Hello, the day before yesterday and yesterday the depositions of witnesses and those involved in the dramatic “Violanta” case came to light. In them, the name of the Minister of Digital Policy, Papastergiou, was “implicated,” because in 2007 he participated in the issuance of the building permit for the “Violanta” factory in his capacity as an Electrical Engineer. Truly, what normal person believes that Papastergiou—who became a minister 16 years later (and had previously served as mayor of Trikala)—has any responsibility or connection today with what happened in 2007? But even back then he had no responsibility whatsoever, since he never took part in the construction of the project. I am told that the “dirty work” against Papastergiou, with everything being written on social media and elsewhere, is being organized and instigated even by the Region of Thessaly, which of course bears responsibility for the issuance and operating license of the facility. Now how much of a disgrace is that, among other things, for Regional Governor Kouretas?

Adonis – thuggery
Yesterday we had yet another incident—this time a very brutal one—of thuggery at the Nikaia hospital, where trade unionists from the KKE and ANTARSYA obstructed (sic) Georgiadis from inaugurating some new nursing project or medical unit. There is no country in the world where such incidents systematically occur, where every time a minister goes to the site of his work a handful of leftists who disagree with the country’s foreign policy, blame the Jews, the Americans, the frigates, and the Ukrainians for not letting the Russians conquer them, are waiting to insult and bully him. Because that is what they care about—not hospitals in reality. We all have eyes and ears and we hear and see what they say. In this particular case, these people have gone berserk because almost three times a month a new project is inaugurated in some hospital, funded either by ESIF funds, national financing, or private donations, with the aim of improving the National Health System and supporting social healthcare. I do not believe that this admittedly infuriating spectacle harms Adonis or the government. On the contrary, it plainly benefits them—and mark my words, it will boost Georgiadis’ popularity to great heights ahead of elections. Nevertheless, it is a disgrace for the country and a shame for the political system to tolerate the bullying of an elected politician carrying out his duties by a handful of pseudo-leftists. Whoever it was, the same would apply; it is fascist, and it is time to put an end to these fearful behaviors toward the pseudo-toughness of such types and their political patrons. I have not seen such bravado outside Putin’s hospitals…

The Senators and the General at Mitsotakis
Let’s move to our daily matters: K.M. returned last night from India, where he had contacts both with Modi and with significant players in the global technology community, and he has a full schedule until he attends the funeral of Eleni Glykatzi-Arveler, where he will also deliver a eulogy. This morning I learn that a delegation of Senators led by Republican from Kansas Jerry Moran will cross the threshold of the Maximos Mansion, and NATO General and Supreme Allied Commander Europe Alexus Grynkiewicz will also come. The meeting is obviously important, on the one hand because Moran sits on key Senate committees, and on the other because Grynkiewicz is among the highest-ranking military officers of the Alliance. I should tell you that the senator had met a few days ago with our new ambassador to the U.S., Antonis Alexandridis, who recently presented his credentials to Trump.

At the Pentagon
Since we are talking about the visit of the American Senators and the NATO general, I should tell you that they also have scheduled contacts with Nikos Dendias at the Pentagon, and Kimberly Guilfoyle will also attend these meetings; afterward, they say, she will head to Hydra, where Brad Pitt has arrived for filming.

The Ark and vindication
I must tell you that yesterday’s Court of Appeal decision, which upgraded the sentence initially imposed on Father Antonios and sends him to prison for 9.5 years (convertible to 60,000 euros), was widely discussed in political circles. When the investigation into the until-then “holy” Ark structures had begun, the move by then Deputy Minister of Labor and current Minister of Social Cohesion and Family, Domna Michailidou, who had taken on the “deep establishment” of the institutions, had also been widely questioned. Now, the Ark is under the umbrella of the state and operates with difficulty, as Father Antonios had left various openings, while the trial for the financial aspect of the case is still pending—I remind you that felony charges have been brought against Antonios and his presbytera. Therefore, I understand that in Michailidou’s ministry there is a sense of vindication. As for the ecclesiastical aspect, and given that Ieronymos was never his biggest fan, you should consider suspension—and therefore loss of salary—a given, but as for his referral to the Disciplinary Council of the Holy Synod, it remains to be seen whether he will accept the Court of Appeal decision as a final conviction or appeal to the Supreme Court. You might now say, so what happened, what did this guy suffer—he’ll pay sixty thousand euros and walk free. Yes, but he will not be walking around in the Ark, and of course he will not easily disentangle himself from the criminal cases.

