Greece

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ghariton
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Re: Greece

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The saga continues:
As a political outcry grew on Friday over the revelation that an MP had transferred 1 million euros out of the country in May when authorities were struggling to appease Greek citizens’ fears of the repercussions of a possible default on their savings, Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos told Parliament that a significant number of lawmakers had moved sums in excess of 100,000 euros out of the country.

snip

Earlier, addressing a cabinet meeting, Venizelos had told fellow ministers that there are several public figures among the Greeks who transferred a total of 16 billion euros abroad over the last two years. According to research conducted by the Finance Ministry’s information systems department, 9 percent of this money ended up in Swiss bank accounts.
George

Edit: Fixed URL
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Re: Greece

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Shakes: maybe we should set up a pool as to when civil war will break out - the Greeks are old hands at that 'fix'. ?
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Re: Greece

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Those people should be sent to jail. Any banker who accepts this money, should also be jailed.
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Re: Greece

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Isn't it enough that we're accepting your money? You want gratitude as well?
More than 70 percent of Greeks are angry and resentful at Germany for continued austerity measures, a new poll has found.

<snip>

It showed that 76 percent of respondents believed Germany was on balance "rather hostile" to Greece, and 73 percent said they had a negative attitude towards Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Nearly a third of those polled said they associate Germany with the words "Hitler, Nazism or the Third Reich."
Sorta like Quebec and Alberta.

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Re: Greece

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ghariton wrote:
Nearly a third of those polled said they associate Germany with the words "Hitler, Nazism or the Third Reich."
Although it's probably meant by the Greeks as a negative thing, I'm not surprised at that result. I associate Nazis with Germany as well. I also associate J.S. Bach with Germany. I associate Ghengis Khan with Mongolia, or Stalin with Russia, or black slavery with the southern US. I don't think any of those countries support that now, but historical references to countries is just a normal thing, at least for me.
schmuck wrote: He said that the problem was that Germany where most people work 50 hours a week and retire at 70 was expected to bail out a country where people work 30 hours a week and like to retire at 50. In China people work 70 hours a week and don't retire until they're 80.
I really hope he's exaggerating. If not, that's not much better than slavery, unless you really like your job. I find it hard to imagine most Chinese workers do like their job!
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Re: Greece

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Austerity can lead to drastic measures. Before the current austerity package:
Parliament late on Tuesday voted against an article on the deregulation of pharmacies' working hours that was contained in an omnibus bill introduced by the finance ministry.

"The article 29 is rejected," said parliament speaker Evangelos Argiris early on Wednesday, after 152 MPs out of 253 voted against the reform or abstained.

Only 101 MPs voted in favour of the article.

Forty Pasok MPs were among those who opposed the article.

Commenting the outcome of the vote, government sources stressed that they expected the outcome and said it was “clear” that pharmacy representatives have a strong influence on the MPs.
But now that the country is in trouble, major sacrifices have to be made:
Parliament has approved an extension of pharmacy opening hours, cuts to drugs spending and the merger debt-strapped supplementary pension as part of a package of healthcare reforms agreed in return for last week's 130bn euro international bailout deal.
And of course the quality of pharmacare is being cut to shreds:
As well as extending pharmacy hours, an issue which sparked a revolt among lawmakers who rejected the proposal in January, the law limits spending on drugs by state pension funds and mandates generic drugs prescriptions to cut costs.

The government spends some 25bn euros a year, roughly 10 percent of its GDP, on health and controlling a bloated public health system, has been a priority.

Cheaper generic drugs account for just 18 percent of the market in Greece, one of the lowest levels in the European Union, compared with 80 percent in Germany.

The latest measures aim to lift the Greek total to 50 percent, in line with the rest of Europe.

Resistance to the measures among powerful medical lobbies has been fierce however with posters attacking Health Minister Andreas Loverdos as a "gravedigger" plastered over many pharmacies in recent days.
Imagine -- using generics -- what has Greek civilization come to?

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Re: Greece

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Image
[quote="Mike "Mish" Shedlock, on Monday, March 5, 2012,"]As a matter of curiosity more than anything else, I occasionally take a peek at Greek bond yields. Today, the Greek 1-year yield topped 1,000% for the first time.

To be specific, the yield is a nice 1,066.661%

That yield reflects the idea that 1-year bonds will be nearly worthless before the month is over.[/quote]
Imagefiniki, the Canadian financial wiki
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Re: Greece

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GARP:
Greece on Tuesday threatened to default on payments to any bond investor that doesn't participate in a debt restructuring that is central to international plans for a rescue of the ailing country.

Greece is asking banks, pension companies, hedge funds and others that hold about $260 billion in Greek bonds to trade them for new notes worth less than half the face value and carrying low-interest terms meant to make the country's situation sustainable.

The deadline for investors to accept the debt swap is Thursday. If the effort falls short of its goal of roughly 90 percent participation, it could jeopardize new international loans for the country and put Greece at risk of a more damaging general default on all of its outstanding bonds.

