The payment schedule on the Greek sovereign debt looks pretty full as of now. First, Greece will have to pay 200 million euro back to the IMF, come May 1. And then in June, there are a bunch of new payments to the IMF worth a total of 2.5 billion. Those are installments that Greece received from the IMF as part of the earlier aid package.

Christine ( Read more... )

Many have argued that the battle for Ukraine is not just a matter of geopolitics, but a fundamental clash between Russia and the West, and that the fate of 40 million Ukrainians is being decided, and the answer to the question if a country situated in Europe's eastern periphery could possibly choose a European future, despite Moscow's resistance ( Read more... )

In no time, Alexis Tsipras has managed to find himself some new external enemies (naturally, from the EU): Spain and Portugal. Both countries, just like Greece, had to take loans in order to survive. But the similarities end there. They both angered Mr Messiah when they joined Germany in demanding that Greece should be honoring its commitments.

But ( Read more... )

Most of us might've already heard the news. The Swiss franc has gone up by almost 30% against the euro, after the Swiss central bank suddenly removed the fixed ceiling, which for the last few years used to be hovering around 1.20 franc per euro. The announcement caused chaotic reactions throughout the markets, the exchange rate reaching 0.80 ( Read more... )

New Greek leader poised to unveil cabinet - FT

Wow, these guys are fast, aren't they? They needed less than a couple of days to get ready with their new cabinet. And what a cabinet it'll be! The neo-commies plus the far-right. Now the door to "re-negotiating" with the creditors of the despicable Troika is open. Hooray. Tsipras has promised to rid ( Read more... )

There's a snap parliamentary election coming up in Greece in a fortnight, and the outcome looks pre-determined from now. The radical left-wing Syriza union is set to score a victory there, its leader Alexis Tsipras sprinkling generous promises far and wide to "end the tyranny of the markets", to scratch off the country's enormous debt, to re- ( Read more... )

( Read more... )

The European Central Bank will no longer be just a keeper of stability in the Eurozone, but also a supervisor of the individual banks, EU's latest piece of legislation postulates. That, IMO, is schizophrenic, to put it mildly - because this way the conflict of interest will be inherently built into the very banking system itself.

From the beginning ( Read more... )

When Lithuania becomes the 19th member of the Euro zone next January, the prime minister Algirdas Butkevicius will have a double reason to celebrate. Not only his country will join a club where they have once been denied entry already, but he will keep his post. The reason is that earlier this year Butkevicius promised to resign if the tiny Baltic ( Read more... )

( Read more... )