DiEM25
The European conundrum (as I experienced it in a TV debate last night)
, 16/06/2011
Permit me dear reader to say nothing about the farce unfolding in Athens presently, except perhaps to comment that when an economy unravels its political regime follows. Today’s post concerns a TV debate in which I participated yesterday. It was hosted by the French global channel France24 and featured two French economists, myself and a […]
Crisis Update: Three interviews on the Euro Crisis, the Greek Crisis and the Modest Proposal (Radio, TV and print)
, 12/06/2011
UBS Interview promoting the modest Proposal And the crisis sails on… (Anyone recall Fellini’s masterpiece “And the ship sails on”?). In todays post you can: (A) listen to a half-hour long radio interview on the euro crisis (interviewed by Doug Henwood, for the Behind the News program – it begins on the 27th minute), (B) […]
The New York Times’ article on our Modest Proposal: My reaction
, 09/06/2011
As regulars of this blog know, its initial purpose was to promote a different way of thinking about the global, euro and Greek crisis and, in particular, to present what Stuart Holland and I call the Modest Proposal for Overcoming the Euro Crisis. (See also the plethora of supporting posts here.) Today, the New York […]
Article in Die Zeit, promoting the Modest Proposal
, 13/05/2011
A couple of days ago, Die Zeit kindly invited me to write an article expounding the virtues of the Modest Proposal for Overcoming the Euro Crisis in view of the Der Spiegel article that raised the alarm regarding Greece’scurrent predicament. In effect, Die Zeit gave me a forum from which to argue that this is […]
James Galbraith links that which Bernanke did not say with the European banking crisis
, 28/04/2011
In a recent tv interview (click here) Jamie Galbraith was asked to list the questions that he would have put to Ben Bernanke (were he able to monopolise the Fed Chairman’s press conference). Galbraith made a large number of interesting points (frased in the form of questions), including (a) a brilliant criticism of S&R’s recent […]
The Modest Proposal for Overcoming the Euro Crisis, Version 2.2
, 06/04/2011
Only a few days’ worth of developments made it necessary to update, yet again, the Modest Proposal. The new text we are putting out today is quite different from Version 2.1. So much so that we toyed with the idea of labelling it Version 3.0. But we shall keep that label in abeyance for later. […]
Progress report on The Modest Proposal: Widespread support has come its way. Plus, the Levy Institute has adopted it as a Policy Paper
, 31/03/2011
Since Version 2.1 of the Modest Proposal was published here on 24th March, the demands on our time have been extraordinary. Thus, no posts. But the good news is that the Proposal has, since then, been received with considerable approval in various, largely unexpected, quarters. The Greek Trades Union Council (GSEE) have committed themselves to […]
Would the implementation of the Modest Proposal 2.0 require a change in the Maastricht and Lisbon Treaties? And what about Bini Smaghi's proposal to create a European agency that issues centrally all government bonds?
, 17/03/2011
These are two questions posed by Jan Toporowski in a recent communication. In this post I offer brief answers:
What should we do with Europe's zombie banks?
, 16/03/2011
I think that regular readers can predict my answer. It is the one that in fact any banker would, in a fit of honesty, give you: Non-performing loans must be deleted from the banks’ books. Same with derivatives that stand no chance of finding a market/buyer. These nonperforming paper assets weigh banks down and ensure […]
Modest Proposal 2.0, as presented at the European Party of the Left Athens Conference, on 12th March 2011
, 15/03/2011
This post is for those of you who wanted to read my presentation of the Modest Proposal Version 2.0 at the conference on the Debt Crisis organised by the European Party of the Left, 12th March 2011, in downtown Athens. The text follows. (As it happened, a dearth of headphones meant that most of the […]
A MODEST PROPOSAL FOR OVERCOMING THE EURO CRISIS, Version 2.0
, 11/03/2011
A few months ago, Stuart Holland and I tabled our Modest Proposal for Overcoming the Euro Crisis. Then we gave it a redux for the New Year. As the Crisis is deepening, and in view of the forthcoming 25th March EU Summit which, we were promised, was meant to culminate into a Comprehensive Solution for […]
Further debate on the Modest Proposal for the Resolution of the Euro Crisis
, 16/01/2011
JG, a regular contributor to this blog (see here and here) and ex City of London banker, suggested to me that Step 1 of the Modest Proposal should be rethought in the context of the experience with Brady bonds; the financial instruments US Treasury Secretary Nicholas Brady devised in order to tackle the Debt Crisis […]
Two challenges to the Modest Proposal Redux
, 14/01/2011
Soon after posting the 2011 version of the Modest Proposal, I received two repudiations: One from a convivial ex banker (whose views have appeared on this blog before) and one from my comrade-in-arms, George Krimpas. Their objections are important and this is why I am posting them here, along with my answers.
