European Crisis
Think Big, Think Bold
, 25/03/2014
Why the Left in Britain and in the Eurozone must aim for a radical Pan-European Green New Deal The Centre for Labour and Social Studies (CLASS) kindly invited me to draft a possible Manifesto for the European Left, in view of the May 2014 European Parliament election. Here is the final document I produced entitled […]
Why I signed the petition for a Portuguese debt restructure
, 21/03/2014
Jorge Rodrigues, of Portuguese daily Expresso, asked me to explain why it is that I signed the petition of 74 economists calling for an immediate debt restructuring of Portugal’s public debt, how this ‘call’ squares up with our Modest Proposal and what type of debt restructuring I had in mind. Click here for the interview as […]
70 economists petition for an immediate Portuguese debt restructure
, 20/03/2014
While Frankfurt-Berlin-Brussels are in full spin mode on Portugal, pretending that the fiscal consolidation program was successful and the country is about to exit its bailout (a little like exiting the frying pan to land in the fire itself), the bitter reality is that Portugal’s public debt is out of control, its labour market in […]
Why has the Eurozone Bond Market stabilised?
, 18/03/2014
In June 2012, at a time when central banks had pushed interest rates to almost zero, Italy had to borrow at 8% to re-finance its gargantuan $3 trillion debt. Spain was in even direr straits. With national income falling by 2% annually, these interest rates meant that the national debt mountain was rising by 10% […]
Five lessons from the Greek PSI
, 12/03/2014
Jorge Rodrigues, of Portuguese daily Expresso, wrote to me with a question: “What lessons can countries like Portugal learn from the Greek PSI of 2012, now that their post-bailout debts have also become unsustainable?” My answers were published in Expresso on 17th March 2014. My original answers in English follow:
Open Letter to Mr Alex Salmond
, 10/03/2014
Scotland’s First Minister and leader of the Scottish National Party (Click here for a pdf version of this open letter and here for a longer article, on which this letter is based, entitled ‘If Scotland, why not Greece?’) Dear Mr Salmond,
If Scotland, why not Greece?
, 10/03/2014
Why an independent Scotland should get out of sterling, but Greece should not volunteer to exit the Eurozone Scotland should state its intention to decouple from sterling, once independent, rather than petitioning for a continuation of its subservient role in an asymmetrical sterling union. Or so I argued in the Scottish Times in ‘Scotland Must […]
On the Ukraine: Three awkward questions for Western liberals and a comment on the EU’s role
, 09/03/2014
Let us accept (as I do) the principle that national minorities have the right to self-determination within lopsided multi-ethnic states; e.g. Croats and Kosovars seceding from Yugoslavia, Scots from the UK, Georgians from the Soviet Union etc.
Interviewed by L’Express
, 07/03/2014
The Express published an interview I gave to Benjamin Masse-Stamberger a week ago. interview The Lasted one hour, over Skype, and Its Version of published nicely captures what Benjamin and I Discussed. The gist of it Will not surprise regular readers: The Greek 'bailout' was a sinister exercise in banking Transferring Losses from the books [...]James K. Galbraith on Inequality and the Eurozone (audio)
, 05/03/2014
at the Progressive Economic Conference, Brussels 2nd March 2014
Austerity as a destabilising assault on the New Deal institutions: A joint presentation by J.K. Galbraith & Y. Varoufakis (video)
, 27/02/2014
A debate involving James K. Galbraith, Yanis Varoufakis and Jeff Sommers (in the role of moderator) took place on 24th February at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee in the context of the George Kennan Distinguished Lecture Series. An amateurish recording is available here. For ease of ‘navigation’, a list of topics (with their location on […]
Don't Try This at Home! Greek Austerity
, 26/02/2014
by JEFFREY SOMMERS and YANIS VAROUFAKIS This is an op-ed published in initially in the Wisconsin-Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, on 22nd February 2014, and then in CounterPunch, on 26th February 2014. You can read the text here by clicking…
The Folly of Biblical Economics: Lessons from Europe that Americans must heed
, 18/02/2014
Moralizing and generalization have always been terrible foundations for public policy.
