Greek Prime Minister Lucas Papademos won parliamentary approval for austerity measures to secure an international bailout after rioters protesting the measures battled police and set fire to buildings in downtown Athens.
A total of 199 lawmakers voted in favor and 74 against, Parliament Speaker Filippos Petsalnikos said in remarks carried live on state-run Vouli TV. When, on Nov. 16, Papademos won a mandate from the Parliament to implement budget measures and secure the bailout of 130 billion euros ($172 billion) he received the support of 255 lawmakers in the 300-strong chamber.
“It is up to us, our vote, whether the country will remain in the euro or be led to a disorderly default,” Papademos told parliament. “Voting for the economic program and opening the road for a loan accord sets the basis for the modernization and recovery of the economy.”
Passage of the austerity bill puts the spotlight on a meeting of euro-region finance ministers on Feb. 15 that must decide whether to approve the second aid package. Resolution of the negotiations, which started in July, would help contain the threat that speculators will target debt-saddled nations, including Italy and Portugal.
Emergency euro-region talks on Greece broke up on Feb. 9, with Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker saying the Greek government must turn budget cuts into law, flesh out 325 million euros in reductions and have major party leaders sign up to the program so they don’t retreat after Greek elections, probably in April.
Euro, Stocks Rise
The euro rose 0.3 percent to $1.3239 as of 7:58 a.m. in Tokyo from last week in New York. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index rose as much as 0.4 percent in early Sydney trading today, climbing for the first time in three sessions, while futures on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index advanced 0.4 percent, rebounding from a 0.6 percent selloff on Feb. 10.
European finance ministers and private creditors this week will decide on a plan to shepherd Greece through a 14.5 billion- euro bond payment bond payment next month. Still, German Finance MinisterWolfgang Schaeuble told German lawmakers on Feb. 10 that Greece was set to miss deficit goals, suggesting that the measures may fall short.
Erik F. Nielsen, UniCredit’s chief global economist, said in a note yesterday that he keeps hearing investors say a Greek exit from the euro would be “better for all parties.”
“I am very confident that a Greek exit would be a disaster for Greek society,” Nielsen said. “For the rest of Europe I don’t think it’ll matter much (if at all) in the longer term, but I fear that a lot of people may be underestimating the short term risks to Europe of a Greek collapse.”
Arson Attacks
BHP Chief Kloppers Says He Plans Acquisitions as Mining Deals Accelerate
BHP Billiton Ltd. (BHP), the world’s biggest miner, plans to make more acquisitions as Glencore International Plc (GLEN)’s $39 billion bid forXstrata Plc (XTA) extends takeovers in the commodities industry.
“I have absolutely no doubt that over time we will do more transactions,” Chief Executive Officer Marius Kloppers told Australian Broadcasting Corp. television yesterday, without specifying targets. He declined to comment on speculation the Melbourne-based company may target Anglo American Plc. (AAL)
BHP Billiton, which last week posted a 5.5 percent decline in first-half profit, spent $16.9 billion on shale-gas acquisitions in 2011 after failing in bids to buy Rio Tinto Group (RIO) and Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan Inc. Global mining deals swelled last year to $98 billion, the most since 2007, from $76 billion in 2010, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
The combination of Glencore and Xstrata will create the world’s fourth-largest miner, behind BHP, Rio Tinto and Vale SA. (VALE3)
Kloppers said a decline in iron ore prices probably won’t affect BHP’s plans to spend $80 billion over the next five years to boost output of the commodity along with copper and coal.
The company’s projects include the $7.4 billion expansion of its Pilbara operations and an $822 million investment in a new mine near Newman, both in Western Australia.
Iron Ore Prices
Iron ore for immediate delivery fell 10 cents, or 0.1 percent, last week to $142.70 a metric ton, according to a price index compiled by The Steel Index Ltd. on Feb 10. That compares with a price of $188 a year earlier.
“Even if that price comes back a little bit more, we are going to make very good returns on those projects,” Kloppers said.
While strikes by some workers are unlikely to affect its expansion program, BHP Billiton may cut output at poor performing mines with higher costs.
Workers at its coking-coal mines will strike for seven days from Feb. 15 after rejecting the company’s latest offer, the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union said Feb. 9.
About 3,500 workers at BHP’s mines in Queensland’s Bowen Basin have staged rolling strikes since June over pay and conditions, before suspending industrial action in December to resume contract talks. Labor unions globally are stepping up demands for higher wages and improved conditions as record commodity prices swell profit at mining companies.
