The Downward Spiral in Greece

(cc photo by simon_music)

French president-elect François Hollande has launched a preemptive attack blaming outgoing president Nicolas Sarkozy for the huge budget deficit of France. Given Hollande wants to tax millionaires 75%, I find it quite ironic that Hollande blames the problem on "hidden taxes" of Sarkozy. Please consider Brussels raises alert over French deficit

One of the political challenges America faced during the financial crisis was that saving the economy has meant saving some of the actors who caused the crash in the first place. That was, to some degree, an oversimplification: We supported the policies (and politicians, and regulators) that allowed the bubble to build, and we sure loved those cheap loans and all that easy money. But it made responding to the crisis a lot more difficult.

Greece needs to avoid across-the-board budget cuts that disproportionately hurt pensioners and employees as it moves into the next phase of its bailout and tries to restore growth, the International Monetary Fund said. Three years after receiving its first international bailout, with a debt burden that is still too high, Greece needs in-depth changes to its economy to both meet its fiscal targets and attract investors, the IMF said.

The Cyprus government is scrambling to find alternative ways to fund its part of a European Union bailout, including asking for help in Moscow, after the island’s parliament resoundingly rejected the terms initially agreed. The lawmakers’ vote was seen as a complete denunciation of the controversial plan to levy a one-time tax on bank deposits of Cypriots and non-Cypriots alike. Despite the international uproar that the bailout has generated, the E.U. shows no sign of budging from its insistence that Cyprus itself must fund a part of its own rescue package.

The Cyprus government is scrambling to find alternative ways to fund its part of a European Union bailout, including asking for help in Moscow, after the island’s parliament resoundingly rejected the terms initially agreed. The lawmakers’ vote was seen as a complete denunciation of the controversial plan to levy a one-time tax on bank deposits of Cypriots and non-Cypriots alike. Despite the international uproar that the bailout has generated, the E.U. shows no sign of budging from its insistence that Cyprus itself must fund a part of its own rescue package.