The IMF has no intention of softening the terms of Greece’s austerity package, says Christine Lagarde. Photograph: Emmanuel Fradin for the Guardian It’s payback time: don’t expect sympathy – Lagarde to Greeks Take responsibility and stop trying to avoid taxes, International Monetary Fund chief tells Athens The International Monetary Fund has ratcheted up the pressure [...]
Demonstrators protest against government austerity measures outside the Greek Parliament in Athens last month. (Photo: CNN)Greece’s situation is not an isolated event, but a bellwether for the industrial world and beyond. The fallout from the 2008 global crisis hasn’t reached bottom yet, and the depths will be dug deeper as the Euro crisis spreads — [...]
Greek Leftist Leader Alexis Tsipras: ‘It’s a War Between People and Capitalism’ Greece‘s eurozone fate may now be in the hands of the 37-year-old political firebrand and his Syriza party By Helena Smith in Athens May 22, 2012 “The Guardian‘ – – “I don’t believe in heroes or saviours,” says [...]
Alexis Tsipras tells reporters in Paris that the future of Europe and the euro depended on the outcome of the Greece debt crisis. Photograph: Remy De La Mauviniere/AP Alexis Tsipras warns Greek crisis is also Europe’s Greece’s leftwing leader tells Paris audience that other EU countries will be next if they fail to oppose radical [...]
Greece heading out of euro, say UK voters ICM poll reveals 74% believe Greece will leave single currency while David Cameron‘s personal rating hits all-time low Voters are convinced the euro is heading for the rocks, but divided on whom they will blame if the double-dip recession deepens, according to a new Guardian/ICM poll. By a crushing [...]
The G8 talks will be an opportunity for Barack Obama to vent US frustration at Europe’s failure to find a solution to the debt crisis. Photograph: Carolyn Kaster/AP link http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/may/17/barack-obama-eu-growth-crisis Barack Obama is to put pressure on Germany to ease the pain of austerity with policies to boost growth, as he uses two days of talks with the G8 industrial nations [...]
Alexis Tsipras: Austerity Will Send Greece (and Europe) ‘Directly To Hell’ – Common Dreams staff Alexis Tsipras, head of Syriza, Greece’s ascendent left-wing political party, appeared on CNN’s evening news showAmanpour on Wednesday to voice his party’s position on the ongoing economic crisis in his country and across Europe. “We want to change the [...]
Greek Voters to Face Month of Eurozone ‘Fear-Mongering’ to Swallow Austerity Markets rattled by possible Greek exit from Euro; June elections may spell end of single currency – Common Dreams staff Greek voters are in for several tumultuous weeks ahead of next month’s parliamentary elections as the country’s “troika” of creditors – the European [...]
Most Greeks say they want their country to remain in the eurozone [EPA] Will Greeceleave the euro – and if so, what would happen next?The question has been bandied about for a few years now, but has gained more attention after Greek elections gave big boosts to parties opposed to the terms of the country’s [...]
Shock Doctrine Opponents Revolt: The Austerity Backlash Across Europe The truth is that the real world has paid the high priests of austerity an unwelcome visit by Owen Jones When I first read Naomi Klein’s The Shock Doctrine a few years ago, I had no idea how prescient the book was. It was a polemic about “disaster capitalism”, [...]
Capitalism in the Second Decade of the 21st Century: From the “Golden” to the Dark Ages of Capitalism By James Petras May 09, 2012 “Information Clearing House” — The economic, political and social outlook for the second decade of the 21st century is profoundly negative. The almost universal consensus, even [...]
Unpopular austerity measures have often been met with mass demonstrations in Europe [Reuters] New York, New York - This year’s annual meeting of the International Monetary Fund made clear that Europe and the international community remain rudderless when it comes to economic policy. Financial leaders, from finance ministers to leaders of private financial institutions, reiterated the [...]
Greek, French Elections Sound Death Knell for Austerity by Julio Godoy BERLIN – The voting out of conservative governments in France and Greece this weekend heralds the end of harsh European austerity programs and ushers in an era of new economic, investment, and social policies aimed at restoring growth and employment across the continent. In [...]
Waiting for Copernicus By John Feffer It’s happening in Buenos Aires. It’s happening in Paris and in Athens. It’s even happening at the World Bank headquarters. The global economy is finally shifting away from the model that prevailed for the last three decades. Europeans are rejecting austerity. Latin Americans are nationalizing [...]
Since Austerity raised its head this page has constantly warned about what is suggested is an attack on working people, to further the cause of the elites and their lackeys. As far as ‘belt tightening’ in concerned, just whose belt is being tightened?. Remember that what we are supposed to [...]
Austerity Can’t Be Just For Regular People by Matt Taibbi It didn’t take long to crank up the backlash against European voters. This is inevitable whenever a socialist wins a major election, but particularly now, when new French president François Hollande rode to victory shouting, “Austerity can no longer be inevitable!” A protester holds a banner that reads ‘Austerity [...]
