Essays
Discussing Austerity with Phillip Adams, on Late Night Live, ABC Radio National
, 22/08/2014
In this podcast you can hear my discussion with Phillip Adams, on ABC Radio National Late Night Live, on fiscal austerity and its discontents. The backdrop for this interview was, naturally, the Australian Federal Government’s attempts to ‘sell’ its latest Austerity Budget to the Australian people. (Click also here for my OpEd on ‘Austerity comes to Australia’, […]
Austerity comes to Australia – OpEd, WHITE PAPER, ABC Radio National
, 22/08/2014
Austerity was never about tackling public debt. It was not even a political campaign to end the ‘culture of entitlement’. In the UK, in the Eurozone, and now in Australia, austerity is, and always was, a thinly disguised campaign of invoking fiscal prudence and public virtues in order to indulge private vices and so as to redistribute entitlements at the expense of the majority.
Summer stupour’s end. Posts recommencing…
, 22/08/2014
This was the longest break I have taken since this blog began life. Two and a half books were written, during that time, plus a great deal of swimming in translucent waters, like those depicted in the adjacent photo, was done. With Europe continuing to experience its existentialist crisis, and the world at large more […]
Greek summer stops posting…
, 01/07/2014
Dear Reader, You may have noticed that my posts have ceased over the past week. Summer is responsible. A wonderful Greek summer, spent mostly on a tiny boat in the Aegean. Back in mid-July, with posts mostly reflecting my total immersion in the writing of my next book, entitled EUROPE UNHINGED: The next phase of the […]
James K. Galbraith on The Modest Proposal, Europe and Greece
, 22/06/2014
In this Q&A with a Greek journalist, on the occasion of the launch of the Greek translation of the Modest Proposal, James K. Galbraith argues that Italy and Greece can play an important role in changing the terms of the European ‘conversation’, so that rational, minimalist solutions like the Modest Proposal can have a chance […]
Economic lessons from video game communities – Le Monde
, 15/06/2014
Le Monde featured this piece on my research of social economies that emerge in video game communities. Readers may profit from reading the Reason interview on which it was based – and this recent keynote I delivered at the 2014 CFA Institute’s Conference in Seattle. Ce que les jeux vidéo nous apprennent de l’économie
The Metaphysics of Money – Guest post by Paul Tyson
, 14/06/2014
Recently I was at a coffee shop, and to test a metaphysical hunch I asked a few of my fellow caffeinated confreres this question: “What is money?” They all gave answers along the following lines. Money is an arbitrary symbol of exchange value that we just make up in order to facilitate trade and investment. […]
The European Question – On ABC Radio National’s Late Night Live
, 12/06/2014
In this radio interview I am talking with Norman Swan (standing in for Phillip Adams) on Europe in the light of the recent European Parliament elections. Click here for the ABC RN site or just click on the player below:
Whither Europe? The Modest Camp vs the Federalist Austerians – in Open Democracy
, 11/06/2014
by JAMES GALBRAITH and YANIS VAROUFAKIS Proposals for resolving the Eurozone crisis, and re-designing its architecture, are multiplying – especially as evidence mounts that the crisis is continuing, despite all the official announcements of its end. Our Modest Proposal was the first to have been tabled, along with Breugel’s Blue Bond Proposal, back in 2010. In this review article, J.K. […]
Europe’s Crisis and the Rise of the Ultra-Right is the Left’s Fault
, 09/06/2014
Europe’s appalling handling of a euro crisis that was always going to happen, given its faulty architectural design,[1] has triggered an electoral result in the recent European Parliament elections that is a clarion warning that Europe is decomposing. And it is decomposing precisely because of the Left’s spectacular failure to intervene both during the construction phase […]
Solitary Subversives: from the WdW Review
, 03/06/2014
Solitary Subversives is about the Power of One in the face of oppression. About how one person’s refusal to succumb to authoritarian lies can make a difference. It begins with an almost forgotten Greek film, that I vividly recall having made an impression upon me along such lines, and then relates two other stories highlighting the […]
Preface to the Finnish edition of the Global Minotaur
, 03/06/2014
Finland, like my homeland, Greece, is a small country at a treacherous geopolitical crossroads that traditionally inspired great anxiety amongst its people, but also instilled into their character considerable resilience. Unlike Greece, from the mid-1990s until fairly recently Finland succeeded in turning itself into a net exporting nation, ostensibly capable of powering its way into […]
Italy, Greece and Europe after the European Parliament elections: An interview with Alessandro Bianchi
, 01/06/2014
How the current policies of the Brussels-Berlin-Frankfurt triangle are based on a propaganda campaign reflecting continuing Crisis Denial and why they constitute an attempt to create a new financial bubble – Why SYRIZA is a pro-European progressive party, in contrast to UKIP and Ms Le Pen’s FN – What should we expect of the new Italian government and why there […]
A lesson in democracy for Mrs Merkel (and her merry Merkelites around the Eurozone) by Alexis Tsipras, SYRIZA’s leader
, 30/05/2014
Alexis Tsipras, leader of Greece’s largest political party (SYRIZA), and the European Left’s candidate for the Presidency of the European Commission, has just given Mrs Merkel (and her merry disciples around the Eurozone) an important lesson in democracy.
