A month ago, Greece was on the precipiece.  The EU was demanding that Greece come up with the outline of a plan to meet their obligations under the bailout negotiated three years ago.  The new far-left Greek prime minister, Alexis Tsipras, had promised during the campaign to remove the budget straitjacket imposed by the bail out partners in the EU but was finding out quickly that campaign rhetoric doesn't mean squat when it meets the reality of the EU's insistance that Greece abide by the deal. So Tsipras was forced to back down and accepted a continuation of EU oversight on its spending.  They released a non-specific, nebulous series of proposals that the EU quickly accepted so that cash from the European Central Bank to prop up Greece's banking sector could be released. But the next intsallment of bailout cash won't be delivered until Greece satisfies EU finance ministers that it has a specific plan to meet its debt obligations.  And time is...(Read Full Post)