Farewell. The Flying Pig Has Left The Building.

Steve Hynd, August 16, 2012

After four years on the Typepad site, eight years total blogging, Newshoggers is closing it's doors today. We've been coasting the last year or so, with many of us moving on to bigger projects (Hey, Eric!) or simply running out of blogging enthusiasm, and it's time to give the old flying pig a rest.

We've done okay over those eight years, although never being quite PC enough to gain wider acceptance from the partisan "party right or wrong" crowds. We like to think we moved political conversations a little, on the ever-present wish to rush to war with Iran, on the need for a real Left that isn't licking corporatist Dem boots every cycle, on America's foreign misadventures in Afghanistan and Iraq. We like to think we made a small difference while writing under that flying pig banner. We did pretty good for a bunch with no ties to big-party apparatuses or think tanks.

Those eight years of blogging will still exist. Because we're ending this typepad account, we've been archiving the typepad blog here. And the original blogger archive is still here. There will still be new content from the old 'hoggers crew too. Ron writes for The Moderate Voice, I post at The Agonist and Eric Martin's lucid foreign policy thoughts can be read at Democracy Arsenal.

I'd like to thank all our regular commenters, readers and the other bloggers who regularly linked to our posts over the years to agree or disagree. You all made writing for 'hoggers an amazingly fun and stimulating experience.

Thank you very much.

Note: This is an archive copy of Newshoggers. Most of the pictures are gone but the words are all here. There may be some occasional new content, John may do some posts and Ron will cross post some of his contributions to The Moderate Voice so check back.


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Friday, July 22, 2011

Partial Virgins and Partial Default

By Dave Anderson:

It is damn hard to only be partially pregnant or mostly a virgin (although I knew some girls who tried). It is also damn hard to be partially default. Why not embrace reality and jump all the way in.

The Fitch ratings agency has declared that Greece is in partial default if it accepts the latest bail-out plan where private bond-holders are made to take losses:


Greece faces a �restricted default� after the European Union crafted a 159 billion-euro ($229 billion) bailout for the nation, which includes getting bondholders to assume part of the cost, Fitch Ratings said.

Greece would be cut to �RD� should the plan be implemented, Fitch said today in an e-mailed statement. The ratings company cut Greece by three levels to CCC on July 13.

The program �of financial support for Greece, as described in the Institute for International Finance proposal issued at the summit will, in Fitch�s opinion, constitute an event of �restricted default,� the statement said. �According to the IIF, the proposed debt exchange implies a 20 percent net present value loss for banks and other holders of Greek government debt.�

A 20% haircut does not do enough to reduce Greece's debt load to a managable level, especially if Greece is still to be shackled to a Euro that is over-valued to Greece's needs.

Greece is already cut off from regular financial markets as its short and intermediate term borrowing rates are worse than my credit card rates. It has already suffered the damage and punishment for irresonsible budgeting. Anything else is masochistic pain for Greece and Serious Elite sadism.

Greece has the full default card to play where it tells its bondholders that they are screwed as they did not do their due diligence correctly, therefore they'll get 10 cents on the euro, net present value instead of the current 80 cents on the euro. Doing that will keep Greece off the debt markets, but they already can't access those markets, while reducing the Greek debt load to 15% of GDP, which is a number they can manage.



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