The Modest Proposal Redux (a new version for the turbulent 2011)
, 11/01/2011
As the euro crisis will enter its final stages in 2011, and the debate on how to end it will heat up, I thought it important to update the Modest Proposal, in preparation for the debates to come. Click here for a copy. The main difference from the last version concerns the first step: Rather […]
The Modest Proposal in 600 words
, 17/12/2010
I was just asked to prepare a shortened version (600 words) of the Modest Proposal for publication in the UK Government Gazette. Since some of you may be interested in a handier, punchier version, here it is:
Echoes of the Modest Proposal begin to reverberate in Germany
, 15/12/2010
An article of immense importance appeared in the Financial Times yesterday, 14th December 2010. Effectively, it signalled a split in the country’s hitherto united front on its vision of the eurozone. Its social democrat authors, Frank-Walter Steinmeier (Germany’s Foreign Minister, 2005-9) and Peer Steinbrück (Germany’s Finance Minister, 2005-9), pinned their colours on the mast of […]
Stuart Holland on: Where Angela Merkel is right, but should learn up from the New Deal
, 14/12/2010
Jean-Claude Juncker and Giulio Tremonti have broken the wall of silence on Eurobonds and are right to recommend the transfer of a major share of national debt to the Europen Union. As Yanis Varoufakis already has made plain, whether this is 40 per cent or 60 per cent as we have recommended for such a […]
The Modest Proposal and the Juncker-Tremonti Plan: A comparison
, 14/12/2010
France and Germany have ensured that this week’s European Council will not debate the Juncker-Tremonti plan for addressing the current euro crisis by covering part of existing sovereign debt by issuing eurobonds. Nevertheless rumours of the plan’s death are premature overstated. France and Germany know well that something along the JT plan is unavoidable, if […]
The Modest Proposal fully adopted by Europe’s Trades Union Council. And backed, in part, by Jean Claude Juncker in the FT
, 06/12/2010
In the past few days, our Modest Proposal for the resolution of the euro crisis seems to have made headway on two separate, quite disparate, fronts. On Wednesday 2nd December, the European Trades Unions Council (the confederation of Europe’s trades unions) endorsed it fully and unequivocally in its Agenda Item 5c which came under the […]
Two radio interviews promoting the Modest Proposal for the Euro
, 29/11/2010
In my bid to promote the Modest Proposal for the Euro, I have embarked on a number of interviews. Here are links to two such, rather long, very recent interviews. The first one with Doug Henwood, Radio KPFA Berkeley, and the second one with Karen Coleman of Irish Radio Station Newstalk: 20th November 2010, Doug […]
How would our Modest Proposal help Ireland?
, 19/11/2010
Here is an email exchange I just had with Alan Freeman on our Modest Proposal for Europe Alan Freeman: Do you have any opinion on what this proposal would imply for Ireland?
The Modest Proposal for the Euro in Greek
, 18/11/2010
Πατήστε εδώ και εδώ (σε δύο δόσεις) για την ελληνική έκδοση της Πρότασής μας για έξοδο της ευρωζώνης από την Κρίση, την οποία στα αγγλικά την αποκαλούμε A Modest Proposal. Ακόμα παρακάτω παραθέτω το κείμενο πρόσφατης ομιλίας μου με παρόμοιο θέμα: Ομιλία Γιάνη Βαρουφάκη στην Εκδήλωση της Επιστημονικής Ένωσης Δικηγόρων, Παρασκευή 26η Νοεμβρίου 2010, Πνευματικό Κέντρο […]
The Modest Proposal for the Euro
, 16/11/2010
A two-part plan for overcoming the eurozone’s crisis, re-designing its crumbling architecture, and reinvigorating the European Project (jointly authored with Stuart Holland, ex Member of Parliament in the UK, a former advisor to Jacques Delors and, currently, Visiting Professor at Coimbra University, Portugal)
An earlier version of my modest proposal, as published in MRZine.org
, 13/11/2010
PREAMBLE It is now abundantly clear that each and every response by the eurozone (EZ) to the galloping sovereign debt crisis has been consistently underwhelming. This includes, back in May, the joint EZ-IMF operation to ‘rescue’ Greece and, in short shrift, the quite remarkable overnight formation of a so-called ‘special vehicle’ (officially the European Financial […]