English
Empty threats
, 27/11/2010
25th April 2010: Traders “will Lose Their Shirts’ Betting Against Us.” George Papakonstantinou, Greece’s Finance Minister a week before Greece declared effective bankruptcy and ran for cover into the steely bosom of the IMF-EU loan agreement. 26th November 201: “I should warn those investors who are short selling Spain that they are going to be […]
What will it take to stop the domino effect on its tracks before it reaches Spain and Italy?
, 25/11/2010
Richard Milne asks in today’s FT (click here for the article): What will it take to stop the domino effect on its tracks before it reaches Spain and Italy? He considers two ideas: One is a form of ECB “quantitative easing” under which the ECB massively accelerates its purchases of Spanish and Italian bonds in […]
Unilateral default vs negotiated debt reduction
, 24/11/2010
Michael Burke took me to task for writing, in our Modest Proposal, that it is “utopian to expect member states to default and remain within the eurozone.” Michael asks: “Why? Local, county and state authorities have all defaulted in the US, without having to flee the US Dollar area. Surely default, partial or otherwise, is an […]
The idea of a wholesale attack on private and public European debt is catching on.
, 22/11/2010
It seems that our idea of a multilateral negotiation for reducing the total size of state debt and bank losses is catching on. Here is what Gerald Holtman wrote in the FT today: The problem is that if you force investors to shoulder some of the losses you cannot move one country at a time. […]
A New Versailles Treaty Haunts Europe. (And this time it is not just me thinking so…)
, 21/11/2010
Last May, when the ‘rescue’ package was imposed by the EU and the IMF on Greece, all commentators were talking of a ‘bail out’ for Greece, differing only on whether it was deserved or not. A minority protested that the supposed rescue was bad for Greece, in that it came with some many strings attached […]
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 […]
Gavan Butler links the East Asian collapse of the late 1990s to the current euro crisis
, 17/11/2010
I just received the following email from my friend and colleague Gavan Butler, in response to my piece on the euro crisis. I think it makes for interesting reading: Dear Yanis. I enjoyed your contribution. It took me back to the debates in the period 2001 to 2003 about what differently might have been done […]
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 […]