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WSJ Original article ›
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Jason Gay could have been talking about Zen Buddhism or a kind of yoga, no he is just talking about looking at the trees, open spaces outside, nature, being outside and not being bombarded with everyday distractions. Time spent outdoors in fresh air that opens the brain, he says, to sparks of creativity and inspiration.

The Guardian Original article ›
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These pictures of the Atacama desert and Patagonia in Chile, and the Los Flamencos Nature Reserve, in The Guardian, show reflections on Nature on quiet days. The pictures are being shown at the Woolahra Gallery in Sydney's eastern suburbs. Rae Begley shows a rainbow in Patagonia in one of the pictures after some rain on a walking day. Take a trip through this geological landscape and experience the breathing of the earth as a living organism, as Begley puts it.

NYTimes.com Original article ›
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Hiking and camping in the wilderness around Mount Hood, Oregon, and walking the meandering trail that connects Oregon to California along the coast. Only 15% of land is public in New York. In California, Oregon, Nevada and Idaho majority of the land is public. National Parks was an idea of Theodore Roosevelt and is the best way in America for all to find themselves equal under the canopy of nature. Under majestic fir and sequoia trees and wide skies there is a feeling of humbleness in the face of nature.

Travel + Leisure Original article ›
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The place is Spain, see adjacent article on places within Spain. If you know Spanish that is an added advantage to talk to the locals. It has changed over the years. In the 1990's one could go to Madrid and freely walk out of the Puerta de Atocha main train station there with little traffic. Over the years after the financial crisis Madrid and Spain suffered. Under PM Pedro it has recovered. Yet it is not the same with international tourism from China, India, US having made visits crowded and less friendly. There is the garbage can index for tourism that tells you something is wrong when garbage cans are overflowing- it happened as tourism jumped to France in the last 2 decades- with garbage overflowing outside Notre Dame before renovation. (After 1993 Japan removed all garbage cans from streets.) About 100 million tourist visited France in 2024 and 80 million to Spain. It brings $100 billion in tourism receipts to Spain and about $80 billion each for France and UK, so that it is a key source of revenue for countries. How to make trips that avoid the rush - careful planning for season and month, finding the right places depending on one's interests nature, history, science, or other, and avoiding tours as there are plenty of resources to do it on one's own, finding right places to stay and visit, using local transport, tram and speed trains in Europe, giving enough time for each place, talking to locals and taking a lesson on Rocket languages online which uses locals and practices word pronunciation so you sound like a local. ...
The Times Original article ›
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Nature recovery is seen as a better term than rewilding for letting nature take its own course on parts of the countryside to let the earth, aquifiers and underground water replenish itself. The head of Natural England, Tony Juniper, says the least productive land is better used for peat restoration or tree planting than for grazing animals. He argues for turning the 20% of the land that produces the least food into a "nature recovery area." He says he is not talking about putting huge parts of the countryside into natural recovery, just that in some parts it makes sense to let nature recover its natural functioning to rebuild the land and make it what it was in its original condition.

WSJ Original article ›
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In this WSJ post Musk is shown as having regrets on his posts in social media X. It only underscores the volatile nature of the activities of the Tesla founder which do a disservice to the genuine work of cutting costs- something that we have shown was taken up by Harry Truman during the spending in World War II with much grace and by walking in the shipyards and factories of the US without the constant chatter of social media posts. This is what made a mark for Truman in the US Congress leading to the vice presidency, and then in 1944 the presidency, and again in 1952 barnstorming the country by railcar to win over Wendell Wilkie in 1948.  President Jimmy Carter started Planning Programming Budgeting systems which is a truly effective way to budget by simply asking that all budget items be prepared from scratch from zero each year so that spending from past years does not simply getting carried over.  As Susie Wiles and other Republicans around DJT know it is important to keep the long term in mind and act responsibly, speak responsibly to the American people, in the manner Lincoln would have done today. ...
WSJ Original article ›
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Grant is remembered for his humility in talking to a black union soldier who as a member of the police force stopped him for speeding. What is less known is the story about the sudden reversal in his health and finances after he left office, his effort to finish his memoirs in the last year of his life stricken with cancer. Noonan has left it to readers to draw meaning, wisdom and virtue, from Grant's experience. Grant, who led the Union forces in the last years of the American Civil War in the 1860's was next only to Lincoln in the country's estimation as the war ended. Humility is the main part of virtue and Grant was all the better for having it. This applies to all past and future presidents. Divine providence and the power of Nature has its own ways and there are no exceptions.  