Washington, D.C. – Economic austerity is a dangerous, self-defeating intellectual fad. Perhaps I should say that’s what it was, given Sunday’s election results in Europe. Perhaps I should also say good riddance. Voters in France, Greece and even Germany — a hotbed of the austerity cult — told their political [...]
Alexis Tsipras, the leader of a group of radical leftists, warned that Greece could walk away from its rescue deal with the eurozone. Photograph: Kostas Tsironis/AP The European executive has responded to the electoral earthquakes in France and Greece by calling for a shift towards growth across the EU as the new firebrand leftist leader in Athens [...]
German chancellor Angela Merkel has insisted Athens must comply with the stringent terms of its €130bn (£100bn) bailout. Photograph: Fabrizio Bensch/Reuters Eurozone crisis: Merkel tells Athens and Paris to stick to spending limits Efforts to save the euro under threat after EU leaders’ strategies collide with the wishes of voters in Greece and France Europe‘s [...]
David Cameron, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom at the Annual Meeting 2012 of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, January 26, 2012. (Photo: Moritz Hager / World Economic Forum)Who’s an economy for? Voters in France and Greece have made it clear it’s not for the bond traders. A Question of Timing: What America Can [...]
François Hollande, France’s newly elected president. Photograph: Thomas Coex/AFP This is what passes for bad news these days. A proper election process looks to have rejected austerity. That’s bad apparently. In two elections candidates at least claiming to want to give people a voice may be elected or govern as part of a coalition. That [...]
In recent months, PASOK has been bleeding support to parties further left [Sam Bollier/Al Jazeera] Athens, Greece - Greece is entering its fifth consecutive year of recession. As the unemployed, the angry, and the newly poor turn in the widening gyre, the country’s political centre falls apart. Since the end of Greece’s military junta in 1974, [...]
Greek elections: exit polls point to drubbing for major parties New Democracy and Pasok see support drop dramatically, as voters turn to parties who had opposed austerity measures Greeks vote in parliamentary elections. Link to this videoGoverning parties backing EU-mandated austerity in Greece are on course for a major drubbing as hard-hit voters, [...]
Greek fascist groups have begun to target the country’s ‘wretched and defenceless’ [AFP] New York, NY - Were one to write a pre-election analysis in the glorious days of Greece‘s ancien regime, one would most probably have to present and analyse the political positions of the main competing parties. Yet, this is one of the most outdated [...]
Golden Dawn, a neo-Nazi party, will likely clear the 3 per cent of the vote it needs to gain seats in Parliament [EPA] New York, NY - On May 6, 2012, the people of Greece are called upon to conduct the most important national elections in their recent history. The gravity of the occasion is not [...]
Loverdos is a minister for so-called Social Solidarity – hardly what one would expect from his issuing of compulsory health certificates for all migrants, says the author [AP] London, United Kingdom - On April 1, 2012 two ministers of the Greek coalition government held a joint press conference: Michalis Chrisochoidis, minister for Citizen Protection (administering the [...]
Protest flames: demonstrators in Rome take part in a candlelit vigil held for victims of the economic crisis and to highlight the lack of jobs. Partial local elections take place next month. Photograph: Giuseppe Ciccia/Demotix/Corbis Anti-austerity movements gaining momentum across Europe As economies falter, established political parties feel the heat from leftwing and far right [...]
(photo: Odysseas Gp) Germany to Greece: Cut Safety Nets for Citizens But Keep Buying Our Weapons – Common Dreams staff As Germany insists that Greece submit to harsh austerity measures leaving pensions cut, unemployment soaring and the healthcare system slashed, one area it believes needn’t be cut is Greece’s weapons purchases, provided in great [...]
Photo Credit: shutterstock Crisis to Suicide: How Many Have to Die Before We Kill the False Religion of Austerity? The rate of people taking their own lives is soaring in Europe at such a clip that the trend has given birth to a new media term: “Suicide by economic crisis.” April 16, 2012 | LIKE THIS [...]
Treasure dating from the ancient period has been stolen from the Museum of Olympia [EPA] Athens, Greece - The broken display cases at Greece‘s Museum of Olympia, the site where the first Olympic Games were held thousands of years ago, have stunned members of the Archaeological Service who have been registering a stream of missing cultural [...]
Stock market panic selling led to shares falling across the world with the FTSE100 down 128 points. Photograph: Frank Baron for the Guardian European stock markets rocked by panic selling as debt crisis reignites Investors demanding high premiums for holding Italian and Spanish bonds as fears of double-dip recession grow Heather Stewart, Larry Elliott and Giles Tremlett in Madrid [...]
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 [...]
Daughter of Greek Suicide Victim: “Bestiality of Capitalism Unacceptable” Hundreds of people gathered Saturday in Athens, Greece, for the funeral of Dimitris Christoulas, the 77-year-old retired pharmacist who shot and killed himself near the Greek Parliament building last week after writing a note that blamed his suicide on the [...]
