Rick Steves' Greece: Athens & the Peloponnese amazon.com
Bust: Greece, the Euro and the Sovereign Debt Crisis - By Matthew Lynn amazon.com
Greece's 'Odious' Debt: The Looting of the Hellenic Republic by the Euro, the Political Elite and the Investment Community - By Jason Manolopoulos amazon.com
Understanding the Crisis in Greece: From Boom to Bust - By Theodore Pelagidis amazon.com
The Imminent Crisis: Greek Debt and the Collapse of the European Monetary Union amazon.com
Eyewitness Greece - Athens and the Mainland - 352 Pages
Financial markets and economic growth in Greece, 1986-1999 [An article from: Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions & Money]
Athens Demographics:
The population count for Athens was 10,964,020 in 2001. According to eurostat, in 2008 Greece had a total estimated population of 11,262,000. Of this, some 695,979 are estimated to be non-Greek.
January 30, 2009
China to rescue?
Writer Costas Paris had this to say at the Wall Street Journal about the Greek effort to get the Chinese on board:
"If the downgrades of the country's credit ratings continue, we will find ourselves in the terrifying position of not drawing liquidity from the European Central Bank due to the risk that (Greek) bonds may not be accepted," Greek Central Bank Gov. George Provopoulos said this week.
Greece's bonds are rated A by Standard and Poor's, six levels below Germany's AAA. Ireland, another EU member in deep financial trouble, has an AA rating.
The country's debt spreads have blown out, with the 10-year Greek government bond yielding 208 basis points more than the corresponding German bund, the widest spread within the euro zone. Athens plans to issue around EUR60 billion in bonds next year.
In addition to directly buying Greek bonds, Chinese banks purchasing debt in the secondary market could also ease some of the strain on Athens.
"If the Chinese go into the secondary Greek bond market, it will make it more liquid, shave some points from the spread, bring down interest rates and make it easier for the Greeks on their future issuance," said Mark Chandler, chief global currency strategist for Brown Brothers Harriman.
"It's a good strategy by Athens," he said. "They are getting heat from everywhere and at this point they have few alternatives but to go where the money is. But there is no guarantee it will work."
Asked whether Greece is negotiating with China to sell bonds, a government spokesman said, "It may be true, and if it is true, we do not want to comment. But even if it isn't true we wouldn't want to comment on it."
Greek financial Web site Axiaplus.gr said Monday that Prime Minister George Papandreou has been personally involved in secret talks with the Bank of China and two other unnamed Chinese lenders and that U.S. investment banks Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan were also party to the talks.
A Bank of China official declined comment on whether the bank is considering a purchase of Greek bonds. Goldman and JP Morgan also declined to comment.
The person familiar with the matter told Dow Jones that Greece will try to sweeten any deal on the bonds with extra incentives on future Chinese investments in the country. "
An editorial at kathimerini online confronted the turmoil the bond sale was stirring up among nationals.
"A number of political and economic commentators have in the past few weeks been lashing out at international speculators for allegedly targeting Greece’s troubled economy.
Let’s get serious. If our national economy were not overindebted, if it were not so lacking in credibility and if it were not so dependent on its creditors, then no foreign speculator would currently be in a position to inflict any damage on the country."
Also at kathimerini was the expected headline: "Workers march against austerity measures." Looks like there will be a lot more marching before the crisis is over.
Also see:
China may put $1 billion or more into Piraeus upgrades - June 10, 2010
ARCHIVE PAGE - MAY 19 TO MAY 31 2010
ARCHIVE PAGE - MAY 1 TO MAY 18 2010
ARCHIVE PAGE - DEC 2009 - MARCH 2010
