Greece: the morning after PSI in international media

By @IrateGreek

Wall Street Journal
Greece defaults, and Tries to Move On, by Charles Forelle

"The biggest immediate benefit to Greece is that its problems are put off until another day. It has a €14.5 billion bond due March 20, and it doesn't have money to pay it. That bond in its entirety has been forced into the swap, and Greece's first principal payment on it will now be in 2023."

Guardian
Greek deal is not the end of the story by any means, by Larry Elliot
"This, then, was a triumph for Greece but only in the way that Dunkirk was for Britain."

Weekly news round-up 23-29 October 2011

By @galaxyarchis, translated from Greek by @IrateGreek and @inflammatory_

The following two events dominated Greek news reporting over the last week:

1. The new agreement for a 50% haircut on Greek bonds held by private lenders together with further strict austerity policies closely overseen by international inspectors until 2020.
2. The country-wide protests by thousands of citizens during the celebration of the 71th anniversary of the country’s rejection of Italy's ultimatum to surrender in 1940 - a national holiday known as “Ohi Day”, or "No Day", in Greek.

The week began with further union mobilizations following those of previous weeks. The Ministry of Finance is occupied by workers and the General Secretariat for Information Systems (GSIS) - the public sector's biggest data center- was blockaded on Tuesday morning. The Pan-Hellenic Maritime Federation was on a 48h strike, blocking Argosaronikos ferryboat lines, to demand seafarers’ unpaid wages. Activism spilled once again beyond the country’s borders: on Monday evening, European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet was denounced by Greek students when delivering his speech at the Humboldt University in Berlin.