technical, not because anyone is trying pull a fast one. And he believes that counter to Nigel Farage’s assertions in LE10 the “alternative …

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Aiste Liospóin (24): Níl, mar tá neamhspleachas mar oidhreacht duinne…

Vótáil Concubhar i gcoinne an Chonartha an uair dheireanach, agus ní bheith sé ag athrú a vóta an uair seo.. Tá dhá cheist difriúil ann dar leis: fearg leis an Rialtas, agus na rudaí a mbaineann go díreach leis an Chonradh féin. Níl an cheist faoi rogha idir an fhoireann seo nó an ceann eile; ach is rogha polaitiúil (agus, níos tábhachtaí, bunreachtúil) é. Faoi dheireadh, tarraingíonn an dara reifreann seo ar Chonradh Liospn, tar ?is breith chomh cinnte an …

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Lisbon Essay (23): Why Ireland can’t afford the Lisbon Treaty…

Niamh Uí Bhriain of Cóir sites her anti Lisbon argument in the material crisis of the Tiger economy. Nevertheless she notes that “the Lisbon Treaty is not about providing jobs or encouraging enterprise – it’s a treaty designed to centralise political power in the European Union”. She denies there are any short term economic consequences to signing up to the EU, but that in the longer term it leaves Ireland strategically weaker inside the EU… The attraction for foreign firms …

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Lisbon Essay (22): Vote Yes to this unloved bastard son of the European Convention…

Another European view and another from the Yes perspective comes from Daniel Cohn-Bendit, renegade from 1968 and currently co-president of the European Greens–European Free Alliance group in the European Parliament… No one loves it, he says. Who could? It long, legalistic, and complicated. An ad man’s nightmare. But it is the shaken down product of 8 years of filtering and dispute between all the countries of Europe. It’s not as democratic as he would like, nor as democratic as that …

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Lisbon Essay (21): Europeans cannot opt out of globalisation and its problems…

Richard Gowan notes that with the changing of the guard at the US Whitehouse President Obama is not likely to constrain himself to old alliances to deal with the problems of a much larger and more complex (not to mention more dangerous) world than most of us knew growing up… Richard notes that already huge amounts of time are being chewed up in 27 sets of bilaterals on different sets of policy initiatives … And he argues that since the …

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Lisbon Essay (20): After eight years of intense political negotiation it is time to move on…

Margot Wallström the current Vice-President of the European Commission lays out her case for Lisbon. In particular she notes the high level of distrust lingering in some circles with regard to the changes agreed (ie Ireland’s right to a commissioner, and the legal guarantees), but argues that these are political decisions the unbinding of which would have severe political consequences for whomsoever tried to do it. She also argues that whilst the dangers of a race to the bottom are …

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