Greece – Page 46 – Infinite Unknown

Moody’s Downgrades Greece’s Credit Rating

December 22, 2009 by Infinite

Moody’s has downgraded Greece’s credit rating, despite efforts by the new Socialist government to slash public spending and pull the country out of an economic crisis.

A man walks by a graffiti reading ‘eat the rich’, sprayed on the wall of a bank office in central Athens. Photo: EPA

The credit rating agency is the third to downgrade Greek government bonds – changing them from an A1 category to A2.

Standard and Poor’s and Fitch have also downgraded their assessment of the country’s ability to pay back debt.

Greece is facing its worst debt crisis in decades and has come under intense European Union pressure to improve public its finances and comply with deficit limits intended to support the shared euro currency.

The government announced a raft of measures this month to reduce Greece’s massive public debt, which has reached €300bn (£270bn).

It has promised to gradually bring the budget deficit – projected at 12.7pc of GDP for 2009 – to below the European Union’s eurozone requirement of 3pc of GDP by the end of 2013.

The revolt has begun: Greece defies Europe as EMU crisis turns deadly serious

December 15, 2009 by Infinite

Euroland’s revolt has begun. Greece has become the first country on the distressed fringes of Europe’s monetary union to defy Brussels and reject the Dark Age leech-cure of wage deflation.

George Papanderou, the Greek prime minister, faces potential riots if he cuts spending to address the deficit

While premier George Papandreou offered pro forma assurances at Friday’s EU summit that Greece would not default on its €298bn (£268bn) debt, his words to reporters afterwards had a different flavour.

“Salaried workers will not pay for this situation: we will not proceed with wage freezes or cuts. We did not come to power to tear down the social state,” he said.

Were we to believe that a country in the grip anarchist riots and prey to hard-Left unions would risk its democracy to please Brussels?

Mr Papandreou has good reason to throw the gauntlet at Europe’s feet. Greece is being told to adopt an IMF-style austerity package, without the devaluation so central to IMF plans. The prescription is ruinous and patently self-defeating. Public debt is already 113pc of GDP. The Commission says it will reach 125pc by late 2010. It may top 140pc by 2012.

If Greece were to impose the draconian pay cuts under way in Ireland (5pc for lower state workers, rising to 20pc for bosses), it would deepen depression and cause tax revenues to collapse further. It is already too late for such crude policies. Greece is past the tipping point of a compound debt spiral.

Ireland may just pull it off. It starts with lower debt. It has flexible labour markets, and has shown a Scandinavian discipline. Mr Papandreou faces circumstances more akin to those of Argentine leaders in 2001, when they tried to cut wages in the mistaken belief that ditching the dollar-peg would prove calamitous. Buenos Aires erupted in riots. The police lost control, killing 27 people. President De la Rua was rescued from the Casa Rosada by an air force helicopter. The peg collapsed, setting in train the biggest sovereign default in history.

Economists waited for the sky to fall. It refused to do so. Argentina achieved Chinese growth for half a decade: 8.8pc in 2003, 9pc in 2004, 9.2pc in 2005, 8.5pc in 2006, and 8.7pc in 2007.

Famous Investor Jim Rogers: Incompetence In Washington, Abolish The Fed And The Treasury

December 13, 2009 by Infinite

“Mr. Geithner has been wrong about everything for the last 15 years.”

Added: 12. December 2009

Standard Bank: Ireland, Greece May Leave Euro

December 12, 2009 by Infinite

Pedestrians walk past Greece’s central bank in Athens, on Dec. 10, 2009. (Bloomberg)

Dec. 11 (Bloomberg) — Greece and Ireland are among countries in an “intolerable” economic situation, which may lead to bailouts or even an exit from the euro area by the end of next year, according to Standard Bank Plc.

The absence of a mechanism to permit so-called fiscal transfers within the 16-nation region may undermine the exchange-rate system, said Steve Barrow, head of Group of 10 foreign-exchange strategy at the bank in London. Concern some nations will need to be rescued may drive the premium investors demand to hold 10-year Greek debt instead of benchmark German bunds to 400 basis points next year, from 214 basis points today, he said. The Irish premium may also jump, he said.

“Countries like Ireland and Greece may not be able to grow out of the current crisis,” Barrow said in a telephone interview today. “With interest-rate cuts, exchange-rate depreciation and significant fiscal support all off limits for these countries, bailouts or even pullouts from EMU may happen next year.”

The Irish Finance Ministry called the suggestion it might leave the euro area “uninformed comment,” and Greece said there was no chance it would leave.

