Monthly Archives: February 2017

WASHINGTON

Greece, which has been struggling for years with high debts and painful rates of unemployment, is making progress toward reducing its massive budget problems and restoring economic growth, the International Monetary Fund said Monday.

But the IMF said the country's debts remain unsustainable over the long term.

The IMF predicts Greece's economy will reach long-run growth of just under 1 percent a year, unimpressive but an improvement on years when the economy was shrinking. And Greece will meet the IMF's target by reporting primary annual budget surpluses - which do not include interest payments - equal to 1.5 percent of economic output.

Since the financial crisis left it buried in debt and unable to issue bonds in financial markets, Greece has relied on international bailouts. Its eurozone creditors have forced it to make painful budget cuts that caused a deep recession. Unemployment is 23 percent. Most IMF directors said Greece doesn't need any more austerity. But they said the country should reduce pension payments and make more people pay taxes to raise money to help the poor and cut overall tax rates.

The country's debt is unsustainable at around 180 percent of gross domestic product, the broadest measure of economic output, the IMF said. Most IMF directors say the country will probably need debt relief to pay its bills over the long term.

Greece is under pressure to conclude its latest bailout negotiations in time for a scheduled Feb. 20 meeting of eurozone finance ministers. That would allow the country to join the European Central Bank's bond-buying program, which would boost market confidence and make it easier for Greece to return to the bond market later this year.

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IMF: Greece's Debts are Still Unsustainable, Despite Progress - Voice of America

Since taking over as coordinator two seasons ago, Keith Butler has had a vision of how he wants the Steelers to play defense.

It was on display in 2016.

On Nov. 20 at Cleveland, the Steelers turned a four-man rush out of their five-defensive backs sub-package into a sack and a forced fumble by linebacker Ryan Shazier that was recovered in the end zone by defensive tackle Javon Hargrave.

On Jan. 22 at New England, another four-man rush out of the nickel resulted in a Hargrave sack of quarterback Tom Brady and a subsequent punt.

There were many such examples throughout the season, particularly during the nine-game winning streak that delivered the Steelers from 4-5 to the AFC Championship Game.

But there werent enough of them against the Patriots.

We werent tight enough in coverage, head coach Mike Tomlin assessed after New Englands 36-17 victory denied the Steelers a berth in Super Bowl LI. We didnt apply enough consistent pressure to the quarterback.

The Steelers had demonstrated the ability to stick with receivers and assault pockets previously.

The next step will be to do so more consistently in 2017.

But the progress made by the defense in 2016 provided a foundation upon which to continue to build.

Early in the season the Steelers struggled with basics such as tackling and being in the right gap, and with mental aspects of the game such as not trying to do too much individually and compromising the scheme.

But improvement was evident in all of those areas as the season progressed despite losing defensive end Cam Heyward for the season in a 35-30 loss to Dallas on Nov. 13.

James Harrison started at right outside linebacker, Sean Davis started at strong safety and outside linebacker Bud Dupree made his 2017 debut the following week in Cleveland.

Soon thereafter, a lineup that had included Artie Burns starting at cornerback since Nov. 6 at Baltimore solidified and the defense sprouted teeth.

The Steelers amassed eight sacks on Nov. 20 in Cleveland. They picked off a pair of passes and came up with a couple of goal-line stands on Nov. 24 at Indianapolis. They held the Bills No. 1 rushing attack to 67 yards on the ground on Dec. 11 at Buffalo.

They were a different defense, reflected by their final regular-season rankings of No. 12 in total defense, No. 13 in rushing defense and No. 16 in passing defense.

The Steelers had been No. 21 in total defense in 2015 and No. 18 in 2014.

Projections for 2017 included Heywards return; Burns, Davis and Hargrave coming back as second-year pros rather than rookie starters; Shazier building upon a season that saw him emerge as the only player in the NFL with at least three sacks (three-and-a-half), three interceptions (three) and three forced fumbles (three); and linebacker Lawrence Timmons potentially playing next season as one of four players in Steelers history with at least 30 career sacks and at least 10 career interceptions (Joey Porter, Greg Lloyd and Mike Merriweather are the others).

Timmons will become an unrestricted free agent on March 9, as will Harrison.

The goal of the defense, no matter the eventual configuration, will be what its been since Butler took over in 2015.

Its always the same formula, Butler said before the Patriots game. We smash the run, try to put them in position to throw the ball and try to put pressure on Brady.

Theyll try to do so more often next season.

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Progress apparent on defense - Pittsburgh Steelers - Steelers.com

Deutsche Bundesbank has made progress developing a blockchain-based settlement infrastructure, but the system is not yet market ready.

Carl-Ludwig Thiele, a member of the Deutsche Bundesbank executive board, offered an update on the banks progress speaking at the G20 conference in Wiesbaden. His comments, Digitizing finance, financial inclusion and financial literacy, are available on the banks website.

Thiele noted the bank develops and operates large financial market infrastructures in line with technological advances. The bank needs to be aware of the potential benefits and risks of this technology early on.

Working with Deutsche Brse, the bank has developed a preliminary prototype for a blockchain-based settlement that has the following capabilities:

The projects goal is to learn the following: How the technology works, How reliable and secure blockchain-based transactions are, What factors impact the costs of blockchain-based transactions, How effective and efficient blockchain-based processes are, How current processes can be improved with blockchain technology.

Improving process efficiency is an overriding goal. A shared data pool across all entities concerned should enable standardizing and simplifying some of the more complex transaction monitoring processes.

A shared data pool combined with flexible access rights would, for example, provide the conditions whereby relevant regulatory reporting and internal audit requirements are addressed with less effort and are more securely designed.

Deutsche Bundesbank chose a concept based on a Hyperledger blockchain. The top considerations were: A closed or permissioned blockchain network, in which only authorized users can transact on the network. Responsibility and confidentiality. Future financial transactions will be governed by current standards in these two key areas. Hence, every transaction is encrypted, in addition to the transacting parties identities.

Also read: Industry report: blockchain technology will save banks billions

The study indicates blockchain technology can be adapted meet current financial system needs and requirements. And while the prototype works, further development for mass use presents challenges.

The test application allows for simulating large-volume delivery-versus-payment securities transactions.

The joint project has developed an elementary, though functional, blockchain-based application catering to the financial sectors basic requirements.

The bank is presently unable to know if the application can allow for mass use or whether this it is a viable option in terms of costs.

With this as our starting point, we aim to develop a technically more sophisticated prototype, capable of providing information on technical performance and thus allowing comparison with our present settlement infrastructure, Thiele said.

Image from Wikimedia.

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Deutsche Bundesbank Cites Progress With Blockchain-Based Settlement - CryptoCoinsNews