Greek crisis

#1

The Athens Stock Exchange has fallen by 22.87% on Monday as trading resumed after a five-week closure.

The country’s top four lenders - Piraeus Bank, National Bank, Alpha Bank, and Eurobank - were all down by about 30%.

The bourse was shut just before Athens imposed capital controls at the height of the debt crisis.

Traders had predicted sharp losses as a result of pent-up trading.

Banks account for about a fifth of the main Athens index.

Although Greece struck a bailout deal with its creditors last month, political in-fighting in Athens over the conditions could still result in prime minister Alexis Tsipras calling an early election.

The Greek economy has begun to reverse the gains it was making before Mr Tsipras’s Syriza-led coalition took power in January on an anti-austerity platform.

The European Commission expects Greece to go back into recession this year, with the economy contracting by between 2% and 4%.

The Greek economy was in recession for six years until 2014.

I doubt that the new emergency loan will last for three years.

#2

I don’t see the point of any of this. Giving them billions more in loans won’t help the situation they’re in. It just prolongs the inevitable: their economy crashing and they leave the euro. They should drop the euro and start a new currency. It’ll be very rough, but it’s the only sensible conclusion.

The euro currency was an ill-advised plan. They should have had two separate currencies. One for the northern European countries which have stronger economies and one for the southern European countries which have weaker economies, but their “united Europe” sentiment is what prevents that from happening.

#3

The stock exchange is also falling today.