World News Insights
1-3 Minute Gist
Search, personalize, or simply browse. Follow the world around you from gist and context to insights.
Who we are | Our Credo | Ways of using Lyrarc | FAQ | Send Feedback | First Letter From the Editor
Sign up. It's free and easy to use
Create an account
to personalize your feed of articles and topics.
All Topics Article
Hopeful Start to Greek Debt Negotiations Quickly Soured
Keywords:
This report by Landon Thomas Jr. of the NYT describes what happened in the days before and the 48 hours before the referendum decision was announced by June 27, 2015. It shows talks progressing right up to Monday, June 22, 2015. By June 23 Greece received a paper marked in red from the IMF, EU and the ECB on their proposal of June 22. The Greek proposal of June 22 rejected pension cuts and removal of tax breaks for Greek islands, but proposing instead a series of tax increases and increase in pension contributions to be made by companies in Greece. The reply marked up disagreement areas on the paper which voiced objections to too many tax increases as hurting business growth, need to simplify value added taxes, and insisting on pension cuts and reforms. The two advisors Tsipras had used were a complete contrast to the new advisor and finance minister Mr. Tsakalotos he was to use in negotiations after July 7, 2015. Nikos Pappas is described here as an academic with a temper and Varoufakis as a person who would not hesitate to confront and lecture the creditors negotiators. Varoufakis who already had arguments and shouting matches with his counterparts on the other side, had a difficult relationship with the Dutch finance minister, Dijsselbloem, who was the chief of eurozone finance ministers. Dijseelbloem especially objected to Varoufakis lecturing on the need for a debt haircut. Varoufakis was removed from the discussions for a period of several weeks as a result and his reintroduction on June 25 was to have a negative effect on the EU and German negotiators. The same issue of debt came up again in discussions on June 25, 2015, and Varoufakis confronted the EU ministers by calling on the IMF's Christine Lagarde to state if the debt was sustainable. Before that Dijsselbloem had already told him flatly that any discussion on debt reduction would make a deal impossible. At one point German finance minister Schauble argued with EU official Pierre Muscovici of France about his favorable comments on the Greece proposal, saying he could not get the Greek proposal through the German parliament, and saying the ony solution now was capital controls. IMF's Christine Lagarde responded by saying that debt reduction needed to be considered. According to this report the Dutch finance mnister did not wait for Lagarde to explain- he told Varoufakis that it was take it or leave it.
Yanis Varoufakis as new finance minister in the Syriza government in Greece
01/27/2015
The new government as three professors at the finance ministry, the Economics superministry which includes tourism, marine and transport, and the Foreign ministry. Varoufakis is a professor at the University of Texas who was asked by Tsipras to return to Greece in 2014 to run for parliament in the upcoming election. This shows a growing influence of academics and professors in Greece's government as the politicians are seen to have failed badly. Yannis Stournaras the finance minister in the Samaras government in 2012-2014, was a professor of macroeconomics at the University of Athens.
Grouped Articles
Bailout Critic Yanis Varoufakis Named Greek Finance Minister
Wall Street Journal 01/28/2015
The Heat Is on Greece’s Alexis Tsipras, From Inside and Out
New York Times 05/24/2015
A Finance Minister Fit for a Greek Tragedy?
New York Times 05/20/2015
A young, impatient leftist is Greece’s defiant new face - The Washington Post
Washington Post 01/27/2015
Tsipras Declares Creditors’ Debt Proposal for Greece ‘Absurd’
New York Times 06/05/2015
Greece and Its Creditors Pummel Each Other, but Fight Is Not Over Yet
New York Times 06/19/2015
How Tsipras reached his decision to call for a referendum, and the call for a "'no" vote that has damaged relations with the EU in June 2015
01/28/2013
During the last minute negotiations Tsipras veered from one side to the other. Initially he moved closer to Syriza party leaders who favored an accomodation with the IMF and EU, yet with each rejection of Greece's proposals he moved closer to the confrontational postiion of finance minister Varoufakis. The IMF and EU negotiators considered higher taxes on business in the Greek proposals hurting long term growth, and insisted on pension cuts. Greece's negotiating team was still negotiating over details when Tsipras called off talks and surprised European leaders with his call for a referendum. His announcement that Syriza would call for a no was badly received by EU leaders and Merkel, leading to a breakdown in trust. The inexperience of 40 year old Tsipras and the faculty professor Varoufakis's lack of experience with negotiations, may now have damaged relations between Greece and Germany. The reaction in Germany to this is that now a majority of Germans see Greece's exit from the eurozone as the best option, and the goodwill of leaders in France, Italy and Spain may have been lost.
