Courtesy of Mish.
Today the eurogroup finance ministers rejected Syriza's request for a bridge loan to work things out.
Germany upped the ante, calling Greece's Letter Requesting Extra Time a "Trojan Horse" and instead demanded a three sentence letter accepting all Trioika demands.
- Official request for an extension
- Promise to complete the current programme
- Commit to negotiating any changes with bailout monitors
I have a simple question: What's left to negotiate other than how big a capital surplus Greece must have and for how long.
And those, Germany wants a Greek capital account surplus of 3.5% this year, and 4.5% next year and the following years.
Athens wants 1.5%. Any room for serious negotiation here?
I rather doubt it.
Head on Collision
Media still clings to hope that a collision can be avoided. For example, the Financial Times headline reads German and Greek Ministers Set to Collide.
Athens’ chances of finding itself without an EU financial backstop in one week will come down to a bitter face-off in Brussels on Friday between the Greek and German finance ministers after Berlin rejected Greece’s request to extend its €172bn rescue by six months.
The German rebuff came just hours after Yanis Varoufakis, the Greek finance minister, reversed his government’s long-held promise to kill the current bailout by submitting a letter to his fellow ministers formally requesting the additional time and vowing to bring the programme to a “successful conclusion”.
Berlin told counterparts [the letter] amounted to “a Trojan horse” designed by Athens to change the conditions it must meet to receive €7.2bn in aid available for finishing the bailout.
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