DW.COM Original article ›
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From the country of "Feierabend" the much appreciated German term for cutting off the workday to do something else like biking or running which is very healthy way of living during the pandemic and everyday, come more German expressions which tell us  more about how to live.  "Na Wie Lauft's" is the German expression most people learn because it means "how are you running", and shows people you care about them. Here DW.com, looks at other German expressions with wonderful pictures of people and scenery in Germany to accompany each expression that has a soothing, calming effect on all. The meanings are given by DW.com, the German national broadcaster which also helps people learn German. "Die Dinge Laufen Lassen," is another German expression that has a Zen nature and is one that one take comfort in for its calming effect. It means "let things run their course, and everything will be alright in the end." "Noch in den Kinderschuhen stecken It means things are only in the early stages, beginning to develop, unfold, the ball is only beginning to roll. With it goes "Laufen Learnen" which means you have to walk before you can run. "Lugen Haben Kurze Beine" means "Lies have short legs." It suggests walking or running. It says you won't get far with lying, you won't get ahead with it, somebody will see through you. "Auf dem Ruder laufen" means to lose control of an oar while rowing a boat to stay on course. It also means hang tight and things will right themselves eventually. And to go with this is the German expression about learning the procedure or techniques for getting the work whatever it is done correctly. Wie est der Ablauf" how will things run, what is the procedure for doing it? Positive expressions from the images of running or walking at the time of the pandemic when this can have a soothing and calming effect.   ...
New York Times Original article ›
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Jim Yardley points out the controversial nature of the referendum in Greece on July 5, 2015. It is flawed in 3 respects- it makes no mention of Europe, the details of the agreement are not clear to voters, and the "No" vote is framed in terms of the "Oxi" or "No" vote of 1940 in Greece to Mussolini for annexation of Greece. No sane minded person can confirm that this has anything to do with the annexation of Greece by foreign powers. It had one additional flaw- the government and Tsipras simply went ahead and campaigned for a "No" without talking to its European partners. Landon Thomas Jr shows how the difficult dynamic and confrontation between the eurozone negotiator Dijsselbloem and the Greece negotiator led to the collapse of talks on June 25, 2015, playing right into the paranoia of an inexperienced Greece administration about the EU's intentions. Only over a week later July 7, 2015 the new Britain trained Greece negotiator Tsakalotos from St Pauls School and Oxford was able to change the very tone of negotiations leading to the Third Bailout Program. ...
Washington Post Original article ›
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Kevin Maurer looks back at 15 years of covering Afghanistan since 2004, and asks was it worth it.  The conflict has cost 145,000 lives for the U.S. period of the war alone. Not counting the war in which the Russians were involved in the decade before the U.S. involvement. In fact the Russian involvement in Afghanistan was costly enough to hasten the collapse of the Soviet Union and bring Gorbachev to power to unwind the war and make the changes that led to the collapse of the Berlin Wall.  2400 U.S. servicemen dead and 20,000 Americans wounded. The cost to the U.S. is $737 billion for this war, according to a report in 2018 from Brown University's Costs of War Project. Just as the Soviet Union showed the damage from this war the U.S. has seen the cost of this war and foreign entanglement in another war that started accidentally with international interventions in the Iran-Iraq region as a cost that was borne with consequences. This includes the neglect of infrastructure and the damage to the middle class prosperity built up in the 1950's and 1960's after the Second World War. The U.S. got into this war with 9/11 attacks on New York City. By 2010 what began as a war fought by a few Special Operations teams turned into a war with troop levels reaching 100,000. Presidents Bush and Obama both failed to end the war by winning it. In 2014 finally combat operations stopped and American troops mainly conducted anti-terrorism operations and trained Afghan forces. In recent years the war has gradually disappeared from the national discussion in the U.S. and is barely talked about. President Trump wants to end the war even if it means talking to the Taliban and negotiations directly with the Taliban are ongoing.  One result of this war is the aversion to costly international entanglements and the highly unpopular nature of the conflicts. There are serious costs of the conflict in terms of neglected domestic priorities including infrastructure, loss of U.S. technological edge in key industries, and the competition from China, an the investments in health, education, services that were not made, the increase in inequalities and the diminishing of the middle class. The global financial crisis of 2008, the result of faulty banking, added an economic dimension through the loss of middle class savings in the U.S., worsening the financial situation of the middle class in the U.S.    ...