16 comments:
"“It is up to us, our vote, whether the country will remain in the euro or be led to a disorderly default,” Papademos told parliament."
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Actually, their vote today has merely delayed their leaving the Euro in a disorderly default.
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2012/02/the-killing-of-greece.html
"...What makes the situation completely surreal are the numbers. Greek debt in 2008 was approximately 260bn Euro. The first bailout was 110bn, the current one, that appears to be tearing the country apart, is 130bn. Add in the PSI+ haircut of approximately 100bn ( after sweetener deduction ) and you realized that Europe could have simply paid the entire bill in 2008 and saved itself 80bn Euro. Ok, that is an oversimplification of the problem but you can see my point.
However now, after 340bn Euros, Greece is still has an unmanageable debt, is in a far worse position than it was 3 years ago and it appears the country itself is coming apart at the seams..."
None of which are of importance, as long as Banksters get bailed out.
Papademos and Venizelo and any MP who voted in favor of this legalized financial rape are just traitors to the nation they claim to serve, as they are just a puppets of Banksters who only work to ensure their masters are paid at all costs, the effect on Greece is of no concern.
One of the books I am reading is "Sorrows of Empire" by the late Chalmers Johnson, who was a gung-ho, pro-war CIA military analyst during the 1950s-60s before he became horrified by how America was changing into a militaristic empire with garrisons all over the world. Last night, I just happened to read his summary of the U.S. involvement with the Greek military junta between 1967 and 1974. Those distant events show why the average people of Greece are so pissed-off.
The U.S. used to have large navy and air force bases in Greece proper and on the island of Crete. It got those after intervening on the fascist side of the Greek civil war after WW II. The U.S. backed the fascists because the nationalists who fought against the Nazi occupiers were commies. Then a socialist Greek leader named George Papandreou got elected in 1964. He was pushing Lyndon Johnson to take Greece's side in their never-ending struggle against Turkey. Johnson favoured Turkey. They were a bigger, stronger country, and more strategically located to joust with the USSR during the Cold War.
(Side note -- that Papandreou was the grandfather of the Prime Minister Papandreou who sold out Greece to the banksters and got tossed on his ass recently. In between the granddad and the grandchild, a guy named Andreas Papandreou -- son of the first, father of the latest, was prime minister. Is there no end to nepotism in this world?)
Anyway, Johnson reportedly said "Fuck your parliament and your constitution. We pay a lot of good American dollars to the Greeks. If your prime minister gives me talk about democracy, parliament and constitution, he, his parliament and his constitution may not last very long" according to Johnson's book.
Then the Greek spy service -- with help from the CIA -- started setting off bombs and staging false flag "terrorist" events inside Greece to justify a military coup on 1967. There was a famous old movie from 1969 titled "Z" by a guy named Costa-Garvas (which I never watched) about this. The "regime of the colonels" allowed a lot more U.S. bases in and donated $549,000 to the Nixon-Agnew presidential election campaign in 1968, according to this book. So foreign money has been funnelled to U.S. candidates for a long time, eh?
Anyway, the U.S. helped install a military dictatorship in Greece. The dictators screwed things up so badly diplomatically and militarily that the Turks got to invade the island of Cyprus and take over half of it. That destabilized things so bad on mainland Greece that the military dictators were overthrown. And by the mid-1980s, the U.S. military bases were kicked out by the Greeks.
Why this history lesson? Because we non-Greeks tend to forget how much mucking around the U.S. and other countries such as Turkey and Germany have done in Greece. I heard the news items for years, but never paid that much attention or connected them together. But the Greek people remember. It's their country, after all. And lots of them are as mad as hell about foreigners fucking with them. I can see why so many would be saying "Burn this mother down!" instead of submitting to slave-austerity to pay off the bankmaggots.
This deal will not last long, as the Greek people have already rejected it, regardless of the corrupt actions of their traitorous politicians.
I expect a perpetual 'General Strike' will be called, etc, and Greek GDP and 'taxes collected' will continue to shrink much faster than any "projections" or "assumptions" used by the criminal Troika.
Which means Greece will be back on the crisis front burner within months, if not weeks or even days.
Personally, if I was a Greek, the time for armed insurrection has arrived, as there is nothing left to lose. Civil war and a possible military coup are highly likely.
Bukko - great comment there.
Chalmers Johnson was a great statesman of the USA, of the kind that are no where to be found today. He was reality based, a concept so out of fashion on Planet Washington that of course his correct vision must be ignored.
