Controlled Greece

From Yahoo:
"Greece imposes capital controls, banks to remain shut"

Greece's five-year financial crisis took its most dramatic turn yet, with the cabinet deciding after an 8-hour session that Greek banks would remain shut for six business days and restrictions would be imposed on cash withdrawals.  The Athens Stock Exchange would also not open Monday, financial sector officials confirmed. The moves were meant to staunch the flow of money out of Greek banks and spur the country's creditors to offer concessions before a bailout program expires Tuesday. The accelerating crisis has thrown into question Greece's financial future and continued membership in the 19-nation shared euro currency — and even the European Union. For the past two days, Greeks have been rushing to ATMs to withdraw money across the country following Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras' sudden weekend decision to call a referendum on creditor proposals for Greek reforms in return for vital bailout funds. A decree published early Monday in the official Government Gazette stipulates banks will not open Monday morning and would remain closed through Monday, July 6. The finance minister could decide to shorten or extend that period. Withdrawals from ATMs will be capped at 60 euros ($66) daily. The decree said ATMs would be working at the latest 12 hours from its publication, meaning cash machines should open by early afternoon.  Web banking transactions would be mostly free, allowing Greeks to pay bills online. However, they cannot move money to accounts abroad. Credit and bank cards issued abroad can be used at ATMs with no restrictions, benefiting foreign visitors to Greece and its tourist industry. Anxious tourists had joined locals at ATM lines Sunday, thinking the restrictions would also apply to them. For emergency needs, such as importing medicines or sending remittances abroad, the Greek Treasury was creating a Banking Transactions Approval Committee to examine requests on a case-by-case basis. In the referendum set for next Sunday, the government is urging Greeks to vote against its creditors' proposals, arguing that they are humiliating and that they would prolong the country's financial woes.  Spooked by rumors concerning impending fuel shortages, drivers flooded gas stations across Greece, prompting the country's largest refiner, Hellenic Petroleum, to issue a statement reassuring there are sufficient reserves of gasoline to last several months. The rush to gas stations may have been prompted less by worries about shortages than the impending withdrawal limits and rumors, later proven untrue, that the use of credit or debit cards would not be permitted. Greece's current bailout expires Tuesday, and the 7.2 billion euros ($8 billion) remaining in it will no longer be available to Greece after that date.

Without those funds, Greece is unlikely to be able to pay a 1.6 billion-euro ($1.79 billion) International Monetary Fund debt repayment due the same day.

 

 

^ This is no surprise. Greece has been slowly collapsing for several years. The same basic controls were made in Cyprus and just recently lifted there. I believe Greece will either be forced out of the Eurozone or willingly leave it and do so soon. That will be the beginning of the end of the Euro as a whole. I said back in 2002, when it was first introduced, that it wouldn't last because of all the different countries using it (ie rich and poor) and it looks like I may be proved right soon. ^

http://news.yahoo.com/greece-awaits-european-central-bank-decision-liquidity-102555417--finance.html#