– Theater Of The Absurd: Greece Has Already Missed Its June Budget Target (ZeroHedge, July 4, 2011):
The 5th Greek bailout tranche has not been delivered yet, under the very, very strict condition that the country adhere to the terms of its pillaging by European banks, and already Greece, which has proven beyond a reasonable doubt that a country that refuses to do work, and conducts full day strikes on a whim actually does not grow, has just fallen behind a critical monthly Troica benchmark. From Dow Jones: “Greece is at risk of missing a key budget target in June, European Union experts said in a report, a sign of the uphill struggle the country faces as it tries to get its deficit reduction plans back on track. The report, prepared by European Commission budget experts with input from European Central Bank officials and published over the weekend, says that Greece could miss its June target for its primary budget balance, a measure of the government deficit that excludes interest payments on outstanding debt.” And here is why the last thing anyone in Europe cares about is actual Greek growth: “Government revenue faces “significant” shortfalls that have only partially been offset by lower spending and delayed payments, the report says. “As a result, the quarterly performance criterion on the primary balance could be missed already in June.” June. As in before the disbursement of cash contingent on the primary balance being met…
More:
The EU and the International Monetary Fund expect Greece’s primary deficit to be 0.8% of gross domestic product at the end of this year. The Greek government hopes that austerity measures approved by the Greek parliament last week can put the country back on track to hitting that target.
So with Greece already more bankrupt than a short month ago, next up is the super-duper strict, and extremely credible, European stress test round 2 which will find that all European banks, especially those about to fail, are more solvent than they have ever been.
Which brings up the next question: in a bankrupt world in which the official newsflow is one farcical lie after another, why even bother any more.