Predictable: New Greek Finance Minster Faints Shortly Before He Was To Take Oath Of Office

Vassilis Rapanos must have found out the real debt number...

ATHENS -- Incoming Greek finance minister Vassilis Rapanos was admitted to the hospital Friday, the government said, with unconfirmed reports saying the 65-year-old senior banker had fainted.

The chairman of leading Greek lender National Bank, Rapanos was taken to a private hospital in Athens, a government spokesman said, hours before he was expected to take his oath of office.

The hospital said Rapanos was brought in with "strong stomach pains, vertigo, nausea, sweating and fatigue."

Doctors have stabilized his condition and he is undergoing tests.

Green Fail: It is cheaper to put three people in a Greek taxi than it is to send them on a train

President Obama and Joe Biden love trains. They want to spend five billion dollars on a high-speed rail link from from Victorville (CA) to Las Vegas. This is a waste of money for many reasons. One reason is you have to drive almost halfway  to Las Vegas to get on the train. Then, the price will be about the same as airfare. A good example of what government supported rail looks like is in Greece. In Greece, it is cheaper to send people than on a train if you put more than two people in the cab.

Via BBC:

But what of Manos' suggestion that it would still be cheaper to put all Greek rail passengers in private cabs instead?

There is a more accurate way of calculating the cost of rail travel than the one originally used by Manos. It gives a picture of the entire network rather than just the route between Athens and Thessaloniki.

Assuming this figure was the same in 2010, when the Greek rail system was making a loss of just over 1bn euros (£804m; $1.3bn) a year, it's costing the Greek railways 0.60 euros per passenger kilometre. Compare that to the UK, where in 2010 it cost 0.30 euros.

According to Greg Moisiadis, a cab driver in Thessaloniki, a cab from Thessaloniki to Athens would cost 700 euros - that's about 1.20 euros a kilometre, double the amount being paid to send people by train, if there is only one person in the taxi.

If four people were to share a taxi, the cost would be 0.30 euros per person per kilometre. Two taxi passengers would cost the same as the train.

Further investigation found that Greg's prices were similar to other cabs on other routes in Greece.

So Mr Manos is correct if there are more than two passengers in each taxi. 

But either way, the Greek railways are in a pretty awful mess, and while train journeys may cost less than cab journeys, they are more expensive than travel on other forms of public transport, including air.

If you thought the Greek financial mess was solved, think again.

The deal required Greece to get 95% of bondholders 50% cut in their holdings and accept new bonds with a lower premium by next Thursday. It doesn't look like that is going to happen. If the deal is imposed on bondholders, Greece will likely declared in default by credit rating agencies. This may bar them from getting the $170 billion loan they need to pay the bills.

Via Telegraph:

Authorities in Athens are ready to enforce the controversial collective action clauses, or CACs, to impose the restructuring deal on all bondholders as the number of voluntary agreements look set to fall short of the required amount.

Credit rating agencies have warned they will declare Athens to be in default if the CACs are triggered which would be a dramatic culmination to a three-year rollercoaster ride for Athens, the eurozone and global markets.

While the markets have been ready for a Greek default for months, the move could leave Greece and its banks barred from funding from the European Central Bank (ECB). On Monday, Standard & Poor's declared Greece to be in a state of "selective default" which led to the ECB announcing it would no longer accept Greek government bonds as security for new loans.

The rating agency said its decision had been prompted by the threat of the CACs and the actual use of them is likely to tip Greece into actual default. The agency said it regarded the process as a "distressed debt restructuring".

Raoul Ruparel of Open Europe, the London-based think-tank, said: "Greece is likely to struggle to reach the targets for a voluntary agreement so the credit rating agencies are almost certainly going to see this as a default.

"What happens next is unknown territory. Read more here...

Chart of the Day: America’s Per Capita Government Debt Worse Than Greece

Oh, my.


Via Weekly Standard

Germany preparing for Greece to default on debt

This has been inevitable for a long time. A country where hairdressers get early retirement because their jobs are deemed hazardous is unsustainable in the age of global economies.

The Telegraph reported:

The German finance ministry is actively pushing for Greece to declare itself bankrupt and to agree a "haircut" on the bulk of its debts held by banks, a move that would be classed as a default by financial markets.

Eurozone finance ministers meet on Monday to approve the next tranche of loans from the EU and the International Monetary Fund, designed to stave off national bankruptcy while the new Greek government puts the country's finances in order.

But the severe austerity measures being demanded have caused such fury in Greece, and the cuts required are so deep, that Wolfgang Schäuble, the German finance minister, does not believe that any government would be able to implement them.

