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Feb 12

9

Video: Greek economic crisis nears breaking point

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>> the ongoing debt crisis in greece . there is growing optimism that leaders will be able to secure a new bailout for the troubled country, a deal that can’t come soon enough for the people of greece . keith miller is in athens with the latest on this. good morning to you.

>> reporter: good morning, matt. the greek government is under tremendous pressure to reach a deal, a new bailout. if they can’t reach an agreement, greece could be the first country in the european monetary union to default. that would send the economy here into a death spiral. there are already signs of an economy in collapse. soup kitchens and bread lines are packed with people without jobs and little hope of finding one. leo’s work as a painter of icons dried up. at the age of 64, he lost everything. he had nowhere to go.

>> i grabbed warm clothes, books and ten boiled eggs and i left the house. i found myself in the park.

>> reporter: greece , like leo, is bankrupt. for decades the country lived well and worked little, all on borrowed money. now greece is suffering under severe austerity measures imposed by its neighbors as conditions for a bailout.

>> if you walk down the streets of athens , you notice that the lights are going out in a number of apartments. it’s not that they’re empty. they’re occupied but people can’t afford the utility bill anymore.

>> reporter: the basic fabric of life is unraveling. suicides up 40%. homicide and violent crime up almost 100%. and cuts in social services so deep it is making the greeks sick, literally. hospital admissions jumped 24%, even as hospital budgets were cut by 40%. dr. kanikis has seen the number of patients visiting this charity clinic quadruple.

>> we have people who are starving, people looking for doctors in medicine.

>> reporter: to pay down debt the government cut the salaries of public employees by 40%. at the same time increaseded sales tax to 23%. a gallon of dpas lean now costs almost $10.

>> i’m angry with the government. whose fault is it? the government’s. it’s not the taxpayers’ fault.

>> reporter: the words tragedy and — are greek in origin. the negotiations continued this morning but the greeks are going to have to make more concessions concessions, more cuts in jobs, salaries and benefits in order to get the funds to keep this country afloat. matt?

>> keith miller in athens on this story this morning. thank you very much. it’s 12

Source: http://video.today.msnbc.msn.com/today/46308287/

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Jan 12

11

Monti govt faces 1st scandal, minister quits

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ROME (AP) ? Italian Premier Mario Monti’s new government suffered its first ethics casualty Tuesday with the resignation of a top official who allegedly received complimentary vacations at an exclusive Tuscan resort.

Carlo Malinconico, Monti’s undersecretary, quit Tuesday although he insisted he did nothing wrong.

Italian media have reported that a businessman under investigation for alleged corruption in a public contracts case paid at least part of the euro19,876 (over $25,000) bill for Malinconico’s summer weekend getaways in 2007 and 2008 at the five-star Il Pellicano resort on the Tuscan coast.

Il Pellicano, located in Porto Ercole, is one of Italy’s most exclusive resorts, with high season rooms this year ranging from euro630 to euro2,500 ($800 to $3,200) a night.

Monti’s government came into office in November pledging transparency and rigor to help rescue Italy from financial disaster, imposing tough austerity measures that include higher taxes and pension cuts.

Monti, a well-respected economist and former European commissioner, insisted that his government of technocrats be free of any conflicts of interest or other impediments as they demand financial sacrifices from ordinary Italians.

The Malinconico case represented this government’s first hint of scandal, and Monti dispatched with it quickly, accepting Malinconico’s resignation after meeting with him Tuesday.

In a statement, Monti thanked Malinconico for his “sense of responsibility in putting the public interest before any other consideration.” The statement noted that Malinconico says he had acted properly.

At the time of the resort stays, Malinconico was the secretary general in Romano Prodi’s center-left government.

In a statement Monday, Malinconico said he had asked an acquaintance, Angelo Balducci, for help in securing high-season reservations at Il Pellicano and only found out later that he had also paid the bill.

Balducci at the time was the well-regarded president of a public works commission, but he has since been embroiled in a corruption scandal over contracts for the 2009 Group of Eight summit in L’Aquila. r

News reports citing telephone wiretaps have recently said a businessman also under investigation in the G8 case actually gave Balducci the cash to pay the Malinconico bill.

In his statement, Malinconico insisted he had never done any favors for either Balducci or the businessman, Francesco Maria De Vito Piscicelli. He said he had tried to pay but the hotel told him the bill was already paid. He said he only found out recently that Piscicelli had made the payment.