Nikos, Aris and the VTCs
My source in PASOK is in the mood these days. Yesterday morning he was listening to our leader Nikos on Real FM wondering “what political responsibility PASOK has” for what Mrs. Tasoula Chatzidakis did at OPEKA and remembered the harsh tone of the party’s MPs on the issue of the VTCs and training programs, on the occasion of the Panagopoulos case. In fact, a few days ago PASOK MPs submitted a question to Kerameos and Papathanasis about all these programs which, admittedly, are not the most transparent thing to have passed through the “market.” “Why doesn’t the president ask a Mr. Aris Karvounis, whom he placed on the Ballot Committee a few days ago?” he told me. I don’t know the man, but indeed they found a Patras native Aris Karvounis, who indeed runs the VTC Spoudi.

Slacking and…nutrition
The Minister of National Defense, Nikos Dendias, visited Avlona yesterday to oversee the transition of the mechanism to the new military service, following his omnibus bill. Now, that the new service incorporates training in modern technologies, in drones and anti-drones, we had somewhat understood. But that the menu—that is, the rations—for conscripts have been designed by nutritionists because soldiers “must eat well,” as the Defense Minister says, I had not imagined. I hope we don’t end up with too many round ones who, instead of standing guard, turn to…Ozempic.

A heavy shadow from the decision
Doubts and uncertainties are continuing and intensifying regarding the impact that the Supreme Court’s decision on loans under the Katseli law will have on banks. Behind the scenes there is great irritation; the Ministry of Finance is ready, once it studies the decision, to undertake legislative initiatives if deemed necessary, while the preliminary estimate is that the cost of the decision could be 1 to 1.5 billion euros. On the sidelines of the decision, the discussion in the market is whether this specific ruling will trigger a wave of questioning in society and cultivate “I won’t pay” mentalities, as banks believe that the “system”—that is, parties, media, etc.—did not criticize and accepted the decision without reactions. Additionally, they consider it certain that other similar claims will emerge, beginning with out-of-court settlements, while some argue that it will also affect the under-formation body for the properties of vulnerable borrowers.

Preludes
We recently mentioned the cancellation of the “Alexandria” transaction, because the price agreed with Apollo did not cover Hercules’ reserves for financing the securitization. A prelude to what will follow from this specific incident. Real estate portfolios in particular are, in their entirety, mispriced, and servicers will not be able to sell them.

Why Athens Avenue became a…rollercoaster
The image of the board in recent days resembles more a “cardiogram” than a calm market, with abrupt swings in direction testing the endurance even of the most experienced investors. Friday’s losses of 2.82% (13/2), the impressive rise of 3.3% on Wednesday (18/2), and the new drop of 2.22% on Thursday (19/2) compose a scene of extreme volatility that is not due to a single factor but to a “cocktail” of domestic and international developments. At the heart of this “nervous breakdown” lies the reshuffling of banking portfolios. The systemic banks, which had led the rise of the previous period, are now at the center of sell-offs. Large foreign funds appear to be taking profits, in anticipation of new data on interest rates and the course of bank profitability through 2026. The market is “digesting” the transition from the high-interest-rate environment to a new normality, and this is causing violent readjustments in valuations. At the same time, the high-profile deals recently announced have created a climate of reassessment. Many institutional investors are adjusting their positions, creating strong inflows and outflows that directly affect the General Index. The international factor is also considered pivotal, especially after the new escalation of tension between the U.S. and Iran. Uncertainty in European markets and nervousness on Wall Street over inflation are automatically transmitted to the shallow Greek market. The current volatility is the price of the rise to multi-year highs. Athens Avenue stands at the threshold of transition from an emerging to a developed market, in many cases awaiting strong financial results from listed companies for the fiscal year in order to find a more stable “footing.”