Grouped Articles
How Alexis Tsipras’s Greek Referendum Call Came After Creditors Covered His Proposals in Red Ink
Wall Street Journal 06/29/2015
Greece Will Shut Banks in Fallout From Debt Crisis
New York Times 06/28/2015
Europe, Athens Battle for Greek Hearts and Minds Ahead of Referendum
Wall Street Journal 06/30/2015
With Loan Deadline Looming, Europe Offers Greece a Last-Minute Deal
New York Times 06/29/2015
Greece’s Future, and the Euro’s
New York Times 06/29/2015
Wall Street Journal 07/02/2015
Greece and prime minister Papandreou's Nov. 3, 2011 referendum proposal on the euro and austerity plans
07/01/2011
Grouped Articles
Europe, Athens Battle for Greek Hearts and Minds Ahead of Referendum
Wall Street Journal 06/30/2015
Hopeful Start to Greek Debt Negotiations Quickly Soured
New York Times 07/02/2015
Greek Referendum on Offer That Is Off the Table Baffles Voters
New York Times 07/02/2015
Why Not Give the Greeks Their Say?
New York Times 11/03/2011
Greek Leader Calls Off Referendum
New York Times 11/03/2011
Call for Greek Vote Unsettles Europe
Wall Street Journal 11/02/2011
What Greece won in the negotiations and what Greece loses with the failure of talks with the EU, closing of banks, and the referendum in July 2015
07/02/2015
Grouped Articles
Wall Street Journal 07/04/2015
Collapse of Greek Bailout Deal Brings Surprise Boost to German Coffers
Wall Street Journal 07/04/2015
Bailout Referendum Lays Bare Deep Schisms Among Beleaguered Greeks
New York Times 07/04/2015
Europe’s future in Greece’s hands
Economist 07/04/2015
Economist 07/04/2015
Greek Bank Vortex Threatens Deal Hopes
Wall Street Journal 07/06/2015
How the difficult dynamic between Greece's negotiator Varoufakis and the Dutch negotiator for the eurozone Dijsselbloem may have compromised the talks on June 25, 2015 leading to the crisis- the Greece referendum and the Third bailout program
07/02/2015
In the talks after July 7, Greece's new negotiator Tsakalotos showed a complete change of approach, listening to his counterparts on the other side which changed the tone of the talks. Another helpful factor was the role played by premier Manuel Valls and president Hollande of France in sending advisors to Athens to make sure the details were already worked out. The softspoken Tsakalotos from St Paul's School and Oxford, the Spanish born Valls, and chancellor Merkel with her ability to get German opinion behind her for the sake of Europe, may emerge as the wiser heads in this crisis.
Grouped Articles
Hopeful Start to Greek Debt Negotiations Quickly Soured
New York Times 07/02/2015
Greek Referendum on Offer That Is Off the Table Baffles Voters
New York Times 07/02/2015
Did a Dutch eurocrat call southern Europeans drunken womanisers?
The Economist 03/29/2017
Yanis Varoufakis, Greece's finance minister in the Syriza government of Alexis Tsipras
01/27/2015
Grouped Articles
Greece’s finance minister: Absent professor
Economist 04/25/2015
The Heat Is on Greece’s Alexis Tsipras, From Inside and Out
New York Times 05/24/2015
A Finance Minister Fit for a Greek Tragedy?
