[Bangla Daily Star] Greece was hit by a new 24-hour strike yesterday called by the country's biggest unions to fight a new wave of austerity measures currently under negotiation with the EU and IMF. What part of "you're broke" don't you understand?
Under the slogan "That's enough, we can't take any more", protesters were set to converge on Syntagma Square in Athens, a landmark of Greek anger against austerity measures from the European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... and International Monetary Fund.
The strike was called by Greece's biggest unions, including the private sector GSEE and the civil servants' union, Adedy.
Around 5,000 people late Monday braved a torrential thunderstorm and strong winds to took part in protests in Athens called by the unions and left-wing parties against the austerity measures.
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Posted by: Fred ||
02/08/2012 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] German police placed in durance vile two men in Berlin Tuesday accused of spying on opponents of the Syrian regime in raids involving some 70 officers, federal prosecutors said.
The suspects were identified only as 47-year-old German-Lebanese citizen Mahmoud El A. and 34-year-old Syrian national Akram O., the federal prosecutor's office said in a statement.
"They are strongly suspected of regularly spying on Syrian opposition figures in Germany for the Syrian intelligence service for several years," it said.
The prosecutor's office said around 70 federal and state coppers searched their homes and those of another six suspects.
The two suspects taken into custody will appear before a judge Wednesday who will present them with the arrest warrants dating from January 31.
No, they really don't, it's just a guerrilla action to buy time...
ATHENS, Greece: Greece's coalition government caved in to demands to cut civil service jobs, announcing 15,000 positions would go this year, amid mounting international pressure to agree on austerity measures needed to secure major new debt agreements.
The announcement Monday signals a shift in Greece's policy, as state jobs have so far been protected during the country's acute financial crisis, which started about two years ago. Public Sector Reform Minister Dimitris Reppas said the job cuts would be carried out under a new law that allows such firings.
Unions have called a 24-hour general strike for Tuesday, in response to the new austerity measures, while about 4,000 protesters braved torrential rain late Monday to join protest rallies organized in central Athens by left-wing opposition parties.
Greece is racing to push through the painful reforms -- which have yet to be agreed to by Greece's coalition partners -- to clinch a 130 billion ($170 billion) bailout deal from its European partners and the International Monetary Fund and avoid a March default on its bond repayments.
I wouldn't call it a 'race'...
Debt-ridden Greece has been kept solvent since May 2010 by payments from a 110 billion ($145 billion) international rescue loan package. When it became clear the money would not be enough, a second bailout was decided last October.
As well as the austerity measures, the bailout also depends on separate talks with banks and other private bondholders to forgive 100 billion ($131.6 billion) in Greek debt.
The goal for the Greek government is to lock in the haircuts for the banks without having to implement any of the 'austerity' measures...
The private investors have been locked in negotiations over swapping their current debt for a cash payment and new bonds worth 50 percent less than the original face value, longer repayment terms and a cut in the interest rate to be paid on the bonds. Greek government officials say they expect private investors to take an overall cut of up to 70 percent on the value of their bonds.
That's quite a haircut.
However, the EU-IMF bailout has to be secured for the deal with private investors to go ahead as about 30 billion from the bailout will be used as the cash payment in the bond swap deal.
Greece's coalition party leaders pushed back a key meeting on the austerity measures by a day until Tuesday, due to the ongoing negotiations with EU-IMF debt inspectors who were locked in talks with the government Monday. The leaders have already agreed to cut 2012 spending by 1.5 percent of gross domestic product -- about 3.3 billion ($4.3 billion) -- improve competitiveness by slashing wages and non-wage costs, and re-capitalize banks without nationalizing them.
The Greek GDP is about $340 billion, and their debt is about $450 billion. They're going to cut $4.3 billion? That's nothing. For that they get $130 billion in debt forgiveness. That's a lot.
Which means all the squealing and crying is for show. In the end they're getting a 30:1 return on their cuts. That assumes that the cuts are real, which they won't be; the haircuts of course will be locked in on day one.
Creditors are also demanding spending cuts in defense, health and social security, a cut in the minimum wage, as well as the civil service layoffs, as European pressure increased on Greece to make more concessions.
The government has promised to reduce the 750,000-strong broader public sector by 150,000 by the end of 2015, but has so far insisted it could reach that target through staff attrition.
"We are opposed to indiscriminate firings," Reppas said. "The work force reduction is strictly connected with the restructuring of services and organizations at each ministry."
Officials at the Public Sector Reform Ministry gave no details of the new plan, nor would they say how many of the job cuts would be compulsory.
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Posted by: Steve White ||
02/08/2012 00:00 ||
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#1
The haircuts will get still worse. And the spending cuts will come, when they can't find any more suckers to lend (give) them money. Of course something similar will eventually hit our shores too. So far we're being subtle about it by effectively devaluing savings, but there's only a finite amount to devalue and when they're gone the money will have to come from ??? Increased taxes? Then when that runs out? Bottom line everywhere is 'that which cannot continue forever, will not.'
#3
We've been doing that in the US of A, BP, for many years. That's why the bridges and highways - which could "pay their own way" - are now crumbling, and there is no money to take care of them or replace them.
Our railroads did that for years, peaking in the 70's and 80's, but now they are in tip-top shape. Since they were de-regulated in the 1980's.
Posted by: Bobby ||
02/08/2012 11:16 Comments ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
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Greece was hit by a new 24-hour strike yesterday called by the country's biggest unions to fight a new wave of austerity measures currently under negotiation with the EU and IMF.
[An Nahar] German police 
