Say your prayers': Attempts to form new Greek government fail

http://bottomline.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/05/15/11710740-say-your-prayers-attempts-to-form-new-greek-government-fail?lite
F. Brinley Bruton and Reuters contributed to this report.

Attempts to form a government in Greece collapsed on Tuesday, worsening fears that leftists opposed to the terms of a European Union bailout could sweep to victory and push the eurozone crisis into a dangerous new phase. 

In Athens, a spokesman for President Karolos Papoulias said his efforts to broker a compromise -- in which a cabinet of technocrats would try to steer the country away from bankruptcy -- had failed, nine days after an inconclusive general election.

A caretaker government will now be formed pending a new vote probably in mid-June.

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'Bad news' for U.S.?
And with hostility rising in Greece to austerity policies imposed by the European Union and International Monetary Fund, speculation that Greece will exit the eurozone won't go away. 

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Greece abandons quest to form new government
The amount of political energy and effort being spent on sorting out the Greek issue means that policymakers and politicians were simply "muddling through" and not focusing enough attention on the entire trading block's ailing economy, he said. 

Then there is the question of contagion, experts warn.

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At least 100,000 march in Spain over austerity
Greece's left-wing SYRIZA party, which surged to second place in last week's election on an anti-austerity platform, rejected all compromise with pro-bailout parties, emboldened by opinion polls showing it could top the poll in a second vote. 

The tremors from Greece, compounding worries about Spain's debt-laden banking system, ended any honeymoon for new French President Francois Hollande, thrusting the growing risks to the EU to the top of the agenda for his first meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel hours after he took office.


Exit Sarkozy, enter Hollande: Socialist sworn in as French president
In his inaugural address, the Socialist president called for a European pact to revive growth and temper German-driven austerity measures, seeking to change the direction of eurozone economic policy.
"I will propose to our partners a pact that will tie the necessary reduction of our public debt to the indispensable stimulation of our economies," Hollande declared, saying Europe needed "projects, solidarity and growth." 




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COMMENTARY
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Say your prayers, indeed.An essential element of political and financial stability is beginning to come apart at the seams, and no one apparently knows how to stop what has happened thus far from developing into a much larger and much more serious collapse.

The long-term consequences of dissolution of the European union terrify some observers, yet are being welcomed by others.
http://thewordenreport.blogspot.com/2011/06/european-union-dissolution-or.html

No one really knows what will happen, meanwhile fear of the unknown rages like a political hurricane. Rarely have the winds of change blown so forcefully.

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