By Ben Cohen: When the massive economic crisis hit the US back in 2008, people struggled to understand how everything fell apart so quickly. Up until that point, the American economy was heralded by the media as a miraculous powerhouse embodying the principles of the free market and dynamic entrepreneurialism. The reality [...]
A bomb-damaged branch of the Administrative Reform ministry in Athens yesterday. Photograph: John Kolesidis/REUTERS Eurozone crisis live: Bombs in Athens over Easter break Eurozone investor sentiment drops Spanish minister refuses to rule out bailout Greeks protest austerity measures with small fire-bombs There is more live coverage of events at http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/apr/10/eurozone-crisis-live-athens-protests-bombs Related articles Greeks Rally Against Austerity [...]
The Nitty Gritty on How and Why Greece Will Leave the Eurozone As riots rage across Greece, financial blogger Ed Harrison outlines a proposal for the country’s exit from an unworkable eurozone and the creation of a New Drachma. February 13, 2012 | Note from author: This post is a special members-lengthweekly (for Credit Writedowns) that I am making [...]
AFP photo It can not be stressed enough that the Greek bailout is really about getting present investors some return on their money. It is not a loan to tide over the Greek economy while they look to carry on helping their own people. The ultimate price to be paid is for Greeks to become [...]
LIKE THIS ARTICLE ? Join our mailing list: Sign up to stay up to date on the latest headlines via email. Are the Ratings Agencies Abandoning Fiscal Austerity? Despite downgrades, even ratings agencies may be figuring out the economies in peril can’t be helped by mindless cuts and contractions. January 16, 2012 | This article although written [...]
The ITEM club forecasts that unemployment will approach three million in 2012, representing 9.3% of the UK’s labour force Photograph: Danny Lawson/PA The UK is likely to already be in recession, according to two highly regarded economic forecasters, as developments in the eurozone paralyse the country’s recovery. The Ernst & Young Item Club and the [...]
The Toll of Austerity: Eurozone Unemployment Hits New Record Youth joblessness at 3.3 million in the eurozone As the U.S. Labor Department announces today that the unemployment rate has fallen to a low of 8.5%, new statistics released today from the Eurostat, the EU’s statistics agency, show the soaring rates of unemployment in the eurozone. [...]
REUTERS A ceremony to mark the launch of the euro coins in Frankfurt in December 2001: The euro was always built on delusions. Since its inception, the euro zone has been built on lies, the most grievous of which is the idea that the common currency could work without political union. [...]
‘The Euro-Zone Bailout Programs Must Be Stopped’ How to save the euro? Some believe that the European Central Bank is the key to any solution. Others think that the euro zone should be contracted and the weak members squeezed out. SPIEGEL spoke with two leading German economists about the currency’s future. Their one area of agreement? [...]
The austerity campaigns or methods referred to express a wider problem. In these schemes all you get is the poor and disadvantaged together with the working people being asked to keep a system designed to absolutely maximise profits to the elites being forced to keep it afloat. Having taken whatever they can as bailouts and [...]
Wrecking Europe to Fix It By Stephen Lendman - Posted on 12 December 2011 Wrecking Europe to Fix It - by Stephen Lendman From inception, Eurozone monetary union was an idea doomed to fail. Nonetheless, it was engineered fraudulently to look workable. In 1979, Europe’s Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM) was introduced as part of [...]
Wilkerson: New Military Powers the Road to Tyranny Larry Wilkerson: National Defense Authorization Act that passed the Senate giving the military power for indefinite detention without trial is a draconian violation of our rights Go to story | Go to homepage DC Protests Target K Street Lobbyists Demonstrators in Washington protest against corporate control of politics Go [...]
Herman Van Rompuy is circulating the eurozone plan ahead of a crucial EU summit on Thursday and Friday. Photograph: Yves Herman/Reuters Radical eurozone shakeup could see countries stripped of voting rights Confidential paper from European Council president Herman Van Rompuy proposes empowering Brussels to impose austerity The European commission could be empowered to impose austerity [...]
Sir Mervyn King said the eurozone crisis has hit the UK economy this autumn, after the OECD cut its growth forecasts sharply. Photograph: Chris Ratcliffe/PA Euro crisis live: OECD predicts recessions in UK and eurozone – 28 November 2011 • Mervyn King blames eurozone for ‘bulk of’ lower growth forecasts • UK economy to shrink this quarter, [...]
Europe‘s economic crisis has helped far-right politicians, such as Geert Wilders, gain support [GALLO/GETTY] As if the economic ramifications of a full-blown Greek default were not terrifying enough, the political consequences could be far worse. A chaotic eurozone breakup would cause irreparable damage to the European integration project, the central pillar of Europe’s political stability since [...]
Photo by AFP The talk is all of EFSF, firepower, leverage and haircuts. But amidst all the jargon of the Eurozone crisis, it’s easy to forget that there are livelihoods at stake, and that real people are seeing their world turned upside down. Nowhere more so than in Greece. So here are a couple of reminders. [...]
Historically, Greeks are very good at constructing myths. The rest of the world? Not so much. Reading the press, one gets the impression of a bunch of lazy Mediterranean scroungers, enjoying one of the highest standards of living in Europe while making the frugal Germans pick up the tab. This is nonsensical propaganda, designing [...]
Troubled Eurozone Finance Capital By Stephen Lendman - Posted on 12 October 2011 Troubled Eurozone Finance Capital – by Stephen Lendman For years, Progressive Radio News Hour contributor Bob Chapman warned about troubled Eurozone financial institutions and possible sovereign defaults. Greece died months ago. Default is certain. Only its obituary hasn’t appeared. Germany prepared contingency plans [...]
Greek Default Looms Eurozone At Death’s Door by MIKE WHITNEY “After almost two years of fighting to contain the region’s debt crisis and providing the biggest share of three European bailouts, Chancellor Angela Merkel is laying the ground for what markets say is almost a sure thing: a Greek default.” – Bloomberg News Greece is hurtling [...]
You can view the video at: http://english.aljazeera.net/programmes/countingthecost/2011/08/2011813968915995.html It was a dramatic week right across the financial and economic world. It started with a historic decision to strip the US of its AAA credit rating, and turned into a rollercoaster week for global stock markets – down as much as 20 per cent, and [...]
A cyclist rides past the European Central Bank headquarters in Frankfurt. The ECB is to buy government bonds from Italy and Spain. Photograph: Ralph Orlowski/Reuters The European Central Bank has moved to halt Europe’s runaway debt crisis by pledging to buy government bonds from Italy and Spain. The move to prop up Europe’s struggling nations [...]
A protester wears national flags on her hand as she protests at Syntagma square in front of the Greek Parliament last month. Moody’s has warned Greece faces significant risks in implementing reforms. Photograph: Milos Bicanski/Getty Images Ratings agency Moody’s has cut Greece‘s debt rating by three notches to Ca on Monday, leaving it just one notch [...]