New York Times 05/20/2015
Bailout Critic Yanis Varoufakis Named Greek Finance Minister
Wall Street Journal 01/28/2015
A young, impatient leftist is Greece’s defiant new face - The Washington Post
Washington Post 01/27/2015
Tsipras Declares Creditors’ Debt Proposal for Greece ‘Absurd’
New York Times 06/05/2015
Greece's Syriza government calls for a July 5, 2015 referendum on policy changes and cuts required by the EU/IMF
06/27/2015
Grouped Articles
Greece Calls Referendum on Bailout Terms
Wall Street Journal 06/27/2015
Greece Orders Banks Closed, Imposes Capital Controls to Stem Deposit Flight
Wall Street Journal 06/29/2015
Greece Will Shut Banks in Fallout From Debt Crisis
New York Times 06/28/2015
Europe, Athens Battle for Greek Hearts and Minds Ahead of Referendum
Wall Street Journal 06/30/2015
With Loan Deadline Looming, Europe Offers Greece a Last-Minute Deal
New York Times 06/29/2015
Greece’s Future, and the Euro’s
New York Times 06/29/2015
The Greece referendum of July 5, 2015
07/02/2015
Grouped Articles
Bailout Referendum Lays Bare Deep Schisms Among Beleaguered Greeks
New York Times 07/04/2015
Mirage of Economic Turnaround Masked New Greek Crisis in the Making
Wall Street Journal 07/05/2015
In Greek Referendum Campaign, a Barrage of Doomsday Ads
New York Times 07/03/2015
New York Times 07/03/2015
Greeks Reject Bailout Terms in Rebuff to European Leaders
New York Times 07/05/2015
Emphatic ‘No’ Prompts Greek Pride and Revelry
New York Times 07/05/2015
The breakdown in negotiations between the EU finance ministers and Greece by June 27, 2015, and Tsipras's call for a referendum July 5 on the bailout
01/28/2013
Grouped Articles
Greek Debt Crisis Intensifies as Extension Request Is Denied
New York Times 06/27/2015
Greece Orders Banks Closed, Imposes Capital Controls to Stem Deposit Flight
Wall Street Journal 06/29/2015
How Alexis Tsipras’s Greek Referendum Call Came After Creditors Covered His Proposals in Red Ink
Wall Street Journal 06/29/2015
Greece Will Shut Banks in Fallout From Debt Crisis
New York Times 06/28/2015
Europe, Athens Battle for Greek Hearts and Minds Ahead of Referendum
Wall Street Journal 06/30/2015
With Loan Deadline Looming, Europe Offers Greece a Last-Minute Deal
New York Times 06/29/2015
The difficult dynamic between eurozone negotiator Dutch finance minister Dijsselbloem and Greece's negotiator Varoufakis that led to the collapse of talks on June 25, 2015- leading to the referendum and the Third Bailout program
07/02/2015
Linked Articles
Hopeful Start to Greek Debt Negotiations Quickly Soured
New York Times 07/02/2015
Eurozone Finance Chief Recounts Brinkmanship That Led to Greek Deal
Wall Street Journal 07/17/2015
We took a different way to help millions around the world build educated informed mindsets that affects and shapes their lives. For a future that is open, global and digital, with everyone having access to high quality information. We believe in the renewal of America, renewal of Europe, the renewal of India, the rest of Asia, Latin America and Africa. The renewal of our supply chains, health, education, infrastructure, as we rebuild our countries after the pandemic. Literacy and knowledge we believe cannot thrive and grow in a world of web bots, web crawlers, or AI. This requires human curiosity, human learning, and human imagination. We take as inspiration the saying- “One has to be free, and as broad as sky. One has to have a mind that is crystal clear, only then can truth shine in it.” Every contribution whether big or small is precious- in this crisis and ahead.
Support Lyrarc from as small as $1
Terms and Conditions | Copyright Policy | Privacy Policy | Contact Us
