John Ward – Greece’s Future : Are You Buying Or Selling? – DB Bigs Up Greek Gas Reserves As Citicorp Predicts 2013 Grexit – 5 December 2012

Deutsche Bank has just issued a report saying Greece should earn €214bn from Natural Gas by 2020, based on the reserves hidden in the Mediterranean Basin south of Crete. But Citicorp says the Greeks will leave the eurozone long before that.

John Ward – Eclusive : ‘Bankfurt And The Us Out To Stop Draghi’ – German Bankers, IMF ‘Blocking ECB Plans For Bank Union And Greek Rescue’ – 14 September 2012

 

I’ve been saying for months now that Greece ‘will not be allowed’ to leave the single currency, because Merkel and Draghi accept that the chaos would be fatal for the eurozone. I also recently noted that the ‘done-deal after a suitable period of fisticuffs’ I’d predicted was surfacing. It still is: reduced interest rates on extended periods of Greek debt repayment (plus both ECB and sovereign EU member haircuts) are now being openly discussed by officials in Berlin, Brussels, and Paris.

John Ward – Greece Breaking : One Third Of Greek Deficit Lost To Tax Evaders, Greek Elites Earn Twice As Much As They Claim – 16 August 2012

New research nails structural evasion as being endemic among the powerful

Tax cheats have robbed Greece of some 11.2 billion euros, say Greek and American researchers who used bank records to analyse the likely tax evasion level.

The method is precisely the one used by private   banks to determine the real income of loan seekers. Surprise, surprise, this is more accurate than looking at tax records, often themselves falsified in the first place. The study concluded that the true income of the average Greek is about 1.92 times larger than the tax declaration.

John Ward – Greece Exclusive : ‘Deal Has Been Done To Pay Off Bondholders And Forgive Residue Of Debt’ – French Diplomat Source Confirms Big New Containment Plan For Greece – 12 August 2012

Samaras…big secret, upping the pace of austerity

‘What the deal does is allow another default date to come and go with everyone pretending it hasn’t happened.’

Another day, another bonkers conspiracy theory from The Slog. Greece has done a deal to put the lid on the Greek crisis? Pah! Formation of Greek/Israeli/Cyprus/US alliance? Fiddlesticks!

John Ward – Euroblown : American Influence On The Greek Government Waning – Sources – 9 August 2012

Intrigue, austerity denial, side-deals, and economic collapse: but the bottom line is ‘debt monetisation’

Coalition dilemma…which way is up?

Senior sources close to Greek Opposition MPs are claiming this morning that those calling the shots in the ruling Coalition of Antonis Samaras do not view a return to the drachma with American support as “a viable alternative to staying within the EU”. The Troika’s abrupt change of attitude to Greece is also suggesting to some observers that “some kind of secret deal” has been done between the ECB and Athens to both reassure the Troikanauts, and keep the Greeks onside. But it’s clear the Germans aren’t on board with this.

Mish/ Mike Shedlock – Complete Absurdity In Greece : ECB Prints Euros To Give To Greece To Make Interest Payments To ECB – 9 August 2012

No entity is willing to stand up and say the obvious, that Greece is insolvent and cannot and will not pay back its debts.

Moreover, in spite of an ECB mandate that  prohibits direct financing of governments, the ECB is doing just that.

Simply put, the ECB is printing euros, to give to the Greece, so that Greece can make interest payments to the ECB on maturing bonds.

Der Spiegel – Printing Money The European Central Bank’s Discreet Help for Greece – 9 August 2012

The European Central Bank is now taking risky measures to help save Athens from its acute financial emergency. Increasingly, euro-zone leaders are pushing the dirty work on the ECB. In the end, though, they will likely have no choice but to pay Greece the next tranche of its bailout package.

John Ward – ECB Policy On Greece: Yes, You Do Have To Be Mad To Work Here – 7 August 2012

It doesn’t get much sillier than this.

Earlier on Eurenders, Mario the money-changer told Stavros at the Bank of Greece that he could have more and easier access to the wonga at Mario’s Loans. But Stavros already owes Mario €3.2Billion on a previous Bond.

So Stavros asks the eurozone for a bridging loan from the ECB to pay back the Bond issued to the ECB. Eurozone says no. So Stavros asks the ECB for a further 30 days in which to cough up. Eurozone says no.

Mish/ Mike Shedlock – Faber Says Germany Should Abandon The Euro – 2 July 2012

Marc Faber, publisher of the Gloom, Boom and Doom Report, spoke with Bloomberg Television’s Betty Liu this morning and said that, “If I were running Germany, I would have abandoned the eurozone last week.”

Faber went on to say, “In the case of Greece, one should have kicked out Greece three years ago. It would have been much cheaper.”

John Ward – Greek Debt History : How Oapandreou And The Troika Turned Down A Second Lifeboat -29 June 2012

New Greek Finance Minister: he devised a way to get Papandreou off the hook, he steered Greece into the Euro in 2001. The plot thickens.

Yannis Stournaris

How a top German consultancy fed the Greeks a lifeline…to no avail.