An extraordinary day of Greek political chaos
Extraordinary day, and it’s not over yet. Economics editor Faisal Islam reports from Athens.
Extraordinary day, and it’s not over yet. Economics editor Faisal Islam reports from Athens.
As we stand here there is a Cabinet meeting happening inside the Greek Parliament. Papandreou looks unlikely to survive it. Economics Editor Faisal Islam reports from Athens.
There are reports from Reuters about the eurozone thinking it might be better to force a default on the banks over Greek debt, blogs Gary Gibbon.
It seems like the EU is saying “you can have your referendum if you must, but do it as quickly as possible (mid December) and we choose the question,” writes Channel 4 News Political Editor Gary Gibbon.
One economist likened the euro to Hotel California “where you can check out but you can’t leave”, pointing out that, “almost no modern fiat currency union has broken up without some form of authoritarian or military government or civil war”.
The die appears cast: somehow the Greek people are going to get a say on all this – either through a referendum or an election – and they will pronounce on whether they want to live more like the Germans or not.
I hear the defence minister of Greece has gone ahead and sacked the military chiefs of staff, blogs Gary Gibbon. You have to wonder what he thought they were up to.
Ireland discovers some spare pennies – but at a time of austerity, shouldn’t the government already have been looking for any “lost” cash, says Gary Gibbon.
The Greek referendum has sent Greek politics into chaos. But it has also disarmed the euro bailout agreed last week, sending government borrowing costs soaring and share prices crasing across the rest of the eurozone.
Never mind a referendum – a general election could be on the cards for Greece if the Greek prime minister fails to win a majority on Friday’s vote. A situation which looks increasingly likely.
This a grenade in the eurozone crisis on the eve of a G20 when Europe was hoping to present a reformed and self-disciplined face to the world, writes Gary Gibbon of the decision to call a referendum on the bailout in Greece.
A deal is reached, but Economics Editor Faisal Islam says the devil will be in the detail. The bailout bazooka will need the goodwill of the rest of the world.
A day of riot and recapitalisation in this eurozone crisis. That’s the view from the G20 finance meeting in Paris. Protests against banks, in a week that I believe will end with the biggest bailout in world history, of the single currency, and also of the Eurozone’s banks.
Economics Editor Faisal Islam blogs on whether the Geithner moment is here for the world’s economy?
Overnight there were signs of more splits with Brussels, Frankfurt and within Germany’s coalition, as concern mounted for the unthinkable: that these supposed multi-trillion bailouts could lose Germany it’s gold standard credit rating.