Courtesy of Pam Martens
Greeks Filled the Streets of Athens During the Weekend Leading to Sunday’s Referendum
The fallout from yesterday’s Greek referendum is now spilling over into the share prices of global banking stocks in morning trading, with some down as much as 7 to 5 percent, raising the specter that if Germany doesn’t soon focus on the bigger financial stability picture, it could create more bailouts in short order.
The rumored close vote by the Greek people in a referendum yesterday turned into a landslide 61 percent vote against the tough austerity measures being offered by the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund in exchange for continued loans to the struggling country.
News reports since the vote indicate that German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Wolfgang Schäuble, the German Finance Minister, have no plans to quickly cave in to Greek demands for a more generous deal than the one offered prior to the referendum. Yanis Varoufakis, Greece’s Finance Minister, resigned this morning in hopes of allowing friendlier negotiations to proceed. The outspoken Varoufakis has called the Sunday vote an historic moment in time “when a small European nation rose up against debt-bondage.” Schäuble is in no mood to hear phrases coming out of Greece like “debt bondage.”
Merkel is scheduled to meet today with French President Francois Hollande, followed by a full conference among Eurozone leaders tomorrow.
Italian bank stocks were leading decliners with Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena declining more than 7 percent at one point this morning with Banca Popolare di Milano losing as much as 5 percent in morning trading. Even Germany’s Deutsche Bank was off by as much as 2.65 percent.
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