Palaiologos, Υ. (2015) “It’s Time for Greece’s Left to Get On Board“, Wall Street Journal, 05 March.   Greece’s Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis sent a letter last week to Jeroen Dijsselbloem, president of the group of eurozone finance ministers, outlining the reforms that Athens would push through during the approved four-month extension of the country’s bailout. On the thorny subject of privatization, the letter said that the new government commits …Read More

Cowen, T. (2015) “Why is the Greek government so popular with left-wingers?“, Marginal Revolution Blog, 10 March.   Even though the Greek electorate has elected left-wing leaders, the “the Greek government” hasn’t actually changed all that much.  It is still dysfunctional, corrupt, and very protective of special interests in nationally harmful ways.  Yet I find that if I criticize the Greek government on Twitter I receive many angry, self-righteous comebacks, …Read More

Spiegel, P. (2015) “Will the “troika” return to Athens?”, Financial Times, 09 March.   Among the issues plaguing deliberations over the way forward on Greece’s bailout is how the country’s international creditors can verify its economic and fiscal situation without sending monitors to Athens– which would look very much like the return of the hated “troika”. Alexis Tsipras, the new Greek prime minister, has declared the death of the troika …Read More

Gros, D. (2015) “The end of fiscal waterboarding?“, Economic Policy, CEPS Commentaries, 23 February.   In this Commentary, Daniel Gros argues that linking the primary surplus demanded of the new Greek government to the state of the economy is a sound approach. Some flexibility is warranted on this account, but the concept should be used to distribute the effort better over time, not to wriggle out of it.   Relevant …Read More

Exadaktylos, T. (2015) “Assessing Syriza’s first month in office: why Greece remains a long way from a break with austerity“, LSE EUROPP, 03 March.   The new Greek government, led by the Coalition of the Radical Left (Syriza), won power on 25 January. Theofanis Exadaktylos assesses the government’s first month in office. He notes that while Syriza won the election with a commitment to renegotiate the country’s bailout agreement, the …Read More

Weisbrot, M. (2015) “Greece’s stance against crippling austerity is a fight to save all Europe“, Tribune News Service, 26 February.   Greece has been dragged through a lot of mud in the media over the past few years because previous governments over-borrowed, and that contributed to the initial crisis that – we should remember – Spain, Portugal, Italy and almost everyone else in the Eurozone had to go through. But …Read More

Finkeldey, J. (2015) “Why Marxism fails in the Eurozone“, The European Magazine, 27 February.   Yanis Varoufakis dubbed himself an “erratic Marxist” and presented his interpretation of Marx in detail. But his dialectical spirit is unlikely to succeed. Karl Marx’s dream has come true: Europe is suffering in a long recession and some European capitals are under siege by indignant citizens. But are we really on the brink of disintegration …Read More

Dullien, S. (2015) “Note from Berlin: The Greek compromise“, European Council on Foreign Relations, 26 February.   When the eurozone finance ministers came up with a compromise with the new Greek government on the rescue package last week, the German media almost unanimously applauded Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble and Chancellor Angela Merkel. Although, later, there was some grumbling about the details of the list of reforms, the general tough stance …Read More

Mitchell, B. (2015) “Don’t mention the war! er the Troika…“, Bill Mitchell Blog, 26 February.   “Don’t mention the war”! was a classic line from the episode – The Germans – in the comedy Fawlty Towers. Basil Fawlty implored his meagre staff to stay silent in case they offended some German tourists staying at his hotel. His attempt at self-censorship failed and led to hilarious consequences. I was reminded of …Read More