Courtesy of Mish.
Coordinated Meddling
Eurozone leaders are pouring it on thick again today with warning after warning. Yesterday, German chancellor Angela Merkel, French president Francois Hollande, and European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker were all I in on the Coordinated Meddling hoping to convince Greece citizens to accept the current offer.
Rajoy Seeks to Save His Own Ass
Today Spain’s prime minister, Mariano Rajoy, joined the hit parade. Like yesterday’s trio, he issued another blunt warning to Greek voters that a No vote will force the country to leave the eurozone.
Rajoy also argued that it would be “good for Greece” if Mr Tsipras, who is backing a No vote, was defeated in the Greek plebiscite and forced out of office.
Recall that Tsipras is good friends with Podemos leader Pablo Iglesias. Like Tsipras, Iglesias wants to halt Eurozone austerity rules. Moreover, Iglesias has threatened to take Spain out of the Eurozone.
I suggest Rajoy is worried about his own ass in Spanish national elections later this year as Podemos has surged in the polls and is within striking distance of winning the election.
Greece Rejects 25th Hour to Change Course
In spite of the pleas, Greece Rejects Creditor Pleas to Change Course.
Greece’s government entered its final day in an EU bailout defiantly rejecting eleventh-hour pleas from its eurozone creditors to change course. It is now on a path that will lead to default on a €1.6bn loan repayment to the International Monetary Fund and being without a financial safety net for the first time in five years.
The IMF default, confirmed by Yanis Varoufakis, the finance minister, on Tuesday, will make Greece the first developed country in history to go into “arrears” with the fund. But it is not expected to have a direct impact on the country’s status in the eurozone. Credit rating agencies and EU bailout lenders have signalled they will not consider non-payment a “credit event” that triggers other defaults — a move that would bankrupt Athens immediately.
“The exit of Greece from the euro area, which used to be a theoretical question, can unfortunately no longer be ruled out,” Benoit Coeuré, the ECB board member responsible for Greek issues, said in an interview published on Tuesday in the French financial daily Les Echos….
