English
Spain’s Blood Wedding, Ireland’s Muted Rage, Europe’s tragedy
, 10/06/2012
Federico Garcia Lorka’s 1932 play The Blood Wedding (Bodas de Sangre) focused on a wedding that, in the end, never took place. It symbolised the long shadow cast by a hidden crime upon the nation’s dallying with the prospect of deliverance. It also foreshadowed the tragic events that consumed, not just the playwright, but the […]
In conversation with Rob Johnson (INET Chairman) on the Global Minotaur, the Slump, US and Europe
, 08/06/2012
A few weeks ago, while in New York, Rob Johnson (Chair of the Institute of New Economic Thinking) invited me to their offices where we recorded a conversation on my The Global Minotaur, the true causes of the Crash of 2008, the reasons why the global economy cannot find its poise after that momentous Crash, […]
Solidarity Euro-Style: Finnish loans, ECB bond purchases, EFSF tough love and assorted horror stories from the postmodern Euro-Workhouse
, 07/06/2012
The world seems convinced that Europe, perhaps under duress, put together a large Solidarity Fund (the EFSF) for the purposes of helping the fiscally-stricken Eurozone member-states avoid bankruptcy once they were frozen out of the money markets. The criticisms waged at this type of ‘solidarity’ centred on two issues: First, that the Fund’s size was […]
Discussing SYRIZA with Die Zeit
, 06/06/2012
Syriza handelt verantwortungsvoll Der deutsche Steuerzahler solle sich über die radikale Linke in Griechenland freuen, sagt der Ökonom Yanis Varoufakis im Interview. Das Land sei nicht reformunwillig. ZEIT ONLINE: Herr Varoufakis, die Griechen wollen mehrheitlich den Euro behalten, wählen aber mit Syriza und ihrem Spitzenkandidaten Alexis Tsipraseine Partei, deren Pläne zu einem Austritt aus der Währungsunion führen könnten . […]
On the transition to a viable Eurozone and the Modigliani-Miller Theorem: Continuing the dialogue with Kantoos Economics on the Modest Proposal (response YV3 to KE3)
, 06/06/2012
Continuing our exchange with Kantoos Economics (KE) on the Modest Proposal, today we turn to the question of the lead-up to a new Eurozone architecture. What kind of transition period will be necessary? Also, KE asked me to respond on the relevance of the Modigliani-Theorem to our ECB-mediated debt conversion scheme that we are proposing.
Why Europe should fear Fine Gael-like ‘reasonableness’ much, much more than it fears Syriza
, 03/06/2012
The establishment view in Europe is that the problem is too much debt (by profligate countries like Greece) and, therefore, that the solution must involve (a) austerity and (b) structural reforms (which increase the competitiveness of the weaker states). The problem, however, is that the establishment view is profoundly mistaken and, as a result, the […]
Italy’s Own Goal: Guest post by Joseph Halevi
, 03/06/2012
The Eurozone’s idiocy is obvious to all those with eyes and ears. It can be witnessed anywhere we turn these days: from the evolving bank run to the non-debate on eurobonds. Joseph Halevi, friend, co-author and serial guest of this blog, just sent me a missive that offers new insights into our continent’s infinite inanity: […]
Reply No. 2 (YV2) to Kantoos Economics on the merits of the Modest Proposal
, 01/06/2012
Kantoos Economics (KE) just posted the first installment of a reply to my long rejoinder to his original comment on our Modest Proposal.[1] Two are the main point raised by KE, and to which I respond below: One concerns the tradeoff between (a) maintaining market pressure on member-states to keep their public debt under wraps […]
From Ponzi Growth to Ponzi Austerity
, 31/05/2012
Austerity is meant as a belt-tightening exercise the purpose of which is to reduce debt. Pure and simple. Of course, for austerity to work one of the following two conditions must hold.
Interviewed by FXstreet.com on Grexit…
, 31/05/2012
One year ago we heard for the very first time about rumors of Greece leaving the Eurozone. What has changed in one year to go from considering it just gossip to taking it as a real fact? Something very simple: at long last the truth bubbled up to the surface of the murky pond [...]It is (un)official (but true): Spain is the fourth fallen Eurozone member-state
, 29/05/2012
When the Spanish Prime Minister declared that the Spanish state would save Bankia while at the same time admitting that Spain could not raise the cash to do it, two were the plausible explanations of how this feat was to be achieved.
