Merkel Needs Opposition Party Votes to Pass Cyprus Bailout

Germany approved the Cyprus bailout on Thursday as expected. However, Merkel required votes from the SPD and Green Party, to do so.

One might not understand the implications when reading the Wall Street Journal report Germany Approves Cyprus Bailout.

Germany’s parliament on Thursday voted in favor of aid for troubled Cyprus by a large majority, giving Chancellor Angela Merkel’s euro-crisis policies broad backing in the face of opposition criticism ahead of fall elections.

Despite a federal election in Germany just five months away, the ruling coalition led by Ms. Merkel succeeded in convincing coalition lawmakers and the main opposition parties—the Social Democrats and Greens—that the negotiated deal serves German interests, and a rejection would rattle the euro zone and lead to a Cypriot bankruptcy.

“Germany got what it wanted from the bailout,” said Christian Schulz, senior economist at Berenberg Bank.

What vs. How

Merkel may have gotten “what” she wanted. I rather doubt she got it “how” she wanted. Reader Bernd from Germany explains …

“The falling apart of CDU/ CSU and FDP coalition is beginning to show in all seriousness now. If Bundestag needs to vote one more time before the federal elections (i.e. on Slovenia, Spain, France), the Government might not make it.”

Mike “Mish” Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com

Mike “Mish” Shedlock is a registered investment advisor representative for SitkaPacific Capital Management. Sitka Pacific is an asset management firm whose goal is strong performance and low volatility, regardless of market direction. Visit http://www.sitkapacific.com/account_management.html to learn more about wealth management and capital preservation strategies of Sitka Pacific.

Mish’s Global Economic Trend Analysis

Merkel Needs Opposition Party Votes to Pass Cyprus Bailout

Slovenia Rules Out Bailout; Translation: "Slovenia Bailout Coming Right Up"

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An official denial is in: Slovenia Rules Out Bailout. Here is my interpretation: “A bailout is already in the works, only the date of the announcement is uncertain”.

Slovenia insisted on Tuesday that it could avoid an international bailout as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development warned Ljubljana to tackle more rapidly a “severe banking crisis” whose costs it might have underestimated.

The OECD report came amid investor concerns that the 2m-strong country’s banking problems could make it the next eurozone state to require a bailout after last month’s mishandled rescue of Cyprus.

The OECD said Slovenia should sell viable state-owned banks and allow others that were not viable to fail. It added that bank debtholders should take some losses to reduce the cost of banking sector resolution, and warned that Slovenia might have “significantly” underestimated the level of bad loans and need for new capital.

But Yves Leterme, OECD deputy director-general, said while presenting the report that Slovenia was in no immediate need of rescue, noting that “the government … has been able to meet its financial needs without difficulties so far”.

Speaking in Brussels, Slovenia’s Alenka Bratusek, the newly-installed prime minister, said the country did not require an international rescue to shore up the teetering banking system.

“We will solve our problems on our own,” she said, after a meeting with José Manuel Barroso, European Commission president.

Slovenia On Its Own

Slovenia will solve its problems on its own just like Ireland did, just like Greece did, just like Portugal did, just like Spain did, just like Cyprus did: Under duress, with threats of eurozone expulsion if the nannycrats in Brussels are not pleased.

Mike “Mish” Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com

Mike “Mish” Shedlock is a registered investment advisor representative for SitkaPacific Capital Management. Sitka Pacific is an asset management firm whose goal is strong performance and low volatility, regardless of market direction. Visit http://www.sitkapacific.com/account_management.html to learn more about wealth management and capital preservation strategies of Sitka Pacific.

Mish’s Global Economic Trend Analysis

Slovenia Rules Out Bailout; Translation: "Slovenia Bailout Coming Right Up"

EU Warns Portugal on Austerity Measures; Portugal Faces Fresh Spending Cuts; Second Bailout Coming Up

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As expected, Brussels rejected the Inane Plan “B” Measure to Pay Workers in T-Bills following a Portuguese court ruling that certain austerity measures are unconstitutional.

Reuters reports Portugal must stick to agreed budget targets to get loan extension.

And so Portugal faces fresh cuts to spending.

Portugal’s prime minister says the government will have to cut spending on health, education and social security to keep the country’s €78bn bailout programme on track.

Mr Passos Coelho said he had no alternative after the court decision but to make extra spending cuts that would have a significant impact on the welfare state. The budgets of state-owned companies would also be cut, he said but the premier ruled out more tax rises on top of record increases introduced in January.

“I have ordered ministries to cut expenditure to compensate for the effects of the court decision,” he said.

Mr Passos Coelho also faces a difficult task to convince international lenders that new spending cuts will keep deficit-reduction plans on target.

