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Subscribe to RSSPARIS -- European governments are ready to agree to a new bailout package for Greece, France's finance minister said Monday ahead of a meeting with his counterparts in Brussels.
Francois Baroin told Europe-1 radio that while details will have to be worked out, "the political commitments have been made" for a new €130 billion ($171 billion) bailout for Athens.
"We now have all the elements of a deal — elements of a participation that remains voluntary for banks and private lenders, and for public lenders states, central banks," he said.
"We don't have money...Now our only target is to have food to survive," Greek shopkeeper Michael Ipermahos says about the gravity of the financial crisis. "My advice to my children is to leave Greece, throw away their Greek passports and be a citizen of another country."
A Greek's only hot seller: Tear gas masks
"We hope we and the Eurogroup members can take into account all the Greek government has been done for several weeks — even several months," he said.
Funds from the bailout, he said, would be placed in a "special-purpose account that makes it possible to signpost some of that money and guarantee Greece's repayment of its creditors."
The U.S. has expressed support for the IMF to take part in an aid program for Greece, whose government has faced violent protests over austerity measures aimed to avoid default next month.
While politicans argue, a Greek economist says it's time to stop window-dressing and tell it as it is. NBC's Jim Maceda reports.
The measures, coming after months of delay, would mark a second massive bailout for Athens. Critics doubt Greek political leaders' commitment to austerity, and difficult details remain to be ironed out.
Europe's economy edges closer to recession
Greece is straining to secure the rescue loans and the debt relief deal quickly to avoid defaulting on a €14.5 billion bond redemption on March 20. The government has already pushed a massive austerity and reform package though parliament and is expected to introduce in Parliament on Monday two more pieces of emergency legislation, including wage and pension cuts. There were scattered protests over the cuts in Athens on Sunday.
Just let Greece go belly up.
With the I.M.F. getting involved they will never be able to get out from under their debt load. So pull out of the E.U. and thumb their noses at the rest of the banks and move on as a free and independent nation once again.
"Funds from the bailout..." ECB guy I heard on NPR a couple of weeks ago said a bailout would be considered a failure of the Greek economy. In other words, it's already bankrupt.
More meth to the debt crack addict. This time things will get better! I promise. Reminds you of our congress. Whats an extra trillion per year. Eventually we will turn the corner, althought a vast majority of the economy is getting its fix on the cheap money. Funny, when the IMF goes belly up, the US will be holding the bag. Our washington leaders will be "this is so tragic, we ought to do something about those darn bankers".
bob1/28
I agree totally.
Let me add the following: hows the Eurodollar doing? This is in regards to a united European Nation.
In my opinion, not very well in regards to many of the current Euro-Nations fiscal stability.
That is like saying I won't pay my credit cards because I owe too much. Sure you CAN do that but you will soon find the costs of paying cash.
Greece can default but any paper money they print will be considered worthless from the start. They pretty much will have to trade gold for food. Nobody is going to even give simple credit like payment on delivery, they will demand prepayment or increase the price to reflect the risk of not being paid.
It would takes years for greece to prove its currency is worth more than toilet paper. Just ask Zimbabwe how well the 10 trillion dollar notes worked.
You thing you see riots now wait until they can import enough food.
Leiya123
There was a story yesterday about hala meat and presidential candidate Le Pen on France. Her party wants to get out of the E.U. and turn France into an isolationist nation , also roomers from Germany about leaving the E.U. also. The cracks in the E.U. are starting to widen and it might not be to long before it all falls apart.
bob
bilboooo
If Iceland could do it, than Greece can.
bob
Send Jr. Hoffa over there let him show the world how unions can solve the wotld problems.
yes FED UP...cause they have solved everyting over here!! Thats the stupidest statement I've ever seen LMFO.. those auto workers mmm great work helping kill GM!!
HEy ask yourself this ..if the Unions were sooooo greta why do they have ot resort to thuggery to get anything??? WHy does everybody just see that "value" all you union proclaimers try to say is there. I mean if its so great ...why do you have ot "mandate" it??????????
The United States is in line to get our country foreclosed upon, just like what’s happening to the European countries. The Greek people will only receive 19 cents on every dollar of the bailout, the rest goes to the banksters.The entire banking system is corrupt and rigged and the rating agencies are insignificant.
