Eurozone agrees Greek rescue plan

[Béal na Bláth]

Eurozone agrees Greek rescue plan - RTE (http://www.rte.ie/news/2010/0325/greece.html)

The 16 countries that share the euro currency have agreed to back a Franco-German plan to offer Greece loans in combination with the IMF, a diplomatic source told AFP.


'There is a deal,' the source said after a meeting of eurozone leaders on the sidelines of a full European Union summit.

The unprecedented tie-up, which a French government source said would be two-thirds funded by euro zone contributions and one third by the IMF, will only be activated as a 'last resort' and will involve unsubsidised interest rates, according to a text released by Berlin and Paris.


Precedent of not letting rogue eurozone economies be fed entirely to the wolves set so.

[Cassandra Syndrome]

Trichet thinks the deal is bad. The Euro is getting hammered.


The euro traded near a 10-month low versus the dollar after European Central Bank President Jean- Claude Trichet said that aid for a euro-area nation from any outside group such as the International Monetary Fund is “very, very bad.”

South Africa’s rand dropped against all of its most-traded counterparts after the nation’s central bank unexpectedly lowered its benchmark interest rate. Mexico’s peso rose against most of the 16 as the jobless rate in February fell more than forecast. Leaders of the euro region met in Brussels to debate a French-German contingency plan for a mix of IMF and bilateral loans to help Greece deal with its budget deficit.

The market doesn’t care that “France and Germany are saying they have the framework to a plan to support Greece including the IMF,” said John Curran, a Toronto-based senior vice president at CanadianForex Ltd. “It’s like ‘Yeah, OK, great, I have a plan for winning the lottery, too.’ Show us something that works.”

The euro fell 0.3 percent to $1.3273 at 5 p.m. in New York after advancing earlier as much as 0.5 percent. The 16-nation currency touched $1.3268, the lowest since May 7. It rose 0.2 percent to 123.08 yen, from 122.89 yesterday. The dollar gained 0.5 percent to 92.72 yen, from 92.30. It touched 92.96 yen, the highest level since Jan. 8.



http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aSW6d6rZ22mE

[Digout]

The deal is worth €20 billion. About the same cost as Anglo, half the cost of NAMA.

[C. Flower]

Fed partly to the wolves. The IMF wolves can eat the legs and the head will be eaten by the EU jackals.

It's a massive political and economic blow to the EU, three times over.

1. A component part of the Eurozone, albeit a small one, is bust - in part because of inherent strains in the Eurozone
2. The EU can't agree on a way of bailing it out.
3. It has partly ceded control to the US/IMF.

The federal model is permanently busted.

[Cassandra Syndrome]

The Strikes continue. Gas workers and Taxi Drivers today.

http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2010/mar/25/strikes-in-greece-over-proposed-tax-law-overhaul/