Globe

Global Greek Freakout

CONTAGION FEARS ESCALATE … || By FITSNEWS || The Dow Jones plunged 350.33 points on Monday – nearly a two percent drop. Meanwhile the S&P 500 plunged by 43.85 points – or 2.09 percent of its volume.  The tech-heavy Nasdaq? It was down 122.04 (or 2.4 percent). Those are the…

CONTAGION FEARS ESCALATE …

|| By FITSNEWS || The Dow Jones plunged 350.33 points on Monday – nearly a two percent drop. Meanwhile the S&P 500 plunged by 43.85 points – or 2.09 percent of its volume.  The tech-heavy Nasdaq? It was down 122.04 (or 2.4 percent).

Those are the biggest point declines of 2015 …

America wasn’t the only country taking a beating.  Asian and European markets were also battered – with Germany and France’s key stock indices losing more than 3.5 percent of their value.  Japan’s Nikkei index was down 2.9 percent – roughly the same as Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index.

What’s prompting the global selloff?  The “Grexit,” a.k.a. the increasing likelihood that Greece will default on its obligations and leave the Eurozone.

Greece is supposed to make a €1.5 billion ($1.7 billlion) payment to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) this week – part of the €330 billion ($367 billion) it owes to creditors.  That payment isn’t happening.

So … what happens now?

Um … good question.

Greece represents just two percent of Europe’s gross domestic product, but there’s growing concern that a default and subsequent “Grexit” will contaminate the broader European market – a process known as “contagion.”  The greater the panic in the bond market, the more likely Greece’s problems will infect other European countries like Italy, Spain and Portugal – which are in similarly dire straits (and in need of the same debt relief Greece is demanding).

It’s the sort of domino falling that could easily lead to a broader global economic downturn …

***

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49 comments

RogueElephant June 29, 2015 at 5:16 pm

I would say it was scary waking up this morning in Greece and no banks open. It will be interesting to see how this plays out. Portugal and Spain are next in line from what I can gather. We are not far behind all this. Looks like everyone has run out of other people’s money. Hang on for the ride.

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idcydm June 29, 2015 at 5:22 pm

I am more concerned about banks in the US going down due to hacking. Having a few thousand dollars cash on hand to weather a hacker storm would be beneficial besides with low interest rates on savings you’re not going to lose much.

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FastEddy23 June 29, 2015 at 5:53 pm

Good idea.

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euwe max June 29, 2015 at 9:17 pm

silver dollars.

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idcydm June 29, 2015 at 10:42 pm

Over the top and weight on the back foot, bad shot every time.

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euwe max June 30, 2015 at 12:26 am

gold line?

truthmonger June 30, 2015 at 12:56 am

Lead, copper, and brass.

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euwe max June 30, 2015 at 1:08 am
Sybil June 29, 2015 at 5:36 pm

It is sad. Imagine only being able to withdraw $66 or $67 in a day. Wouldn’t want to live in Greece right now.

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guest June 29, 2015 at 8:36 pm

That is $2000 a month. What kinda business you in that you need more CASH from an ATM than that?

Oh my!

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Sybil June 29, 2015 at 8:42 pm

From your trusted Fox News Source:

“”I came here at 4 a.m. because I have to get my pension,” said 74-year-old Anastasios Gevelidis, one of about 100 retirees waiting outside the main branch of National Bank of Greece in the country’s second largest city of Thessaloniki.
“I don’t have a card, I don’t know what’s going on, we don’t even have enough money to buy bread,” Gevelidis said.
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2015/06/29/world-markets-plunge-bank-lines-grow-amid-greece-financial-crisis/

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Slartibartfast June 29, 2015 at 11:38 pm

“???????? ? X???!” – a sign used in a protest march at the beginning of Doctor Zhivago (1965)

Sybil June 30, 2015 at 2:06 pm

I had to resort to Wiki AND Google translator to interpret that one. Nice.