A Europe of One Extreme: Interviewed by Thomas Fazi on the European Parliamentary Election outcome
, 29/05/2014
Europe went to the polls last weekend. Here is my take on the election results – in an interview with Thomas Farzi (author of The Battle for Europe: How an Elite Hijacked a Continent – and How We Can Take It Back). – What’s your general take on the results of the European elections?
European Parliament Elections: Our choice between Euro-loyalists, Euro-sceptics & Euro-critics
, 24/05/2014
In this European Parliament election, Europeans are confronted with a stark trilemma; with three competing narratives on the state of the Union one of which we must adopt and vote accordingly.
Another shady Greek banking deal: An exchange with Klaus Kastner on the Pireus-MIG deal
, 21/05/2014
The sordid relationship between the owners of the Bank of Pireus and MIG (a holding company that used to own one of the two failed Cypriot banks, as well as a swathe of Greek companies) is well documented. Recently we witnessed a new chapter in this saga, one that went almost unnoticed and which was quietly […]
Is Europe Reforming? At the Bellwether Economist Conference
, 19/05/2014
On 15th May, the Bellwether Economist Conference (see program) posed the broader question “Who will fill the funding gap?” and the narrower but crucial question “Is Europe Reforming?” In this post the reader can find/hear my contribution in lieu of an answer to the second question, as well as to questions on how the ECB should […]
Depressed, depressing Europe – video
, 13/05/2014
In conversation with Andrew Brady of USiLive regarding the state of Europe now.
How the Greek Banks Secured an Additional, Hidden €41 billion Bailout from European taxpayers
, 11/05/2014
In 2013 Greek taxpayers borrowed from the rest of Europe’s taxpayers €41 billion to pump into the Greek banks. This is well known. What is not known is that, also in 2013/4, the Greek banks received an additional, well hidden, €41 billion bailout loan from Greek and European citizens. This bailout was never authorised by any Parliament or […]
Sleepless in Europe – in Huffington Post
, 10/05/2014
Some weeks ago I heard Arianna Huffington deliver a talk, in Austin, on sleep deprivation and the terrible decisions that it leads to. This made me recall that all the awful decisions of our European leaders (and there were so many of them) were reached at around 4.00am. I mentioned that to Arianna and she […]
DIGITAL ECONOMIES: Markets, Money and Democratic Politics Revisited
, 08/05/2014
Audio and transcript of the keynote I delivered on 5th May 2014 in Seattle in the context of the CFA Institute’s Annual Conference entitled The Future of Finance.
Interviewed by REASON magazine on virtual worlds and the future of economics
, 07/05/2014
“A Multiplayer Game Environment Is a Dream Come True for an Economist” Interview by Peter Suderman from the June 2014 issue of REASON magazine – click here for Reason’s web version. Or read on…
Europe’s slide into deflation, and what to do about it – Interviewed for Jornal de Negócios by Jorge N. Rodrigues
, 04/05/2014
Europe is in the clasps of the deflationary forces that resulted directly from its inane handling of the Eurozone crisis. In this interview, I discuss deflation and low-flation and suggest a particular form of quantitative easing that, unlike the Fed’s or the Bank of England’s QE, will not reinflate the bubbles of the financial sector but, instead, […]