STOCK MARKET WATCH -- Thursday, 16 July 2015

[Demeter]

4. THE GREEK PARLIAMENT FOLDED

Greek Parliament votes in favor of bailout plan

http://www.cnbc.com/2015/07/15/crunch-time-in-greece-as-tsipras-seeks-crucial-vote.html



Greece's Parliament voted in favor of an austerity bill that paves the way for a third bailout.

Ahead of the vote, which ultimately came early Thursday morning local time, a violent protest erupted on the streets of Athens.

The vote was expected to pass, but the atmosphere was tense, with multiple politicians from within Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras's own party opposing the deal. Indeed, one of Greece's deputy finance ministers, Nadia Valavani, resigned on Wednesday...

Tsipras wins Greek vote backing bailout

PERHAPS, BUT WHO WANTS THE BOOBY PRIZE?

http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/db4d2f04-2b05-11e5-8613-e7aedbb7bdb7.html?ftcamp=published_links%2Frss%2Fhome_us%2Ffeed%2F%2Fproduct

Greece’s parliament on Thursday backed a slew of fresh austerity measures demanded by the country’s creditors, clearing the way for talks to begin on a fresh €86bn bailout package to prevent the country crashing out of the eurozone. But a rebellion inside the ruling coalition that saw 38 government MPs not back the measures raises fears that prime minister Alexis Tsipras may struggle to retain control of the government and his ruling Syriza party...Mr Tsipras prevailed with the support of 229 of Greece’s 300 MPs in a vote that took place in the early hours of Thursday morning, but was forced to rely upon the support of opposition parties to offset the mutiny in his own ranks, which could erode his parliamentary majority...Addressing his unruly party inside the chamber, Mr Tsipras called on MPs to maintain unity given the gravity of the situation, and asked them what they would have done instead.

“I was blackmailed, there were no good options and I chose the least bad, the MPs should recognise this and accept the same choice,” Mr Tsipras told lawmakers before the vote. “The government does not believe in these measures. We will do our best to protect people from measures we do not believe in but are forced to implement.”

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Throughout the day, there had been peaceful protests against the deal with the crowd growing by evening. The mood had been calm, with children in attendance, but later police clashed with balaclava-wearing demonstrators hurling Molotoff cocktails...In a sign of the tensions before a key parliamentary vote, radical leftist demonstrators opposed to further cuts hurled petrol bombs outside parliament and riot police used tear gas to disperse protesters, whose numbers had swelled to more than 10,000...As parliament edged closer to the vote, Syntagma square was strewn with broken glass and dotted with small fires. The smell of tear gas hung in the air.

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Despite the battles at home, there was some good news for Mr Tsipras from Brussels, where a cash pile to get Athens through the next week is almost prepared. EU authorities are poised to immediately disburse €7bn to Athens following the votes so it would not default on a bond due to the European Central Bank on Monday. If Greece were to default on the ECB, Frankfurt would probably be forced to pull emergency loans to Greek banks, which are the only support keeping the financial sector alive.

Under a compromise being worked out in Brussels, a long-dormant EU-wide rescue fund, known as the European Financial Stability Mechanism, would loan Athens €7bn for three months, which officials believe will be enough time for the full €86bn bailout to be finalised. Use of the EFSM, which Britain’s David Cameron thought he had killed in a 2010 summit agreement, has caused outrage in London. But Downing Street, faced with being outvoted in Brussels, has agreed to let the fund be used as long as non-euro countries are provided a guarantee against their portion of the loan. The guarantee, likely to come from a €3.6bn pool of profits on Greek bonds held by the ECB, was the last thing being hammered out in the deal.