Default by Greece Inevitable - Update : Heave to Oust Greece From the Eurozone

[Ephilant]

Strange happeings relating to the so called SIEMENS list as well.

It has emerged, from a report in a German newspaper (Sueddeutsche Zeitung/The Local.de) that the Greek authorities have issued international arrest warrants against 11 of the Siemens executives involved in the bribery scandal.
this opens a serious Pandora's box, as the executives have been through the German courts, found guilty and have been dealt with through either conviction or settlement. the 11 men involved have already stated they will bring their case to the European court of human rights, as they claim this move is against their human rights.

If however the Greek government issues an international arrest warrant, that would compel every country, except Germany (!), to arrest and deliver the subject of this warrant to Greece. Effectively grounding these guys in Germany.

according to one of the guys found guilty of bribery, this is a silly move by the Greek authorities as it will "discourage investment in Greece"....

Full Article

[disability student]

Strange happeings relating to the so called SIEMENS list as well.

It has emerged, from a report in a German newspaper (Sueddeutsche Zeitung/The Local.de) that the Greek authorities have issued international arrest warrants against 11 of the Siemens executives involved in the bribery scandal.
this opens a serious Pandora's box, as the executives have been through the German courts, found guilty and have been dealt with through either conviction or settlement. the 11 men involved have already stated they will bring their case to the European court of human rights, as they claim this move is against their human rights.

If however the Greek government issues an international arrest warrant, that would compel every country, except Germany (!), to arrest and deliver the subject of this warrant to Greece. Effectively grounding these guys in Germany.

according to one of the guys found guilty of bribery, this is a silly move by the Greek authorities as it will "discourage investment in Greece"....

Full Article

Greek govt have some brass neck to chase after them. Anyway, they have more nerve and guts to do than our apathy Irish govt who would say otherwise, ' i'm all right Jack'

[disability student]

Eliphant,

Link to Greek govt budget written in Greek. which i don't have the foggiest notion re comprehension.

http://www.minfin.gr/portal/el/resou...c-7cd78adf5bf7

[disability student]

Ephilant:

More info from twitter:

https://twitter.com/YiannisMouzakis/.../photo/1/large

https://twitter.com/YiannisMouzakis/...142016/photo/1

[Ephilant]

Eliphant,

Link to Greek govt budget written in Greek. which i don't have the foggiest notion re comprehension.

http://www.minfin.gr/portal/el/resou...c-7cd78adf5bf7

Neither have we... all we know is that whatever it says, we pay for it.

[Ephilant]

Greek tricks..

today was the all import parliamentary vote on the Privatization bill put forward by the government. Samaras himself was not in the Parliament. Kouvelis abstained and Veni didn't bother to vote, although present....
then the real beauty happned. Part of all of this was the merger of the various working social security funds with the newly created bankrupt EOPPY. DIMAR and 15 PASOK MPs voted against, leaving the government defeated on its own bill. Curtains one would think.
No such thing. That defeating vote was declared to be on the merger only, and then a new vote was called on the bill without the merger, which passed.
As for the merger part, parliament said "Oxi", so the government has decided to present it to them again

once they've come to their senses

Now, who would have taught them that trick

[ang]

The German bloc will have to take its bitter medicine in Greece -

Every detail of the Greek economy is worse than officially forecast just weeks ago.
The budget unveiled this morning estimates that public debt will reach 189pc of GDP next year (not 179pc).
The budget deficit will be 5.2pc (not 4.2pc).
The economy will shrink 4.5pc next year (not 3.8pc).
Unemployment is already 25.1pc and 55.6pc for youth.
Just for the record:
The EU-IMF Troika originally said that the economy would contract by just 2.6pc in 2010, before growing by 1.1pc in 2011, and 2.1pc in 2012.
In fact Greek GDP contracted by 4.5pc in 2010, 6.9pc in 2011, and will shrink 6.5pc this year, and now 4.5pc next year.
The cumulative error is colossal.

I don't wish to be unduly harsh on the IMF – a superb organisation – but actually the Greek Labour Institute and the think-tank IOVE did predict this level of contraction.

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/finance...#disqus_thread

[Ephilant]

Today, Kostas Vaxevanis goes on trial for publishing the "Lagarde list". He is accused of breaching privacy laws.
This trial is really about the elite showing its power and its willingness to do anything to hold on to that power. The list published includes many top politicians, civil servants, businessmen and entertainers who have not broken any laws by having a Swiss bank acount, but who are very much suspected of using that Swiss bank account to evade taxes on their income.
3 successive Greek governments have managed to "lose" the list, and there is a strong suspicion that the list published by Kostas is at least doctored, if not a total set-up to shut up another freely speaking journalist.

