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Irish eye financial rescue with reluctance

21 Nov 2010 - Preaching the News for Sunday

God makes us “fit to share in the inheritance of the holy ones,” and in Christ, “all things hold together,” this Sunday’s reading from the Letter to the Colossians informs us. In Europe, it is the European Central Bank that is being commissioned to hold things together and make Ireland financially fit. Investors urged the European Central Bank to act quickly--and Ireland to accept help--to avoid plunging the Eurozone into crisis and panicking world markets. European officials responded midweek by laying the groundwork for a bailout of Ireland that could reach $136 billion, but Ireland’s Finance Minister Brian Lenihan insisted that his country wasn’t ready to seek help despite a huge budget deficit and sky-high interest rates on its government debt. European Union President Herman Van Rompuy on Tuesday cast the Irish crisis as a decisive moment for Europe and its common currency: “We all have to work together in order to survive with the Eurozone, because if we don’t survive with the Eurozone, we will not survive with the European Union.” U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said Europe learned painful lessons from its slow response to the crisis that convulsed Greece earlier this year. “The lessons of that experience . . . is you want to do this quickly and decisively and not wait,” Geithner said, though he declined to offer specific views about Ireland’s predicament. Source: Articles by Marcus Walker, Patrick McGroarty, and Charles Forelle for the Wall Street Journal,Rick Newman for US News & World Report, James Kanter and Steven Erlanger for the New York Times,and Adrian Croft and Nigel Davies for Reuters

timothy geithner ireland financial crisis european union european central bank eurozone brian lenihan herman van rompuy
Can Greece achieve prosperity via austerity?

03 Jul 2011 - Preaching the News for Sunday

“My yoke is easy and my burden light,” Jesus promises, inviting all “who labor and are burdened” to come to him. Greek workers are finding new austerity measures passed by the Greek parliament to be a burden, and they along with other sectors of Greek society are making their opinions known through massive street protests, some of which turned violent Wednesday. Greece's parliament approved the deeply unpopular austerity steps despite worsening street violence in a vote that was vital to secure international aid and prevent the eurozone's first sovereign debt default. Lawmakers passed a five-year package of spending cuts, tax increases, and state asset sales, handing a victory to embattled Prime Minister George Papandreou. "We must avoid the country's collapse at all costs. Now is not the time to step back," the Socialist premier told lawmakers just before the vote. The vote suggested the government should be able to push through laws implementing specific budget measures and asset sales on Thursday, clearing the last obstacle to obtaining 12 billion euros of emergency loans. But with the country on the brink of bankruptcy and social unrest mounting, it is unclear whether the government can stick to the tight schedule imposed by the European Union and the International Monetary Fund to implement the stringency moves, even if it wins all this week's parliamentary votes. An estimated 80 percent of the Greek people oppose the measures, which will drastically cut public spending and affect pensions and also include a big increase in income taxes and national insurance contributions. Some 150,000 public-sector jobs will be eliminated, and those keeping their jobs will have their salaries cut 15 percent. The presidents of the European Council and the European Commission, Herman van Rompuy and Jose Manuel Barroso, said in a joint statement that Greece had taken a "vital step back from the very grave scenario of default." Many economists and investors still expect Greece to default eventually anyway because its 340 billion euro debt is so huge, amounting to about 150 percent of the country's annual economic output. Sources: Articles by Renee Maltezou and Dina Kyriakidou for Reuters and International Business Times

greece eurozone debt default
Greeks protest austere prospects

19 Feb 2012 - Preaching the News for Sunday

“Blessed is the one who has regard for the lowly and the poor,” the psalmist says this Sunday. Early Monday Greece’s parliament approved another round of punishing budget cuts to secure more international rescue funds for the economically hobbled nation. Buildings were set ablaze as thousands filled the streets of Athens claiming that the curtailments fell on those least able to afford them. The legislation features about $4 billion in severe budget reductions, including steep wage and pension decreases and 15,000 government job cuts this year alone. Even as the country rushed to meet tough conditions to qualify for the $170-billion assistance package, some eurozone countries have strong reservations over whether another massive bailout can save Greece. The doubts stem from growing concerns that Greece’s economic problems are deepening and that the country’s political leaders may not stick to the budget-cutting and reform promises they’re making to receive the rescue. Throughout the marathon discussion Sunday, thousands of Greeks opposed to the austerity package descended on the sprawling grounds of Parliament shouting, “Get out!” and “thieves!” The crowd swelled and their chants echoed across the capital--even renowned music composer Mikis Theodorakis showed up--as mobs of youths clashed with police and set fire to at least 34 buildings. “It was the worst show of violence in recent years,” a senior police official said. At least 37 people were injured and at least 25 protesters were arrested. Violence also spread to other cities. Greece is running out of time for the deal because it faces large payments in March it cannot afford without the relief. The aid is also tied to a huge debt-relief deal with bondholders under which Greece’s private creditors stand to lose about 70 percent of the value of their investments. Sources: Articles by Landon Thomas, Jr. for the New York Times, Anthony Carassava for theLos Angeles Times, Roddy Thomson for Agence France Presse, and Elena Becatoros andGabriele Steinhauser for the Associated Press

