Cyprus-Forum.com

[ZoC]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/fe ... sfeed=true



Greek fears grow beneath looming shadow of bankruptcy

"I'm really worried. I think there is a risk that we will go bankrupt and I've thought a lot about being prepared," said Dimitra Partheniou, 61, in Athens. "I've gone through all the scenarios: of there being no food, of people being attacked as they go to the supermarket, of banks being looted. And I've decided that if that happens we're moving to Poros [an island] because there, at least, we've got enough land to cultivate tomatoes and corn."


"People are dazed, almost dizzy with it all," said economics professor Theodore Pelagidis. "No one has experienced default. They can't conceptualise what in practical terms it would mean to wake up in the morning and hear the prime minister say such a thing, if indeed it ever got to that."

Rich Greeks have taken their money out of the country, pouring an estimated €20bn into banks — mostly in Cyprus but also in Switzerland and Germany. Others have taken their holdings home, hiding money in safety deposit boxes or under mattresses.

At the beginning of the crisis, wealthy Greeks, often hauling suitcases of cash, flew to the UK where they snapped up prime properties in central London, so much so that estate agents called them the "new Arabs".

48-year-old former shop designer Vangelis Messitis certainly knew what he was doing. "I've been homeless for the last three years," he said. "And I've come here looking for some bones. I do it every day to feed my wife and child. I'm hungry and I'm cold and I'm bankrupt, please write that. Bankrupt. Greece is bankrupt too. It's just a matter of putting a signature to a piece of paper."

[ZoC]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-17040565

Euro crisis: Losing patience with Greece

Officials are now saying publicly what was only whispered a short time back - that it might be better for Greece to default and exit the eurozone.

Patience has run out. At the highest levels of government in Germany, the Netherlands, Finland and Austria the attitude towards Greece is one of scepticism. They don't believe the politicians in Athens can deliver anymore.

[ZoC]

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/Business/In ... z1mryrkywW

greece and the bridge of fools

The isosceles theorem put forward by the Greek mathematician Euclid became a test in medieval times of one's ability to master more difficult matters. Greece this week faces such a test.

It must convince the European Union, the International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank of three things: fiscal measures will put its debt load onto a sustainable path heading toward 120 percent of gross domestic product by 2020; Greek politicians will abide by deep budget cuts even after their April elections; and a 200 billion euro debt swap with private creditors can be completed by March 20, the deadline for Greece to make 14.5 billion euros in debt payments.

Only if Athens meets these tests will Greece win a second round of international loans from the EU and IMF to avert a disorderly default, financial officials say. A decision is expected on Monday when euro zone finance ministers meet.

Clearing this hurdle would open the way for Greece to take on the still more difficult task of restructuring its economy - far beyond the initial steps it has taken so far.

The urgency is painfully evident. The latest data shows its economy in a freefall. GDP contracted at annual pace of 7 percent in the fourth quarter. Economists forecast a similar plunge in 2012. Unemployment is 21 percent and half of its young people under 25 are out of work.

Richard Parker, professor of public policy at Harvard University and an adviser to the Greek government until December, said Greece has to reform its family-based business and retail sectors and overhaul its wage and cost structure to make its primary industries, tourism and shipping, internationally competitive - a process that can often take decades.

"Because there is not a growth plan - austerity is not a growth plan - Greece faces a long, dark path," he said.

While Greece might avert a March default, its economy is unraveling so fast that new funds may only delay its collapse by a few months, Wall Street analysts said. Northern European politicians are equally skeptical.

Germany's finance minister, Wolfgang Schaeuble, calls Greece a "bottomless pit." Greeks angered by German demands are burning effigies of Chancellor Angela Merkel in Nazi uniform.

"Political tensions in Greece, and between Greece and the rest of Europe, may have reached a point of no return," said Erik Nielsen, global chief economist at Unicredit.