Mourners stand around the spot where a man committed suicide at central Syntagma square in Athens, Thursday. A cash-strapped Greek pensioner shot and killed himself on Wednesday saying he refused to scrounge for food in the rubbish, touching a nerve among ordinary Greeks feeling the brunt of the country’s economic crisis. (John Kolesidis/Reuters) ATHENS, [...]
Thousands of people gathered for a demonstration in Madrid on 29th March [Barnaby Phillips] Here’s a sobering thought for Europe‘s trade unions. Throughout the long and painful story of the Eurozone crisis, from early 2010 to the present, it’s difficult to think of a single significant victory for organised labour.There have been many strikes [...]
After Greece, there are signs of rising protests across EU societies [EPA] London, United Kingdom - German sociologist and influential European thinker Ulrich Beck recently highlightedthat one of the most (problematic) prevailing contemporary tendencies is to elevate Germany‘s “culture of stability” to “Europe’s guiding idea”. While it is necessary that some states take a more conscious and [...]
Dutch boy – Wolfson Prize Wolfson economics prize: 11-year-old Dutch boy makes surprise entry Jurre Herman won €100 in gift vouchers for his devastatinglysimple contingency plan for a breakup of the eurozone Josephine Moulds guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 3 April 2012 17.53 BST Article history An 11-year-old boy from the Netherlands has joined the chorus of people calling [...]
The present global crisis is not at its core an economic depression but rather a systemic failure By Richard Clark (about the author) opednews.com Become a Fan (96 fans) — Page 1 of 1 page(s) opednews.com We tend to forget that the larger system within which we live is changing and is, with our help, reaching [...]
Getty Images As Greece struggles to master its devastating debt problem, decades of mismanagement have taken their toll on the country’s once-proud capital. Athens has degenerated into a hotbed of chaos and crime, where tensions between Greeks and immigrants have led to attacks on foreigners by the far-right. Massoud starts walking faster as the shadows lengthen. He glances at the [...]
Bio Gerald Epstein is codirector of the Political Economy Research Institute (PERI) and Professor of Economics. He received his Ph.D. in economics from Princeton University. He has published widely on a variety of progressive economic policy issues, especially in the areas of central banking and international finance, and is the editor or [...]
Photo Credit: AFP Eliot Spitzer: How Wall Street is Gaming the Greek Bailout The credit-default hypocrites are back in business. March 5, 2012 | A funny thing happened on the way to the Greek bailout: Credit-default swaps involving Greek debt—the same kind of financial instruments that triggered the 2008 fiscal cataclysm—were set aside, once again protecting [...]
Parti socialiste (CC-BY) Former Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou By Peter Bratsis, Truthout The most central and constant dilemma in modern politics has been the choice between the political desires and demands of citizens versus the policy expertise and prudence of bureaucrats and specialists. For the more democratically inclined, those like Machiavelli and Aristotle, [...]
Greek austerity protests (Photo: Aris Messinis / AFP/Getty Images) The Science and Ethics of Austerity: Lessons from the US and Europe by John Buell Around the world, corporate media and even substantial segments of the working class have embraced an old religious creed, the celebration of austerity. Its cold bath is supposed to rid [...]
Lessons from Greece on democracy and debt-bondage BY DAVID MCNALLY | FEBRUARY 28, 2012 It is a truism to say that democracy began with the Greeks — less so to say that it originated in popular rebellion against debt and debt-bondage. Yet, with the Greek people ensnared once more in the vice-grip [...]
Our Very Own Oscar Night in Rimini By Michael HudsonFebruary 27, 2011 “Counterpunch” — I have just returned from Rimini, Italy, where I experienced one of the most amazing spectacles of my academic life. Four of us associated with the University of Missouri at Kansas City (UMKC) were invited to lecture for three days on Modern Monetary [...]
Many Greeks resent the troika‘s demands for economic austerity in Greece [GALLO/GETTY] This page has consistently said that austerity is simply a lie foisted on an unwilling public by the elites and their managers and then espoused by an army of dishonest intellectuals who have constructed entire parts of logic and reasoning based on [...]
People shout during a huge anti-austerity demonstration in Athens’ Syntagma square. (Photo: Reuters)“The IMF has consistently underestimated the depth of the Greek recession,” saidMark Weisbrot, CEPR Co-Director and lead author of the paper. “At some point, it becomes rational for Greeks to ask, is the euro worth this kind of punishment?” Published on [...]
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 [...]
“The leadership of the EU thinks that Greek people are, collectively, childish enough to require adult supervision to ensure they spend the so-called bailout package in the most responsible way possible,” says author [GALLO/GETTY] Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain - More than two hundred years after the death of Immanuel Kant, the question of political enlightenment is still a [...]
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 [...]
