Weisbrot, M. (2015) “Who’s Extorting Whom? It’s All About Coercion“, The Huffington Post, 17 February. The Economist‘s Feb. 6 cover displayed the Venus de Milo statue pointing a revolver, with the headline “Go ahead, Angela, make my day.” In the editors’ upside-down world, Greece is threatening Europe, or at least Germany. Really? On Monday, Feb. 16, European officials “handed Athens an ultimatum: Agree by Friday to continue with a …Read More
Lizoain, D. (2015) “Which Side Are You On, Jeroen Dijsselbloem?“, Social Europe Journal, 18 February. Just over a hundred years have passed since the greatest failure of European social democracy. The workers’ movement was unable to halt the needless slaughter of World War I. First, Jean Jaures was assassinated, silencing his powerful anti-militarist voice. Soon after, the German SPD voted to authorize war credits for the Kaiser. Proletarian internationalism …Read More
The Ministry of Finance of Greece was published a folder that includes the presentations of the Greek Finance Minister, Y. Varoufakis, before his counterparts during the Eurogroup meetings of the 11th and 16th of February 2015. The folder includes the documentation non papers provided by the negotiating team, as well as the draft proposals for Greece by the Head of the Eurogroup, J. Dijsselbloem, and the European Commissioner for Economic …Read More
Sabri Öncü, T. (2015) “Greece, Its International Creditors and the Euro“, Naked Capitalism Blog, 17 February. Yves here. This is an excellent background piece on how Greece got where it is and how its various bailouts were structured. It also helps explain the past and current roles the various members of the Troika play and discusses the prospects for Greece achieving its aims. By T ([email protected]), a financial economist …Read More
Friedman, G. (2015) “Germany Emerges“, Geopolitical Weekly, STRATFOR Global Intelligence, 10 February. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, accompanied by French President Francois Hollande, met with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Feb. 6. Then she met with U.S. President Barack Obama on Feb. 9. The primary subject was Ukraine, but the first issue discussed at the news conference following the meeting with Obama was Greece. Greece and Ukraine are not linked …Read More
Franco, F. (2015) “Portugal must rebalance its economy and improve education to continue its economic recovery“, LSE EUROPP, 12 February. Portugal was one of the worst hit countries by the Eurozone crisis, but emerged from its bailout programme in 2014. As part of our ‘economies of Europe’ series, Francesco Franco provides an account of the development of the Portuguese economy since the crisis, including some of the key challenges …Read More
Crook, O. (2015) “The ECB Should Stay Out of Politics“, BloombergView, 10 February. Has the European Central Bank made itself the judge of which countries remain members of the euro area? That would be an amazing assertion of power — on the face of it, completely at odds with its usual insistence that it stands outside politics. Yet that is more or less what the ECB seemed to do …Read More
Weisbrot, M. (2015) “Greece: ECB Kicks Syriza in the Face; Syriza Turns the Other Cheek“, The Huffington Post, 05 February. On Wednesday the European Central Bank (ECB) announced that it would no longer accept Greek government bonds and government-guaranteed debt as collateral. Although Greece would still be eligible for other, emergency lending from the Central Bank, the immediate effect of the announcement was to raise Greek borrowing costs and …Read More
Χατζησταύρου, Φ. (2015) “Je suis Dijsselbloem ou Varoufakis?“, Protagon Website, 04 February. Η πρώτη συνάντηση Βαρουφάκη-Ντάισελμπλουμ φέρνει στη δημόσια συζήτηση ένα θέμα που μέχρι τώρα ήταν αντικείμενο ανάλυσης κυρίως των ενασχολούντων με τη θεσμική λειτουργία της ΕΕ στα οικονομικά θέματα. Ευκαιρία, λοιπόν, να δούμε ποιο είναι το πρόβλημα, γιατί υπάρχει πρόβλημα, και ποιες οι συνέπειές του μέχρι σήμερα. Από το 2010 και μετά οι ευρωπαϊκές κυβερνήσεις ομόφωνα προχώρησαν στην …Read More
Pini, P. & Antonioli, D. (2015) “We Need An Industrial And Innovation Policy For Europe“, Social Europe Journal, 30 January. The prolonged economic crisis since 2008 has drastically reduced incomes and employment levels and the promised recovery will not reabsorb unemployment, particularly in Europe. Nevertheless, economic policy in Europe is sticking to past recipes based on two mainstays: fiscal austerity and labour flexibility. This strategy does increase the short-run …Read More
