DiEM25
‘European Progressive Policy Initiative’ endorses the Modest Proposal’s four main policies
, 01/05/2014
A group of noted international economists (including Joseph Stiglitz, Peter Bofinger and Stefanie Griffith-Jones), known as the European Progressive Policy Initiative (EPPI), has issued a policy paper that endorses the main planks of our Modest Proposal for Resolving the Euro Crisis 4.0. EPPI was assembled in 2013 by Europe’s social democratic alliance in the European […]
A rejoinder to ELSTAT's & EUROSTAT's defence of the New Greek Statistics
, 30/04/2014
ELSTAT, the official Greek statistical service, has put out a document in response to my post unveiling, what I call, their New Greek Statistics over the calculation of the Greek government’s primary budget outcome for 2013. In addition, Eurostat gave an informal response to various journalists who took the matter to them. Full marks for […]
Europe and Greece in Review: Interviewed by Michael Maier for Deutsche Wirtschafts Nachrichten
, 28/04/2014
Interviewed by Dr. Michael Maier for Deutsche Wirtschafts Nachrichten: For the interview in German, as published on the DWN site, Click here for PART A , on the Ukrainian crisis Click here for PART B, on Greece and the Eurozone For the whole interview in English,…
New Greek Statistics: Athens, again, ready to confess to the sin to claim the glory
, 27/04/2014
It is official! The Greek government now confirms that the much lauded Greek government primary surplus for 2013 was a mirage created by the return of Greek Statistics (see this recent post). And also that the statistical trickery involved had the full approval of Eurostat, of the troika, of Berlin etc. The ‘confession’ has come in the […]
Interview with Der Standard: "Noch nie war Athen so bankrott wie heute"
, 25/04/2014
INTERVIEW with ANDREAS SATOR, April 25, 2014. Click here for THE STANDARD’s website or read on …
Greek statistics are back: Primary deficit presented as surplus, with Eurostat’s seal of approval
, 24/04/2014
Have you heard the one about Greece’s Eurostat-approved 2013 primary surplus? Well, you should not believe it. Here is why:
More on the Grand Greek De-coupling – Interviewed on RT tv
, 16/04/2014
Interviewed on RT’s Boom-Bust show on themes already covered in posts here and here.
Greece’s Grand Decoupling, the Nuclear Option and an Alternative Strategy: A comment on Münchau
, 14/04/2014
In his latest Financial Times column Wolfgang Münchau concurs with much of what I have written here (on the Greek social economy’s deep coma) and here (on the reasons why investors are piling in) but goes on to suggest that Greece should seriously consider exiting the Eurozone. In today’s post I offer an evaluation of his argument. In brief, […]
The Grand Greek Paradox: Bankrupt but embraced by the money markets – On the BBC World Service
, 09/04/2014
(listen to the first story; first 15′) Greece is about to issue 5 year bonds again. Berlin, Brussels, Frankfurt and Athens are celebrating Greece’s recovery. For my part, I think (and tell the BBC World Service) that this is a sad day for Greece and it is a sad day for Europe. Why do I refuse […]
Europe’s latest policy on Irish and Greek banking losses: A tale of two swindles too similar for comfort
, 01/04/2014
The Irish and the Greeks are, in many ways, very different people. And yet, caught up in the Euro Crisis, our fortunes have become too close for comfort. Recently, European authorities have devised a creative new method for damaging the people of Ireland and of Greece further. The new method involved imposed changes on the public […]
AUSTERITY – a televised debate (by the Institute of World Affairs) on its logic and discontents featuring J.K. Galbraith, Jeff Sommers and Yanis Varoufakis
, 27/03/2014
James Galbraith, Lloyd M. Bentsen Jr. Chair in Government/Business Relations and Professor of Government, University of Texas – Austin Yanis Varoufakis, Visiting Professor at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs, University of Texas – Austin, and Jeffrey Sommers, Senior Fellow, Institute of World Affairs Moderator: Doug Savage, Institute of World Affairs
Bengt-Ake Lundvall: "The Portuguese Manifesto could become a trigger for change"
, 27/03/2014
Bengt-Ake Lundvall is a co-signatory of the petition by 74 of us in favour of an immediate restructuring of Portugal’s public debt. Here are his reasons for signing the petition. (And, for readers who missed them, here are the reasons I gave for signing the same petition.)
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…