PPC and Meloni
Meloni is not backing down, as we wrote the other day, regarding the energy levy in Italy, causing turmoil among European utilities, as there are scenarios that there might be imitators in other countries as well—though that does not seem likely today. With the aim of financing support measures against increased energy costs, the Italian government is proceeding with an increase in the regional corporate tax (IRAP) for energy-sector businesses. At the same time—and this has caused concern in the sector, although it remains uncertain whether it will ultimately receive approval from the European authorities—it is promoting through a bill the removal of carbon costs from electricity bills. If implemented, it would likely cause compression of wholesale prices, a reduction in energy companies’ profitability, and a slowdown in renewable energy investments. However, what is happening in Italy is unlikely to be replicated elsewhere, especially in Greece, since as Alpha Finance – AXIA and analyst Konstantinos Zouzoulas explain, adopting a similar mechanism in Greece is highly unlikely, as it would jeopardize the strategic acceleration of renewable energy investments and conflict with the operation of the European Target Model. Nevertheless, PPC’s share remained under pressure, closing yesterday at 18.26 euros (-3.74%), while Alpha Finance – AXIA maintains a target price of €25.40.

Pratt & Whitney remains a problem
The major problems caused to the air transport sector by Pratt & Whitney, one of the largest and most historic aircraft engine manufacturers in the world, continue, directly affecting production of the A320neo family aircraft, Airbus’s most popular commercial model. Delays and uncertainty in engine deliveries have directly impacted Airbus, leading it to continuously lower production targets for the A320neo and to publicly express concerns about Pratt & Whitney’s commitment to fulfilling supply contracts. This results in reduced production and delivery targets despite high demand. Airbus now expects monthly A320neo production to reach 70–75 aircraft by the end of 2027, instead of the higher levels it had previously hoped for. As a result, the global aircraft and engine supply chain and the international air transport sector are affected. This situation is also reflected in airline stocks, which are unable to capitalize on the steady rise in air traffic and tourism, overturning in many cases their expansion plans. In this climate, Aegean’s stock, despite the significant increase in passenger traffic and the positive results the market expects it to announce in March for the full year 2025, faced significant pressure yesterday and fell by 3.62%, and from the highs of €15.26 at the beginning of the month it is now 9.30% lower.

The new fashion in Greece with Data Centers
After hotels, logistics parks, and luxury residential complexes, applications for the development of data centers have recently been increasing across Greece. It is not only the Karatzis Group, Dromeus Capital, and Ten Brinke—there are at least 10 other investors who have submitted or are preparing licensing applications for the creation of data centers throughout the country. In the big picture, the ambitious plan for PPC’s giant data center in Western Macedonia certainly stands out, opening a new development path for the country. The problem is that many of those currently rushing to obtain licenses treat a data center exactly like a real estate investment or at best a logistics park. They have the land, they will build the building, they will rent out the space. Things are not so simple. Even a logistics center, to operate efficiently, needs high-capacity roads, rail or port connections, sufficient electricity supply, and adequate telecommunications infrastructure. Without these infrastructures, the logistics park becomes a simple warehouse in a remote field. For a data center, the requirements are different. The land and the building represent perhaps 15–20% of the total investment and complexity. The remaining 80% is invisible to those thinking in real estate terms. First of all, for a data center to exist, it must already have secured the major client, the entity that will manage the data. Moreover, a data center without access to high-capacity cables or international data exchange hubs (Internet Exchange Points) is, at best, a local “server room.” Then it needs energy. A medium-sized data center consumes as much as a small city. Large international operators now require documented access to renewable sources and stable supply. PUE (Power Usage Effectiveness), the facility’s energy efficiency, is a measurable index that determines the project’s investment value. Without such documentation, no serious hyperscaler will sign a collocation agreement. Finally, cooling is required. In a country with Greece’s climate, heat management is one of the largest operating costs of a data center. It is an engineering challenge that requires planning from the outset, not afterward. In short, in data centers, unlike real estate, licensing is not the end of the road but the beginning of the real problem.

