A note on the Crisis in Greece, via the EU Referendum post

[Stavros]

The latest agreement with Greece -it has even been called an AGreekment, has also been compared to the Treaty of Versailles that was imposed on the Germans after the First World War, only much harsher.

The core elements listed in The Guardian are these:

• carry out ambitious pension reforms and specify policies to fully compensate for the fiscal impact of the Constitutional Court ruling on the 2012 pension reform and to implement the zero deficit clause or mutually agreeable alternative measures by October 2015;
• adopt more ambitious product market reforms with a clear timetable for implementation of all OECD toolkit I recommendations, including Sunday trade, sales periods, pharmacy ownership, milk and bakeries, except over-the-counter pharmaceutical products, which will be implemented in a next step, as well as for the opening of macro-critical closed professions (e.g. ferry transportation). On the follow-up of the OECD toolkit-II, manufacturing needs to be included in the prior action;
• on energy markets, proceed with the privatisation of the electricity transmission network operator (ADMIE), unless replacement measures can be found that have equivalent effect on competition, as agreed by the Institutions;
• on labour markets, undertake rigorous reviews and modernisation of collective bargaining, industrial action and, in line with the relevant EU directive and best practice, collective dismissals, along the timetable and the approach agreed with the Institutions. On the basis of these reviews, labour market policies should be aligned with international and European best practices, and should not involve a return to past policy settings which are not compatible with the goals of promoting sustainable and inclusive growth;
• adopt the necessary steps to strengthen the financial sector, including decisive action on non-performing loans and measures to strengthen governance of the HFSF and the banks, in particular by eliminating any possibility for political interference especially in appointment processes.

And on top of that, Greece will also establish a new fund to sell off valuable assets to help repay its new bailout, and refinance its banks.
Or as the statement put it:

• develop a significantly scaled up privatisation programme with improved governance; valuable Greek assets will be transferred to an independent fund that will monetize the assets through privatisations and other means. The monetization of the assets will be one source to make the scheduled repayment of the new loan of ESM and generate over the life of the new loan a targeted total of €50bn of which €25bn will be used for the repayment of recapitalization of banks and other assets and 50% of every remaining euro (i.e. 50% of €25bn) will be used for decreasing the debt to GDP ratio and the remaining 50% will be used for investments.

Alexis Tsipras must now get this through the Greek Parliament, arrange For Sale signs to be put up all over Greece, and hope that hope continues to exist as a marketable commodity.

The link is here but contains a lot of information
http://www.theguardian.com/business/...d-no-deal-live

[sukumvit boy]

It's going to be interesting to see how all that plays out over the next several years.

[Stavros]

Or just the next ten days!

[sukumvit boy]

Listening to interviews with Greeks on National Public Radio , lots of young people saying that although they love their country they will probably leave to seek careers outside their country. Greece may become the Philippines of Europe.

[Stavros]

We have reached the weekend and although both Alexis Tsipras and Angela Merkel faced large rebellions in their own parties, both successfully presented the deal to their respective Parliaments. The deal is now expected to cost 86 billion Euros, but it is not clear how this will provide a long term foundation for economic growth in Greece, so many are predicting that in six months time we shall we back where were last week, only many more billions of Euros poorer...and yes, many Greeks of a certain age if they have not done so already, will be looking for work somewhere else.

[Jericho]

Phil the Greek should tap Betty up for a loan...She's got some spare change rattling around!