Mish/Mike Shedlock – Prisoner’s Dilemma Game In Greece; Contagion-Spread Eurozone Breakup More Likely Now; How Will Greece NOT Pay Back €320 Billion? – 10 December 2013

This happened because demand for foreign goods collapsed in the wake of 27.3% overall unemployment and a shockingly high 57.9% youth unemployment.

The Coming Greek Default

In spite of a current account surplus, Greece’s overall debt load is unsustainable.

Here are a couple of key details: Greece has €320 billion in sovereign debt. Greece’s debt-to-GDP ratio is 174%.

John Ward – Greece : Jubilation Is Premature… Nobody Has Factored In The Reality Of The Morning After – Pasok Still Wants Syriza in Coalition, Or No Deal – 18 June 2012

“Yo! we goin’ ter Hell in a bucket guys!”

Yesterday I posted to advise folks to ignore the Greek election, and focus instead on the imminence of Greek default. I have more for you on this story already.

Mish/ Mike Shedlock – Throwing Bones To Greece; A Victory For Europe ( Or A Victory For French And German Banks)? – 18 June 2012

Throwing Bones to Greece

In the wake of New Democracy eking out a victory over Syriza in the Greek elections, the nannycrats are willing to toss a few bones to Greece.

For example this headline on Bloomberg says Euro Chiefs Signal Greek Austerity Softening as Summit Looms.

Lucas – Do You Really Believe This – Greece Has Voted For A Bailout And Staying In The Eurozone – 17 June 2012

Greece poll: Pro-bailout party’s narrow win hailed = BBC News Headline

The narrow election victory of Greece’s pro-bailout New Democracy party has been welcomed by world leaders, who urged Athens to quickly form a cabinet.

Mish/ Mike Shedlock – Greek Rail Against “Crude” German Editorial; Merkel Ally Tells Greece “Vote Right Or Euro’s Gone”; Initial Estimate 2:3 ET Sunday – 16 June 2012

In the past week, as I expected, the ECB, Troika, German officials and others have all warned Greeks to not vote for Alexis Tsipras and his radical-left party Syriza. Will those tactics backfire?

I suggest they already have. The pertinent question is whether they have backfired enough to matter.

John Ward – Euroblown : Troika Cancels Athens Visit As Greece Heads For Second Election – 9 May 2012

Shrewd Tsipras builds bridges as Venizelos refuses Mandate, talks behind scenes to Troika.

In a first for Greek politics, Evangelo Venizelos (left) the leader of Greece’s PASOK Party refused to accept the President’s mandate before he’d been offered it. This breaks the record set by Antonis Samaras last Monday, in giving up on the task after 210 minutes.

Golum XIV – “Greece’s Tsipras Says Wants International Commission To Investigate If Greece’s Debt Is Legal” – 9 May 2012

Recovery Failure in Spain and Italy.

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The Milan Index MIB

Its highest ever point was   44 364   on the week of 14 May 2007

Its lowest ever was                 12 895  on the week of 2nd March 2009

Today 8 May ’12                        13 936

So 3 solid years of hundreds of billions of Euros of Italian and European bank bail outs and the resultant austerity to pay for them and ….

John Ward – Greek Election : Wolfie Strangelove & His Bankers Go Election Manipulating…With Their Customary Level Of Subtlety – 6 May 2012

The Institute of International Finance (IIF) managed to get right up Antonis Samaras’s nose this weekend, thanks to a report it issued suggesting that his New Democracy Party and PASOK would have to form a post-election government. As the other Parties were not being bribed by Brussels didn’t like the bailout much (on the grounds that it only makes the Athens debt worse and worse) then the Greek authorities would have to ignore the election result, and appoint an administration of technocrats ready to stick to the terms of the bailout – and remain in the euro so that the ECB and France don’t collapse in hopeless debt.

John Ward – The Samaras Word On Greece – 5 May 2012

Antonis Samaras, the head of Greece’s New Democracy party, said a return to the Drachma would have “catastrophic consequences” for the Hellenic Republic and the euro-area as a whole, Bild Zeitung reported today.

The thing we’re slightly short of here is just why exactly Samaras Licken sees the sky falling in if Greece reverts to a far less inflationary currency that would probably double its tourist income in 2013…or indeed why – given his country is on its uppers – he should give a flying sh*t about the wider ramifications for a eurozone whose membership has royally shafted his country.