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Generational Dynamics Web Log for 17-May-2012
17-May-12 World View -- Greece heads to new elections as Radical Left hopes to blackmail Europe

Web Log - May, 2012

17-May-12 World View -- Greece heads to new elections as Radical Left hopes to blackmail Europe

Cocksure Serb general Ratko Mladic faces genocide trial

This morning's key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com.

Greece heads to new elections as Radical Left hopes to blackmail Europe
Rise of neo-Nazi 'Golden Dawn' in Greece raises concerns
Spain goes the way of Greece as bond yields surge
Cocksure Ratko Mladic faces genocide trial

Greece heads to new elections as Radical Left hopes to blackmail Europe

Radical Left candidate Alexis Tsipras (Kathimerini)

Radical Left candidate Alexis Tsipras (Kathimerini)

Greece will hold new elections on June 17, being described as a referendum to answer the question: Should Greece remain in the eurozone, or should Greece return to its old currency, the drachma. Alexis Tsipras, 38, leader of the Coalition of the Radical Left (SYRIZA) party, which took second place in the May 6 elections, is demanding that Greece repudiate the austerity commitments it gave to Europe in return for several large bailout payments, and promises of more. European leaders have said that if Greece abandons its austerity commitments, then it won't receive any more bailout payments, and it will have to leave the euro currency. Tsipras has made several comments to the effect that Europe CAN'T refuse more bailout payments to Greece because Greece, like banks such as Citibank and JP Morgan, is too big to fail. He may have a good point, in that many European banks, including those in France and Germany, have invested heavily in Greece, and would be in serious financial trouble themselves. Antonis Samaras, leader of the mainstream New Democracy party that is committed to the austerity program, said:

"The Greek people have two paths ahead of them: One is to change everything in Greece, within a Europe that is also changing. The other is to live the terror of exiting the euro, the terror of isolation, out of Europe, and the collapse of everything we have made until today."

Tsipras is essentially blackmailing Europe Kathimerini

Rise of neo-Nazi 'Golden Dawn' in Greece raises concerns

Many people are concerned about the rise of extreme left and right parties in the recent May 6 Greek elections. The far left KKE (Communist Party of Greece) is rising because of demands, led by labor unions, to maintain high levels of government spending, as well as generous salaries, benefits and pensions for public sector employees. The far right neo-Nazi Chrysi Avgi ("Golden Dawn") is winning adherents because of anxieties over the flood of illegal immigrants coming into Greece. In a Sunday interview, Chrysi Avgi party leader Nikos Michaloliakos, 55, said that the Holocaust never occurred:

"There were no ovens -- it's a lie. I believe it's a lie. There were no gas chambers either."

Government spokesman Pantelis Kapsis responded:

"I condemn these views in the strongest terms,» he said. «The Greek people have not forgotten that they too mourned the death of hundreds of thousands of people who were victims of the Nazis, among them tens of thousands of Greek Jews. We honor their memory and stand against any attempt to falsify facts and revive intolerance."

A few people have asked me in the last few months whether I think that a new Hitler-like figure might rise in Greece. My response has been that I don't think that it's going to happen in Greece, but that it may well happen in one of the 27 countries of the European Union, as the financial crisis deepens. Kathimerini

Spain goes the way of Greece as bond yields surge

Germany/Spain bond spreads since 2009 (WSJ)

Germany/Spain bond spreads since 2009 (WSJ)

Greece "officially" turned into a "crisis" when its 10-year bond yields (the interest rates that investors are demanding to lend money to Greece for 10 years) went above 7%. Spain hasn't quite reached that point yet, but it's trending in that direction, as bond yields temporarily reached 6.5% yesterday. The adjoining graph is really dramatic, as it shows the "bond spreads" between Germany and Spain. Very often, a TV financial pundit will say something like "Spanish spreads are increasing," without explaining it. What they mean is that the difference in yields (interest rates) between Spain's bonds and Germany's bonds has been increasing. The bottom line of what this means is that investors are afraid that Spain will default, just like Greece, and so they're pulling money out of Spain and pouring it into Germany, where it's considered to be safe. The spreads decreased for several months, starting in December of last year, when the European Central Bank (ECB) "printed" over €1.1 trillion euros and made it available to banks to use to purchase such things as Spain's bonds. However, the ECB program ended in March, and Spain's bond spreads have been surging since then. As a result, a number of officials are demanding that the ECB start a new money-printing program. Bloomberg

Cocksure Ratko Mladic faces genocide trial

Ratko Mladic on Wednesday (Reuters)

Ratko Mladic on Wednesday (Reuters)

Cocksure Bosnian Serb general Ratko Mladic taunted genocide survivors by making a throat-slitting gesture to a woman who lost her son, husband and brothers in the Srebenica massacre at the start of his trial on Wednesday for some of the worst atrocities in Europe since World War Two. At least 8,300 Bosniak (Bosnian Muslim) men and boys who had sought safe haven at the U.N.-protected enclave at Srebrenica were killed by Orthodox Christian Serbs under the leadership of General Ratko Mladic. (See "27-May-11 News -- Europe cheers the capture of Ratko Mladic, the butcher of Srebrenica") Mladic is still considered a hero by many Serbs, say that no crime was committed, as he was just defending Serbs. Mladic coined the phrase "ethnic cleansing" in the early 1990s to describe his program of extermination of the Bosniaks. Reuters

(Comments: For reader comments, questions and discussion, see the 17-May-12 World View -- Greece heads to new elections as Radical Left hopes to blackmail Europe thread of the Generational Dynamics forum. Comments may be posted anonymously.) (17-May-2012) Permanent Link
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