Wall Street Journal Original article ›
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Jimmy Lai is one of the prominent Hong Kong businessmen who have actively spoken up for universal suffrage without screening of candidates by the government, instead of sitting by on the sidelines. He says he is not talking to the student leaders, and it is upto the young generation to take the initiative as it is about their future. At age 12 Lai was smuggled into Hong Kong by parents in Guangdong province in 1960, making him one of the older generation who has lived through the many changes in Hong Kong- from the British period, through the years of turmoil on the mainland in the seventies, the transition period and transfer to China under the Basic Law. He worked in factories instead of going to school, and later started his own clothing chain Giordano, followed by a move into media publishing. He is the publisher of the Apple daily and Next magazine publications which support the pro-democracy student movement. Lai says the roots of student protest are in the May Fourth Movement of 1919, a cherished part of Chinese history because it led to the awakening of China, sparked the interest in breaking away from the past leading to modernization, lasting for 2 decades till the Japanese invasion and Communist control. Lai says the protest movement is more mature than the movement in China at Tiananmen in June 1989. Another factor that makes this different is that the protest in Hong Kong does not chart out an indefinite future for China just when it is embarking on the path to modernization, the situation facing a cautious Deng in 1989 who experienced the chaos of the sixties and seventies. The movement in Hong Kong is about reinstating what is felt to be in the spirit of the Basic Law- universal suffrage in its true spirit and intent without prescreening candidates for 2017- it is a limited objective and does not risk the modernization drive, more likely to enhance it by keeping dialogue with the outside world open as China looks for new ideas to tackle many prblems left behind from the industrialization period of 1990-2014. ...
Wall Street Journal Original article ›
LyrArc Article Gist
The weak dollar and lower unionized labor costs may make exports an attractive goal for US carmakers as the US market is shrinking. After years of shunning export markets US carmakers may finally be waking up to the potential in places like Brazil, China and India. GM is considering export of the Malibu to Brazil, and expects to send 25,000 Buick Enclaves to China because the Buick brand sells very well there. With the new UAW agreemets and lower unionized costs, the US carmakers backs to the wall and open to trying new things and not so America centric, and a cheaper dollar, exports may be one more way in which US carmakers can revive the automobile business in a declinig uS market. It is possible that after this recession the US market may have matured to the point where US sales levels may have peaked like that in Japan and Germany and exports and international markets are the only ways to growth. In this sense the transformation to making the so called Big 3 into global companies has begun in earnest in a true sense, and their company structures and the kind of people who work there will in future reflect this global nature of their business. The UAW is on board in this effort, new wages are at $14 per hour for new hires, and the UAW understands that exports mean additional jobs. In fact the Lordstown, Ohio plant is one location for another GM small car in the future which would be exported, this 42 year old plant once a target for closure could then become an example of renewal in a new kind of business model. Note that the US exported $50.66 billion in vehicles, half of it to Mexico and Canada. It imported $150 billion in vehicles. From now on the shift wold be to export to emerging markets....
Washington Post Original article ›
LyrArc Article Gist
This interview with Donald Trump by the publisher, editors and columnists of The Washington Post, Ryan Jr., Hiatt, Lane, Marcus, Diehl, Armai, Attiah, provides an exceptional insight into the views of Donald Trump on domestic and foreign policy, on his campaign for president. It is the result of an effort to get Trump to state his policies on different issues without the fuzziness in which Trump has carried out his campaign, often taking different sides of the same issue. In some situations Trump is pressed hard on his positions or controversial statements, to clarify what he has not clarified in the burst of media attention Trump received in the past 6 months, especially on television media. First some myths and realities. A recent March 19, 2016, issue of the Economist cites the Pew Trust in showing that only about 17% of eligible Republican voters voted in the primaries. A person watching television news media coverage on Fox News, CNN, or MSNBC, would get the impression that the voter turnout was tremendous- this is not confirmed by the Pew Trust survey. The Economist points out that had the other eligible voters cast their ballots and even if Trump had a share of these votes, the results might look different. With a highly fragmented vote in the Republican primaries, and about half of the vote going to candidates other than Trump, Trump's voter support would add up to about 8-9% of eligible Republican voters based on the Pew Survey results. The question here would be is this a representative sample of the U.S. or of the Republican Party. And is one likely to make false generalizations about the nature of the Republican party from such a limited sample of voter opinion. Is voter sentiment inadequately reflected, and results hopelessly skewed because of the lack of good candidates in the Republican Party, and