bailout - Page 2

ObamaCare’s Closed-Door Bailout Could Cost Taxpayers Billions

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.

Protestors hold placards challenging 'Obamacare' outside of the US Supreme Court

Short on Money, Greece Brings Back the Barter System

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.

The Associated Press

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras Resigns

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.

The Associated Press

Alexis Tsipras to Step Down As Greek PM, Call Snap Elections

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.

The Associated Press

Greek Stock Market Crashes 16% on First Day, Bank Stocks Hardest Hit

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.

AP Photo/Yorgos Karahalis

Greek PM Tsipras Considers Early Elections, Struggles With Syriza Party Revolt

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.

Milos Bicanski/Getty Images)

Greek Parliament Approves Bailout as Socialist Syriza Party Comes Unglued

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.”

Reuters / Alkis Konstantinidis

IMF Not Happy with EU Bailout Terms for Greece

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.

AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti

Greek Bailout: Everybody Capitulated to Everyone Else

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.

AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti

Socialists Across Europe See Opportunity to Spread Greece Chaos

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.

The Associated Press

Eurozone Says No to Greece Bailout Extension

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.

The Associated Press

Greece Told to Back Down on Debt Demands by Creditors

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.

Europe Greece Flags Athens

Greece Renews Threat to Seize ‘War Reparations’ from Germany

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.

Reuters / Alkis Konstantinidis

European Debt Talks With Greece Fall Apart

The new socialist government of Greece is not having much success convincing its European creditors to forget about billions of dollars in debt, and then loan Greece even more money. Bloomberg News reports Commerzbank AG is doubling the odds of a Greek exit from the Eurozone to 50 percent, which sounds like a polite underestimation of the odds, given the sudden and acrimonious end of the latest debt talks.

Europe Greece Flags Athens