The last few weeks have brought climatic and political temperatures to near boiling point. The summer months of July and August have hardly served up a cool breeze for Greece’s overwhelmed citizens. Nor have they offered any temporary relief from the daily demands of the troika, as the team from the International Monetary Fund, the [...]
Now that the Greek truck drivers’ strike has been brought to a successful conclusion, with the government of Prime Minister George Papandreou not relenting in the face of special interest groups seeking to single-mindedly protect their entrenched privileges, we can look at the underlying causes of this conflict.
While the government in Athens must move forward [...]
As the Greek government continues to implement the three-year Stability and Growth Program agreed to with the International Monetary Fund, the European Central Bank and the European Commission, the nature of the emerging working relationship with what is called the “troika,” deserves some additional attention.
While cooperation with the ECB has been well established from the [...]
Jens Bastian – Time to challenge credit rating agencies’ monopoly
Last week, Moody’sdowngraded Greece’s credit rating by a staggering four notches, slashing the country’s sovereign credit rating from A3 to Ba1. In practice, this demoted Greek bonds from investment grade to junk status. Moody’s was the second of the three leading international credit rating agencies to [...]
The government of German Chancellor Angela Merkel agreed this week on a sweeping list of spending cuts and someextra taxes to reduce Germany’s growing budget deficit. What is the significance of these austerity measures? The package of spending cuts and revenue increases addresses constitutional requirements and seeks to curtail 10 billion euros a year from [...]
What started as a Greek fiscal and public debt crisis in October 2009 has matured over the past seven months into a fully fledged crisis in the eurozone. It extends well beyond the immediate causes – collective irresponsibility in Athens during the past decade and a lack of effective policy intervention and coordination in Brussels. [...]
The fear of contagion has spread over Europe. Many see Greece as the potential first domino to fall in a scenario that runs as follows: the Greek austerity measures do not suffice, the debt crisis deepens, and the risk of a sovereign default spreads to other European economies. As the Greek domino falls, countries like [...]
The recent signing of the new Russian-U.S. strategic arms reduction treaty launches a month of intense activity focused on reducing the threats of nuclear conflict and nuclear terrorism and tightening control over nuclear materiel and technologies.
Regardless of outcomes, this reflects the new dynamics driving the original nuclear club of the U.S., Russia, Britain, France, and [...]
The government of Prime Minister George Papandreou had hoped that the European Union Council meeting at the end of March in Brussels would provide an unambiguous political statement of solidarity with Greece. This statement of intent sought to send a clear signal to international capital markets that forthcoming sales of Greek sovereign bonds during the [...]
Published in BUSINESS PARTNERS / MARCH-APRIL 2010 /page 6, OBSERVATORY
WHILE THE POLITICAL AUTHORITIES IN GREECE CONTINUE TO SEARCH FOR SOLUTIONS TO THE COUNTRY’S FISCAL AND PUBLIC DEBT CRISES, THE EFFECTS OF THE DOWNTURN ARE INCREASINGLY BECOMING VISIBLE IN THE REAL ECONOMY
Indeed, the focus on spending cuts, allowance reductions and wage restraint places a high degree [...]
