By: athenswire
Stocks advanced in early trading on Wall Street after the Federal Reserve reported that U.S. industrial production climbed in April.
Greece’s fractious political parties will go back to voters in the hope of breaking a deadlock that left them unable to form a majority in Parliament, even after days of negotiations. The caretaker government will not have the authority to do anything other than run the election. There is concern that the new elections may bolster anti-austerity leftist parties, raising the possibility of a major split with creditor nations and adding to the likelihood of a Greek exit from the euro.
That fear has in recent days led to a ratcheting up of the ongoing run on Greek banks. The Greek central bank chief, George ...
By: athenswire
Since then, he has engaged in a high-stakes game of chicken with Europe’s leaders. While they have scrambled to put together contingency plans in case Greece exits the euro zone, Mr. Tsipras has calmly stated his case and let the rest of Europe sweat about the possibly disastrous ramifications if it does.
“It’s true,” he said Friday, with a smile and a glint in his eye, during an interview in his small office in the Greek Parliament. “I like to play poker.”
While Mr. Tsipras clearly has much of Europe on the run, he hardly seems to be breaking a sweat. “Our goal isn’t to blackmail or to terrorize, our goal is to shake them,” Mr. Tsipras said coolly of the foreign lenders whose austerity-for-loans ...
By: athenswire
The foot-dragging and brinkmanship of the last few years have won the other members of the currency union valuable time to prepare for life without Greece. Banks have recorded losses on Greek investments, companies are making contingency plans and Europe has bolstered rescue funds for other vulnerable nations like Portugal, Ireland and Spain.
Those measures also have reduced the risks for the United States, making it less likely that a “Lehman moment” will spread panic through global financial markets. American investment funds and banks have also sharply reduced their investments in Europe.
But some experts say Europe’s preparations remain incomplete and the potential costs of a Greek exit are highly uncertain and potentially substantial. That reality helps to explain why Germany continues to profess its ...
By: athenswire
BERLIN — The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, suggested Friday that Greece hold a referendum on remaining in the euro zone during a telephone call with the Greek president, Karolos Papoulias, a government spokesman in Athens said, but a spokesman for the chancellor denied she had made the suggestion.
The spokesman, Dimitris Tsiodras, said Ms. Merkel made the suggestion that a referendum be held in parallel with general elections scheduled for June 17 as a means to gauge the extent to which Greeks want to remain in the euro zone. The spokesman added, however, that holding such a referendum did not fall within the remit of Greece’s caretaker government.
A spokeswoman for Ms. Merkel’s office denied the chancellor had suggested a ...
By: athenswire
All sides agree that Chancellor Angela Merkel spoke by telephone with President Karolos Papoulias on Friday. A spokesman for the caretaker government, Dimitris Tsiodras, said Ms. Merkel “conveyed to the president thoughts regarding a referendum that could be conducted in parallel to the elections, asking Greeks whether they want to remain in the euro zone.”
A spokesman for Ms. Merkel’s government swiftly denied she had called for a referendum, but not before Greek politicians blasted the alleged proposal. The leftist leader Alexis Tsipras accused her of treating Greece like a “protectorate.” The Socialist Party stated that “referendums fall exclusively within the competencies of the government and the Greek Parliament, not the EU or other member states.”
The Greek conservative leader Antonis Samaras called it “unacceptable” ...
By: athenswire
An increasingly urgent question is whether Europe can afford to wait until that election, which is expected to determine the future of the troubled country in the euro zone and the broader stability of the bloc. Events may force European officials’ hand much earlier.
On Thursday, the rating agency Fitch lowered its rating on Greek debt from B- to a lowly CCC, saying in a statement that the downgrade “reflects the heightened risk that Greece may not be able to sustain its membership of Economic and Monetary Union” after the strong showing of anti-austerity parties in the May 6 elections.
Indeed, the leader of one of those parties, the Coalition of the Radical Left, or Syriza, which placed second in the elections and is now ...
By: athenswire
An increasingly urgent question is whether Europe can afford to wait until that election, which is expected to determine the future of the troubled country in the euro zone and the broader stability of the bloc. Events may force European officials’ hand much earlier.
On Thursday, the rating agency Fitch lowered its rating on Greek debt from B- to a lowly CCC, saying in a statement that the downgrade “reflects the heightened risk that Greece may not be able to sustain its membership of Economic and Monetary Union” after the strong showing of anti-austerity parties in the May 6 elections.
Indeed, the leader of one of those parties, the Coalition of the Radical Left, or Syriza, which placed second in the elections and is now ...