I think most people have figured out that Wall Street is one of the most corrupt and ethically deprived institutions on our planet. I think most people also know the media is bought and sold just like most politicians. We also know that Wall Street is one of many tools of the elite but not the main tool. What is very clear is that our financial system has an architect and carefully designed plan that is playing itself out in Europe.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is very brazen in its fear mongering that we have lost a decade economically. Especially since the IMF has been one of the biggest contributors to perpetuating the instability of the European crisis. The dominoes are beginning to fall in what is an orchestrated attempt by the banksters to consolidate Europe and eventually the rest of the world’s economies under one umbrella that is to be controlled by those that have always controlled currency and money. The most egregious aspect of this contrived extortion is that they are blaming the people who are the backbone of any economy instead of their greedy corrupt political and business leaders.
George Papandreou was pressured to quit because he lapsed into a morally and ethical responsible position by trying to give the people of Greece a say in their economic future through a referendum. This vote would have given the Greek people the choice to stay in the Euro zone and allow their country to be foreclosed upon by the banksters or leave the Euro regain their sovereignty and coin their own currency once again. The IMF bullied the smallest country as a litmus test for what is going to be a much more challenging foreclosure process when it comes to the larger economies. Italy is now in the cross hairs. This dilemma you are watching unfold goes to the core of the rotten apple that is the world’s financial system.
Folks, you are witnessing the death throes of a desperate corrupt financial system where the stock markets and the fractional reserve banking system are at its core. The volatility in the stock markets are a microcosm of the greed, theft and corruption that has perpetrated all aspects of our and other countries economic systems. In the United States, It doesn’t matter who’s in office. Our political system has turned into a two headed one party system with both parties serving their masters, Wall Street and the banksters/Federal Reserve. The stock market is just another ponzi scheme whose intent is to fleece the gullible at the bottom of the pyramid. The stock market is a rogue element of a financial system that is meant to funnel the wealth to the elite/banksters who soicopathically control our financial lives. It is reaching a point where there is nothing more to take from the 99% of the world. The banksters would separate you from your rainy day fund if they could gain access to your shoe box or secret compartment in your purse or wallet. The stock market isn’t the main problem; it’s the fractional reserve banking system that has set the foundation for outright theft. We are experiencing the biggest bank and investment robbery in history and the banks and financial institutions are doing the robbing. When you blame one political party or another they have you right where they want you, in fear, divided and distracted to the theft that is going on right in front of your eyes each and every second of the day.
When you have people on Wall Street day trading and speculating making half a million dollars a year in their twenties betting on people being foreclosed on, you need to ask yourself what is the true purpose of our banking system? At the moment it is largely a theft on the American public. MF Global CEO, ex Goldman Sachs CEO Jim Corzine knows this and knows that nobody with his connections have served any time for stealing the investor’s money (1.6 billion at last count). The financial system’s main mission should be to allocate capital to areas of greatest growth in the real world economy. Yet they allow all kinds of broker speculation and financial gimmicks such as the derivative markets which are based on non-realistic side bets which are now in the quadrillions. The derivatives market was illegal for most of the 20th century.
The European banking crisis is a prime example of what is going to happen to all economies associated with stock market fraud and the Federal Reserve banking system. The financial strife in Greece is the model that will befall most countries. Greece is but a symptom of a cancer that has attached itself to the world’s economies. The Federal Reserve (which is neither federal nor a reserve) has been creating money (monopoly money) out of thin air and charging interest on it insuring a debtor economy for anyone who chooses or is forced to get involved with the Federal Reserve and their fractional reserve banking system. That is why this whole European or any countries current debt crisis will never be resolved and will be preyed upon by the stock market vultures. The Federal Reserve System is designed to cause economies to fail.
If someone loans you two dollars to run your economy and expects three back for the loan and interest how are you going to pay the third back? You can’t unless you borrow more dollars which puts you in perpetual debt and in a constant borrowing cycle to pay off the debt. This is designed not accidental.