Trump's tactical rhetoric appealing to a group of working class Americans left out in the technological progress of the last decade. In the process is the hard work of the founders of the Republic, Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Madison and the framers of the Constitution being undone by a minority of disaffected voters with legitimate grievances on distribution of economic benefits of the technological progress, trade and global manufacturing networks- with a level of divisive rhetoric and decline in levels of public debate rarely seen. These are the clarifications sought from Trump and his response. Attiah raises the question of divisive rhetoric on minorities Hispanics and Black people- Trump says he is only talking about people here illegally, that he gets support from Hispanics here legally. He turns the question to Muslims and says there is a serious problem there that means being careful about how people are being admitted into the U.S. Questions about Trump's controversial statements about a wall with Mexico are not raised. Ryan pushes hard on the question of the libel laws standard that Trump says he is going to change, asking whether this would happen if Trump thinks the reporting "is wrong" but there is no malice. Trump wants the reporting to be fair for him, that reporters call him to check if he did this or that and why, before writing stuff about him, and he sees the reporting from the Post as very bad about him. He says his lawyers would have to tell the media, that he believes he should loosen up the standards so that this kind of coverage does not continue. On ISIS Trump pulls back when asked by Diehl about statements that suggested he would send the number of troops the generals wanted on the ground- estimated at 20,000 to 30,000- saying he would find it very, very, difficult to do that. On a nuclear option for ISIS Trump says he does not favor that. Suggesting that Trump like the other candidates in the election know there are no easy ways to tackle ISIS. Trump would rely on other countries in the region for help with troops on the ground, something that president Obama also favors, with limited results. Diehl also pushes hard on NATO- Trump says hundreds of billions of dollars are going to NATO and the whole burden for defending South Korea falls on the U.S. when it is not now a rich country that it once was. Diehl corrects him by saying for the public record that its not hundreds of billions, and South Korea, Japan pay 50% of the cost for defending their region. Trump wants to see 100% for the Korean peninsula defense borne by the South Koreans and Japan. Trump seees NATO as a good concept but needing more help from Germany, Poland, Baltics. At one point the Washington Post journalists tell Trump this is a position he shares with president Obama. Trump responds to questions from Hiatt about how he would handle the situations in black communities such as Ferguson, Missouri, and Baltimore, Maryland. Trump says he feels law enforcement is important and should play a big role in preventing the destruction of property from day one. He says jobs are what hurts inner cities but offers no solution about how to get the jobs lost in the steel industry for Baltimore, black neighborhoods sitting ironically next to the John Hopkins high technology university complex. Trump brings up the response that jobs could be created if the U.S. simply did not spend money on supporting nationbuilding overseas, a policy that president Obama has supported, and which the public has favored in the U.S. As Holman Jenkins brings up in a column on March 22, 2016 in the Wall Street Journal, these policies are being pursued today, and most of these jobs are not coming back so how would Trump bring them back or do anything about it, especially when Chinese workers in China's factories are being displaced by robotics in places such as Hon Hai factories. The more one thinks about it many of things Trump is saying are already being done, and there are no new solutions Mr. Trump has for today's problems of lack of upward mobility for the middle and working class- a priority for Sanders and Clinton also, not just for Trump. As a television personality and a candidate with a understanding of voter concerns, Trump artfully voices voter concerns of working class Americans for problems that defy easy solutions. Are there risks with Trump's approach that Trump has failed to think through or grasp? Does the unpredictable behaviour Trump suggests that would get allies thinking and trade partners responding lead to unpredictable consequences? Divisive rhetoric creates additional distractions in tackling the problems of the middle class and working class Americans. Divisive rhetoric within the NATO alliance would create additional distractions in tackling the problems of defending the European Union, such as using the very show of unpredictability. Diehl pushes Trump on this question. Would trade threats to China lead to a withdrawal from the Senkaku Islands by China? Trump says he thinks this would cause the Chinese to retreat . What if the Chinese see it differently, in their relations with Japan and South Korea, with a long difficult history, not necessarily in their relations with the U.S. Would a trade war hurt the global economy, and hurt confidence in U.S. fianncial markets just when the U.S. and European economies are staging a recovery, and when the economes of China, Japan and India are in a sensitive phase? These questions could not be raised because of time constraints, but must be on the minds of the editors of the Post and the WSJ, coming from different ends of the political spectrum. How would this help tackle the problem of upward mobility for working class Americans that all the candidates in the presidential election share? ...
