Papademos represents the banks, NOT the people.

Drench-

IOW..TANKS IN THE STREETS!!!! Now close your eyes and open wide for some hot Bankster action.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-11....

Cabinet approves deeper cuts.

Quote:

The interim government of Greek Prime Minister Lucas Papademos yesterday approved deeper budget cuts needed to secure a second package of aid, preparing the way for a vote in parliament tomorrow. The budget measures equal about 7 percent of gross domestic product over three years and include a debt swap that would shave 100 billion euros ($132 billion) off more than 200 billion euros of privately-held debt.
“We have to sacrifice a lot so as not to sacrifice everything,” Papandreou, leader of the Socialist Pasok party, told lawmakers in Athens. “We must speak honestly and tell Greeks what bankruptcy really means. It means chaos.”

This will not end well...

Does the monkey sleep in on Saturdays?

Mayor--the monkey NEVER sleeps....

STFU and DEFAULT!

ekathimerini wrote..

Papademos: It’s either this program or chaos.....

“We realize this program entails painful sacrifices for the Greeks, but a default would condemn Greece to an uncontrolled adventure,” said Papademos, adding that “we look at the Greek people in the eyes with full realization of our responsibility.”

http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_art....

Later on he goes on to say "It will see the country return to growth, probably in the second half of next year"

No way.

I think he well believe he is doing the right thing.

Sad, he drank the koolaid.

This is the same thing CONgress was told before it voted on TARP.

Quote:

Despite the clear message of both George Papandreou and Antonis Samaras on Saturday before their parliamentary groups imposing internal discipline, dozens of Pasok and ND deputies said they would not vote for the new measures, while several more appear to be in the realm of doubt.

Discipline, including party discipline, has not been a strong point of the Greeks since the Spartans.

At least some hope for the bears.

http://www.athensnews.gr/#bigleaf

I sense the coming of the biggest cave in since that mine in Chile.

Quote:

Greece now needs €145bn bailout to avoid collapse

Greece could need an extra €15bn (£12.5bn) of international aid in addition to the €130bn in the works as the result of its continued failure to stem public spending.
By Emma Rowley
5:34PM GMT 11 Feb 2012

Ahead of a crucial parliamentary vote to agree to a series of stark austerity measures designed to meet lenders' requirements, it emerged the so-called Troika of rescuers are preparing to plough more funds into the troubled European nation.

Amid scenes of continued mounting social unrest, politicians must today decide whether to sign off fresh austerity measures demanded by the country’s international lenders in order to release a second aid package to Athens.

The rescue must be secured by March 20 in order to stave off bankruptcy. It is on that date that the Greek government has to pay back €14.5bn of its debt to holders of its bonds.

On Saturday night, Lucas Papademos, the Greek prime minister, told the nation in a televised address that a rejection of the deal would lead to “uncontrollable economic chaos and social explosion”.

“This agreement will decide the country’s future,” he said. “We are just a breath away from ground zero.”

But it has now emerged that Greece’s “troika” of rescuers - the European Union, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund - are considering whether at least another €15bn will be needed to shore up the country’s banks, Evangelos Venizelos, the Greek finance minister, confirmed yesterday. “The banks need more money, and their idea is for financing in 2015 too,” he said.

Greece has already been the subject of a €110bn bailout, in 2010, which failed to solve its grave budgetary problems....

more: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/finan....

From Peter Tchir of TF Market Advisors

A Greek Default Doesn't Need To Be Chaotic For Greece

The rhetoric coming out of Greece has reached a fever pitch.

Papademos and Samaras are both out their creating dire images of a post apocalyptic Greek state if a default occurs. Maybe it is a good time to remember what Papademos’ job is. He wasn’t elected. He doesn’t represent the Greek people in a fashion that we are used to – running for election and winning the election. He was foisted on the Greek people by the EU – the very people he is going through the motions of negotiating with. His JOB was to get the Greeks to accept what the EU wants. If he isn’t the most conflicted politician of all time, he is right up there.

Samaras may believe it, or may have decided this is his best route to power when the vote is passed and the Greek people decide to kick Papademos out (remember, he was never voted in).

Either of them would be more credible if they made any attempt to explain why it would be so disastrous. So far, not one basic fact to support the chaos theory has been given. I will admit that if Greece defaults without any preparation, it would be extremely ugly, but there is no reason not to be prepared.

So, if I was the Greek Finance Minister (I would probably have a longer last name, with more vowels) here is an outline of how I would prepare for default.

Get New Money

Yes, the first step to a successful default, is securing new money for after the default. In the corporate world this would be DIP or Debtor in Possession financing. The difficulty with enforcing claims on a sovereign is key here. It is key because it is much easier for a country to walk away its debt than a corporation, but that also makes it trickier to get new debt once you have stopped paying existing debt. You are likely to need a “special type” of investor to provide post-default financing.

The IMF will be hurt by the default, but honestly, one of their primary mandates is to help countries in need. They lost control in Greece. They got caught up in the demands of the EU and actually didn’t implement a program like they normally would. If you look at how the IMF operates in other countries (past and present) and what they did in Greece, there are big differences. This happened because the EU interfered and had its own agenda, and the IMF bent to their will. So in spite of losses the IMF may take on existing loans, the IMF would likely work to fulfill their mandate. Lagarde also knows that it isn’t in anyone’s interest, in spite of post default anger, to let Greece come to a screeching halt. So, Greece should be working with the IMF to plan some emergency lending after default. Without a doubt it won’t be a pretty conversation, but it will likely yield results. So the minimal and most immediate financing should be supplied by the IMF even if it is done with a lot of kicking and screaming.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/greek-defa....