There’s a lady who’s sure…
, 28/05/2012
I dedicate this post, belatedly, to Christine Lagarde. For her seriously ridiculous remarks on Greek child poverty not being as worthy of her concern as the poverty of far worse off African children. So, to the Managing Director of the one global organisation which has contributed the most to child poverty in Africa and Latin America, […]
A reply to Kantoos Economics on the merits of the Modest Proposal
, 28/05/2012
Kantoos Economics recently honoured me with an invocation to its readers to read my musings on the Euro Debacle, and to judge them critically. I thank Kantoos Economics for a simple reason:
What does bank recapitalisation mean? An exchange with Joseph Halevi
, 27/05/2012
In reaction to my Le Monde piece, Joseph Halevi (my close friend and co-author) send me an email, regarding the meaning of bank re-capitalisation, that started as short exchange which you, dear reader, may find of interest. Any comments?
A Paradox of Risk Aversion is haunting the global economy: Rob Johnson’s poignant warning against both bubbles and austerity
, 26/05/2012
We keep forgetting that every Crisis, like a coin, has two faces. One is the mountain of debt and losses that is crushing states, people and banks. The other is an equally imposing mountain of accumulated savings that are to ‘frightened’ to fund investment, thus remaining idle and frittering away. Keynes famously invoked the Paradox […]
For Europe’s sake Greece must renege on its bailout commitments – my op-ed in Le Monde
, 25/05/2012
Le Monde commissioned me to write an op-ed explaining my view that it is in Europe’s interest that Greece resists the ‘terms and conditions’ of its bailout package while staying within the eurozone. In effect, to explain why there is no contradiction between (a) the Greek people’s determination to stay in the eurozone, and (b) […]
Bloomberg Businessweek on UADPhilEcon – the progressive Athens University PhD Economics Program that is now threatened by the Crisis
, 25/05/2012
A few days ago, Brendan Greeley, of Bloomberg, got in touch with me to discuss UADPhilEcon, the Doctoral Program in Economics that I helped set up at the University of Athens. The following article was the result: Greece’s Brain Drain Has Begun Apparently, Brendan had heard me say, in some interview, that one of the […]
Fiscal Waterboarding versus Eurobonds: Misrepresenting the latter to effect the former
, 24/05/2012
They came. They talked eurobonds. They left in a miff. Why?
Rob Johnson on the economists' collective guilt
, 23/05/2012
Rob Johnson, President of INET, on the sophisticated (but often unintentional) fraud that passes as scientific economics. (I could not, and would not, have put it differently myself.)
On ABC Radio National's 'The World Today', interviewed by Eleanor Hall
, 21/05/2012
This morning I visited the ABC’s Ultimo studio for three interviews on (what else?) Greece and the eurozone. Here is one of them (the other two were for ABC TV). For the ABC’s website page, which includes the audio and the transcript, click here. The full interview (too long to broadcast on live radio) can […]
Guest Post: Today Germany is the big loser, not Greece – by Marshall Auerbach
, 20/05/2012
Just before the Crisis erupted, in April 2010, with Greece falling into the troika’s embrace in May 2010, I had written an article (A New Versailles haunts Europe) to argue that Germany was about to commit the error that the winners’ of World War I had committed by imposing upon Germany the Versailles Treaty. It was […]
Discussing Grexit in Washington Post, Huffington Post and ABC Radio
, 19/05/2012
My piece in The Huffington Post entitled Sure there’s Greece… But what about Spain? My ‘take’ featured in The Washington Post under the title How bad would it be for Greece to leave the euro? Participating in a radio debate, ABC Radio National, on whether Greece should exit the euro, entitled No happy ending if […]
Assorted questions on Greece and Europe by Chinese and Swedish journalists – with brief answers
, 19/05/2012
During the last two days, I was asked several questions by a Chinese and a Swedish press agency over email. Below I list the questions and my answers to them, hoping they might be useful.