Politics and Economics
On Bruno Kreisky’s legacy: A reply by Klaus Kastner, with a rejoinder from me
, 08/12/2012
In yesterday’s post, I asked the question: Why has European social democracy abandoned the legacy of leaders like Kreisky, falling in line with a toxic economics and politics that thinkers like Kreisky would have dismissed in their sleep as pathetic claptrap? My allusion to, and explicit endorsement of, Bruno Kreisky (the late Austrian social democratic […]
At the Kreisky Forum: Why have Europe's social democrats surrendered to the toxic logic of current policies?
, 07/12/2012
On 5th December, I had the great pleasure of addressing a splendid audience at the Kreisky Forum, in Vienna. My theme was, surprise surprise, the European Crisis in its Global Context. Nevertheless, in view of the very special venue (dedicated to the late Chancellor Bruno Kreisky, and delivered in his former home), I was compelled to […]
Greece Debt Crisis Continues to Unravel, Offers Strong Lessons for the US: Radio interview
, 13/11/2012
Click here for an interview with Los Angeles area radio station uprisingradio.org in which we discuss the Greek debt crisis and the lessons to be drawn from it for the United States.
The worst enemies of European unity are those who profess to serve it: Address at the CPA Sydney Conference, 2012
, 25/10/2012
Last week, Norman Lamont and I addressed the CPA 2012 Conference in Melbourne. Yesterday we repeated that ‘gig’ in Sydney. Unwilling to deliver the same speech as in Melbourne (which was posted here), I chose to discuss the Euro Crisis from a slightly different angle (with very few overlapping paragraphs). As this was a closed-to-the-public […]
On the Euro-Global Crisis: Four lectures in Australia and one in London, October 2012
, 11/10/2012
During the coming next fortnight, I shall be on a lecture tour of Australia and Britain. The first lecture will be delivered on Monday 15th October in Melbourne, at the Greek Community Centre (which will, fittingly, be demolished soon after!). Then, I shall be speaking at two CPA conferences, together with Lord Lamont (formerly Chancellor of the Exchequer) in […]
Are digital currencies the future?
, 26/09/2012
In today’s edition of Business Daily, a BBC World Service radio program, Ed Butler investigates digital currencies. As you will hear, my contribution was to warn that, while digital currencies are the future, the libertarian (wet) dream of an international digital-gold standard that involves no collective agency (i.e. democratically or otherwise determined government) is a […]
Europe’s Modern Titanomachy: How Europe’s future is being shaped by large battles on seemingly small matters (Part C)
, 17/09/2012
In this three part series (click here for Part A and here for Part B), I have cast a critical gaze upon recent developments which have caused a degree of jubilation in a continent that has not had any ‘good news’, regarding its integrity and future direction, for a while. Part A offered an overview […]
An Athenian perspective on the US Presidential Election: CNN Online
, 12/09/2012
Some weeks ago, CNN contacted me to request a piece on how the US Presidential Election resonates in the streets of Athens today. Immediately, a hazy image came to me of a warm afternoon when I was walking with my mother outside the Panathinaikon Stadium, in central Athens. I was seven years old then but […]
The Emperor Has No Clothes : Review of three books on the state of economics
, 06/09/2012
Michael Yates has written a long review of three books (published in Monthly Review) on the state of economic theory that readers of this blog may be interested in. They are: Yanis Varoufakis, Joseph Halevi, and Nicholas J. Theocarakis, Modern Political Economics: Making Sense of the Post-2008 World (New York: Routledge, 2011), 536 pages, $165.00, hardcover, $65.00, […]
On BSkyB commenting on the troika's latest assault on Greek labour
, 05/09/2012
You may have seen the leaked letter (see below for its contents and also read the Guardian’s report on the matter), authored by the troika and sent to the hapless Quisling-like Greek government. In this interview I was given a brief ‘window’ of an opportunity to discuss its contents and general ‘philosophy’.
