Two recent opinion polls showed that most Greeks agree that the country’s government has to adopt the austerity measures imposed by the European Union (EU) and International Monetary Fund (IMF) in exchange for bailout funds to avoid national bankruptcy.
The Greek government coffers have no money to meet its obligations largely due to endemic corruption, cumbersome bureaucracy and government largesse. The country is only one week away from defaulting on bonds worth €8.5 billion maturing May 19 for which it does not have the money to pay. Despite widespread violent protests last Wednesday, a majority of the people have begun to realize that they have to bite the bullet if their country is to survive.
In a poll conducted by the Proto Thema newspaper, 54.2% of respondents say they are willing to go along with the austerity measures imposed by the EU-IMF plan rather than see their country go bankrupt. On the other hand, 33.2% of those who responded to the poll feel the government should not accede to getting outside help but should rather go it alone. The poll also shows that 51.4% of the public are reasonable enough to accept that more personal sacrifices have to be made to overcome the economic crisis while only 28% believe that having strikes will solve the problem.
Another poll was conducted by the Sunday edition of the To Vima newspaper. This poll showed similar results in more than half of Greeks (55.2%) feeling that the EU-IMF austerity measures are necessary and they will ‘accept’ or ‘probably accept’ them. 44.6% of respondents in this poll do not accept the EU-IMF conditions. However in contrast to the other poll by Proto Thema, this poll discovered 53.2% of Greeks feel that strikes and protests should continue. However, 63.5% of these respondents do not think that the protests would stop the government from adopting the austerity measures.
In the Proto Thema poll, 1,000 people were asked if they thought the Greek workers unions keep their protests at a ‘rational’ level. A whopping 74% said yes while only 21% replied in the negative. This poll was conducted on behalf of the newspaper by Alco polling agency on May 5 to 7 through telephone calls after violence in Athens by protestors resulted in the deaths of 4 bank employees whose building was set on fire.
On what they thought of their political leaders, the poll showed that 49.4% of the people felt that Prime Minister George Papandreaou has been ‘responsible’ in his job while 39.9% said he was not. In a related result from the other poll by the To Vima newspaper, 71.3% of Greeks think the country’s major political parties should cooperate more to tackle the crisis.
The To Vima survey was conducted by the Kapa Research polling agency interviewing 1,030 respondents on May 6.
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Filed under Chapter 7 (Tampa) by on Jul 29th, 2010. Comment. 
In an amazing development, Ted Baer, who is the heir to the Brandeis Departmental stores has filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy. Ted and his wife, Kathy Baer filed papers at the bankruptcy court on April 29. A few days after the filing, Baer’s mother passed away.
Ted Baer is the great grandson of J.L. Brandeis who founded the Brandeis Departmental stores. Baer’s father died in 2002. At one point of time, Baer was the owner of US Hockey league team, the Omaha Lancers until he sold off the team in 2004. The bankruptcy filed by Baer cited debts between $10 million and $50 million, one of the biggest Chapter 7 bankruptcies in the country.
Baer owes about 200 creditors, including Borsheims, Nebraska Furniture Mart and ConAgra. The Baer’s lawyer said that the bankruptcy involved the couple’s personal finances and not their family business holdings. The lawyer also stated that they chose to file for bankruptcy to avoid personal liability and that the business contributed to the couple’s personal financial problems.
The court imposed a deadline for the couple to disclose more details on their bankruptcy filing. At this point, the family still runs the Georgetown Club and Brandeis Catering.
Before filing this present Chapter 7 application, Baer had filed a Chapter 11 bankruptcy case on 2 of his other companies that owned and operated a bowling alley called Thunder Alley located in Elkhorn. The 2 companies in question are BowlNebraska and Husker Bowl. Baer closed down the bowling alley in June last year without warning and explanation. According to bankruptcy records, he had been behind in payments on several loans connected to the property there. But the bowling alley was re-opened by one of Baer’s former business partners, Steve Sempeck who started to lease the 86,000 square feet property after his own bowling alley burned down.
According to Sempeck, the precipitating cause of the Baers’ financial problems was the ailing economy. Register of Deeds Diane Battiato said the Baers started to default on their mortgage loans last summer about the time they closed down Thunder Alley. The Baers had three out of their four deeds of trust with defaults filed on them.
With his companies under Chapter 11 bankruptcy and his own personal finances under Chapter 7, Ted Baer faces an uphill task in working his way out of the debts he owes.
Filed under Chapter 7 (Tampa) by on Jul 28th, 2010. Comment.
In what seems like the only way out of a catch 22 situation, Greece has to borrow money from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and its fellow EU countries to avoid national bankruptcy. The country is two weeks away from defaulting on €8.5 billion worth of bonds maturing May 19 for which it does not have the money to pay.
During a heated debate in parliament, Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou said the government has to avail itself to the €110 billion three-year package comprising of loans from other eurozone countries and the IMF. But the package comes at a price. The government must agree to severe austerity measures over the three year period. These measures include slashing salaries, pensions and increasing taxes. The government was trying to rush through legislation in parliament to authorize the austerity measures.
The loan package is also aimed at preventing the debt problem from spilling over to other European countries with vulnerable economies such as Portugal and Spain. Portugal and Spain has had their debt ratings downgraded which contributed to the depreciation of the value of the Euro from as high as $1.51 to below $1.28.
The austerity measures have sparked outrage among the Greeks, with approximately 100,000 people spilling into the streets last Wednesday, torching buildings, destroying public property, smashing windows and fighting with police. Three bank employees – a man and two women, one of whom was pregnant – died when they were trapped inside their building set ablaze by rioters. Another four people were rescued by fire fighters using a crane from the balcony of the bank. The deaths were the first protest-linked ones in more than 20 years and have shocked the nation in which protests are common but rarely result in fatalities. A makeshift shrine with flowers and candles was set up in a charred window of the Marfin Bank, the scene of the deaths.
41 policemen and 15 civilians were injured in the riots, while 25 people were arrested. When the journalist union canceled their participation in the protests, newspapers were rushed through the press on Wednesday just in time to report on the riots and deaths. But despite the fatalities and general carnage, unions and far left groups were planning for more protests on Thursday.
The bank workers’ union called for a strike Thursday to protest the deaths of their members and at the same time laid the blame for the violence on the government’s austerity measures. However, most banks in central Athens remained open.
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Filed under Chapter 7 (Tampa) by on Jul 27th, 2010. Comment.