WSJ Original article ›
LyrArc Article Gist
Brexit and Scotland's referendum both have similar consequences economically for Britain and Scotland. This hurts both countries in unwinding relationships built over many years, unwinding 44 year membership for Britain, and 310 year union for Scotland. Britain exports to EU are 45% of total exports, and for Scotland the number is 63% for exports to the rest of the UK.  Scots benefit about 1200 British pounds more for average citizen than a average citizen of UK, and pay 400 pounds less to the government. Scotland would start with a 90% debt to GDP ratio if it takes a proportionate share of UK government debt from the beginning of independence. Fidler correctly points out the economic risks to Britain and Scotland which are being ignored or not fully taken into account by politicians.

Wall Street Journal Original article ›
LyrArc Article Gist
Interview with Honda CEO Takeo Fukui. In June Honda will rollout a new hydrogenpowered fuel cell vehicle called the FCX Clarity. Its powered with electricity produced by combining hydrogen and oxygen in batterylike fuel cells. Honda will have this vehicle available for lease this summer in California and aims to deliver about 200 of these cars by 2010. Fukui's attitude is refreshing when compared to that of other automakers when answering a question by John Murphy of the WSJ about why try to build a hydrogen car when the stations to power the cars do not exist yet. He tells Murphy if you asked were there any gas stations when Henry Ford came up with the Model T, there weren't any, lets build the cars first and the infrastructure will follow. And Honda is working on the technology that will make it possible to charge hydrogen into fuel-cell vehicles at home . He sees it happening first in California and some other states, and in Japan and Europe. And he sees it taking about 10 years to get some sort of infrastructure in place. Considering the long term nature of the demand side with the gradual inclusion of billions of people in China and India as well as Brazil and Russia into the world economy as well as people in other developing countries this is a solution that takes patient and focused development of technology which Honda is setting out to do. He does not see a safety issue in use of hydrogen vehicles as he is confident Honda can develop the expertise to handle the safety issue for hydrogen. What is his thinking on green vehicles? What happened to the Insight the first hybrid car that Honda introduced? The Insight was never intended to be a mass seller, only to establish Honda's record as having the best record in fuel efficiency. What is Honda doing in this area. Honda does see a problem in this area. Toyota he says developed a green image largely on the back of one car the Prius. Honda will come up in 2009 with a dedicated hybrid vehicle to match the Prius. And Honda is setting the bar high for this Honda hybrid, saying that his feeling that this model will have to overwhelm and overtake the Prius. He goes on to say that this is key for us. Honda he says will take on the challenge and compete with Toyota with its products, its technology, and its racing spirit. This gasoline-electric hybrid will be introduced early next year in the USA, Japan, and Europe, and it will be the first of 4 hybrid models Honda will introduce by 2015. Regarding price the company says it will be "affordable". Honda's goal is to sell 500,000 hybrid vehicles a year. Toyota aims to sell 1 million hybrid vehicles early in the next decade and is working on developing its own hydrogen fuel-cell vehicle. Is Honda developing electric cars? Takeo Fukui thinks the practical feasibility of the electric vehicle is very limited. The two biggest issues in his view being driving distance and recharging time. The FCX Clarity can be recharged in one minute, compared to the several hours for an electric vehicle. In his view the electric vehicles will be uselful only for restricted applications like golf carts. Nissan and General Motors are planning to launch electric vehicles. What is Honda's environmental strategy? Honda being a smaller company has to focus its resources wisely with strategic choices. His focus is on the hybrid as the core product, and after that comes fuel cell and clean diesel as the core products to tackle fuel eficiency and CO2 issues. Takeo has spent more than a decade on Honda's racing teams. He drives a CR-V and enjoys driving up and down the mountains, does not race but does get on Honda's test track once or twice a year. And what has he learned from all the years in racing. When he was fully engaged in the motorcycle racing teams he says the pressure was very high and if they did not do well they got bashed by managers and the media. And actually the results were disappointing for years and the teams kept losing. For hime the series of difficulties and challenges was something that he feels everyone should experience because in some ways he acquired wisdom and creativity to get through these experiences. This is some thing Honda and Fukui will need as they try to develop their own hybrid to take the lead from Toyota and come up with industry leading technology in tackling fuel efficiency and CO2 issues. His own approach to management? Two things he always keeps in mind are take time to keep up good communication with associates at work, and testing Honda's own products with his own hands. What does he think about the auto industry in 2008, is it a turning point? He says it has becom clear in 2008 that a company has to have the technology to deal with carborn dioxide and fuel efficiency issues. And its clear that smaller vehicles are more attractive than larger vehicles. And its possible he says that we may go back from automobiles to motorcycles. In fact in India Honda is promoting motorcycles in a big way, while Tata is developing the Nano for mass market, so Takeo is talking about something that Honda sees happening in some places. ...