Here’s the kicker, once the Federal Reserve/banksters have you struggling to pay off your interest, they send in their loan sharks the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The IMF will loan you money to cover your ever burdening interest payments but they attach a provision that if you default, you will have to give them your assets in what they call privatization (foreclosure).
Since the interest is exponential, you will default and the banksters will come in and try to foreclose on your country, like Greece. They are being told to sell off their own country to pay back the people who caused the mess to begin with. This allows the elite to steal your intrinsic valuable assets because they gave you paper (loans/debt) and the interest on the debt that is systematically impossible to pay back. This also allows the parasitic stock speculators to profit from this designed theft. They not only know the outcome of an economy, they can gamble on the economic bubbles at the investor’s expense. This cancer goes all the way down the food chain.
In the United States case, it doesn’t have to be that way. In our constitution, in Article 1, Section 8, it stipulates that we can “coin money” as a nation and avoid the Federal Reserve’s interest (fee charged on loans) black hole.
So don’t be fooled that the Europeans have come to grips with their financial debt, it’s impossible, it’s a designed virus that has spread around the globe. The Europeans are now replacing their leaders with technocrats/ex Goldman Sachs banksters. These people haven’t been elected by anybody. The stock market vultures will continue to contrive “financial instruments” (credit default swaps/credit derivatives) to defraud the people of the world.
Banks, Central banks, World Bank, BIS, IMF = Federal Reserve = Debtor economies, Debtor Nations (economic slaves) and carrion for the stock market derivative heist.
bob1/28:
It's so easy to be a cold hearted capitalist when you aren't the one suffering the consequences. Mitt lost his home state of Michigan becasue he callously dismissed the auto industry, suggesting in thier worst debt crisis that they simply be allowed to go belly up.
This isn't a football game where there are winners and losers for a season, this is life and death in a world of money that most people did not design. Hard work and labor investment matters less than luck and exploiting opportunity. The monied oil shieks never needed to work a day in their lives, nor did Hugette Clark. Neither discovered the resources that made them rich beyond the dreams of most. Hard work saves few from the bread lines.
Allowing Greece to go belly up will be the same as abondoning all hope for better solutions.
silver lining if euro tanks then European motorcycles get cheaper in the u.s.
not good
Why? The debt is just a game anyway. What's needed across the entire globe is a massive debt restructuring. Austerity programs do nothing was worsen the situation.
The Greek government has attempted to take the measures needed to comply with the bailout requirements, but the Greek populace apparently does not support these measures. Because of this, the austerity program won't succeed.
The EU would be better served to remove Greece from the Euro, and permit them to go it alone. With bankruptcy and devaluation of their national currency, the majority of Greeks will get what they want. They probably won't like the result, but it will be their decision.
Pushing through the EU program only assures that there will be long term bitterness among the Greeks toward the EU. In the end the EU bailout monies will be lost, and the Greeks will leave the Euro anyway.
The French and Germans are pushing this hard because in the end, they'll be the winners if Greece goes belly up, but they still win if Greece comes out of it.
Hard to think of folks who have to ante up billions to prop up Greece as winners.
i say no usa money ! with a 15 trillion dollar debt and obama wants another 1.2 trillion added to it ,
we will be belly up soon enough .
Don't let it happen here! Cut, cap and balance.
It's already happening here. Giving the present generation what can't be afforded expecting the next generation to pay for it. (Social Security: $7 Trillion in unfunded liability; Medicare: $20+ Trilliion in unfunded liability; Obamacare, already delayed from lack of funding.) Then the economy craters and the chickens come home to roost.
It's much easier to tell the people something cannot be afforded in the first place than it is to give it to them and then try and take it away once they've come to believe they are entitled to it.
cut,cap and balance, better get another president, this one seems to have a card that doesn't stop.
GOP stuck up his butt when they agreed to go along with the extensions. how can they not,
and for Greece, this is what is going to happen here unless someone stops the spending. and helping other countries that we don't see any payback. bull@!$%# already. i don't loan, i'll use the credit card comapnies money for a year if it is interest free for that long, and i always have the money to back up just in case. is using anything he can to win the election, even lie, just like the first time. their are alot of things i can say, but he would take it racist and then i might have to go have a beer with him. don't think so.
