Yiannis Mouzakis via Macropolis | What you are going to read could very well be extracts from a Yanis Varoufakis interview in the first half of 2015, when – in a clumsy manner that rubbed everyone up the wrong way – he was advocating that Greece and its lenders should change course.
Yiannis Mouzakis via Macropolis| From the beginning of the crisis, Greek debt has often been the elephant in the room. Over the last year it has taken on the form of an unsolvable equation as key decisions makers have taken positions that do not appear to overlap.
Jens Bastian via Macropolis | When the largest Greek banks (in terms of assets) published their second quarter results a fortnight ago, much investor attention was focused on the formation and breakdown of non-performing exposure (NPE) on their respective balance sheets. This focus is the result of regulatory authorities and investors wanting to know if the four systemic banks have started to reverse the multi-year trend of continuously rising “red loans” in their portfolios.
via Macropolis | The four core Greek banks released their second quarter (Q2) results in the last two days of August, which showed improving trends in core revenues as well as encouraging signs on the loan quality evolution.
In an internal report, the IMF has confessed to errors linked to the bailouts in which it participated during the euro crisis, according to what Ambrose Evans-Prichard tells us. Just what the euro needed: explicit recognition, in black and white, that nothing could be done about the “infamy of competitive devaluation.”
Nick Malkoutzis via Macropolis | A pointless referendum, a prime minister resigning, the opposition collapsing in a heap, the finance minister disappearing and nobody having any plan about what to do: This has all happened over the last few years in Greece. Never, though, all at the same time as has just occurred in the UK.
Nick Malkoutzis via Macropolis | British voters’ decision to head for the European Union’s exit door will test the EU like never before. Brexit has the potential to unleash not just a wave of consequences that will be damaging economically but also centrifugal political forces that will change the state of the Union forever.
via Macropolis | In a quote some attribute to ancient Greek dramatist Aeschylus, the truth is said to be the first casualty of war. Perhaps the same can be said in times of economic crisis, which some have likened to a state of war. Certainly, one could safely say that accuracy has taken a severe battering during the Greek crisis. And, if accuracy is compromised then it is quite likely the truth will also be mangled.
Yiannis Mouzakis via Macropolis | | Understandably, when the International Monetary Fund published its Debt Sustainability Analysis (DSA) last week, its gloomy projections regarding the unsustainability of Greece’s debt drew all the attention. This meant that many overlooked the fact that the Fund was even gloomier about the Greek economy’s long-term growth prospects.
Jens Bastian via Macropolis | The rising volume of non-performing loans (NPLs) across various eurozone countries, in particular in southern and southeastern Europe, has been a constant challenge for policymakers in recent years. Moreover, their high NPL levels on bank balance sheets have impaired the asset quality of domestic lenders and necessitated an increasing amount of provisioning, thus binding up valuable capital that could otherwise be lent to the real economy.