In a statement issued after conferring with banks at a meeting in Frankfurt, Germany, Greece's Public Debt Management Agency cautioned investors that no money was available to continue bond payments to any investor that doesn't agree to the swap.
If I were in a gambling mood, and willing to absorb heavy banking and legal costs, I might take a flyer on this.

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Re: Greece

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So Greek default has been averted and we can all breathe easy, eh?
Financial markets are already betting Greece will default again in the future. Grey market pricing for the new Greek bonds to be issued as part of the exchange ranged from 17 to 28 cents on the euro, a highly distressed level, according to indicative quotes seen by the FT.

The pricing equates to a yield on the new bonds of 17 to 21 per cent about where Greek yields stood in the autumn and far worse than the yield on debt issued by Portugal, which has also received a bailout.
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Shakespeare
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Re: Greece

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So, 30% of 30% of 30% of 30%....

Ought to get to √FA sooner or later.
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Re: Greece

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Garth Zietsman on pornography's effects (not peer reviewed as far as I can tell):
Firstly (using the General Social Survey) I found no relationship between being pro the legality of porn, or propensity to watch porn, and pro social behaviors e.g. volunteer work, blood donation, etc.

We can dismiss the feminist (and sociological) charges of porn increasing sexual violence and leading to sexism. The USA, Sweden, Germany, Netherlands (2) and Japan were just some of the countries that suddenly went from no legal pornography to quite widespread availability and consumption of it. These studies all found that greater availability of, and exposure to, pornography does not increase the rate of sexual assaults on women, and probably decreases it (3). Japanese porn is quite frequently violent and yet even there rape decreased from an already very low base. It’s interesting that an increase in porn exposure decreases sexual violence only, and has no effect on other crime. Economists would put this down to a substitution effect.

Several countries have sex offender registers – mainly of pedophiles. A wide variety of professions are represented on these registers. Members of professions that supposedly promote morality e.g. clerics or teachers, are quite common on it yet conspicuously absent from such registers are men who have worked in the porn industry.

This study (1) found no relationship between the frequency of x-rated film viewing and attitudes toward women or feminism. From the GSS (controlling for IQ, education, income, age, race and ideology) I found that those who are pro the legality of porn are less likely to support traditional female roles, more likely to be against preferential treatment of either gender, and to find woman’s rights issues more frequently salient. Although I found that women’s rights issues are less salient to male watchers, and female watchers are less likely to think women should work, I also found that watching porn is unrelated to negative attitudes toward women and feminism.

In short exposure to and tolerance of pornography does not cause anti-social behavior (and may even reduce it in relation to sex) and does not get in the way of pro social behavior either.
George

Added: Oops. Wrong thread. Would a kindly moderator please move this to watercooler? Thank you.
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Re: Greece

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...and did he go on to speculate on the effects of Porn on the risk of Greek default?

(there is probably a bad pun in there somewhere but I'll leave that for Nemo)
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Re: Greece

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I'm struggling here a bit too...
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Re: Greece

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In both cases everybody gets screwed. :wink:
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Re: Greece

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e-kathimerini:
Pharmacies will close on Wednesday as owners protest the fact that social security funds have yet to settle their mounting unpaid drugs bill, while pharmacists are warning that some medicines are already in short supply.

Pharmacists have decided to close their stores for one day and to stop supplying customers with medicines on credit until the National Organization for Healthcare Provision (EOPYY), the country’s main healthcare provider, settles debts of some 250 million euros for prescriptions issued in March. The pharmacists claim they are also owed about 250 million euros for medicines they sold on credit in 2011 to customers insured with social security funds that were incorporated into EOPYY earlier this year.

In fact, pharmacists claimed on Monday that they have seen an internal EOPYY document that suggests the organization will get a maximum of 784 million euros in funding this year. The pharmacists point out that the bill for medicines they supply to those insured with EOPYY reaches 250 million euros most months and that the organization will soon not be able to pay its drugs bills.
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Re: Greece

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ghariton wrote:e-kathimerini:
Pharmacies will close on Wednesday as owners protest the fact that social security funds have yet to settle their mounting unpaid drugs bill, while pharmacists are warning that some medicines are already in short supply.

Pharmacists have decided to close their stores for one day and to stop supplying customers with medicines on credit until the National Organization for Healthcare Provision (EOPYY), the country’s main healthcare provider, settles debts of some 250 million euros for prescriptions issued in March. The pharmacists claim they are also owed about 250 million euros for medicines they sold on credit in 2011 to customers insured with social security funds that were incorporated into EOPYY earlier this year.

