
When America’s largest insurance provider, UnitedHealth Group, announced disastrous losses due to ObamaCare and started talking about exiting from the program last week, I wondered if they, along with other companies grumbling about ObamaCare red ink, might be looking for a bailout.
by John Hayward25 Nov 2015, 2:00 PM PST0

The newly elected conservative government of Portugal is at risk of being toppled just 11 days after taking office. The President has warned that, were that to happen, Portugal will be “uncontrollable”. Portugal shows striking signs of following Greece down the
by Donna Rachel Edmunds31 Oct 2015, 8:59 AM PST0

According to the Michigan Treasurer and Emergency Manager for Detroit Public Schools, the schools are set to run out of cash soon and are in need of a hefty state bailout.
by Trent Baker27 Oct 2015, 3:00 PM PST0

Greeks are getting around what is delicately described as a “liquidity problem”—i.e. no money—by bringing back the barter system. It even has an Information Age twist: a bartering website with its own virtual currency system, and thousands of users.
by John Hayward23 Sep 2015, 10:30 PM PST0

In a televised address to his people, he said he had a moral duty to resign, because he was elected (just over half a year ago!) as a staunch opponent of the austerity measures he now believes it necessary to impose, in order to keep Greece in the Euro and secure its future.
by John Hayward20 Aug 2015, 4:22 PM PST0

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras of the socialist Syriza party will reportedly step down and call for snap elections on September 20, rocking his already crisis-riddled nation with fresh wave of political turmoil. A formal announcement of his resignation is expected Thursday afternoon, along with a televised address to the Greek people.
by John Hayward20 Aug 2015, 9:11 AM PST0

In a very long piece on former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis in the New Yorker, the former head of the nation’s economy admits to being surprised both by the Greek people’s rejection of an austerity deal and the Prime Minister’s acceptance of one.
by John Hayward20 Aug 2015, 8:00 AM PST0

One of the terms of Greece’s bailout deal involves selling off government monopolies and privatizing their operations.
by John Hayward19 Aug 2015, 9:04 PM PST0

The Greek stock market was shut down five weeks ago, as the nation spiraled into an economic and political crisis, facing its final debt showdown with European creditors. The market just concluded its first day of trading since the shutdown, and the outlook is grim: the market lost 16.2 percent of its value on the first day back in business.
by John Hayward5 Aug 2015, 6:41 PM PST0

The effort to relieve, or bail out, the U.S. commonwealth of Puerto Rico from its current economic struggles has just received a big boost from the Obama administration.
by Javier Manjarres30 Jul 2015, 9:48 PM PST0

On Wednesday, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras floated the idea of calling for early elections in Greece to “bolster a parliamentary majority that has been strained by bailout reforms demanded by creditors,” as Reuters put it. Such is the chaos of end-state socialism in Greece that Tsipras really needs his own party to lose in those early elections. The Syriza party is coming unglued over the austerity components of Greece’s latest bailout package.
by John Hayward30 Jul 2015, 4:35 PM PST0

There was speculation Wednesday that the International Monetary Fund’s disapproval of the European Union bailout package for Greece would stiffen resistance in the Greek Parliament against it, but in the end, they voted in agreement with what Reuters describes as “sweeping austerity measures demanded by lenders to open talks on a new multibillion-euro bailout package to keep Greece in the euro.”
by John Hayward16 Jul 2015, 11:54 AM PST0

There has been trouble brewing between the International Monetary Fund and the European Union about the vast debts Greece owes to both of them, but rhetorical shots were finally fired on Wednesday, as the IMF offered stiff criticism of the EU’s bailout deal with Greece.
by John Hayward15 Jul 2015, 8:53 PM PST0

After 17 hours of “extremely hard, violent even” negotiations concluded in Brussels on Monday, a third Greek bailout – a three-year plan worth some €86 billion – appeared secure. Then doubt began to emerge. Most centred on whether Prime Minister Tsipras
by Sarkis Zeronian14 Jul 2015, 5:11 AM PST0

Stocks rallied on Monday amid news that the Greek financial crisis was under control, and a bailout deal had been agreed upon, but that might have been a hasty celebration.
by John Hayward13 Jul 2015, 9:20 PM PST0

The seemingly final deadline for serious Greek proposals in the debt showdown was Friday morning, and some paperwork was indeed delivered on schedule, inducing some optimism that a Greek exit from the Euro would be averted. Depending on who you ask, the deal is either a stunning triumph or disastrous capitulation for either Greece or its creditors.
by John Hayward10 Jul 2015, 6:51 PM PST0

Yesterday, as Greece’s debt negotiations entered a new hard-core round of brinkmanship mistaken by many observers for conciliatory gestures to Europe, observers warned that if Greece ultimately succeeds in squeezing more money out of its European creditors without making the necessary “austerity” concessions, their triumphant irresponsibility could go viral.
by John Hayward7 Jul 2015, 1:14 PM PST0

In the wake of the growing financial crisis, thousands of Greek nationals are fleeing their homeland. Tens of thousands have ended up in Australia. It is the largest wave of migration from Greece to Australia since hundreds of thousands fled the march of fascism in World War II.
by Michael Lucchese2 Jul 2015, 9:10 PM PST0

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) decided Wednesday to increase compensation for CEOs at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac – government sponsored enterprises (GSEs).
by Alex Swoyer1 Jul 2015, 2:23 PM PST0

It has been a difficult week for Greece, whose as-of-yet insurmountable debt to the European Union and International Monetary Fund continues unpaid and with little hope of preventing a default.
by Frances Martel30 Jun 2015, 8:30 PM PST0

The Eurozone rejected Greece’s request for one-month bailout extension only a day after the bankrupt country turned down an extension offer from their creditors. “It looks like we are heading for Grexit,” exclaimed one person who participated in the meetings.
by Mary Chastain27 Jun 2015, 1:54 PM PST0

The long standoff between intransigent Greek socialists and their increasingly exasperated creditors appears to be reaching an end, judging by the commentary after an International Monetary Fund meeting this week. It sounds as if the Greeks are running out of cards to play.
by John Hayward14 Jun 2015, 7:49 AM PST0

With the strike ban that was a pre-condition of the GM and Fiat Chrysler federal bailouts expiring, United Auto Workers (UAW) locals are collecting food and encouraging union members to save for a potential strike when the Big Three four-year labor agreement expires on September 14.
by Chriss W. Street4 Jun 2015, 9:00 AM PST0

The eleventh-hour decision to extend Greece’s bailout a few weeks ago turns out to have been an even closer shave than it seemed at the time, with Reuters reporting that a massive revolt among German conservatives left the vote “hanging by a thread,” as one German legislator put it. Escalating tensions between sullen Greece and fed-up Germany could make the votes on further bailout extensions or new financing deals even tighter.
by John Hayward12 Mar 2015, 8:13 AM PST0

Greece’s new socialist government appears to have given up on its demands for debt relief without spending controls, at least for the time being.
by John Hayward21 Feb 2015, 1:41 PM PST0