Wall Street Journal Original article ›
LyrArc Article Gist
After the debt swap of old bonds for new bonds with private bondholders for an estimated 53% haircut, the IMF's March 2012 report on Greece says a lot remains unresolved. It predicts a "disorderly exit from the euro" without further help. The April 2012 elections may result in a dilution to committments to austerity policies in Greece, as these policies are highly unpopular in Greece. Greece is still "accident-prone." And competitiveness issues may take over a decade to resolve.
New York Times Original article ›
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Criticism of the EU's handling of the Greece crisis by IMF officials in a report. The report says the actions taken for debt restructuring in 2012 should have come much earlier to reduce the debt burden and the size of austerity measures in Greece. Similiar criticism has been voiced by president Hollande of France and in editorials by the WSJ. President Samaras of Greece says the sharp cuts in spending reduced potential for growth in the economy.
Wall Street Journal Original article ›
LyrArc Article Gist
Richard Portes of the London Business School provides two good reasons why the EU's decision to adopt the French Banking Federation's proposal for rollovers with 10% interest costs is a serious mistake. It doubles the interest costs from 4-6% to 10% with 2% Greek GDP growth and makes debt servicing untenable. Portes says the real Brady Plan from the 1980's included a 35-40% bondholders haircut. Deals of this type have a precedent- in Mexico in 1988 and in Argentina in 2001 such bond exchanges were soon followed by deals that placed bondholder haricuts on creditors. The lesson from Latin America in the 1980's, says Portes, is that the burdens of servicing a debt of such proportions under onerous conditions only extinguishes the enterprise, investment and productive capabilities of the particular country trying to service that debt, making the debt even less serviceable. See the Wall Street Journal's editorial on this deal which it calls "The French Deception." The terms sound like Greek to the editors leaving a sense that French banks are only saying "gimme." The only benefit achieved may be putting off the problem and avoiding contagion to Portugal and Spain. Yet this is not that much of a benefit when one realizes that the problem has not gone away, and is likely to look much worse six or nine months from now....

A Better Grecian Bailout

Wall Street Journal Original article ›
LyrArc Article Gist
John Taylor looks one step ahead of the March 2012 Greece bailout and sets up the most plausible scenario for the future. He says the risks of contagion were always exaggerated from the beginning- a planned default or restructuring of debt such as happened in Argentina in 2001, does not have the contagion risks associated with a chaotic and unplanned default as in Russia in 1998. Predicability in policy makes a huge difference, says Taylor. The European banks which stood to lose from writedowns exaggerated the fears of contagion- a process that always occurs for people who are adversely affected by writedowns- resulting in top officials in the European Union delaying the unavoidable serious restructuring. It was not until Chancellor Merkel handed Charles Dallara, who negotiated for the European banks, a note stating a demand for 50% bondholder writedown, on October 27, 2011, at EU headquarters in Brussels, did any serious writedown of debt begin. Merkel told Dallara: "this is my last offer." The July 2011 summit by contrast had only a 10% bondholder writedown in the agreement, when insolvency not illiquidity was the real issue. Walker Forelle and Meichtry, give a detailed account of what happened in the Wall Street Journal, Dec. 30, 2011. The important thing for Greece, says Taylor, is for what the IMF calls "growth enhancing structural reforms" - greater reliance on private markets, incentives, rule of law. He says this bailout won't work because IMF growth forecasts do not reflect the rapid shrinking of the Greek economy. Antonis Samaras, leader of the major opposition party, is in favor of pro-growth measures and has stated his desire to change the agreement. The 130 billion euro bailout provides 90 billion euros for recapitalizing Greece's banks, and financing the budget. This puts Greece in a situation where the political leaders win voter support by discarding the conditions from the Northern EU nations and come with a plan that is better suited for Greece. The EU in this scenario would cut off further bailout funds to Greece. Taylor sees this as the better outcome for Greece than the current situation, which leaves Greece no hope for growth, and also for the EU by getting out of bailouts that have little prospect of working. It would be difficult but doable for Greece says Taylor, because interest payments would be low and Greek banks would be recapitalized after the current March 2012 bailout. ...

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