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DOW – 101 = 18,014

SPX – 11 = 2109

NAS – 15 = 5117

10 YR YLD – 08 = 2.27%

OIL – .98 = 59.47

GOLD – 1.70 = 1201.30

SILV – .07 = 16.18

For the week, the Dow was up about 0.9% and the S&P 500 gained 1%. The Nasdaq jumped 1.4% as it hit new all-time highs yesterday.

Eurozone leaders will try to find a bailout deal for Greece at an emergency summit Monday. News reports said a European Central Bank official warned Eurozone finance ministers that the Greek banks might not be able to open come Monday. The big risk now is that a report about the fear of a bank run will serve to spur a bank run. Greeks pulled more than €1-billion euro out of their banks today. European Central Bank policymakers have agreed to supply extra emergency cash to avert a bank run.



The Associated Press reports Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has traveled to Russia, likely looking for loans. Russia and Greece signed a deal today to build an extension of a prospective gas pipeline that would carry Russian gas to Europe through Turkey. Russia promised Greece hundreds of millions of dollars in transit payments yearly if it agreed to build the pipeline. Construction of the pipeline is expected to start next year and be completed in 2019. Putin’s spokesman said it was too early to comment on possible loans. Russia has its own economic problems: a recession, a costly invasion of Ukraine, and economic sanctions.



Speaking in St. Petersburg today, Tsipras said the Euro Union should return to its founding principles of “solidarity, democracy and social justice, but the obsession with austerity and policies which rupture social cohesion make it impossible.” What’s at stake is “whether Europe will give space to policies of cohesion rather than the imposition of meaningless and failed programs.”



So, the new emergency meeting is Monday; the deadline for default is the end of the month; bankers are worried about a run on the banks; and the most probable outcome is – nothing. That’s an educated guess, not a guarantee. The Greek crisis could implode at any moment, and it could get very ugly. And for that reason, the most probable outcome is that nothing will happen; the Greeks will probably get an extension of the current bailout until year-end. Another delay is tempting for Eurozone leaders; nobody wants to pull the trigger on the gun that kills Greece and possibly the Eurozone.



Remember the PIIGS? The 5 Eurozone countries that have had economic problems: Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece, and Spain. Nowadays we only hear about the problems in Greece. What happened to the other countries? The NYT decided to survey what people in the other Eurozone crisis countries think about the situation in Greece. The survey looked at Ireland, Italy, Spain, and Portugal. The general theme appears to be that we toughed it out, now Greece should too. It would have been useful to include a bit of data on where these countries stand now. Per capita income and employment are all well below their pre-crisis level in all four countries mentioned. By following the path of austerity, unemployment is worse now than in 2007; in Italy it is 3.1% worse, Ireland 8.9% worse, Portugal 11.5% worse, and Spain 14% worse. And GDP in these 4 crisis countries has slipped by 4.4% to 11.5%.