[Ephilant]

As was to be expected, PASOK is desintegrating in front of everybody. Venizelos called a parliamentary meeting yesterday, after 15 PASOK MPs voted against the government. He made it clear he was not happy, and everybody should tow the party line, as dictated by God Venizelos.
Result? Mariliza Xenogiannakopoulou, former health minister, officially resigned from the party. Michalis Kassis, sitting deputy for Athens, left the party.
Kostas Skandalidis, former minister of Agriculture, openly challenged the leadership and refused to dismiss the rumours that he is preparing a heave against God Venizelos. Kostas Skandalidis also told reporters that he, and at least 5 other PASOK MPS would indeed be voting against the austerity package.
Kouvelis is still adament that DIMAR will, as a party, vote down the package, while Samaras has now also got ND representatives openly declaring that they will not vote with the government, and has also lost one MP who resigned from the party.
As it stands, a vote on the package, with everybody voting as they say they will, the package will get 152 votes. It needs 151, anything less and it's gone. As is Samaras.
I'm sure there are lots of clean nappies being handed out in Brussels and Berlin...

[Captain Con O'Sullivan]

makes you wonder about the choreography. There were some suspiciously close and pre-arranged looking votes in the Dail in the last few years and I know from my own experience that parliamentary votes in chamber are very much managed for the optics.

[Ephilant]

makes you wonder about the choreography. There were some suspiciously close and pre-arranged looking votes in the Dail in the last few years and I know from my own experience that parliamentary votes in chamber are very much managed for the optics.

One of the tricks the government has up it's sleeve is to change the voting rules (as they did yesterday) and declare the mjority vote to be the majority of those present rather than the majority of 300 representatives. As of yesterday, they seem to be able to do that retrospectively... Yesterday, for the privatization bill, Samaras wasn't even in the house. Neither was Kouvelis. Mind you it was nice weather, and in times of stressful votes, nothing more relaxing than a game of tennis.
God Venizelos was in the house and didn't bother voting. He was probably that shell shocked at the spectacle of 15 PASOK representatives defying his dictat and voting against the robbery of a few billion out of the few still functioning pension funds, that he simply forgot.
Bottomline is that it is a very, very tight situation, and something like a conviction against Kostas Vaxevanis could be enough to bring the whole show crashing down.
today, we learn that veteran journalist of 50 years, Spyros Katatzaferis, was arrested after an interview on the private TV channel Extra TV. During an hour long interview he claimed to be in possession of the paperwork hacked from the Ministry of finance computers. The show put up by the police when arresting him on the streets of Athens made CSI's Horatio in full swing look like a shy schoolboy. It was as bad as it was over the top. And to cap it all, WHILE IN CUSTODY, he went live on his brothers TV channel (LAOS party leader Giorgos Karatzaferis) and once again stated that he had been arrested because he had copies of all the paperwork in his possession. Eventually, he is being charged with a old charge of libel against.... God Venizelos. Looks like we are looking at second Greek personal drama developing here. Samaras is singing his swan song, Venizelos is entering the stage. Theatrics at there best, petty the seat are so expensive...

[Ephilant]

Right, as they say, put this in your pipe and smoke it Antonis, God Venizelos and all the other clowns claiming to be a government.

The 30 judge panel of the Greek Court of Auditors has just rules the upcoming cuts in pensions, minimum wage, the draconian cuts in benefits for season workers, the raising of the age for claiming benefits etc. unconstitutional. In other words all the social cuts due to be voted on next Wednesday as part of the 13.5 billin package of further austerity.
The judges ruled that all the measure affecting low income earners are against articles 2,4,22 and 25 of the constitution as being contrary to the constitional obligation to respect and protect human dignity, principles of equality, proportionality and labour rights.
The ruling means that almost half of the proposed austery measures are deemed unconstitutional.
Although the judgement is not binding against the government plans, it does open the way for legal challenges by individuals, trade unions, and anybody who feels they are being discriminated against. Once a legal challenge is mounted, the measures cannot be put into effect. And when it has to, the Greek judiciary can be extremely slow.
I can imagine that trade usnion laywers will be working overtime this week-end to lodge claims next Monday and Tuesday, a pre-emptive strikes against the proposed measures.
Wonder how Merkel & Co are going to like this?

[ang]

IMF says crucial Greek loan talks have stalled - (Seems to be several times a day at this stage)

Greece's negotiations with international lenders for desperately needed rescue funds are stuck some two weeks before bankruptcy looms, the IMF says.

The International Monetary Fund said on Thursday the talks were stalled over the conditions for financing Greece as it seeks a two-year extension to meet fiscal goals.

While Athens has made "good progress" on fiscal and structural reforms, IMF spokesman Gerry Rice said in Washington, "an understanding must also be reached between Greece and its creditors on financing terms consistent with debt sustainability".

http://www.businessspectator.com.au/...cument&src=hp6

[Captain Con O'Sullivan]

There's that phrase again- 'consistent with debt sustainabilty'. That is the phrase that describes the attempted serfdom of nations by the international banking sector. The attempt at forced government of national budgets from international tax havens.

'Debt sustainability'.

[Ephilant]

Christine "tax-free" Lagarde does it again

http://www.people-in-need.com/512/wh...ander/#respond