Greece is just the first country of many. Much of the world, including the US, has been living beyond their means without admitting it.
That kind of extravagance cannot go on forever.
Greece is the second country. Iceland went belly up first. They pulled themselves up out of that black hole and today they are doing very well.
After all this drama they finally agreed, big deal. Nothing has changed nor will it. The Greek will continue on their opulent ways and bring themselves and the world down a few months down the road. www.sci-burr.com
The U.S. is right behind them. The middle class can only support "free" programs for so long. When our money is gone, the blood suckers will protest and riot, like Greece, because there's no more money.
The Banks now own Greece and the people no longer have any say inthe matter. The Leaders/Politicians will go on with their lives as normal with al the money and same benefits as before but the people will live in poverty for many years to come. This is just the beginning and will only get worse around the world. Our debt and the way our Govt spends along with the giveaway programs is bringing the same thing here unless we cut welfare programs back, close 1/3 overseas bases and consolidate the personnel, cut all foreign aid in half, outlaw lobbyist, send the illegals home and make the healthy sit arounds take the jobs and work for their living, fire all of Obama's Czars and let congress do its own job, cut the amount to each individual on welfare by 15%, Cut all public servants salary by 15%(including Senators and Representatives), do a real study and cut needless grants for stupid research, sign the oil pipeline deal and lets get some people to work, Make anyone and everyone that got a bailout pay it back before anyone in the company can take a bonus. This would not be too hard to do but alas our politicians would rather see us broke than do what is right so get ready.
Sure just elect more GOP and continue wars in two countries and start a third, verything is great. Then bail out the big banks again! DONE!
Leon, have you not been paying attention? The republicans and democrats continued the wars and bailed out the banks and GM/Chrysler.
Just how much has the U.S. pledged via the IMF?
The mafia wants it's money
Why don't the governments just print enough bogus money to pass out a $billion or two to every one of the 7 billion people on Earth. Then the monopoly game can start all over again with everybody on an equal footing? :D
I'm selling hamburgers for $10 million apiece.
It is not bailing out Greece! I am sick of the press saying this. It is money to bail out the Bondholder Banksters who Bought Greek Bonds willingly. They accepted the risk to buy the bonds and now are strongarming the Greeks saying you can't default, you are going to pay me! As the mob would say "I want my money". They steal from the people to get paid.
So in your world, if someone borrows money from you, they don't need to bother to repay it? Where do I sign up for a loan from you?
By the way, under the proposed bailout, the bond holders are taking a major haircut. However, don't let the facts get in the way of your pre-conceived notions.
Investments are not guaranteed. Some people act like losses are never supposed to exist. That is what interest rates are for to determine the amount of risk that a person is likely to payback the debt. Who do you blame more the deadbeat who can't pay it back or the greedy idiot that loans it to the guy that has a horrible credit history? Both are really to blame!
It is the citizens of Greece over the years who kept electing politicians who delivered on promises to push a benefits structure that was never financially viable over the long term. It is the citizens of Greece who must and will bear the consequences of asking for government programs that were not and could not be paid for. We are doing the same thing in this country and we will eventually see the same results.
It is truly unfortunate that we have politicians that pander to the economic ignorance of the majority of our populace.
They keep promising a free lunch, and the voters keep lapping it up.
Then when the bill comes due, what do these people do?
Riot and burn down buildings. And we thought there was intelligent life on this planet.
HOW IRONIC.....Greece has to:
SLASH ENTITLEMENTS
LOWER SPENDING
LOWER TAXES.....
....all this to promote growth and stimulate the economy.
HMMMM....... Which Political Party in the USA has ideas like that??
OSAMAS PARTY.... or "Those other people???"
This is what the global banking cartel wants, fool - it has nothing to do with Deomcrats or Republicans. Wake up and realize both parties want you to be in debt to a few anonymous wealthy @!$%#s.
Careful there, you may hurt someones feelings with comments like that and be blocked from the site forever.
Whoops, see you already have.
