Time running out fast for Greece and its novel ideas about how to secure a deal

23/3/15

  

Time running out fast for Greece and its novel ideas about how to secure a deal.

German leader Angela Merkel and Greek PM Alexis Tsipras meet again tonight in an attempt to find some common ground, and The Financial Times ("Greece's leader warns Merkel .....", p.1) has gained access to a letter written by Mr Tsipras on March 15 in which he warned that the schedule of debt repayments is impossible to meet. Without a further deal being done, Greece could run out of cash by the end of April.

A leader in the Economist ("Dangerous Liaisons", p.10) looks at some of Greece's extraordinary attempts to force the euro zone into some sort of compromise ...... extraordinary that is unless you believe that something little short of blackmail will serve them well. Firstly, they have reissued a claim of $170 billion in war reparations against Germany. Actually, some influential Germans consider there to be some merit in the claim, but nobody belies that it should be tied to current negotiations. Then, the Greek defence minister threatened to flood Europe with immigrants, and now Greece is showing signs of cosying up to President Putin and Russia. Even disregarding the circulation of an old video allegedly showing Finance Minister Varoufakis "giving the finger" to Germany, this all seems like a strange way to court favour.

The UK election  .... the SNP gets nasty

We have regularly looked at the rationale behind the strength of sterling and sterling-backed assets ahead of May's UK election. Today all the UK papers, and particularly the Times "We'll hold Labour to ransom...." p.1 , Leader p.29) cover former SNP leader (and still the party's pre-eminent heavyweight) Alex Salmond's assertion that any post-election deal between the Labour party and the SNP would give the latter huge sway over government decisions. Despite enormous fundamental differences between the two parties, a Labour / SNP pact remains very possible. The latter's commitment to more tax and more spending and a desire to break up the union whilst playing a key role in running it means that at some stage investors may want to re-examine things