2012Feb13 Greece cuts...kinda...Greece: After an epic political effort to pass another harsh austerity program, Greece faces still more tests to secure a new financial bailout. Its euro-zone partners are pressing for swift implementation of more budget cuts.
European financial markets responded with modest gains early Monday after Greece got a step closer to receiving a second rescue package to avoid defaulting on its debts next month. A next big step in the cluttered approval process for the aid package is a meeting of euro-zone finance ministers, to sign off on Greece's austerity legislation to clear the way for the €130 billion ($171.59 billion) aid deal. A final decision on the new bailout isn't expected until March. "There is no cause for major relief: In effect parliament only decided not to denounce further aid payments at this stage," Commerzbank foreign-exchange analysts said. Analysts worried whether there would be the political will to follow through on reforms. Greece gets a new government after fresh elections, which could come as early as April.
Greek political leaders last week refused to sign on to pension cuts, but identified measures to find alternative savings. However there was a €325 million shortfall they must still fill.
Markets:
Corporate insiders are now selling their companies' stock at a rate not seen since late last July. That's a scary parallel indeed, since that late July spike in selling came just days before one of the more painful two-week periods in the stock market in years. In early August the U.S. government lost its triple-A credit rating, and the bottom dropped out of the stock market. Between the last week of July and the second week of August, the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 2,000 points.
To be sure, heavy insider selling doesn't always lead to this much market weakness or to this immediately. And there were a lot of other things going on last summer that aren't present today.
Still, on the theory that corporate insiders - officers, directors and largest shareholders - know more about their firms' prospects than do the rest of us, it can't be good news that they are selling at such a heavy pace.
Economics of Valentine's Day:
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