FED-UP
Big Trouble has it correct. And he has what it takes to lay it all out there. Only the thinned skinned or those who can't see the forest for the trees will hate his posting ( also those who are making from this debt crisis ).
bob
Lets get sober and face the facts. The republipukes were in office for EIGHT YEARS right up to the colapse of the housing crisis and meltdown. Remember George W Bush's TAX REBATES ???? Halburton's stocks are UP ,as well ,most other Defense contractors stocks for WMD'S. Millionaires are doing Great, after EIGHT YEARS of REPUBLIPUKE TAX BREAKS.
ROMNEY made 25 million a year the past 2 years. He didn't loose any of his homes. HE puts his dog in a CRATE on top of his SUV, because it @!$%# in his car. HE would also PUT most of US on top of his SUV, like his dog or worse underneath his car. Millionaires are people too,i am not concerned about the very Poor,I only am concerned about the filthy RICH. Lets give the filthy rich another tax break ,perhaps they will think of ways to help the poor. LOL. sure they will just lower the minimum wage and help the poor fill out the proper paper work to recieve WELFARE and Food Stamps. Maybe they will work at a food pantry this thanksgiving. NOT TO KNOW THE TRUTH is PLAIN STUPID. ITS time to spend 1.5 billion dollars on a monster truck and send it to Mars in search of a republican candidate for 2012 or LOSE AGAIN !!!!!!!!!!!
Hello Big Trouble, Bingo! Spot on! You hit the nail on the head and once the austerity hits the U.S. more people will wake up and truly investigate how we got into this mess in the first place.
I can only hope that more people will research the Federa Reserve Act of 1913, the Act of 1871, and the Treaty of 1783 (Treaty of Paris) instead of listening to the sound bites of the corporate owned presstitutes and believe it's gospel.
What form of support is that, $171Billion or $19 Billion due by March 20th?
hey ! screw the greeks , they played the game now they must pay .
Anyone, including you and I, that invest need to accept that there is risk, a lot of risk. If I were to lend someone money I do so accepting that there is a chance I will not get payed back. The only difference between you and I is we loose that investment for sure. For some reason banks think they deserve to be compensated for their losses. They invest without any thought of the consequence's, and as long as there are governments to cover their ass's they will continue to do so. A dose of reality to those who take foolish gables is in order. Let them fail, let them feel the hurt, the pain and suffering like the rest of us!
Let the exodus begin!
This bailout will not work because is does not address the high unemployment amongst the 20 something generation in Greece. All that it really does is put off the inevitable and gives the EU more time to position themselves to survive the collapse.
A 48 or 49% unemployment rate in the 15 to 25 age demographic is only going to get worse with the cut in minimum wage and austerity measures. This type of statistic is a breading ground for crime and civil unrest.
Just another money grab by those at the top that are buying things like public transportation in Greece, yet the entire event will be heralded by wall street and the markets will jump a false 200 points or more.
A hundred years from now historians will say these times were the greatest, most corrupt, money grab in the history of man.
"All the elements" of a bailout in place for California, our home-grown Greece?
California doesn't deserve a bailout--their financial woes are self-inflicted. Sadly, they have not seemed to grasp how precarious their position is--their politicians keep kicking the can down the road. Entitlement spending too high and unsustainable; real estate prices still too high (in most areas) and unsustainable; the state is increasingly anti-business, at a time when they should be increasingly pro-business. California's finances are in big trouble...but they need to fix their oown problem.
I hope Obama and his financial idiots are watching this closely. Unfortunately swapping debt for different debt is NOT a solution.
We have a spending problem in this country not a revenue problem.
Let the IMF, "International Money(Misfits) Fund and The FED(Funded Entirely By Debt) KEEP PRINTING, until Everyone has their share. The Joke is and always has been, that whoever controls the printing presses, thinks they control the economies. Well that is about to Change, as the people in the street, wake up and realize it's All A SCAM!
Nah, their necks will get longer and there head will go deeper in the sand.
The U.S. has agreed to take part! WTF is our government giving them our tax dollars when we have people dying on our streets from lake of medical, housing, and food.
Congress has just cut Medicare for the people who have paid in through the nose for all their lives because we are so far in the sh*t hole we will not see daylight for 50 or more years.
AGAIN our money is going to some country that should solve their own problems and LEAVE US OUT OF IT.
I think the good old USA should send them money to help them out also...........We have lots !!!!!!