In fact, pharmacists claimed on Monday that they have seen an internal EOPYY document that suggests the organization will get a maximum of 784 million euros in funding this year. The pharmacists point out that the bill for medicines they supply to those insured with EOPYY reaches 250 million euros most months and that the organization will soon not be able to pay its drugs bills.
George
George
You are aware of the steadily decreasing supply of drugs in Canada,supposedly due to generic manufacturers not meeting US standars?.If this is happening in other countries too we may have quite a problem on our hands!
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Re: Greece

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izzy wrote: You are aware of the steadily decreasing supply of drugs in Canada,supposedly due to generic manufacturers not meeting US standars?.If this is happening in other countries too we may have quite a problem on our hands!
Less drugs and a healthier lifestyle may do western civilization some good.
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Re: Greece

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CathyF wrote:
izzy wrote: You are aware of the steadily decreasing supply of drugs in Canada,supposedly due to generic manufacturers not meeting US standars?.If this is happening in other countries too we may have quite a problem on our hands!
Less drugs and a healthier lifestyle may do western civilization some good.
You mean if more people die as a result there will be less population pressures? I guess it's one way to reduce the population of old folks and make it easier to balance the budgets :cry:
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Re: Greece

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CathyF wrote: Less drugs and a healthier lifestyle may do western civilization some good.
A rather trite observation to the shortage of drugs.

It's obvious you or someone close to you have never needed drugs to maintain your life.
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Re: Greece

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Why fears of a Greek exit are overblown
Looking at the investment implications for Canadian stocks, Paul Taylor, chief investment officer at BMO Harris Private Banking, said there could be some modest downside pressure from the events in Europe, but he doesn't foresee panic selling.

“I don't think we're dealing with a situation that is as severe, for a variety of reasons, as the Lehman situation, so I don't think the S&P/TSX is heading anywhere close to retesting the lows of 2008,” he said.
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Re: Greece

Post by Shakespeare »

I wouldn't be surprised if the markets went up on a Greek exit. ("Finally..... :roll: ).
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Re: Greece

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I have an acquaintance whose is originally Greek and is taking his daughter to visit for the first time in her life. He will be there on voting day. He is in Discretionary Money Management and was telling me he is concerned that Credit/debit cards may not work. Nor will Travellers cheques. Cash is the thing. I agreed. I told him bring cash.. euros or US$.
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Re: Greece

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tedster wrote:I have an acquaintance whose is originally Greek and is taking his daughter to visit for the first time in her life. He will be there on voting day. He is in Discretionary Money Management and was telling me he is concerned that Credit/debit cards may not work. Nor will Travellers cheques. Cash is the thing. I agreed. I told him bring cash.. euros or US$.
Preferably US$. The Euro may have a rough patch for a couple of weeks.

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Re: Greece

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The saga continues:
As European leaders grapple with how to preserve their monetary union, Greece is rapidly running out of money.

Government coffers could be empty as soon as July, shortly after this month’s pivotal elections. In the worst case, Athens might have to temporarily stop paying for salaries and pensions, along with imports of fuel, food and pharmaceuticals.

Officials, scrambling for solutions, have considered dipping into funds that are supposed to be for Greece’s troubled banks. Some are even suggesting doling out i.o.u.’s.

Greek leaders said that despite their latest bailout of 130 billion euros, or $161.7 billion, they face a shortfall of 1.7 billion euros because tax revenue and other sources of potential income are drying up. A wrenching recession and harsh budget cuts have left businesses and individuals with less and less to give for taxes — and growing incentive to avoid paying what they owe.

<snip>

Salaries and pensions in the private and the public sectors have been cut by up to 50 percent, leaving Greece 495 million euros short of its revenue targets in the four months ended in April, according to the Greek Finance Ministry. With less cash, consumers have curbed spending, leading thousands of taxpaying businesses to fail.

Income expected from a higher, 23 percent value-added tax required by the bailout agreement has fallen short by around 800 million euros in the first four months of 2012. That is partly because cash-short businesses that were once law-abiding have started hiding money to stay afloat, tax officials said.

Now that's real austerity. And it seems about to get worse.

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Re: Greece

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Greek Golden Dawn MP assaults female politicians on TV talkshow | World news | guardian.co.uk
Greece's pre-electoral climate has become more explosive after a high-profile neo-Nazi MP assaulted two female politicians from leftwing parties on live TV. The brawl, a first in the nearly 40 years since democracy was returned to its birthplace, broke out during a morning talkshow when Ilias Kasidiaris, the spokesman of the far-right Chrysi Avgi (Golden Dawn) took umbrage at deputy Rena Dourou declaring that his party "will take the country back 500 years".

After leaping from his seat and throwing a glass of water at Dourou, a deputy with the radical Syriza party, Kasidiaris then turned on Liana Kanelli, an MP with the KKE communist party, who, waving a piece of paper, stood up to condemn the action.

As the cameras rolled, the cropped-haired Kasidiaris, a weightlifting enthusiast, who had served in the Greek military's special forces, is shown lashing out at Kanelli slapping her around the face three times as she threw up her arms in self-defence. Shouting :"No, no, no," the talkshow's presenter, Giorgos Papadakis, then tried to intervene but within moments other guests present said the MP had fled the studio.
:shock:
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