bailout protests greece eurozone
Reviewing European votive offerings

13 May 2012 - Preaching the News for Sunday

When the Holy Spirit descends on Cornelius’ Gentile household, Peter and the Jerusalem community learn that “God shows no partiality.” Elections, however, are all about partiality, and this past weekend voters in Greece and France chastised their respective ruling parties and sent a strong message of Euro-discontent, rattling markets.In France, François Hollande, a Socialist who campaigned on an anti-austerity platform, pushed out President Nicolas Sarkozy, bringing to an end a staunch partnership with German Chancellor Angela Merkel that has been at the heart of Europe's austerity drive.Greek voters' rejection of pro-bailout political parties in Sunday's election has raised the chances of Greece leaving the euro. Even in Germany, where many taxpayers who are angry at bailouts for other governments welcome austerity measures, local elections in the northern state of Schleswig-Holstein improved the standing of opposition Social Democrats and expressed their skepticism of coordinated European fiscal policy. Another vote this weekend in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany's most populous state, will probably continue this trend.“Germans are now predominantly of the opinion that they would be better off if Greece left the euro zone,” said Carsten Hefeker, a professor of economics and an expert on the euro at the University of Siegen. “If the country really is continuing on the path they are taking now, it would be hard to justify keeping them in. How do you deal with a country that says we don’t want to keep any of the commitments we have made?” Sources: Articles by Dina Kyriakidou, Nigel Stephenson, and Edward Krudy for Reuters,Ian Bremmer for ABC News, and Nicholas Kulish and Liz Alderman for the New York Times

angela merkel france nicolas sarkozy greece germany austerity eurozone carsten hefeker francois hollande
The pain in Spain prompts EU rescue package

17 Jun 2012 - Preaching the News for Sunday

It is the purpose of the Lord, we hear in this Sunday’s first reading, to “make the withered tree bloom.” Eurozone finance ministers rushed Spain into an E.U.-funded bank rescue package in hopes it will help the withered Spanish economy bloom anew. But forecasters predict the country will have to weather some bitter harvests in coming years.Spain becomes the fourth—and largest—of the 17 countries that use Europe’s common currency to request a bailout, a big blow to a nation that a few years ago took pride as the continent’s economic superstar, only to become the latest hot spot in the eurozone debt crisis.The amount of the rescue fund, if all of it is tapped, amounts to about $25,000 of new debt for each person in the nation of 47 million, where the average annual salary for those with work is also about $25,000 and the unemployment rate for those under age 25 is 52 percent.The country is already reeling from deep austerity cuts imposed over the last six months that have raised taxes, made it easier to hire and fire workers, and cut deeply into cherished government programs such as education and national health care. “This year is going to be a bad one,” Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said Sunday in his first comments about the rescue. Sources: Articles by Raphael Minder for the New York Times and Alan Clendenning,Harold Heckle, and Jorge Sainz for the Associated Press

bailout spain eurozone mariano rajoy
Europeans pan austerity in pan-national protests

18 Nov 2012 - Preaching the News for Sunday

The reading from the Book of Daniel this Sunday predicts “a time unsurpassed in distress.” Thousands of Europeans struggling to get by during a time of rising unemployment and falling economic activity took to the streets in cities from Portugal to Greece Wednesday in the first coordinated pan-national day of protest against their governments’ austerity programs.A wave of labor unrest swept across Europe, with workers in hard-hit countries working jointly across borders to protest years of narrowing prospects, shrinking wages, and sky-high unemployment.In what appeared to be the most organized pan-continental labor disruption since the euro crisis began more than three years ago, Spanish and Portuguese workers went on a general strike while Italian and Greek unions held part-day work stoppages. There was a limited strike in Belgium and small protests in richer nations across Europe.But the protests seemed unlikely to disrupt what has become an almost unstoppable trend, say analysts, who predict the possibility of years of grinding austerity in struggling southern European countries with limited prospects for growth in the near future.Homily hint: The current difficulties in the euro zone are a stark reminder that the world economy is inextricably linked and that times of distress in one zone can trigger distress across the globe. Pray for those who suffer hardship around the world today. Source: An article by Michael Birnbaum for the Washington Post

protests austerity strikes eurozone