He coined the phrase "blowback" IIRC, and from what I read, his observations on many sorry episodes of US history, where America intervened in the internal affairs of other nations, which never worked out as planned over longer time periods.
Americans can't understand why they are hated the world over for their actions - Johnson spells it out.
"I can see why so many would be saying "Burn this mother down!" instead of submitting to slave-austerity to pay off the bankmaggots."
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This is a MACROcosm of the foreclosed individual who trashes his former residence before moving out.
Except...the Greeks have nowhere else to go.
Except...the Greeks have nowhere else to go.
You're right, Mammoth. It would be tempting to think that many of the Greeks could go back to the simple life in villages, growing cucumbers, squeezing olive oil making wine from their own grapes and making good Greek food for the tourists who would still want to come there. Lots of historic ruins and sunny islands, eh?
But Nature abhors a vacuum, and that includes a power vacuum, too. Where there is land to be stolen, some powerful and evil entity will step in to seize it. The Greeks have been fighting outsiders since the Persians of Xerxes went to stomp 'em circa 1000 B.C. right on through the Ottoman Empire. Even when the oil runs out, there will be hordes of desperate, dispossessed people riding horses, or bicycles, or pushing grocery carts. Might be Muslims from the east, or climate refugees from Africa, or cold bastards from up north who want those beaches.
No peace in this world. If I wasn't an atheist, I'd hope for some in the next...
A succinct run-down of what's in the thing that the Greek Parliament approved last night. Damn! If some foreigners demanded that I take a 22% wage cut ON MY PRIVATE SECTOR JOB and my union was dissolved, I'd be burning shit down too.
Bukko I concur with GAW and thank you for the comments on Greek history. I have always said these countries don't hate us for our freedom, they hate us for our actions. Actions the average American doesn't have a clue about nor the power to stop. Drone pilots sitting in an office somewhere killing people in foreign lands and then going home to dinner with the wife and kids. To me this is a cowardly way of fighting. I hate the term "Collateral Damage." It makes it sound like killing innocent people is acceptable. This country has some really bad Karma. How it will manifest I do not know.
From Pink Floyd's "Money"
Money
Get away
You get a good job with good pay and you're okay
Money
It's a gas
Grab that cash with both hands and make a stash
New car, caviar, four star daydream
Think I'll buy me a football team
Money
Well, get back
I'm all right Jack
Keep your hands off of my stack
Money
It's a hit
Don't give me that do goody good bullshit
I'm in the high-fidelity first class travelling set
I think I need a Lear jet
Money
It's a crime
Share it fairly
But don't take a slice of my pie
Money
So they say
Is the root of all evil today
But if you ask for a raise
It's no surprise that they're giving none away
Are all those PM in Greece taking a 22% cut in pay Bukko?
From the link Bukko gave us
* Immediate elimination of rent subsidies for the poorer, cuts in pensions, mass privatization at fire sale prices (including the Athens and Thessaloniki water companies, and the lottery/football pool company, whose market price right now is at two years profits) etc. This on top of galloping social destruction, a health system that is going to the dogs (the decay of which is producing even stronger superbugs) and public services being destroyed or annihilated.
That ought to create some social unrest along with the 20% unemployment and wage cuts. I guess like I quotes from "The Dark Knight" over at the Dung Heap some people can't be bought or reasoned with, some people just want to see the world burn.
Although it took a little longer it looks like the worldwide depression is reaching its tentacles into OZ.
NSW warned of big job cuts
I listened to the Weekly Metals Wrap and according to Bill Haynes of CMI Gold and Silver people are just not buying either. He thinks people want to see how this EU issue shakes out and others are waiting on a pull back. I like the idea of buying when others are not. As most remember I was selling silver last month and replacing it with gold.
It just feels like the markets are lifeless. IMO no one other than major players and HFT algos are trading. Bonds markets seem dead and I liken it to a calm before the storm. Even sitting in cash seems to be a losing battle with the things you need experiencing price inflation. Gas prices and groceries don't affect me much, but I imagine it affects others quite a lot.
I am thinking of commuters and families as they live paycheck to paycheck hoping they will have a job next month. Also for those who have kids in college or soon to be going. They face bleak choices. It's not like a college degree is a golden ticket to a good paying job any more.
It seems like our Greek Tragedy is coming soon.
For those like CL whose husband has health issues that could likely wipe them out, it kind of defeats the purpose of working hard and saving your pennies only to have the rug pulled out from under you as you get older. In the meantime the financial terrorists on Wall Street and their accomplices in Washington dine on caviar and champagne. How do they sleep at night?
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