Euro Zone Frees Greece of Half its Debts

[xchrom]

http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,794288,00.html

Normally, European leaders have nothing against extended bargaining sessions with seemingly no end in sight. But on Wednesday night, they gave themselves a deadline. Belgian Prime Minister Yves Leterme announced prior to the meeting that the 17 heads of state from the euro zone would have to finish up their haggling before the first markets opened in Asia. Otherwise, he seemed to suggest, global stock prices would plummet on Thursday morning.

And yet, summit participants ignored one deadline after another. At 2 a.m., the markets opened in Japan, but euro-zone leaders continued to haggle. At 3 a.m., Singapore opened, and the meetings were still going on.

It was only just before 4 a.m. -- the stock exchanges in Shanghai and Hong Kong had already begun trading -- that a visibly exhausted French President Nicolas Sarkozy stepped before the press in Brussels. Euro-zone leaders, he announced, had agreed with private creditors on a 50 percent reduction in Greece's debt burden.

The announcement was consistent with the number which had dominated the headlines for days. Euro-zone leaders had reached their primary goal.

[customerserviceguy]

1. So what are they going to do

when Italy, Ireland, Portugal and Spain all want the same deal, or something like it?

[xchrom]

2. good question. nt

[CanonRay]

3. So what happens to the 50% that disappears?

I mean, who holds the paper? What do they get, if anything. Who gets to pick which 50% is gone, and which might still be paid? Somebody got screwed, and I bet it isn't the banksters.

[bemildred]

4. Let the haircuts begin.

More details needed.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

5. Indeed. Are the banks eating them or the governments paying it off for Greece

[bemildred]

6. An interesting question, my money would be on the banks (eating things, I mean).

That would be a useful measure of where real power resides. However, things are so obfuscated and imaginary these days that the answer may not be well-defined.