Wednesday, May 20, 2015

Thursday May 21 Housing and Economic stories


Greece raids emergency account to repay debt  - (news.yahoo.com) Greece admitted Tuesday it was scraping the bottom of the barrel for cash as another huge debt repayment loomed, adding pressure to reach a rescue deal with its EU-IMF creditors to avoid default and crashing out of the eurozone. Athens only managed to repay 750 million euros ($845 million) due Tuesday to the International Monetary Fund after tapping into an emergency account, a central bank source told AFP as alarm grew over Greece's dire finances. But billions more in loan repayments are due over the next three months, and Greece's Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis warned that his country risked running out of cash within two weeks if no deal was reached by then with its international creditors to unlock the last tranche of aid funds. The crisis sent European stocks sinking Tuesday, mirroring sentiments across Asia and on Wall Street.

Second Largest Coal Miner East Of The Mississippi Files For Bankruptcy: 4000 Patriot Coal Jobs In Peril - (www.zerohedge.com) At last check Patriot Coal had around 4000 employees. Those soon to be former employees will soon require yet another massive seasonal adjustment by the BLS to be "adjusted" out, because moments ago the second largest coal miner east of the Mississippi and the second largest producer of thermal coal in the eastern US filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy. As part of its filing, the Peabody spinoff announced it had obtained a $100 million DIP, which will be used to fund the company until it finds a "strategic buyer" or otherwise restructures its balance sheet. Alas, with the price of coal being where it is these days, the most likely outcome for ticker formerly known as PCX is an outright liquidation and another 4000 people in the rest belt left without jobs who, just like the case of Denny Ryder of Decatur, IL, will promptly disappear from the labor force so as not to spoil the US "recovery" propaganda.

Greece's 'war cabinet' prepares to battle EU creditors as anger mounts - (www.telegraph.co.uk)  The country's radical-Left leaders have concluded that there is little to be gained from any further concessions to EMU creditors. Greece's "war cabinet" has resolved to defy the European creditor powers after a nine-hour meeting on Sunday, ensuring a crescendo of brinkmanship as the increasingly bitter fight comes to a head this month. Premier Alexis Tsipras and the leading figures of his Syriza movement agreed to defend their "red lines" on pensions and collective bargaining and prepare for battle whatever the consequences, deeming the olive-branch policy of recent weeks to have reached a dead end. "We have agreed on a tougher strategy to stop making compromises. We were unified and we have a spring our step once again," said one participant. The Syriza government knows that this an extremely high-risk strategy. The Greek treasury is already empty and emergency funds seized from local authorities and state entities will soon run out.

Greece Effectively Defaults To IMF Using SDR Reserves To "Repay" Fund; 1 Month Countdown Begins - (www.zerohedge.com) When Monday’s Eurogroup meeting concluded without an agreement between Greece and its creditors, it should have been game over for Athens. With pensioners at their breaking point and with local governments reluctant to comply with a decree mandating a sweep of excess cash reserves, the idea that Greece would somehow be able to scrape together €750 million euros to make a scheduled payment to the IMF today seemed far-fetched at best which is whywe asked the following question Monday afternoon: Where, if not from local governments who have been extremely reluctant to comply with Athens' cash sweep decree, and if not from the IMF which will apparently not be paying itself tomorrow after all, is Greece going to get three quarters of a billion euros in the next 12 hours? We now know the answer to that question. As Bloomberg reports, citing Kathimerini, Greece tapped IMF reserves to pay .. well, to pay the IMF: Greece used up ~EU650m reserves from its SDR IMF holdings account to meet loan payment of ~EU750m due to Fund today, Kathimerini newspaper reports, without citing anyone.

Greece avoids default with IMF payment but warns of imminent crisis - (news.yahoo.com) Greece narrowly averted a default Tuesday that could have seen it crashing out of the euro, but warned it faced another cash crunch within two weeks without a bailout deal with its EU financiers. Athens's radical new government managed to scrape enough cash together Monday to place the order for the repayment of 750 million euros ($840 million) of IMF loans, the finance ministry said, pledging to honour both its international and domestic debt obligations. Greece won some support in the latest round of debt talks as it battles to keep itself solvent, but eurozone finance ministers demanded more key reforms before they agree to release the final 7.2-billion-euro tranche of its EU-IMF bailout.


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