Greek bondholders say time running out

[alp227]

Private holders of Greek bonds warned that time was running out to conclude a deal on banks and other investors voluntarily accepting losses as they tried to put pressure on eurozone governments.

After a meeting between the Greek government and leading representatives of the world’s top financial institutions in Athens, the co-heads of the investor committee negotiating with Greece said “some key areas remain unresolved”.

They called for support from “all official parties” to be given to the deal in the coming days, reflecting frustration from some bondholders at what they see as a hardline stance taken by the International Monetary Fund and others. “Discussions will continue in Athens [on Friday] but time for reaching an agreement is running short,” the investor group said.

Tensions have started to grow among creditors, who include most of the leading European financial institutions such as Allianz, Axa, BNP Paribas, Deutsche Bank and HSBC.

full: http://liveweb.archive.org/http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/95c47f4e-3d44-11e1-b0e4-00144feabdc0.html?ftcamp=rss#axzz1j2EfsvsR

[SoCalMusicLover]

1. I Have A Bridge For Trade

In case those bondholders are worried, I have bridge I could trade them for their bonds.

The bridge's value is worth about the same as the pieces of paper the bondholders are holding.

Time to kick the can again, and hope they are able to delay reality for a few more weeks/months.

[Yo_Mama]

2. It's a farce, anyway

Yeah, for the individual creditors it matters on their balance sheets, but does it matter more than tangentially for the Greeks?

The "deal" is supposed to bring Greek debt/GDP ratio down to 120% by 2020. That's all. The "50% haircut" is only applied to debt held by private creditors.

Greece cannot carry that debt load. If the deal were about a real deal - say writing it down half the debt to take the debt load to 80% of GDP - then this would matter.

Of course Greek banks are on tenterhooks, and as things are now legally, the Greeks won't get the money from Europe to pay off their creditors in March if the deal does not go through. As it currently is, matters will continue to degenerate and the Greek economy will too, and the suffering of the Greek people will continue. This makes no sense, and hasn't for some time.

When the cost to the Germans of putting money into the fund to keep paying Greek's creditors exceeds the cost to the Germans of letting the debt default, the Germans are going to stop putting money into the fund. Everyone knows this. Greece will then default. The Germans want to force them out of the Euro at that point, but it seems a pointlessly vindictive exercise to me. Anyway, Greece is going to default.

That matters for France, because it cannot really afford to bail out its own banks, but the Germans have already reached the point at which any additional payments to Greece don't make sense. This will collapse of its own weight quite soon.

[Javaman]

3. Inciteful rundown...

Thanks.