Fear does NOT guard the desolate – Greeks invest billions in LNG Carriers
On the supply side, Russian liquefied natural gas cost about one euro. American LNG can reach $15. The difference is large, and no extensive analysis is needed to understand what this means for households and businesses. Europe has declared that it wants full independence from Russian energy sources. “But markets operate based on cost and supply,” experienced shipping market executives told me at a casual meeting: “If the war in Ukraine ends and Russian energy returns at particularly low prices, no one can guarantee what the stance of European governments will be when citizens are groaning under the weight of high energy costs.” As they commented, “many Greek shipowners have invested billions in extremely expensive liquefied natural gas carriers (LNG Carriers), with construction costs exceeding $250 million each. Their strategy is based on the estimate that Europe’s shift toward LNG imports mainly from the United States and Qatar will maintain strong demand for these specialized ships. They are acting based on today’s data.” But if Russia dynamically reenters the energy game, the landscape may change. These investments were made with specific assumptions about the duration of the crisis and the structure of the market. In a different environment of prices and political decisions, balances are not given. The only almost certain thing is that, regardless of geopolitical developments, the final energy bill for the European consumer is unlikely to return to past levels. And this is a reality that neither governments nor markets can easily ignore.

In Piraeus they fear the “accident”
Meanwhile, Moscow is raising the temperature at sea, and Greek shipowners are lowering their tones—but not their concern. The Russians left open the possibility of a naval response if European authorities continue seizing tankers carrying Russian oil. And this, in the offices along Akti Miaouli, was not heard as rhetorical exaggeration. The recent moves by Paris and London to detain vessels linked to Russian crude, as well as the tightening of controls on the so-called “shadow fleet,” have already increased insurance premiums and risks. The temporary seizure and eventual release of the tanker Grinch by France was enough to sound the alarm among brokers and P&I Clubs. In Piraeus they do not fear only fines. They fear the “accident.” A hot incident in international waters, an inspection that gets out of hand, a warship escort sent as a message of strength. In a market where Greek shipowners transport a significant percentage of global crude oil, geopolitical escalation is not theory—it is cost, insurance, crew risk. The threat of “breaking a blockade” from the Russian side is not read only as a political message. It is read as a warning of a new era of naval tension, where oil once again becomes an instrument of power. And as Brussels tightens sanctions, shipowners wonder who will pay the price if the game spins out of control.

Oikonomou, Russian oil, and Turkish shipbreaking yards
I conclude today’s energy puzzle with Giorgos Oikonomou. The Greek-interest suezmax tanker Vilamoura, of TMS Tankers, which had been sabotaged in the Mediterranean last June, was sold to Turkish shipbreaking yards for scrap. The vessel had been struck 12 hours after departing from the port of Zueitina in Libya, carrying 1 million barrels of crude oil. It was towed to Greece, but it turned out that repairs would cost more than the revenue from scrapping, together with any insurance compensation. Behind the scenes, suspicions turned toward Ukraine, which over the past four years has openly or covertly struck a series of tankers carrying Russian oil. Vilamoura, although it had visited Russian ports, was not sanctioned by the United States, the United Kingdom, or the EU, as it either carried barrels from Kazakhstan or did not violate the G7 price cap on Russian oil. Despite the attacks, TMS Tankers had at the time described any connection of the vessel to sanctions as completely false and misleading.

The Italian olive oil plan and Greek bureaucracy
Greece produces about 70% to 75% of European extra virgin olive oil. The best product on the market. Yet it lacks the bargaining power, sectoral organization, and—above all—the national strategy to turn this raw material into a national product. On the other hand, Italy has already begun implementing its own National Olive Oil Plan 2026–2031, which is nothing less than a clear aggressive industrial strategy. The Italian government has set a target to increase domestic production by +25% over the next seven years. This will be achieved by expanding cultivation to 700,000 stremmas, corresponding to 6% of the country’s total agricultural land. Italy wants to stop importing Greek oil and re-exporting it as “Italian,” building its own self-sufficiency in the most profitable agri-food sector globally. At the same time, while Rome plans with a 2031 horizon, Athens burdens olive producers with bureaucratic procedures that undermine every competitive capability. The notorious Olive Registry requires the producer to submit not one or two but 32 different documents and certificates, with data that the state itself already possesses through other bodies. The digital Dispatch Note, which is a logical tax monitoring tool, reveals that the State treats the olive producer as a potential tax evader, not as an entrepreneur who needs support to export branded products. While the Greek producer drowns in paperwork and procedures, the Italian trader buys his production at low prices and repositions it on Northern European supermarket shelves with triple the profit margin and an Italian label. By 2031 there will not even be this buyer of Greek olive oil…

