One famous result of that climactic, all-nighter European summit of last 26/27 October was that Greece’s creditors would have to accept a 50% “haircut,” i.e. resign themselves to getting back only half (approximately) of the value – principal + interest – that they thought they were going to earn when they first loaned the money. But what does that mean exactly, in terms of specifics? Well, that’s going to depend on negotiations between Greece and those creditors – and from a certain little dog we get an early tweet about how those might look:

Yes, it’s fitting that this is a little Luxembourg dog! (Actually, the piece to which it links – with the second link, not the first – itself passes on the original scoop from the Greek newspaper Kathimerini, via Reuters. But unfortunately we don’t do Greek here at €S.)

Here are the alleged options on the menu:

• Per €100 of debt, creditors will get somewhere between a €10 and €20 cash-payment; for the rest, they get between €30 and €40 (again, per €100 of debt) in a brand-new debt security with a term of between 20 and 30 years and yearly interest of about 6%.
  
• OR else they could have just €37 per €100 debt wiped out entirely and for the rest get a 15-year bond with interest “somewhat higher” than 6%. That sounds a bit better, yes; that’s the proposal from the Institute of International Finance (IIF) which is negotiating for the private creditors.

Anyway, for what all that is worth: the Luxembourg Tageblatt article here is careful to point out that the original Kathimerini piece was “without indication of sources.” So do you trust Greek journalists?

Heard about that so-called “Arab Spring” that has been going on recently (Egypt, Yemen, etc.)? Maybe it deserves a bit more of your attention – a little dog just let me know it’s gonna be BIG!

OK, not really a “little dog” but rather the Luxembourg-based German-language newspaper Tageblatt, in an article (“Arab Spring” has consequences) lacking any by-line other than that of the (surprisingly-new) German press agency dapd.

Actually – apologies for pulling your chain here – this is really the contention of a very smart man, namely William Hague, currently the UK’s Foreign Secretary, a former Conservative Party leader, and McKinsey management consultant when he isn’t involved in politics. According to recent public remarks from him, the wave of revolutions and related unrest in the Arab World that we’re currently seeing is bigger than September 11, 2001, bigger even than the ongoing worldwide financial crisis. This Arab Spring – if fully successful – would be “the greatest advance for human rights and freedom since the end of the Cold War” and could very well carry on to wash over the rest of the globe.

Now check out where the piece goes from there:

At the same time Hague called for support for those seeking to escape authoritarian regimes in Arab states. He also advocated stronger economic incentives for countries to choose for democracy. That way Europe could include the region in a free-trade zone or even a customs-union, he declared.

Whoa! Does that “support for those seeking to escape” extend to opening Britain’s borders (never part of the Schengen area) to the very many cross-Mediterranean refugees with whom Italy and France are now struggling to cope? And what about Syria? There, Hague promises only to pressure strongman Bashir al-Assad to stop using violence, not to “choose for democracy.”

Yes! Finally! The country-treatment (within the “Europa XL” series of cultural portraits of EU member-states commissioned by the Danish newspaper Politiken, etc., etc.) you’ve all been waiting for: Luxembourg!

Well, it’s at least the portrait I’ve been looking forward to doing. Check it out: The Luxembourgois poet Jean Portante actually lists as his choice for “Object” the local language, Lëtzebuergesch. A very good choice, as you’ll see if you care to read on further, although apparently everyone there (or who is really from there at least) speaks French and German as well.

I’ve also noticed that Politiken recently added Malta to their Europa XL master-index page. I might give that one a pass, unless I get any fervent reader requests to the contrary. I do know a very attractive, vivacious Maltese living here in Amsterdam (I don’t think she reads €S, though), but Roberta B. on her own ordinarily would hardly be enough of a justification to inflict a 10-point cultural review of Malta on you, or for that matter on myself. I would, however, like to inflict Roberta on myself (not you.) On the other hand, I don’t in fact know anyone from Luxembourg, and so that should convince you of my incorruptible and highly-objective standards when it comes to choosing material to cover on these pages.

Back to the grand duchy, then: our resident expert on Luxembourg is the poet Jean Portante, son of Italian immigrants to that country. (more…)