Greek Deal Leaves Europe Headed for Disaster: Clive Crook
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Feb. 23 (Bloomberg) -- If Europe’s new plan for Greecesucceeds, nobody will be more surprised than the politicians whodesigned it. At best, the arrangement is a holding action, onethat fails yet again to deal with the much larger confidencecrisis facing the euro area.
The deal announced on Tuesday starts with private lenders.Their representatives agreed to accept even bigger losses onGreek government bonds than previously discussed. The bonds’face value will be cut by 53.5 percent, and they’ll pay a lowinterest rate, starting at 2 percent then rising later.Altogether, this reduces their net present value by about 75percent, far more than deemed necessary just weeks ago.