Greece
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 […]
Invigorated Joblessness and a Government Deficit despite growing arrears: Greece’s Non-Recovery continues
, 10/05/2014
While the international press continues to celebrate Greece’s recovery, the reality on the ground becomes bleaker, less sustainable, and nastier than ever. In this post I shall be conveying the grim news from two fronts: the labour market and the government’s finances.
EUROBANK: Another scandal re-packaged as part of the Greek Success Story
, 04/05/2014
Eurobank is an apt example of Greek ingenuity. Its name is a coup in itself.[1] Beyond semantics, however, and coming to recent developments, Eurobank is a wonderful example of the Greek establishment’s ingenious efforts to defraud Greek and European taxpayers, and then to proclaim a glorious Greek Success Story, weeks before the European Parliament elections. […]
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, […]
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 […]
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:
Of Masks and Shadows: The curious case of actors arrested on stage in Athens’ theater of the absurd
, 11/03/2014
The curious tale of two actors’s arrest on the stage of a derelict, occupied, Athenian theatre offers a window into life in Athens in the shadow of its wholesale economic collapse. This is our sixth article for the Witte de With Review (an initiative of Rotterdam-based Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art of which we, vitalspace.org and I, are party to, […]
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 […]
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 [...]What you should know about Greece’s present state of affairs – an update
, 01/03/2014
“It takes a passionate disregard for the truth to suggest that Greece is recovering.” That was my verdict last December upon being asked to comment on Greece’s rumoured recovery. Almost three months later, it is time for an update. The gist of today’s update is depressingly simple: Still, no sign of Greek-covery whatsoever. Indeed, every […]
177 years of Political Economy at the University of Athens: a panorama of a little known tradition
, 28/02/2014
My dear friend and colleague Nicholas Theocarakis has just pieced together a document outlining the past and present of Political Economy (teaching and research) as practised at the University of Athens (click here)…
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…
Being Greek and an Economist While Greece Burns: An intimate account – MGSA Keynote 2013
, 16/11/2013
(Gonda Van Steen introduced the audience to the MGSA 2013 Conference and Artemis Leontis introduced me. The talk begins at around 10′, when the audio becomes loud and clear) The Modern Greek Studies Association (MGSA) kindly invited me to deliver its 2013 Keynote, at the MGSA biannual Conference held at Indiana University. I grabbed the opportunity […]
The Greek government has a moral duty to use its veto in the next EU Summit: Q&A with Zdenka Pankovic
, 31/10/2013
Q&A with Zdenka Pankovic of financial journal DVENVIK:
Interviewed by Geraldine Dooge (ABC Radio National) on Greece's Wartime 'Loan' to Germany. Plus a simple proposal for killing two birds with one stone
, 15/10/2013
On Saturday 12th October, I was interviewed by Geraldine Dooge for the ABC Radio National’s program ‘Saturday Extra’ on the theme of Greek claims on Germany for wartime reparations and on a strange ‘loan’ that was extracted from the Greek government by the Nazi authorities. You can hear the interview here: Read on for […]
Euro Crisis, Modest Proposal, Social Democracy's Waterloo, and the threat of Fascism: Interview
, 11/10/2013
An interview with Alessandro Bianchi, editor-in-chief of the Italian political news website, www.lantidiplomatico.it