BITCOIN: A flawed currency blueprint with a potentially useful application for the Eurozone
, 15/02/2014
The responses of many to my post on Bitcoin reveal a powerful tendency to underestimate the ill-effects of deflation on a social economy. This tendency to underestimate deflation’s deleterious impact matters beyond debates on Bitcoin per se. For example, in Europe the incapacity of the European Central Bank (ECB) to act in the face of […]
Europe's Economy: the eurozone, Greece, the Scottish question, France and Italy – on RT tv
, 14/02/2014
To watch my interview jump to 13′
Peter Bofinger’s Euro-bundles are a Step Backwards – to the EFSF’s toxic bonds. But they do point to a real solution
, 10/02/2014
by James Galbraith, Stuart Holland and Yanis Varoufakis (*) Peter Bofinger’s proposal for Euro-bundles (see here for an introduction) serves the noble purpose of rekindling the debate on the Eurozone’s fiscal and monetary incoherence. The idea behind Euro-bundles is to issue a common bond without joint liability that the ECB can then purchase in the […]
Peter Bofinger’s Euro-bundles: What are they? A primer plus pertinent queries by George Krimpas
, 08/02/2014
His proposal for a Eurobond, as an instrument of fiscally consolidating the Eurozone, was soundly rejected by the German Chancellor. Now, with an ECB paralysed in the face of a major deflationary onslaught, Professor Peter Bofinger comes up with a variant of the rejected Eurobond, which he calls ‘Euro-bundles’, only this time as an instrument […]
GERMANY’S CHOICE: AUTHORITARIANISM OR HEGEMONY? (*)
, 03/02/2014
For those of us who grew up under totalitarian regimes, it is noteworthy that Europeans are resorting to a time-honoured tradition: telling jokes as a form of defiance. Here is one: “Why did Europeans agree to form the euro?” “Because”, the joke goes, “the French feared the Germans, the Irish wanted to escape Britain, the […]
Being Greek and an Economist While Greece Burns: An intimate account – MGSA Keynote 2013
, 16/11/2013
(Gonda Van Steen introduced the audience to the MGSA 2013 Conference and Artemis Leontis introduced me. The talk begins at around 10′, when the audio becomes loud and clear) The Modern Greek Studies Association (MGSA) kindly invited me to deliver its 2013 Keynote, at the MGSA biannual Conference held at Indiana University. I grabbed the opportunity […]
Does Europe threaten world recovery? Lessons for the US
, 13/11/2013
On 12th November 2013 Economists for Peace and Security convened a workshop in Washington DC to discuss Jobs, Investment and Rebuilding America: An economic and national security agenda. In that forum we heard Jason Furman, Chair of the Council of Economic Advisors, deliver a passionate speech in defence of social security and welfare provisions against […]
PONZI AUSTERITY: A definition and an example
, 08/11/2013
For a while now I have been arguing that Europe’s policies for reducing the public debts of fiscally stressed member-states can be described as a Ponzi austerity scheme. In this post I attempt precisely to define ‘Ponzi austerity’.
Video: Yves Leterme on the Eurozone Crisis
, 07/11/2013
Eves Leterme was one of two keynote speakers in our “Can the Eurozone be saved?” conference at the LBJ School of Public Affairs, University of Texas at Austin. Not only the OECD’s Deputy Secretary General but also a former Prime Minister of Belgium, indeed he was at the helm of the Belgian government at the […]
Beyond Pop Histories of the European Union – in The Globalist
, 06/11/2013
The following piece was published in The Globalist on 5th November 2013, extracted and edited by Stephan Richter (thanks Stephan) from my Sydney talk The Dirty War for Europe’s Integrity and Soul. Click here for The Globalist’s page or…
Europe: Technocrats versus Democrats – in The Globalist
, 06/11/2013
The following piece was published in The Globalist on 5th November 2013, extracted and edited by Stephan Richter (thanks Stephan) from my Sydney talk The Dirty War for Europe’s Integrity and Soul. Click here for The Globalist’s page or…