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Posts Tagged ‘ Greece ’
Debt-stricken Greece is facing a fresh wave of protests over the wage and pension cuts to be introduced in its new austerity measures. The country’s public sector workers have taken to the streets in Athens, starting a 48-hour strike. They’re blaming the government for cutting spending and say low-income Greeks will be hardest hit. The draft bill of the new austerity package will be voted on by the end of the week. It’s aimed at securing a 110 billion euro rescue loan from the EU and IMF.
Greece Debt Crisis 1 – Protest Riots – BBC World News, recorded on 04.- 05.05.2010
America’s Ticking Debt Bomb: Like Greece, “Only Worse,” Pento Says Posted Jun 24, 2010 08:58am EDT America’s debt bomb is ticking and is likely to detonate in five years or less, says Michael Pento, senior market strategist at Delta Global Advisors. “It could be much sooner when we hit the debt wall,” Pento says. “My opinion doesn’t matter: Math tells me we’re in a serious problem.” The math Pento refers to is the Treasury Department’s recent estimate that total US debt will top $13.6 trillion this year and rise to 102% of GDP by 2015. Moreover, the publicly traded debt (debt excluding intra-governmental obligations) will rise to $14 trillion by 2015, up from “just” $7.5 trillion in 2009. At $14 trillion, the interest payments on the public debt will total about $1 trillion in 2015, he continues; even assuming solid growth and low inflation, that would equal about 30% of total government revenue. “What do you think that does to our bond market?,” Pento wonders. “It leads to a dollar crisis and a bond market crisis. That’s why gold refuses to go down. ” Demand for US Treasuries and the dollar currently remain high, especially in the wake of the euro’s slow-motion implosion. Pento admits timing this debt crisis is difficult but predicts we’ll be “like Greece, but worse,” in four years or less, unless we make a sudden turn toward austerity. “When we hit the debt wall it’s going to be extremely pernicious, and quickly.” The only way to avoid this catastrophe, Pento says, is …
Counting the Cost this week looks at Greeces debt problems and how the Eurozone will handle its first crisis.
Greece is on the verge of a precipice – a day after unrest which saw three people killed, the country’s Parliament is debating the austerity package which sparked the violence. The situation remains tense and many analysts say it’s the high price Greece is having to pay for being part of the Eurozone – a cost now being picked up by the people.
Greece faces years of painful cuts to salaries – in return for a multi-billion-dollar bailout from the International Monetary Fund and the EU. The country’s finance minister called it a ‘choice between collapse or salvation’.
jimrogers.com im Rogers, chairman of Rogers Holdings, talks with Bloomberg’s Betty Liu, Jon Erlichman and Adam Johnson about Greece’s fiscal woes. Rogers, speaking from Vienna, also discusses the outlook for the US stock market, China’s yuan and investment strategy.