The decision by Mr Passos to cut spending on the welfare state is likely to intensify opposition pressure on the government to resign, potentially opening the way to an early general election.

“We have to do everything possible to avoid a second bailout,” the prime minister said.

Read that last line carefully. It is an admission Portugal is in need of a second bailout. One is coming up.

Mike “Mish” Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com  

Mike “Mish” Shedlock is a registered investment advisor representative for SitkaPacific Capital Management. Sitka Pacific is an asset management firm whose goal is strong performance and low volatility, regardless of market direction. Visit http://www.sitkapacific.com/account_management.html to learn more about wealth management and capital preservation strategies of Sitka Pacific.

Mish’s Global Economic Trend Analysis

EU Warns Portugal on Austerity Measures; Portugal Faces Fresh Spending Cuts; Second Bailout Coming Up

EU Warns Portugal on Austerity Measures; Portugal Faces Fresh Spending Cuts; Second Bailout Coming Up

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As expected, Brussels rejected the Inane Plan “B” Measure to Pay Workers in T-Bills following a Portuguese court ruling that certain austerity measures are unconstitutional.

Reuters reports Portugal must stick to agreed budget targets to get loan extension.

And so Portugal faces fresh cuts to spending.

Portugal’s prime minister says the government will have to cut spending on health, education and social security to keep the country’s €78bn bailout programme on track.

Mr Passos Coelho said he had no alternative after the court decision but to make extra spending cuts that would have a significant impact on the welfare state. The budgets of state-owned companies would also be cut, he said but the premier ruled out more tax rises on top of record increases introduced in January.

“I have ordered ministries to cut expenditure to compensate for the effects of the court decision,” he said.

Mr Passos Coelho also faces a difficult task to convince international lenders that new spending cuts will keep deficit-reduction plans on target.

The decision by Mr Passos to cut spending on the welfare state is likely to intensify opposition pressure on the government to resign, potentially opening the way to an early general election.

“We have to do everything possible to avoid a second bailout,” the prime minister said.

Read that last line carefully. It is an admission Portugal is in need of a second bailout. One is coming up.

Mike “Mish” Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com  

Mike “Mish” Shedlock is a registered investment advisor representative for SitkaPacific Capital Management. Sitka Pacific is an asset management firm whose goal is strong performance and low volatility, regardless of market direction. Visit http://www.sitkapacific.com/account_management.html to learn more about wealth management and capital preservation strategies of Sitka Pacific.

Mish’s Global Economic Trend Analysis

EU Warns Portugal on Austerity Measures; Portugal Faces Fresh Spending Cuts; Second Bailout Coming Up

Regrets Pour In; Cyprus Parliament Passes Bailout Plan; Will Her Highness Approve?

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The Cypriot parliament passed bailout measures today, but they are not quite the measures that Her Highness, Angela Merkel approves. They are not measures Cypriot citizens will approve of either.

Let’s take a look at the present state of blackmail, as passed by Cyprus and reported by the BBC.

MPs in Cyprus have voted to restructure the island’s banks – one of several measures to ease the crisis, which has hit confidence in the eurozone. They have also approved a “national solidarity fund” and capital controls to prevent a bank run. MPs did not vote on a key measure – a levy on large bank deposits. They rejected similar moves on Tuesday.

The “solidarity fund” would allow the pooling of state assets for an emergency bond issue, reports the Reuters news agency. These include future gas revenues and some pension funds – an idea that German Chancellor Angela Merkel has strongly condemned.

Ms Merkel had warned Cyprus not to “exhaust the patience of its eurozone partners”, reports say.

Businesses in Cyprus have been insisting on payment in cash, rejecting card and cheque transactions. “We have pressure from our suppliers who want only cash,” Demos Strouthos, manager of a restaurant in central Nicosia, told AFP news agency.

Our correspondent says he has never seen this much pressure being applied to a member state by the rest of the eurozone community in recent years.

Regrets Pour In

The Financial Times reports Cyprus laments end of way of life

When he was finance minister a decade ago, Takis Klerides helped steer Cyprus into the EU and the single currency, a defining achievement for a once-impoverished island nation that is far closer to Beirut than Brussels.

But on Friday, with Cypriots contemplating the steep price of an EU bailout, Mr Klerides sounded like a man with regrets.

“We found out the hard way that it’s not a family,” he said of the EU, arguing that the bloc’s biggest members “dictate the terms and everyone else falls in line. It’s becoming a dictatorship.”

“The European project is crashing to earth,” Athanasios Orphanides, who until recently served as central bank governor, said in a separate interview in which he dubbed Cyprus’ treatment by European leaders “the bullying of a people”.