Fitch downgrades Greece’s debt rating to BBB+ with negative outlook

December 9, 2009 by Infinite

Related articles:

– Greece Finance Minister Says No Risk of Default (Bloomberg)

– Greece to Reporters: We’re Not Dubai or Iceland (Wall Street Journal)

Here is why Greece is not Dubai or Iceland:

Greece is a member of the European Union since 1981, which makes all the difference.

The EU: ‘Only ‘EUnited’ we fail!’

(Click on image to enlarge.)

ATHENS, Dec 8 (Reuters) – Ratings agency Fitch cut Greece’s debt to BBB+ on Tuesday with a negative outlook, the latest blow to the troubled euro zone country, driving its bonds, bank shares and the euro itself lower.

The cut was the first time in 10 years a major ratings agency has dropped Greece below an A grade. Fitch cited fiscal deterioration in one of the 16-member currency bloc’s most indebted member states.

“The downgrade reflects concerns over the medium-term outlook for public finances given the weak credibility of fiscal institutions and the policy framework in Greece,” Fitch said in a statement, calling for austere fiscal policies.

“The lack of substantive structural policy measures reduces confidence that medium term consolidation efforts will be aggressive enough to ensure public debt ratios are stabilised and then reduced over the next three to five years,” it said.

Greece: Riots break out on anniversary of teenager’s death

December 6, 2009 by Infinite

Clashes have broken out in the Greek capital Athens during a march to commemorate the first anniversary of the police shooting of a teenager, whose death sparked massive riots.

A policeman on fire in Athens during rioting Photo: getty

Rioting in Athens Photo: getty

Police fired tear gas at youths throwing rocks and firecrackers in central Athens, as several thousand demonstrators gathered to mark the death of 15-year-old Alexandros Grigoropoulos.

About 3,000 mostly students, anarchists and leftists marched to parliament on Sunday and more protests were expected on Monday. An evening memorial service was planned in the Exarchia district, where the teenager was shot dead.

Athens University rector Christos Kittas was rushed to hospital with an irregular heartbeat and head injuries after protesters broke into the university’s central Athens offices to occupy them, police and media said.

A 55-year-old woman was also injured on central Syntagma Square after being struck by police. Four police officers were also hurt as hand-to-hand combat erupted with small groups of protesters around the square, a police source said.

Concern was heightened by reports that far-left groups and anarchists from other European countries have traveled to Greece to join the protests.

Violence also broke out in Thessaloniki, Greece’s second-largest city, where youths threw petrol bombs at police and smashed the storefront of a Starbucks cafe.

Over 6,000 police were on duty in Athens alone. Another 3,000 were mobilised in Thessaloniki, local police said.

Athens fires burn for second day: 120 square kilometers have been burned, ‘a massive ecological catastrophe’

August 23, 2009 by Infinite

greece-fires
Fire approaches houses in the suburb of Drafi, on the mount of Penteli, in Greece on Aug. 23, 2009. Photographer: Louisa Gouliamaki/AFP/Getty Images

Aug. 23 (Bloomberg) — Greek firefighters battled a wildfire on the outskirts of the capital Athens that threatened outlying suburbs for a second day, while authorities evacuated hospitals, camping grounds and retirement homes overnight. No casualties were reported.

Strong swirling winds continued to hamper the work of firefighters and aircraft dropping water, Athens Prefect Yannis Sgouras told state NET TV. About 120,000 stremmata (120 square kilometers) have been burned, “a massive ecological catastrophe,” he said.

‘The strength of the winds has increased and the situation remains particularly difficult,” Fire Department spokesman Ioannis Kapakis said in televised statements on NET. From 6:00 a.m. yesterday to 6:00 a.m. today, 83 major fires were reported around the country, with blazes on the islands on Zakynthos, Evia and Skyros among another five considered to be of serious concern, he said.

Greece: Mandatory swine flu vaccination for the entire population

August 13, 2009August 13, 2009 by Infinite

vaccination

ATHENS (Reuters) – Greece will vaccinate its entire population of 12 million against the H1N1 swine flu pandemic which has swept around the world in weeks, killing hundreds of people, the country’s health minister said on Friday.

The Mediterranean country, which receives about 15 million tourists every year, has confirmed more than 700 swine flu cases and no deaths, but world health experts say the true number of cases globally is far higher as only a few patients get tested.

“We decided that the entire population, all citizens and residents, without any exception, will be vaccinated against the flu,” Health Minister Dimitris Avramopoulos said after a ministerial meeting.

Greece has already earmarked 40 million euros for vaccines and has placed orders with Novartis, Glaxo and Sanofi for 8 million vaccine doses, to be received gradually by January.

