Greece Is The Word

I solve my problems and I see the light
We gotta plug and think, we gotta feed it right
There ain't no danger we can go to far
We start believing now that we can be who we are

Greece is the word
They think our love is just a growing pain
Why don't they understand, It's just a crying shame
Their lips are lying only real is real
We start to find right now we got to be what we feel

Greece is the word
Greece is the word, is the word that you heard
It's got groove it's got meaning
Greece is the time, is the place is the motion
Greece is the way we are feeling

We take the pressure and we throw away
Conventionality belongs to yesterday
There is a chance that we can make it so far
We start believing now that we can be who we are

Greece is the word
Greece is the word, is the word that you heard
It's got groove it's got meaning
Greece is the time, is the place is the motion
Greece is the way we are feeling
This is the life of illusion
Wrapped up in trouble laced with confusion
What we doing here? 

Reading Bloomberg this weekend, I have to laugh. The positive spin sans alarms and sirens is breathtakingly amazing.

Greece, Bankers Expect Debt-Swap Deal Next Week; and,
European Officials Said to Discuss Veto Powers Over Greek Budget Decisions

That offer equated to a loss of about 69 percent on the net-present value of Greek debt.

Bondholders agreed with European officials three months ago to implement a 50 percent cut in the face value of more than 200 billion euros ($263 billion) of debt by voluntarily swapping bonds for new securities. A worsening economy since then has made it more difficult to achieve a goal of cutting Greece’s debt to 120 percent of gross domestic product by 2020. 

69% Loss? Isn't that a default? Is this going to initiate a 'credit event'? If not why not?

Private investors hold about 60 percent of Greece’s 350 billion euros of debt.

Greek GDP is around €230B, so its debt is around 152% of GDP. That fits evenly between basket case Japan's 200% Debt-to-GDP and the USA's 107%.

But...

Greece now requires 145 billion euros for the second bailout, 15 billion euros more than was agreed in October, Der Spiegel reported today, citing an unidentified official from the troika in Greece.

So it has 152% of Debt-to-GDP and needs a further 63% of GDP worth of debt to maker it a round 215% of Debt-to-GDP.

Needs? Needs? Can you imagine if Australia urgently needed $880Billion AUD to stay afloat (half that may be so when the property market goes down the shitter, but thats a Feb blog update)?

Laughable. But its not over yet. Anyone remember Sudetenland in 1938 from history classes?

European policy makers are discussing plans to directly intervene in Greek budget decisions as the country struggles to cut its deficit, two euro-region government officials said today.

Under the proposals, European institutions would have powers to implement austerity measures agreed under the terms of Greece’s bailout agreements, said one of the officials, who declined to be identified because the talks are confidential. The plan would accelerate decision making and strengthen the power of officials overseeing Greece’s budget as part of the so- called troika of the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund, the person said.

Who is driving this?

Germany is proposing the creation of a commissioner with the power to veto budget decisions by Greece, the European Commission said that executive tasks must remain the full responsibility of the Greek government. 

9 out of 10 Greeks oppose the surrendering of sovereignty. They go to the polls in April. A hairy taxi driver who hasn't shaved or bathed this millennium would get a vote if he proposed telling the German's et al to 'fuck off'.