Nicos Michaelas, the general manager of an investment company, Demetra Investment, put it even more bluntly: “We expected our European friends to help and they put a gun to our heads.”

Hello Cyprus, Please Meet Reality

Merkel does not give a damn about you, all she cares about is her September reelection prospects and hardball with you helps those chances. But please, don’t take it personal.

Mike “Mish” Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com

Mike “Mish” Shedlock is a registered investment advisor representative for SitkaPacific Capital Management. Sitka Pacific is an asset management firm whose goal is strong performance and low volatility, regardless of market direction. Visit http://www.sitkapacific.com/account_management.html to learn more about wealth management and capital preservation strategies of Sitka Pacific.

Mish’s Global Economic Trend Analysis

Regrets Pour In; Cyprus Parliament Passes Bailout Plan; Will Her Highness Approve?

Regrets Pour In; Cyprus Parliament Passes Bailout Plan; Will Her Highness Approve?

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The Cypriot parliament passed bailout measures today, but they are not quite the measures that Her Highness, Angela Merkel approves. They are not measures Cypriot citizens will approve of either.

Let’s take a look at the present state of blackmail, as passed by Cyprus and reported by the BBC.

MPs in Cyprus have voted to restructure the island’s banks – one of several measures to ease the crisis, which has hit confidence in the eurozone. They have also approved a “national solidarity fund” and capital controls to prevent a bank run. MPs did not vote on a key measure – a levy on large bank deposits. They rejected similar moves on Tuesday.

The “solidarity fund” would allow the pooling of state assets for an emergency bond issue, reports the Reuters news agency. These include future gas revenues and some pension funds – an idea that German Chancellor Angela Merkel has strongly condemned.

Ms Merkel had warned Cyprus not to “exhaust the patience of its eurozone partners”, reports say.

Businesses in Cyprus have been insisting on payment in cash, rejecting card and cheque transactions. “We have pressure from our suppliers who want only cash,” Demos Strouthos, manager of a restaurant in central Nicosia, told AFP news agency.

Our correspondent says he has never seen this much pressure being applied to a member state by the rest of the eurozone community in recent years.

Regrets Pour In

The Financial Times reports Cyprus laments end of way of life

When he was finance minister a decade ago, Takis Klerides helped steer Cyprus into the EU and the single currency, a defining achievement for a once-impoverished island nation that is far closer to Beirut than Brussels.

But on Friday, with Cypriots contemplating the steep price of an EU bailout, Mr Klerides sounded like a man with regrets.

“We found out the hard way that it’s not a family,” he said of the EU, arguing that the bloc’s biggest members “dictate the terms and everyone else falls in line. It’s becoming a dictatorship.”

“The European project is crashing to earth,” Athanasios Orphanides, who until recently served as central bank governor, said in a separate interview in which he dubbed Cyprus’ treatment by European leaders “the bullying of a people”.

Nicos Michaelas, the general manager of an investment company, Demetra Investment, put it even more bluntly: “We expected our European friends to help and they put a gun to our heads.”

Hello Cyprus, Please Meet Reality

Merkel does not give a damn about you, all she cares about is her September reelection prospects and hardball with you helps those chances. But please, don’t take it personal.

Mike “Mish” Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com

Mike “Mish” Shedlock is a registered investment advisor representative for SitkaPacific Capital Management. Sitka Pacific is an asset management firm whose goal is strong performance and low volatility, regardless of market direction. Visit http://www.sitkapacific.com/account_management.html to learn more about wealth management and capital preservation strategies of Sitka Pacific.

Mish’s Global Economic Trend Analysis

Regrets Pour In; Cyprus Parliament Passes Bailout Plan; Will Her Highness Approve?

Regrets Pour In; Cyprus Parliament Passes Bailout Plan; Will Her Highness Approve?

Tweet

The Cypriot parliament passed bailout measures today, but they are not quite the measures that Her Highness, Angela Merkel approves. They are not measures Cypriot citizens will approve of either.

Let’s take a look at the present state of blackmail, as passed by Cyprus and reported by the BBC.

MPs in Cyprus have voted to restructure the island’s banks – one of several measures to ease the crisis, which has hit confidence in the eurozone. They have also approved a “national solidarity fund” and capital controls to prevent a bank run. MPs did not vote on a key measure – a levy on large bank deposits. They rejected similar moves on Tuesday.

The “solidarity fund” would allow the pooling of state assets for an emergency bond issue, reports the Reuters news agency. These include future gas revenues and some pension funds – an idea that German Chancellor Angela Merkel has strongly condemned.

Ms Merkel had warned Cyprus not to “exhaust the patience of its eurozone partners”, reports say.