Vaccine experts say people will likely need two doses of vaccine to be protected from H1N1 swine flu, so Greece would need a total of 24 million doses to vaccinate its entire population. Other countries are taking similar steps.

Bilderberg group meet in Greece – and here’s their address

May 14, 2009 by Infinite

The elite meets to talk about their next creation: The Greatest Depression.

Bavarian illuminati
Roger Boyes and John Carr in Athens

Don’t tell anyone, don’t breathe a word, but the world’s most powerful men are meeting secretly again to save the planet from economic catastrophe. Oh, and their address, should you want to send them your opinions, is: c/o Nafsika Astir Palace Hotel, Apollonos Avenue 40, 16671 Vouliagmeni, Greece.

Bed space is a bit tight there for the next two days while the Bilderberg illuminati hold their private conclave in the five-star Greek hotel. Every year since 1954 a club of about 130 senior or up-and-coming politicians gather at the fireside of a secluded hotel with top bankers and a sprinkling of royalty to discuss burning issues, to trade confidences and just stay abreast of the I-know-something-you-don’t-know circuit. No lists of participants are disclosed, no press conferences are held; spill the beans and you’re out of the magic circle.

For those of us standing outside the locked gates all that is left is to hope that they will sleep well, avoid jet ski injury and solve our problems for us. For the Bilderbergers it is a little like that recent MI5 recruitment ad: “See all your best work go unnoticed!”

Each country delegates two people to the steering committee that is the intellectual hub of Bilderberg. In the past Kenneth Clarke, the Shadow Business Secretary, and Martin Taylor, formerly head of Barclays Bank, have had their hand on the British tiller.

This year the club is going to talk about depression. “According to the pre-meeting booklet sent out to attendees, Bilderberg is looking at two options,” says the Bilderberg-watcher Daniel Estulin – “either a prolonged, agonising depression that dooms the world to decades of stagnation, decline and poverty – or an intense but shorter depression that paves the way for a new sustainable economic world order, with less sovereignty but more efficiency.”

Hundreds of Greek protesters clash with police

December 20, 2008 by Infinite

Reuters
Riot police clash with demonstrators during riots outside the Athens Polytechnic December 20, 2008. Greek demonstrators threw petrol bombs at finance ministry offices and torched two cars in central …

ATHENS, Dec 20 (Reuters) – Hundreds of Greek youths fought running battles with police in Athens late on Saturday as anti-government protests entered a third week since police shot dead a teenager.

Students threw stones and petrol bombs at riot police outside university buildings late into the night after a vigil to mark the Dec. 6 killing of 15-year-old Alexandros Grigoropoulos turned violent.

Police blocked surrounding roads and fired teargas at the youths, who sheltered in the university campus which police are banned from entering. A group of anxious mothers waited outside to escort their children from the building.

“There are more than 600 students and they’re running in and out of the university, throwing rocks and Molotov cocktails,” said a police official, who asked not to be named. No injuries were reported.

Across the country, hundreds of schools and several university campuses remain occupied by students. In the northern city of Thessaloniki, demonstrators briefly occupied a radio station and a cinema.

Greek Syndrome is catching as youth take to streets

December 20, 2008 by Infinite

Protesters clash with police in Athens on Thursday

Europe exists, it appears. If Greek students sneeze, or catch a whiff of tear-gas, young people take to the streets in France and now Sweden. Yesterday, masked youths threw two firebombs at the French Institute in Athens. Windows were smashed but the building was not seriously damaged. Then youths spray-painted two slogans on the building. One said, “Spark in Athens. Fire in Paris. Insurrection is coming”. The other read, “France, Greece, uprising everywhere”.

It was a calculated and violent attempt to link disparate youth protest movements. Links between protests in Greece and France – and, to a lesser degree, unrest in Sweden – may seem tenuous, even non-existent. But social and political ailments and their symptoms transmit as rapidly as influenza in the television, internet and text-message age.

Greece’s riots are a sign of the economic times

December 13, 2008 by Infinite

“The government has tried hard not to connect what is happening with the problems of young people. The government says one boy died, his friends are angry, they over-reacted then anarchists came to join in the game. But this is not the reality.”

“Because of unemployment, a quarter of those under 25 are below the poverty line,” said Petros Linardos, an economist at the Labour Institute of the Greek trade unions. “That percentage has been increasing for the past 10 years. There is a diffused, widespread feeling that there are no prospects. This is a period when everyone is afraid of the future because of the economic crisis. There is a general feeling that things are going to get worse. And there is no real initiative from the government.”
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Greece’s riots are a sign of the economic times. Other countries should beware, says Peter Popham in Athens

Youths try to break into the Greek Interior Ministry on Thursday night

After firing 4,600 tear-gas canisters in the past week, the Greek police have nearly exhausted their stock. As they seek emergency supplies from Israel and Germany, still the petrol bombs and stones of the protesters rain down, with clashes again outside parliament yesterday.