Defense Technology at the War Museum
Next Friday, the European Defense Tech Hackathon begins at the War Museum and will conclude on Sunday. Initial information states that 200 representatives of defense bodies from 10 countries will participate. Ukraine is sending 26 executives, while representatives from Israel, France, Germany, and even Turkey have declared participation. The Defense Tech Hackathon is not suited to panels and photographs. Its work concerns code, prototypes, and demos referring exclusively to the real needs of the Greek Army. In Athens, for three days, prime contractors, operators, defense industry founders, and a few “quiet” financiers will circulate, with their eyes on pilot projects and new collaborations.

The FED, Repos, and the new liquidity regime
Yesterday we mentioned the European Central Bank’s decision to extend the Eurosystem Repo Facility (EuRep), that is, the system for providing euro liquidity to (national) central banks, from the third quarter of 2026. The same day, it became known that the U.S. Federal Reserve decided to channel $18.5 billion into the American banking system through overnight repos. Although not exceptional, this move vividly illustrates the “madness” prevailing in the American financial system. On the one hand, the Treasury issues huge amounts of new debt, absorbing bank reserves. As of February 4, 2026, total U.S. gross public debt amounts to $38.56 trillion ($30.96 trillion is debt held by the public and $7.61 trillion intragovernmental debt). The debt has increased by $2.35 trillion in one year, at a rate of $6.43 billion per day. On the other hand, the Fed had been desperately trying to systematically shrink its balance sheet, thus creating significant pressure in short-term funding markets. Going back a few months, on October 31, 2025, the Fed paid $29.4 billion in overnight repos—the largest one-day liquidity injection since the dot-com crisis. It was necessary, however, since bank reserves had fallen to $2.8 trillion, the lowest level in the past four years. Then, on December 1, 2025, the Fed announced that it officially ended Quantitative Tightening and again injected $13.5 billion into the interbank market—the second-largest liquidity injection since the COVID era. In addition, in December 2025, the FOMC abolished the overall daily $500 billion limit on Standing Repo operations, turning them into fully “open,” meaning without a cap. This means the Fed has explicitly changed the way it intervenes. The overnight repo system, from an “emergency” system, has been turned into a routine liquidity management tool. Central bankers in Europe and America are again injecting liquidity into the banking system because they fear something…

Cryptocurrencies discover the hard side of life
Four consecutive weeks of outflows. Cumulative losses of $3.74 billion in one month and a total of $8.5 billion that have left U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs alone since October 2025. The digital gold rushers of easy wealth are discovering that every investment carries the risk of liquidity withdrawal. The problem in the cryptocurrency market is not so much the size of the outflows as their persistence. In 11 of the last 16 weeks, investors choosing to exit crypto funds have far outnumbered buyers. A systematic withdrawal is being recorded, during which no one is in a position to predict the outcome. Bitcoin, as the natural leader of the market, is losing the most—it lost $133 million last week. Ethereum follows with -$85 million. All this is happening just a few months after the historic approval of spot Bitcoin ETFs in the U.S. by the Securities and Exchange Commission, which had been hailed as a milestone for institutional acceptance of the sector. The truth is that institutional investors who entered the party early, at low entry prices, cashed in their short-term gains. Regulatory uncertainties, geopolitical tensions, and opportunity cost in favor of traditional markets create an environment where a recovery of the cryptocurrency market will require a clear change of catalyst—which this time cannot be just another enthusiastic statement from the PotUS.