Businesses in Cyprus have been insisting on payment in cash, rejecting card and cheque transactions. “We have pressure from our suppliers who want only cash,” Demos Strouthos, manager of a restaurant in central Nicosia, told AFP news agency.

Our correspondent says he has never seen this much pressure being applied to a member state by the rest of the eurozone community in recent years.

Regrets Pour In

The Financial Times reports Cyprus laments end of way of life

When he was finance minister a decade ago, Takis Klerides helped steer Cyprus into the EU and the single currency, a defining achievement for a once-impoverished island nation that is far closer to Beirut than Brussels.

But on Friday, with Cypriots contemplating the steep price of an EU bailout, Mr Klerides sounded like a man with regrets.

“We found out the hard way that it’s not a family,” he said of the EU, arguing that the bloc’s biggest members “dictate the terms and everyone else falls in line. It’s becoming a dictatorship.”

“The European project is crashing to earth,” Athanasios Orphanides, who until recently served as central bank governor, said in a separate interview in which he dubbed Cyprus’ treatment by European leaders “the bullying of a people”.

Nicos Michaelas, the general manager of an investment company, Demetra Investment, put it even more bluntly: “We expected our European friends to help and they put a gun to our heads.”

Hello Cyprus, Please Meet Reality

Merkel does not give a damn about you, all she cares about is her September reelection prospects and hardball with you helps those chances. But please, don’t take it personal.

Mike “Mish” Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com

Mike “Mish” Shedlock is a registered investment advisor representative for SitkaPacific Capital Management. Sitka Pacific is an asset management firm whose goal is strong performance and low volatility, regardless of market direction. Visit http://www.sitkapacific.com/account_management.html to learn more about wealth management and capital preservation strategies of Sitka Pacific.

Mish’s Global Economic Trend Analysis

Regrets Pour In; Cyprus Parliament Passes Bailout Plan; Will Her Highness Approve?

Regrets Pour In; Cyprus Parliament Passes Bailout Plan; Will Her Highness Approve?

Tweet

The Cypriot parliament passed bailout measures today, but they are not quite the measures that Her Highness, Angela Merkel approves. They are not measures Cypriot citizens will approve of either.

Let’s take a look at the present state of blackmail, as passed by Cyprus and reported by the BBC.

MPs in Cyprus have voted to restructure the island’s banks – one of several measures to ease the crisis, which has hit confidence in the eurozone. They have also approved a “national solidarity fund” and capital controls to prevent a bank run. MPs did not vote on a key measure – a levy on large bank deposits. They rejected similar moves on Tuesday.

The “solidarity fund” would allow the pooling of state assets for an emergency bond issue, reports the Reuters news agency. These include future gas revenues and some pension funds – an idea that German Chancellor Angela Merkel has strongly condemned.

Ms Merkel had warned Cyprus not to “exhaust the patience of its eurozone partners”, reports say.

Businesses in Cyprus have been insisting on payment in cash, rejecting card and cheque transactions. “We have pressure from our suppliers who want only cash,” Demos Strouthos, manager of a restaurant in central Nicosia, told AFP news agency.

Our correspondent says he has never seen this much pressure being applied to a member state by the rest of the eurozone community in recent years.

Regrets Pour In

The Financial Times reports Cyprus laments end of way of life

When he was finance minister a decade ago, Takis Klerides helped steer Cyprus into the EU and the single currency, a defining achievement for a once-impoverished island nation that is far closer to Beirut than Brussels.

But on Friday, with Cypriots contemplating the steep price of an EU bailout, Mr Klerides sounded like a man with regrets.

“We found out the hard way that it’s not a family,” he said of the EU, arguing that the bloc’s biggest members “dictate the terms and everyone else falls in line. It’s becoming a dictatorship.”

“The European project is crashing to earth,” Athanasios Orphanides, who until recently served as central bank governor, said in a separate interview in which he dubbed Cyprus’ treatment by European leaders “the bullying of a people”.

Nicos Michaelas, the general manager of an investment company, Demetra Investment, put it even more bluntly: “We expected our European friends to help and they put a gun to our heads.”

Hello Cyprus, Please Meet Reality

Merkel does not give a damn about you, all she cares about is her September reelection prospects and hardball with you helps those chances. But please, don’t take it personal.

Mike “Mish” Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com

Mike “Mish” Shedlock is a registered investment advisor representative for SitkaPacific Capital Management. Sitka Pacific is an asset management firm whose goal is strong performance and low volatility, regardless of market direction. Visit http://www.sitkapacific.com/account_management.html to learn more about wealth management and capital preservation strategies of Sitka Pacific.

Mish’s Global Economic Trend Analysis

Regrets Pour In; Cyprus Parliament Passes Bailout Plan; Will Her Highness Approve?