Sybil June 30, 2015 at 5:14 pm

I think one time you called me a Hausfrau? You are forgiven ;)

Slartibartfast June 30, 2015 at 9:48 pm

So you’re NOT a housewife. I stand corrected and penitent.

Sybil June 30, 2015 at 10:08 pm

I am domestic engineer and far more — fall on the floor in penitence and apologize….RIGHT NOW and all will be forgiven — LOL. You are a professor and I still like your witty comments. :)

Slartibartfast June 30, 2015 at 10:42 pm

Now I remember. I didn’t call you a hausfrau. I called you “a wicked sex-mistress!”

Sybil June 30, 2015 at 10:44 pm

LMAO! That was what you MEANT to say, I am sure :) I am literally choking on my first meal of the day – no kidding and my keyboard is….I need to stop typing. Too funny!

Slartibartfast June 30, 2015 at 10:52 pm

By the way, is your avatar a picture of you? If so, is that a dock, a sailboat or a bass-boat you’re standing on?

Sybil June 30, 2015 at 11:12 pm

It is a picture of me, roughly 3 years ago. That is on the back of a Chaparral – me getting reading to dive in for wake boarding. You know all that. I know who you are, you hated me at one time. We had horrible arguments on Twitter. FITS published your hausfrau comment and did not publish mine. Totally pissed me off! In hindsight a bit funny. We were on the same side but different directions, not so much due to political beliefs….

Slartibartfast July 1, 2015 at 3:07 pm

I NEVER use twitter, except to cue one of my News buds. I remember one argument on FITS on which we did not agree, but I can’t, for the life of me, remember what it was. In any case, like Puck, if I have offended, I am most humbly sorry. I know there is a SlartYbartfast on Twitter, but I have never read anything he/she/it wrote.

Sybil July 1, 2015 at 4:21 pm

You have not offended me. I can’t remember disagreeing with you on here, so it must have been pretty mild. You must not be who I think you are. There was one other person in politics I knew who was a professor, not sure if he still is, that was years ago. He popped me pretty good on twitter more than once. I stopped using twitter — not enough characters to argue ;)

Slartibartfast July 1, 2015 at 9:37 pm

I thought not. I would never be rude to someone as mentally (and physically) attractive as you. I’m not flirting. I’m being brutally honest. You’re also a lot like a German Shepherd – you’re very nice, until attacked – so, no, I would not knowingly aggress.

Sybil July 2, 2015 at 10:01 am

Thank you for your kind words. I know you aren’t flirting, you already told me you are married ;).

I started off in SC politics very green. I read many terms and people at face value. I was asked are you a progressive? I’d think about it in a literal sense and reply, well yes I am. Are you a liberal? I’d think about it literal terms and reply, well yes I am. Then I hear, you must be Tea Party. I looked up their platform and replied, yes I think I am. LOL.

As you can imagine there were many willing to take advantage of my political innocence and use it for personal gain. Initially it hurt my feelings that people hated on me, threatened to kill me, or when they ran out of options — the threats to sue started to fly. Of course, they were never carried out.

I lost my innocence, but not my desire to discuss politics. It is the intellectuals, humors, and diplomats — like you — that keep it interesting.

Pogo Is Fucking Stupid June 30, 2015 at 6:49 am

Honestly, I don’t know why anyone expects any level of intelligent conversation to come from your retard comments.

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SCBlues June 30, 2015 at 8:10 am

Good thing I have an EBT card.No worries.

FastEddy23 June 29, 2015 at 5:52 pm

And the Greek poor had to hitchhike home. … More angry with every footstep …

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Slartibartfast July 1, 2015 at 9:41 pm

Probably. But I think Puerto RIco will go down, first.

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RogueElephant July 2, 2015 at 8:01 am

Yes, They just popped up on the scene. Hadn’t even heard about them. But it stands to reason. From what I understand most of the people there are on some form of govt. assistance. Again, out of other people’s money. Liberals never learn.

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Squishy123 June 29, 2015 at 5:30 pm

Stock prices have been manipulated to the point where I doubt anyone knows the true value.

