Courtesy of Mish.
Yesterday, US treasury Secretary Jack Lew and International Monetary Fund managing director Christine Lagarde Pressured Eurozone Ministers to Grant Debt Relief to Greece.
Today, the Telegraph reports Germans in Rift with the Rest of Europe Over Debt Relief as Greek Reforms Ready ‘Within Hours’.
Did France Save Europe?
The Telegraph has no details, just a catchy headline. The subtitle is interesting though.
The day France saved Europe?
Today has been a day for the French. In fact, most of this week has seen the French make concerted diplomatic efforts to ensure Greece gets a deal to stay in the eurozone. PM Valls, economy minister Macron, finance minister Sapin, and former finance minister Moscovici have all pitched in to various degrees to pull the European project back from the brink.
IMF Won’t Give Debt Relief
I am curious as to how France could save anything by itself. Here are a couple more snips:
IMF’s chief economist, Olivier Blanchard, delivered his final press conference at the head of the Fund’s reseach department earlier today.
Mr Blanchard, who has advocated for debt relief for Greece, is pressed on why the IMF is not willing to take a haircut on the €22bn they have loaned to Greece, despite urging the rest of Europe to do so.
“The IMF has rules and in general we should question rules, but the rules are good ones,” said the Frenchman.
Merkel Moves
Is Merkel making a move on Greek debt?<
Angela Merkel has been in Kosovo today. She said that a classic “haircut” on loans to Greece was out of the question. Ms Merkel faces a fight to pass through a new bail-out for Greece through her parliament, which as the ESM’s largest creditor, holds a blocking minority vote.But, Ms Merkel today did not take as hard a stance as we’ve heard from her finance ministry. She said:
“In 2012 we dealt with the issue of debt sustainability. We stretched out the maturities, we pushed back the repayment requirement for EFSF loans out to 2020. So we are not dealing with debt sustainability for the first time,” Merkel said when asked about differences with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) over a debt writedown for Greece, report Reuters….
