Talks to resolve the Greek debt crisis continued Thursday amid ongoing disagreements among private creditors, the European Central Bank and other parties about which degree of losses might be considered acceptable and who might have to be included in those losses.
Christine Lagarde, head of the International Monetary Fund, further roiled the waters by suggesting that the ECB and other public bodies might have to accept losses as well, something the ECB has refused to consider.
Bloomberg reported that after Lagarde made her suggestion, Michael Meister, deputy floor leader for German Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats and the party's ranking finance spokesman, dismissed the idea out of hand that the ECB should even consider taking losses on Greek debt. In the report he was quoted saying, "I can't imagine that European politicians would allow third parties to make such an indecent claim on our central bank."
