Greece is alone

Greece is in arrears is of a different nature. Under these circumstances the country cannot expect any further support from the IMF. As the EFSF programme also came to an end yesterday and since the ECB froze the ELA on Sunday Greece is now all on its own. The mere fact that it is a member of the monetary union does not mean it is entitled to receive any help. The euro zone Finance Ministers nonetheless continue to discuss Greece's new proposals, Europe is keeping its composure. 

ECB head economist Peter Praet once again pointed out the tools available to the ECB to fight a crisis, in particular the OMT programme. These comments are not intended to announce the imminent activation of the OMT programme, but to discipline the market. "Don't even try to bet against bonds of the peripheral countries. We have ways and means of penalizing such attempts", is the message the ECB is trying to send out to the market. This way it is preventing any possible contagion effects of the Greece disaster before they have even started at any meaningful extend. The fact that the EUR exchange rates are not reacting to the Greece issue means the FX markets assumes that the disciplining is successful, says Commerzbank. After all that was also the case in 2012 when the circumstances were far more difficult.