His pessimism has been tipped into despair with a secret European Commission, Central and IMF report that even if Greece made good on its promises, it would not be enough to reach the target of bringing total debt to 120 per cent of GDP by 2020. Keep on reading...

Why is Greece broke? Hairdressers in Greece can retire at 50 because they have a hazardous job.

Much of the reason for Greece's financial crisis is an overextended social net. Hairdressers and musicians can retire as early as 50 because they are deemed to have hazardous jobs.

ATHENS — Vasia Veremi may be only 28, but as a hairdresser in Athens, she is keenly aware that, under a current law that treats her job as hazardous to her health, she has the right to retire with a full pension at age 50.

“I use a hundred different chemicals every day — dyes, ammonia, you name it,” she said. “You think there’s no risk in that?”

“People should be able to retire at a decent age,” Ms. Veremi added. “We are not made to live 150 years.”

Perhaps not, but it is still difficult to explain to outsiders why the Greek government has identified at least 580 job categories deemed to be hazardous enough to merit retiring early — at age 50 for women and 55 for men...

As a consequence of decades of bargains struck between strong unions and weak governments, Greece has promised early retirement to about 700,000 employees, or 14 percent of its work force, giving it an average retirement age of 61, one of the lowest in Europe.

The law includes dangerous jobs like coal mining and bomb disposal. But it also covers radio and television presenters, who are thought to be at risk from the bacteria on their microphones, and musicians playing wind instruments, who must contend with gastric reflux as they puff and blow.

An alternate title for this post is "My Big Fat Greek Retirement."

Greece is on fire

The Greek parliament approved the austerity measure, but citizens are very unhappy.

ATHENS (Reuters) - The Greek parliament approved a deeply unpopular austerity bill to secure a second EU/IMF bailout and avoid national bankruptcy, as buildings burned across central Athens and violence spread around the country.

Cinemas, cafes, shops and banks were set ablaze in central Athens as black-masked protesters fought riot police outside parliament.

State television reported the violence spread to the tourist islands of Corfu and Crete, the northern city of Thessaloniki and towns in central Greece. Shops were looted in the capital where police said 34 buildings were ablaze.

Prime Minister Lucas Papademos denounced the worst breakdown of order since 2008 when violence gripped Greece for weeks after police shot a 15-year-old schoolboy.

U.S. in Worse Financial Shape Than Greece

When you look at how much we are "on the hook" for, U.S. is in worse financial shape than Greece. We have liabilities of nearly $100 trillion!

(CNBC) – When adding in all of the money owed to cover future liabilities in entitlement programs the US is actually in worse financial shape than Greece and other debt-laden European countries, Pimco’s Bill Gross told CNBC Monday.

Much of the public focus is on the nation’s public debt, which is $14.3 trillion. But that doesn’t include money guaranteed for Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, which comes to close to $50 trillion, according to government figures.

The government also is on the hook for other debts such as the programs related to the bailout of the financial system following the crisis of 2008 and 2009, government figures show.

Taken together, Gross puts the total at “nearly $100 trillion,” that while perhaps a bit on the high side, places the country in a highly unenviable fiscal position that he said won’t find a solution overnight.

Unbelievable! Obamacare Champion NY Times Tells Greece To Abandon Socialized Medicine.

After shilling for Obamacare for months, the New York Times is now telling Greece getting out of the health care marketplace would allow health care costs to come down. The hypocrisy of the left is simple astounding.

Hot Air reported:

You know, this has to be one of the strangest stories of the weekend. The New York Times, ever a champion of Obamacare during the recent debates, is reporting on some rather compelling advice for the nation of Greece, which is currently teetering on the precipice of collapse. It’s part of a plan negotiated between officials of the European Union, the I.M.F. and the European Central Bank. What might help them? Don’t have nationalized health care… or any other industry for that matter.

Another reform high on the list is removing the state from the marketplace in crucial sectors like health care, transportation and energy and allowing private investment. Economists say that the liberalization of trucking routes — where a trucking license can cost up to $90,000 — and the health care industry would help bring down prices in these areas, which are among the highest in Europe.

Leftists Riot and Kill Bank Employees in Greece

Photo from Monsters and Critics:

Leftists bankrupted Greece. Now that the ride is over and it time to 'pay the piper,' they are rioting and killing bank employees. Take a close look. This is our future is Obama and Democrats continue their socialization of America.

The BBC reported:

At least three people have been killed in the Greek capital as protesters set fire to a bank during a general strike over planned austerity measures.

The bodies were found inside the Marfin Bank in Athens. The Greek prime minister said it was a “murderous act”.

The protest became violent...