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Greek Endgame From Austerity to Growth or Grexit

Christodoulakis, Nicos, (2015), “Greek Endgame From Austerity to Growth or Grexit”, Rowman & Littlefield publications, October The book explores in depth both the origins of the Greek debt crisis and the conditions under which the economy might be turned around from its current malaise. Greek debt turned explosive after the 2008 global crisis, through a combination of a fiscal spree and domestic policy complacency, but the unpreparedness and indecision of the …Read More

State Transformation and the European Integration Project: Lessons from the financial crisis and the Greek paradigm

Venizelos, Evangelos, (2016), “State Transformation and the European Integration Project: Lessons from the financial crisis and the Greek paradigm”, Ceps, 4 February The financial crisis that erupted in the eurozone not only affected the EU’s financial governance mechanisms, but also the very nature of state sovereignty and balances in the relations of member states; thus, the actual inequalities between the member states hidden behind their institutional equality have deteriorated. This …Read More

Greek pension reform once again: Explaining its logic and issues

Tinios, Platon, (2016), “Greek pension reform once again: Explaining its logic and issues”, Briefing Note, LSE, 15 January Pension reform is, once again, the main issue in Greek political discussion. It returns only months after all retirement ages rose to 67 in the summer of 2015. There have been at least three major pension reforms and at least ten pension cuts since 2010. All this frantic activity apparently fails on …Read More

Greek Pensions Crisis: The Last Act of the Greek Tragedy

Iakovidis, Michael , Mahoney, Daniel , Knox, Tim, (2016), “Greek Pensions Crisis: The Last Act of the Greek Tragedy”, Center for Policy Studies, 14 Ιανουαρίου The Greek pensions system, after decades of political exploitation, state interference and crony capitalism, is close to collapse. The system has been plagued by an unsustainable worker to pensioner ratio, endemic corruption along with major financial losses on investments in Greek banks and Government bonds. To sustain the …Read More

The Varoufakis Effect?

Varoufakis, Yanis, (2016), “The Varoufakis Effect?”, Project Syndicate, 26 January In his end-of-2015 missive, Holger Schmieding of the Hamburg investment bank Berenberg warned his firm’s clients that what they should be worrying about now is political risk. To illustrate, he posted the diagram below, showing how business confidence collapsed in Greece during the late spring of 2015, and picked up again only after my resignation from the finance ministry. Schmieding …Read More

How long before growth and employment are restored in Greece?

Papadimitriou, Dimitri B., Nikiforos, Michalis, Zezza, Gennaro, (2016), “How long before growth and employment are restored in Greece?”, Levy Economics Institute of Bard College, Strategic Analysis, January. The Greek economy has not succeeded in restoring growth, nor it has managed to restore a climate of reduced uncertainty, which is crucial for stabilizing the business climate that promotes investment. On the contrary, a new round of austerity measures that has agreed upon will imply another year of …Read More

Greece: a European tragedy

Mody, Ashoka, (2016), “Greece: a European tragedy”, Bruegel publications, 14 January Wrapped up in the details of pension reforms and home foreclosure—matters that, no doubt, have important consequences for many— the big picture has faded into the background. It is easy to forget how we got here, and where we are going. Relevant Posts   Varoufakis, Yanis, (2016), “Greece’s Two Currencies”, Social Europe, 8 January Arkolakis, Costas, Galenianos, Manolis, (2015), “The challenge of trade adjustment …Read More

Greece’s Two Currencies

 Varoufakis, Yanis, (2016), “Greece’s Two Currencies”, Social Europe, 8 January. Imagine a depositor in the US state of Arizona being permitted to withdraw only small amounts of cash weekly and facing restrictions on how much money he or she could wire to a bank account in California. Such capital controls, if they ever came about, would spell the end of the dollar as a single currency, because such constraints are utterly …Read More

The Left in government again: Principled politicians and pragmatic policies – A lesson on how to square the circle

Sourvanos, Dimitris, Nanou, Kyriaki, (2015), “The Left in government again: Principled politicians and pragmatic policies – A lesson on how to square the circle“,  LSE blog, 24 November Last week Euclid Tsakalotos gave a talk at the LSE discussing from his own experiences – as (the current) finance minister in Greece and as a lifelong Marxist – the difficulties that left-wing parties are faced with when governing under severe constraints. Relevant Posts Cowen, T. …Read More

The challenge of trade adjustment in Greece

Arkolakis, Costas, Galenianos, Manolis, (2015), “The challenge of trade adjustment in Greece”, Voxeu, 22 November In 2009 it became clear that the Greek economy was facing very serious challenges arising from the country’s ‘twin deficits’ – both the budget of the Greek government and the current account of the country were in deficit by almost 15% of GDP. The two deficits required large amounts of financing that was not forthcoming in the aftermath …Read More