Bringing together youths in their early twenties struggling to survive amid mass youth unemployment and schoolchildren swotting for highly competitive university exams that may not ultimately help them in a treacherous jobs market, the events of the past week could be called the first credit-crunch riots. There have been smaller-scale sympathy attacks from Moscow to Copenhagen, and economists say countries with similarly high youth unemployment problems such as Spain and Italy should prepare for unrest.

Unrest spreads across Europe

December 11, 2008 by Infinite

Protesters throw stones at riot police during clashes in front of the Greek parliament building in Athens, December 10, 2008. (Oleg Popov/Reuters

MADRID, Spain – The unrest that has gripped Greece is spilling over into the rest of Europe, raising concerns the clashes could be a trigger for opponents of globalization, disaffected youth and others outraged by the continent’s economic turmoil and soaring unemployment.

Protesters in Spain, Denmark and Italy smashed shop windows, pelted police with bottles and attacked banks this week, while in France, cars were set ablaze Thursday outside the Greek consulate in Bordeaux, where protesters scrawled graffiti warning about a looming “insurrection.”

At least some of the protests were organized over the Internet, showing how quickly the message of discontent can be spread, particularly among tech-savvy youth. One Web site Greek protesters used to update each other on the locations of clashes asserted there have been sympathy protests in nearly 20 countries.

More demonstrations were set for Friday in Italy, France and Germany.

Still, the clashes have been isolated so far, and nothing like the scope of the chaos in Greece, which was triggered by the police killing of a teenager on Saturday and has ballooned into nightly scenes of burning street barricades, looted stores and overturned cars.

Greece hit by 5th day of violence, general strike; Clashes outside parliament

December 10, 2008 by Infinite

Protesters throw stones at policemen guarding Greece’s parliament in Athens December 10, 2008. REUTERS/Yiorgos Karahalis

ATHENS (Reuters) – Protesters threw fire bombs at police outside parliament on Wednesday during a general strike which paralyzed Greece and piled pressure on a conservative government reeling from the worst riots in decades.

Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis announced financial support for businesses damaged in five days of rioting. He also pledged to safeguard people from violence, but did not say how.

Government sources have denied rumors emergency measures were being considered.

“Government murderers!” demonstrators shouted, furious at the shooting of a teenager by police on Saturday which sparked riots fueled by simmering public anger at political scandals, rising unemployment and poverty.

Explainer: Why is there unrest in Greece?

December 8, 2008 by Infinite

(CNN) — Youths have rioted on the streets of Athens and other Greek cities for the past three days. Stores and cars have been torched, barricades erected and rioters have fought running battles with police.

Athens riot police come under attack near the capital’s main police station Sunday.

The unrest came after police shot dead teenager Andreas Grigoropoulos, 15, who they allege was about to throw a fuel-filled device at them as a gang of youths pelted a patrol vehicle.

What has been the political reaction to the unrest?

Greece rocked by third day of riots

December 8, 2008 by Infinite

ATHENS, Greece (CNN) — Violent clashes between police and protesters erupted for a third day in Greece Monday as anger over the fatal police shooting of a teenager continued to rage through major cities.

Youths clash with police near the main police station in Athens on Sunday.

Riot police fired tear gas at youths attacking shops and a police station in the port city of Thessaloniki, The Associated Press reported.

Running battles also broke out in Veria, a town 60 kilometers (40 miles) west of Thessaloniki, while violence was reported in the central city of Trikala, AP said.

Major protests were expected later in five Greek cities, including Athens, Thessaloniki, Larissa, another central city, and on the island of Corfu.

There were scenes of destruction across the Greek capital after police apologies and the arrest of two officers in connection with the shooting failed to halt unrest on Sunday.

On Sunday night, police fired tear gas as rampaging youths smashed storefronts and burned businesses, leaving shattered glass and burnt debris scattered across major cities. See images of anarchy on Greek streets »

Residents of one apartment building in central Athens were evacuated on Sunday after angry demonstrators torched a car dealership on the basement floor.

Self-styled anarchists barricaded city streets in Athens and Thessaloniki, and hurled petrol bombs as they battled with police, who fought back with tear gas in the second day of rioting. Watch youths riot in Greece »

One officer has been charged with manslaughter over the killing of Alexandros Grigoropoulos, another as an accomplice.

The men say they fired warning shots as Grigoropoulos was about to throw a fuel-filled device at them and a gang of youths pelted a patrol vehicle.