Tuesday 3 March 2015

Greece: Yanis Varoufakis, TV Interview with Nikos Hatzinikolaou, March 2, 2015; Disagreements over a Return to the Drachma (Varoufakis-Lapavitsas); DEH - Public Power Corporation Pay Rises



Watch the interview, with Nikos Hatzinikolaou (in two parts), on enikos.gr

In Greek.

Public Power Corporation, DEH Pay Rises: Varoufakis - if it's so, I have a problem! Huff Post Greece

On DEH Pay Rises, Protothema

Αποδοκίμασε τις έμμεσες αυξήσεις που δόθηκαν στους εργαζόμενους της ΔΕΗ με την προσυπογραφή του αρμόδιου υπουργού Παναγιώτη Λαφαζάνη ο βουλευτής του ΣΥΡΙΖΑ, Νίκος Φίλης...«Όταν η κυβέρνηση ιδρώνει να βρει ευρώ το ευρώ τα χρήματα για τα κουπόνια σίτισης των φτωχών στη χώρα μας, είναι προκλητικό να υπογράφεται σύμβαση με τα περιβόητα…" τροφεία" για εργαζόμενους, δηλαδή αυξήσεις μισθών απο την πίσω πόρτα...

Cartoon, DEH Andreas Petroulakis

Paris Match Photoshoot, iefimerida


Interview highlights, Huff Post Greece

Interview highlights in print from Ta Nea

Τόνισε ότι μοναδική λύση είναι η αναδιάρθρωση του χρέους εντός της ευρωζώνης και «σε καμία των περιπτώσεων δεν είναι λύση η επιστροφή στη δραχμή». Μάλιστα, ερωτηθείς για τον βουλευτή του ΣΥΡΙΖΑ, Κώστα Λαπαβίτσα, είπε ότι «ο Λαπαβίτσας έχει κτίσει ολόκληρη καριέρα πάνω στην επιστροφή στη δραχμή».

We do have a Plan B, Mignatiou

Margarite Poulos, Neos Kosmos (Australia)

Australian Financial Review - Varoufakis, according to his ex-wife

Costas Lapavitsas, The Guardian - To beat austerity, Greece must break free from the euro

Plans to avert IMF Default, The Telegraph, Ambrose Evans-Pritchard

"Greece is preparing to tap its final pension reserves at the country’s central bank if needed to avert a devastating default to the International Monetary Fund and keep the government going over the next two weeks...Yanis Varoufakis, the finance minister, sought to silence such talk over the weekend, telling Associated Press that a default to the IMF was out of the question, even if a halt in payments to the EU institutions remains a serious threat. “We are not going to be the first country not to meet our obligations to the IMF. We shall squeeze blood out of stone if we need to do this on our own, and we shall do it," he said"

Ruffled Feathers, Business Insider/AFP

Greece May Need a Third Bail-Out, EU Commissioner (EU Observer)

Spain says Greece Seeking Third Bailout (Wall Street Journal)

RT report

Mixed Messages, Reuters

The Battle of the Bailout, The Telegraph

Mignatiou: The Drachma Not a Solution

Why Not the Drachma, Leslie Shaffer

More from Mignatiou

Eight Measures - iefimerida

Forbes Letter, iefimerida

Steve Forbes, Letter in English

Rolling Updates, The Guardian

First Anti-Austerity Measures, YouTube

Tax Rate VAT Confusion

Search For Funds

Greece to raid Pension Funds and EU Subsidies? Newsweek

Election Promises Without Funds To Cover Costs

To Vima, Schaueble Still Tough

Tapping Public Sector Funds

Martin Schulz

"Political forces need to all seize the urgency of using every minute of this window. Not to recriminate on who said what, not to grandstand and try to row back on commitments, nor to threaten Armageddon in the near future. Instead, they need to do something less headline grabbing but infinitely more useful for citizens. On this the onus is squarely in the camp of the Greek government".

Ricardo Hausmann: Austerity is not the problem

"The problem is not that austerity was tried and failed in Greece. It is that, despite unprecedented international generosity, fiscal policy was completely out of control and needed major adjustments...
Greece never had the productive structure to be as rich as it was: its income was inflated by massive amounts of borrowed money that was not used to upgrade its productive capacity".

"From 1998 to 2007, Greece's annual per capita GDP growth averaged 3.8%, the second fastest in Western Europe, behind only Ireland. But by 2007, Greece was spending more than 14% of GDP in excess of what it was producing, the largest such gap in Europe – more than twice that of Spain and 55% higher than Ireland's. In Spain and Ireland, though, the gap reflected a construction boom; euro accession suddenly gave people access to much cheaper mortgages. In Greece, by contrast, the gap was mostly fiscal and used for consumption, not investment".

The Telegraph, Roger Bootle

"Greece is on the road to misery, with no obvious escape. Why don’t the Germans understand the logic of this argument? They tend to look at matters with regard to debt – and economic policy more generally – moralistically. The Greek public sector has been wasteful in the extreme and Greek taxpayers have treated paying tax as near-voluntary. Accordingly, they have had it coming to them. When they reform themselves, then the economy will bounce back. I am speechless at this attitude. Yes, the Greek public sector has been appallingly wasteful and making it less so is an important part of boosting Greece’s sustainable growth rate. But the current priority is not that, but boosting Greece’s actual growth rate now – and that is all about demand. There is no such thing as a free spending cut. Even tax evaders and under-employed public servants go shopping."


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