The Almaz-Antey S-400 “Triumf”
Russian presidential assistant for military and technical cooperation, Vladimir Kozhin, announced on June 29 that the S-400 long-range air defense system deal with Turkey has been finalized.
“The contract has been finalized, but the issue of a loan remains as funds have to be agreed,” Kozhin said. Continue reading
Just call it “friendlining”
Facebook friend lists are a weird collection of your classmates, coworkers, distant relatives, former roommates, and other people you may have known at one point in your life. A new patent granted to Facebook would let lenders check those same friends’ credit scores and take them into account when deciding to grant a loan. It’s totally not something straight out of a cyberpunk dystopia.
Now the inevitable has been delayed again as a loan was taken out to repay another loan. Essentially, the can got kicked down the proverbial road yet again, just in another direction.
Greece has narrowly escaped defaulting to the European Central Bank after it received an emergency bridge loan of €7.16 billion from the European Union. Continue reading
Fiscal hawks among Greece’s eurozone creditors are taking an openly firmer line with Athens, including a proposal that Greece transfer €50bn of state assets into a fund to be managed by an external agency.
The plan appears in a paper from the German finance ministry and calls for either the transfer of state assets or a temporary “time-out” from the eurozone. Continue reading
At best, this is a band-aid on a 5 inch laceration wound for the Greeks and the situation as a whole. As the article states, the leaders of Greece did a complete 180 on their promises to the Greek people and they now have a little explaining to do. At the end of the day, and as inconceivable as it is, all roads on the European continent lead back to Berlin and it’s Fourth Reich via the Troika.
The package was presented as a deal done by the eurozone countries together, but there has been little doubt throughout the tense and at times angry negotiations that it was Germany which pulled the strings.
Having refused to grant Greece’s request of six months’ grace on its loans and a rapid rolling back of austerity measures, Germany eventually accepted the belated compromise of a four-month extension.
That means Greece will now not run out of money next month and allows the new government in Athens space to continue negotiating with its creditors for a relaxation of the terms of its debt. Continue reading
The letter in full will remain here as it’s not a ‘news article’, rather a letter to the public.
Alexis Tsipras’ “open letter” to German citizens published on Jan.13 in Handelsblatt, a leading German language business newspaper
Most of you, dear Handesblatt readers, will have formed a preconception of what this article is about before you actually read it. I am imploring you not to succumb to such preconceptions. Prejudice was never a good guide, especially during periods when an economic crisis reinforces stereotypes and breeds biggotry, nationalism, even violence.
In 2010, the Greek state ceased to be able to service its debt. Unfortunately, European officials decided to pretend that this problem could be overcome by means of the largest loan in history on condition of fiscal austerity that would, with mathematical precision, shrink the national income from which both new and old loans must be paid. An insolvency problem was thus dealt with as if it were a case of illiquidity.
Global Geopolitics 