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Bible Thumper June 29, 2015 at 5:38 pm

The true value of a stock is what someone has agreed to sell it for.

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Sybil June 29, 2015 at 5:38 pm

And what someone agrees to buy it for.

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FastEddy23 June 29, 2015 at 5:47 pm

No! The true price of a stock is what you are willing to pay for it. Don’t let those brokers and boiler room, pump ‘n’ dump, funny paper touts get your goat.

I always offer below the market using “limit orders”. If I don’t get my stock, well, there is always another day. (This reduces commissions if nothing else.)

This week I am 100% cash and gold and silver coins. A one t-oz silver coin = a full tank of gas. (Bury the gold in coffee cans in your back yard.)

Over the next few weeks I expect to see a big bubble in All Stocks.

On the “street”, the word is sell short. (VIX is approaching 18.)

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TontoBubbaGoldstein June 29, 2015 at 6:47 pm

(Bury the gold in coffee cans in your back yard.)

Where was it you live, again, Kimosabe?

; D

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Slartibartfast June 29, 2015 at 11:47 pm

Old Tsalagi saying: “Keynes was an asshole.”

FastEddy23 June 30, 2015 at 11:59 am

LOL …

The only ones who will know where it is buried are my nieces and nephews who will get the “treasure” map in my will.

I got a small cabin in the woods, too.

Certain June 29, 2015 at 5:39 pm

And at USC we have a Greek president ….waiting for that house of cards to collapse

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Squishy123 June 30, 2015 at 11:31 am

But he only does what the Board of Trustees tells him to do.

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TontoBubbaGoldstein June 29, 2015 at 6:50 pm

Global Greek Freakout
CONTAGION FEARS ESCALATE …

Ye cats!!

Someone tell 9″!!

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Soft Sigh from Hell June 29, 2015 at 7:32 pm

The Frenchies are yet unfazed.

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Soft Sigh from Hell June 29, 2015 at 7:35 pm Reply
tomstickler June 29, 2015 at 8:56 pm

The European Central bank and Germany are refusing to allow Greece breathing room to survive in a depressed economy. Part of this refusal is a political attack on Syriza, the new ruling party in Greece. Part of it is due to the mistaken idea that austerity is the cure for an ailing economy, but the only way that can work is for a country to devalue its currency to become more competitive. Greece no longer has the drachma, but the Euro.

It looks like Greece will be forced out of the European Union and will have to abandon the Euro, but that may be a blessing, not a disaster.

Krugman has been right all along on this, and I am happy to have gotten rid of all my European investments back in January.

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Ernesto June 29, 2015 at 11:35 pm

Meanwhile the Greek fat cats pay no taxes and have their money in the US, Russia or Germany. No taxes for millionaires while only the poor suffer is not left wing politics. Greece should have never been allowed into the a Euro as they offer nothing but tourism. And their political class is as corrupt as the one in SC.
Storm in a tea cup…,move on take the flag down!

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Slartibartfast June 29, 2015 at 11:43 pm

Nobody pays taxes in Greece. It’s one of her problems. The “fat cats” have already quit the country. Your wine is bitter and very stale, Ernesto.

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Ernesto June 30, 2015 at 10:17 am

At 2% GDP with tourism bring the main income source the Greek government should have taken the deal the Germans were prepared to give them

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Just Another Guy June 30, 2015 at 9:11 am

reading the comment section is like being on zerohedge now.

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Sybil June 30, 2015 at 11:44 pm

The comment section is certainly interesting. It will become even more interesting as election time closes in. Zerohedge is a gateway fix to InforWars, as crazy as that might sound, even they don’t have a monopoly on crazy in comparison.

I am a firm believer there is a sharp division of sources, crazy knows no limits. Brace yourself and enjoy the ride.

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Sybil June 30, 2015 at 11:53 pm

Ohmigosh — I just replied to another GT, pogo, fc, crazy commenter and you call zerohedge crazy. Disregard the rest.

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