The high-end vacations that are a staple of Italy’s political elite have come under fire recently amid suggestions the politicians are either getting things for free or are simply earning far more than a public servant should in times of financial crisis.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2012-01-10-EU-Italy-Financial-Crisis/id-dfd09be95e694fb3b37fb8895ee2da48

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Nov 11

17

Asia stocks rise as Europe stabilizes, Japan grows (AP)

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BANGKOK ? Asian stocks rose sharply Monday after Japan’s economy grew for the first time in four quarters and Europe moved closer to resolving a debt crisis that threatens to hurl the region into recession.

Benchmark oil hovered near $99 per barrel while the dollar gained against the euro but fell against the yen.

The Nikkei 225 index in Tokyo added 1.1 percent to 8,603.70. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng surged 2.2 percent to 19,564.67 and South Korea’s Kospi climbed 2.1 percent to 1,902.81

Benchmarks in Singapore, Australia, and mainland China were also higher.

Hopeful signs emerged over the weekend from Europe after Silvio Berlusconi reluctantly bowed to market pressure and resigned as Italy’s premier. His successor, economist Mario Monti, faces the monumental task of enacting profound reforms aimed at preventing Italy from defaulting on its huge debts.

Unlike Greece, Portugal and Ireland ? which have received emergency financial help from international lenders ? Italy is considered much too big to bail out. Its next government must push through austerity measures to deal with euro1.9 trillion ($2.6 trillion) in debt.

“There is a silver lining from the past two weeks of political uncertainties in Greece and Italy,” analysts at DBS Bank Ltd. in Singapore said in a report. “Both countries now have leaders who are not only closer to the European Union, but are also moving towards forming technocratic governments better suited to implement much needed reforms.”

Investment confidence was also boosted after Japan released data showing its economy ? sent into recession by a record earthquake ? had surged in the latest quarter. The economy jumped 6 percent, the first expansion for the world’s No. 3 economy in four quarters.

The surge comes as Japan claws its way out of a crisis stemming from an earthquake and tsunami that decimated factories across the country’s northeast on March 11.

Since then, the country has steadily restored its factories, helping the economy rebound despite the threats of a financial crisis in Europe, slowing global economy and a strong yen.

In Greece, there was good news Friday, as former central banker Lucas Papademos was sworn in as interim prime minister following a political crisis that jeopardized the country’s ability to continue receiving emergency loans.

Papademos must now get his government to agree to a debt deal that will net the country billions of euros in acutely needed rescue money ? provided that it enacts painful austerity measures including tax hikes and sharp cuts in public spending.

Without the rescue money, Greece’s faces insolvency and a massive default on its debts ? an event that experts believe could set off a banking crisis and eventually blow up into an all-out European recession.

But some analysts suggested Europe’s crisis was already beyond repair and that no realistic amount of budget-cutting or aid could revive Greece’s comatose economy or relieve Italy of the mountain of IOUs that it is sitting on.

“I am not very optimistic. All those who think the euro has stabilized or that Europe has stability, I think they are wrong,” said Tom Kaan of Louis Capital Markets in Hong Kong. “The risk is still very much out there.”

Rising energy prices helped lift resource shares. Hong Kong-listed China Coal Energy Co. rose 4 percent. China National Offshore Oil Corp. gained 3.3 percent.

High-tech shares also advanced. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing rose 3.3 percent and South Korea’s Hynix Semiconductor, the world’s second-largest memory chip maker, added 3.9 percent.

A resumption of service by bullet trains that had been recalled following a deadly crash in July sent Chinese rail shares bounding. Hong Kong-listed China Railway Group soared 7 percent and China Railway Construction Co. jumped 7.1 percent.

State-owned Xinhua news Agency quoted a Ministry of Railways official as saying that the trains have been repaired and would start entering service on Wednesday.

Still, plenty of uncertainty hangs over financial markets as traders await U.S. economic data. Reports on October retail sales, inflation and housing data are due this week, starting Tuesday.

Despite its 2.5 percent growth rate last quarter, the U.S. economy remains fragile. The Federal Reserve recently lowered its economic outlook for 2012. The central bank predicted that the economy will grow at a rate of about 2.7 percent next year. That is a full percentage point below a forecast from June, and below the 3 to 5 percent annual growth rate that is considered healthy.

On Wall Street, stocks surged Friday after Italy and Greece moved closer to getting their financial crises under control.

The Dow Jones industrial average jumped or 2.2 percent to 12,153.68. The S&P 500 rose 1.9 percent to 1,263.85. The Nasdaq composite rose or 2 percent to 2,678.75.

Benchmark crude for December delivery was down 1 cent at $98.98 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose $1.21 to settle at $98.99 in New York on Friday.

In currency trading, the euro rose to $1.3755 from $1.3747 late Friday in New York. The dollar fell to 77.14 yen from 77.17 yen.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/stocks/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111114/ap_on_bi_ge/world_markets

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