Greece Exiting the Eurozone?

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Der Spiegel says the Greeks are considering exiting the Eurozone – which would in essence be telling the Germans who spent so much bailing them out to go f themselves. I assume that if this is true they plan on allying themselves closer to a the Muslim Brotherhood allied Turkey, Egypt etc. Make no mistake, this has the makings of another European war:

Greece’s economic problems are massive, with protests against the government being held almost daily. Now Prime Minister George Papandreou apparently feels he has no other option: SPIEGEL ONLINE has obtained information from German government sources knowledgeable of the situation in Athens indicating that Papandreou’s government is considering abandoning the euro and reintroducing its own currency.

Alarmed by Athens’ intentions, the European Commission has called a crisis meeting in Luxembourg on Friday night. The meeting is taking place at Château de Senningen, a site used by the Luxembourg government for official meetings. In addition to Greece’s possible exit from the currency union, a speedy restructuring of the country’s debt also features on the agenda. One year after the Greek crisis broke out, the development represents a potentially existential turning point for the European monetary union — regardless which variant is ultimately decided upon for dealing with Greece’s massive troubles.

Given the tense situation, the meeting in Luxembourg has been declared highly confidential, with only the euro-zone finance ministers and senior staff members permitted to attend. Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and Jörg Asmussen, an influential state secretary in the Finance Ministry, are attending on Germany’s behalf.

Sources told SPIEGEL ONLINE that Schäuble intends to seek to prevent Greece from leaving the euro zone if at all possible. He will take with him to the meeting in Luxembourg an internal paper prepared by the experts at his ministry warning of the possible dire consequences if Athens were to drop the euro.

“It would lead to a considerable devaluation of the new (Greek) domestic currency against the euro,” the paper states. According to German Finance Ministry estimates, the currency could lose as much as 50 percent of its value, leading to a drastic increase in Greek national debt. Schäuble’s staff have calculated that Greece’s national deficit would rise to 200 percent of gross domestic product after such a devaluation. “A debt restructuring would be inevitable,” his experts warn in the paper. In other words: Greece would go bankrupt.

It remains unclear whether it would even be legally possible for Greece to depart from the euro zone. Legal experts believe it would also be necessary for the country to split from the European Union entirely in order to abandon the common currency. At the same time, it is questionable whether other members of the currency union would actually refuse to accept a unilateral exit from the euro zone by the government in Athens.

Greeks are rioting now over where garbage dumps are being built – I imagine that the European Union telling them they can’t leave the currency will only direct Greek rage outward.

Greece is denying this story, which they say is art of some sort of speculator conspiracy. But Der Spiegel says their source is the German government, who if anything would want Greece to stay solvent. I guess we’ll find out soon enough,

Suspicious Packages Found in Dozens of Locations After Bin Ladin Death

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Looks like Muslims aren’t thrilled about the justifiable killing of that pedophile degenerate Osama Bin Ladin. From MassLive:

In Massachusetts on Tuesday, there were at least four incidents involving suspicious packages.

An unknown white powder was found in envelopes addressed to Attorney General Martha Coakley and U.S. Sen. Scott Brown in downtown Boston, as well as in an envelope addressed to the court clerk at Greenfield District Court. A similar substance was reportedly found in the John F. Kennedy Federal Office Building in Boston.

Preliminary reports all indicated the substances weren’t dangerous, but further tests are being conducted at state labs.

The Greenfield incident prompted officials to evacuate and close the Franklin County Courthouse Tuesday afternoon. The courthouse later reopened and it was business as usual on Wednesday, according to court personnel.

In New York City, perhaps the most vigilant municipality in the country, a suspicious package report from Times Square came in just as officials at a news conference held at Ground Zero urged the public to remain calm and vigilant in the face of new threats from terrorist groups across the globe.

The New York Police Department moved in quickly and determined the package was only a bag of garbage. But despite the high volume of such reports since Sunday, officials are playing it safe, carefully investigating each incident and hoping for the best.

According to the Associated Press, there were 62 suspicious package reports in the city on Monday, compared to just 18 a week prior when bin Laden was unknowingly living out his last days in a suburb of Parkistan’s capitol city.

More reports mean more running for the police, but NYPD Commissioner Raymond Kelly urged the public to report anything and everything that looks out of the norm.

[…]

In downtown Augusta, Georgia, on Tuesday, a United Parcel Service driver alerted authorities after discovering a suspicious package addressed to the president in a mailing drop box. Augusta police secured the scene and the package and turned over the investigation and all evidence to the Secret Service a short time later.

There has been no word as of this report about what was inside that package or what was “suspiciously” written on the return address label.

The Los Angeles Police Department responded to at least two suspicious package reports on Tuesday, including one that shut down a major train line for three hours. Both incidents turned out to be harmless, but served as a reminder that just because bin Laden is dead, the movement he fathered lives on.

In other parts of the country, suspicious package reports closed a road in Nashville, created panic in the heart of Philadelphia and caused the evacuation of a busy neighborhood in San Francisco.

Stay alert out there. h/t N.T.A.