Thread: Head Of Eurogroup Admits To Lying About "Secret Greek M

Head Of Eurogroup Admits To Lying About "Secret Greek Meeting" Out Of Fears For Market Collapse - "When It Becomes Serious, You Have To Lie"

Submitted by Tyler Durden
05/09/2011 13:54 -0400
157 comments

On Friday the misinformation floated about the Greek expulsion event hit a fever pitch: while we correctly speculated that nobody would be expelled from the Eurozone, the amount of conflicting info was at an all time record, with glaring inconsistencies between various quoted authoritarians. Now, courtesy of the WSJ blog, http://blogs.wsj.com/brussels/2011/05/0 ... t-meeting/ we learn that, for the first time in history, a spokesman for Jean Claude Juncker, the PM of Luxembourg, and the head of the Eurogroup council of eurozone finance ministers, admits openly to having lied to media outlets. "In a phone call and text messages with two reporters for Dow Jones and the Wall Street Journal, Mr. Schuller repeatedly said no meeting would be held. He apparently said they same to other news outlets; at least one more moved his denials on financial newswires. Of course, there was a meeting–although not, apparently, to talk about Greece quitting the currency, which would be an extreme step to say the least. Mr. Juncker even said a few words to reporters who had hustled to Luxembourg to stake out the gathering. So why the lie? “I was told to say there was no meeting,â€

Among The Smoke, The True Goal Of This Weekend's Greek Drama Emerges: Lower Interest Rates For Everyone

Submitted by Tyler Durden
05/09/2011 07:15 -0400
24 comments

Back on Friday we shared a prediction that not only will Greece not leave the Eurozone, but what will happen after the weekend: "I'm convinced Greece is jealous that the portuguese got a much better deal. They want the same deal arguing that they have already suffered long enough... Monday they announce that Greece is getting better terms and we are off to the races... by early 2012 greece restructures debt." Once again, this was spot on. Reuters reports: "The European Union is looking to lower interest rates on bailout loans to Greece and Ireland and is working on a second rescue for Athens in a chaotic effort to prevent a disorderly debt restructuring. The executive European Commission said on Monday it hoped to see a decision within weeks on reducing the rate charged to Ireland to make Dublin's debt more sustainable. "The Commission is clearly in favour of a rate cut," a spokesman for EU Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn said. "The Commission is against debt restructuring."" Once again Europe looks the can in the mouth, and kicks it as far down the street as it possibly can. Next up: fully blown, uncontrolled restructuring in early 2012 as nothing will change in the interim, and more taxpayer revolts will continue taking Europe by storm until we have one that actually matters and puts the PIIGS out in the cold.

From Reuters:

The new Irish government's bid for lower interest payments has so far been blocked by Germany and France, which want Dublin to drop its veto on harmonising the corporate tax base in Europe in exchange or raise its own low corporate tax rate.

In Germany, a senior lawmaker in Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative party said a further cut in the rate on emergency loans to Greece, already reduced by one percentage point in March, would be justified if it carried out further reforms to reduce its debt risk.

Michael Meister, finance policy spokesman of Merkel's Christian Democrats, told German radio he opposed any idea that Athens should restructure its debt or that it should consider leaving the euro zone.

However, German Finance Ministry spokesman Martin Kotthaus told a news conference: "There is no discussion at the moment about extending the payment schedule or lowering the interest rates for Greece.

Other things we were right on:

A German government spokesman said Merkel would meet European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, head of the EU's executive arm, and European Council President Herman van Rompuy, who chairs the bloc's regular summits, on Wednesday to review the situation.

A Greek exit from the euro had never been under discussion and was not now, he told a news conference.

Euro zone and EU finance ministers are due to meet next week to approve Portugal's aid programme amid lingering uncertainty over whether Finland, which has a caretaker government and has not yet begun negotiations for a new coalition, will be in a position to give the required agreement.

Pressure is mounting for those meetings to deliver decisions on Ireland and Greece as well.

Responding to anger in some countries that were not invited to Friday's talks, a German Finance Ministry spokesman insisted there was no attempt to create a two-class euro zone.

Greek Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou, who attended the Luxembourg meeting, said investors did not believe his country could return to capital markets next year as envisaged in its EU/IMF plan, so it might need alternative funding.

Jean-Claude Juncker, chairman of the Eurogroup of finance ministers of the 17-nation euro area, said after Friday's talks there was a consensus that Athens would require a second rescue.

"We think that Greece does need a further adjustment programme," he said after meeting with ministers from Germany, France, Italy, Spain, the EU's Rehn and European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet.

A further adjustment "programme" based on far lower interest rates: shades of AIG anyone? Next up, Greece will be buying back pieces of the Cyclades pledged to the New York Fed's Santorini Lane I programme in 2 years after Bernanke manages to blow the global credit bubble to fresh all time highs.

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/among- ... s-everyone

Goldman's Take On Greek Non-Expulsion News, And Record German Imports And Exports

Submitted by Tyler Durden
05/09/2011 07:03 -0400
13 comments

Last week we predicted that rumors of a Greek (self) expulsion are nothing but hot air, and an attempt to escalate so-far failing rhetoric at improving the economics of austerity. This was proven right, even as we also predicted, the EURUSD surprisingly remains sticky in the 1.438 area, meaning 120 pips in EURUSD was wiped out on purpose. Here is Goldman's take on this weekend's developments.

From Goldman's Dirk Schumacher

Policy makers discuss further help package for Greece. The head of the Euro group Juncker said after a meeting of finance ministers last Friday that "we believe that Greece will need a further program". According to FT Deutschland such a new program could include an extension of repayments of the loan provided under the first program as well as a reduction of the interest rate for these loans. Juncker also dismissed the idea that an exit of Greece from the Euro-zone was being discussed: "This is a stupid idea, it is not a direction we will ever embark on".

Newspaper Die Welt reports that the German government demands as a pre-condition for any further program that Greece will also negotiate a - voluntary - maturity extension with its private creditors.

The Troika of IMF, EU, and ECB will present middle of May their latest assessment on the implementation of the Greek adjustment program.

Metal processing industry plans to create some 80,000 additional jobs this year. The head of the metal sector employers association Gesamtmetall said in an interview over the weekend that the sector will add another 80,000 jobs until the end of the year. This is just the latest indication of the rude health of the German manufacturing sector, in particular when keeping in mind that average annual productivity growth is more than 3% for the sector.



German data releases today

Exports and imports surge in March. Exports (nominal, seasonally adjusted) rose by 7.4%mom after +2.8% while imports rose 3.0% after 4.1%. Exports and imports are both at their highest level ever, clearly surpassing now their pre-crisis peak. Net trade will contribute again strongly to growth in Q1:2011; we are forecasting GDP to be up 0.9%qoq in Q1.





http://www.zerohedge.com/article/goldma ... nd-exports