Live streams from Athens....

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/live-strea....

Jesus---they are insane if they pass this ****...

ZH--If one is wondering why Greece Finance Minister Venizelos is scrambling to pass the proposed bill which enacts Greek Bailout #2, without any debate or details, very much like the US Attorneys General passed the robosigning settlement without a robosigning settlement even having been finalized, the following excerpt from page 75 of the MoU between Greece and the Troika should explain it. Because heaven forbid someone actually ask for details as to just what '€[xxx]' means in practical terms, i.e., just how lower the minimum wage is going, how many million more jobs will be lost (in a population of just 11 million), and how soon until pension and retirement fund benefits go negative. Also, our German friends may be interested to know that funding 136% of Greek GDP in the form of endless "bailouts" (of which 81% goes to shore up bank balance sheets), is just the beginning.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/greece-bai....

Sounds like they are pulling a Pelosi- got to sign it to know what's in it.

Looks like the police are breaking out the tear gas. ****'s getting real!!!

I think the timing of Whitney's death is suspect. This has the potential to eclipse any news coming out of Greece and the Euroland.

a peaceful protest with over 100,000 people turned very violent within the last 2 hours

http://rt.com/on-air/greece-strikes-new-....

http://12160.info/page/2-live-stream-gre....

The dirty little secret is after a default they automatically become better credit risks.

The whole debt to GDP ratio and all.

Money must go somewhere...

Great article from a contributor on Of Two Minds...

I asked frequent contributor Zeus Yiamouyiannis to comment on the coming Greek default. Here is his insightful response.

Greece is the epicenter of a drama that threatens to unwind with all the intrigue and subterfuge of ancient Greek myths and tragedies. As with the legend of Icarus, big, and now bigger, transnational banks provoked the gods with their wax-and-feather financial fabrications to create the appearance of soaring wealth. Now that they have flown too close to the sun and their wings have melted, these banks are being brought to earth by the obligations and consequences imposed by their fabrications.

Rather than take responsibility, these banks seek to appease the gods by sacrificing taxpayers. In fact, if one looks closely, these banks aspire to be gods themselves. They clothe themselves in their indispensability and shield themselves from accountability with tales about how many innocent citizens will be hurt if they don’t get their next bailout. It is as if they say, “We are above the law… We are the law.” Mathematics, legal enforcement, restraint, humility all must fall under the sword of their hubris.

In the end, just as with a Greek tragedy or a Yeats poem, this center cannot hold and things fall apart. When one abuses the laws and principles of mathematics and capitalism, claiming to be a faithful servant, consequence and accountability eventually catch up. The breaking point inexorably nears. Citizens are beginning to think, voice, and act: “We can do without the false idols that call themselves banks. In fact, we need them to be dissolved for us to survive and thrive.”

Reality is the revenge of the gods.

Not just about fairness: Everything unwinds

This is not just about fairness anymore; it is about the exposure of central, global illusions that affect everyone, not just banks. For the last three plus decades, debt-fueled “growth” has instilled a life sense that everyone gets rich, values always go up, and no one has to pay. If those illusions evaporate than those citizens complicit in this failed fantasy may actually join forces with the realists (those who knew it was a scam all along) to produce unified citizen revolt. Hell hath no fury like the people spurned and lied to, even if many had some responsibility in welcoming and fanning those lies.

The implicit deal was this: We will collude so everyone gets rich going forward. We will collude so no one has to pay if there is any unwinding. (But, hey, it’s a new era, and that’s not going to happen!) Open default breaks the illusion, and austerity breaks up the collusion. This is why default has to be hidden, deferred, restructured. It is not just about chaos around party/counterparty risk (in particular, cascading claims that are not backed by anything). It is not even just about finance. It’s about all the other things that will unwind, culturally, politically, and psychologically, if Greece defaults and sets into motion the necessity of someone actually paying up. In short, recognition of reality has disastrous consequences for the status quo and its control myths.

The infinite growth meme unwinds: The cancerous economic obsession with infinite growth in a finite world is already unwinding, but will hit full force with cascading defaults. It is one thing to have a “slowdown,” and another to have your economic brakes lock up on you and your gears slammed into reverse. About the only thing that seems to be growing currently is the number of people partially employed or permanently unemployed. As a humorous aside, the situation is getting so pronounced that quality of life might actually have to replace quantity of possessions as the cultural indicator of the good life, and what would that do to the economy?

http://www.oftwominds.com/blogfeb12/Gree....

Situation in Syntagma Square once again turning violent. This time it appears the spark has come from the word spreading among the crowd that German Police arrived three days ago and are reinforcing the Greek riot police.

Although not confirmed at the moment, none-the-less, this piece of circulating information is inflaming an already bad situation to a completely new high level. Tear gas is filling the square and running battles are underway ahead of the Parliament bailout vote. Riot police appear to be trying to preempt a plan by the crowd to storm the Parliament building. Newest reports of multiple building fires erupting now in Athens.

Live video and commentary here:

http://www.livestream.com/stopcarteltvgr

or from a different location near the square (interspersed with live feed from parliament session):

http://rt.com/on-air/