In Praise of Public Investment: On the importance of Mariana Mazzucato’s article in The Guardian
, 03/09/2012
Two are the greatest untruths that have inflicted major damage upon our understanding of how social economies work; and, by extension, upon our societies. First, there is the pseudo-‘law’ of ‘crowding out’; i.e. the illusory belief that when public investment increases private investment suffers. Secondly, there is a widespread misconception that, under capitalism, value is […]
Radio Exarcheia: A collaborative art project, opening this week in Melbourne, Australia
, 02/09/2012
Just received from Tom Nicholson, an excellent Melbourne-based artist, the following brief on a collaborative art project that touches upon the Greek economic crisis in a manner that acts as an apt reminder of the unique capacity that art has to cast the worst aspects of the human condition in fresh and insightful light. The […]
Punishment or Aid? Holland’s TROUW newspaper sets up a debate between myself and Hans Werner Sinn
, 17/08/2012
You may recall the mental experiment that I suggested for working out the true, underlying mood towards Greece (and the rest of the Periphery). Now TROUW has published that piece, in translation of course, and has juxtaposed against Hans Werner Sinn’s take (which comes as close to confirming, in my biased eyes, the point I […]
A Mental Experiment for establishing the relative mood for solving the Crisis in Europe, in Britain & in the USA
, 23/07/2012
I have a hunch: that the Eurozone’s profound difference to both the United States and Britain is that, unlike these anglosaxon ‘currency unions’, the Eurozone’s real elite does not want the Crisis to disappear quickly and painlessly. In this post I offer a mental experiment that will help each and every reader rule on the […]
Bankruptocracy in the Greek Sector of Bailoutistan: The aftermath of the Reuters Report on Piraeus Bank
, 18/07/2012
You may have read the shocking story by Reuters on the ponzi scheme three (or more) Greek banks concocted in order to seem to raise more capital, without diluting the bankers’ stake in ‘their’ bankrupt banks. I have nothing to add to this excellent report by the folks at Reuters (except perhaps to suggest that […]
Interviewed by Doug Henwood on my new position as Economist-In-Residence at Valve Software
, 11/07/2012
A discussion with Doug Henwood on why I accepted the position of Economist-In-Residence at Valve Software. Jump to 33’40” to hear my take on the company’s anarchosyndicalist management structure and the scope for original economic research it provides. (Please forgive the poor sound quality – courtesy of a low quality skype line). See also this […]
Criticising Germany: Three principles for the fair assessment of proud nations
, 09/07/2012
Generalising is the first step toward racism. Every sentence beginning with “The Germans believe this” or “The Greeks do that” is an initial slide on a slippery slope leading, eventually, to bigotry. As I have argued before (click here for a video version) there is no such thing as the Germans, or the Brits, or the Greeks […]
Open letter to a good friend and colleague (who happened to become Greece’s Finance Minister yesterday…)
, 27/06/2012
Dear Yanni, On the one hand I am writing to congratulate you. And on the other to express my disdain towards those who handed my friend the good ship’s wheel after the vessel has struck the iceberg. Utterly familiar with your effervescent optimism, I know you mean it when you declare confidence in Greece’s capacity […]
A technical failure foretold? My interrupted BBC TV interview on the… BBC's bias
, 20/06/2012
You may recall that on Greek election day I issued a missive to the BBC, suggesting that they recover forthwith the journalistic standards which they seemed to have dropped in the run up to the Greek election. That missive, might I add, came from a long standing friend and contributor to the BBC. Indeed, I […]
Ponzi Austerity: Interviewed on the Keiser Report
, 15/06/2012
Max Keiser and Stacy Herbert interviewed me, on the Keiser Report, on my notion of Ponzi Austerity, with particular reference to Spain, Ireland and Greece. Watch the video below and let me know what you think. But before you watch it, allow me to state one disagreement of mine with Max and Stacy’s interpretation. Max […]
GERMANY’S CONSTITUTIONAL CONUNDRUM: Guest post by Marshall Auerback
, 13/06/2012
Hans-Werner Sinn, president of Germany’s Ifo Institute and the director of the Center for Economic Studies at the University of Munich, has taken to the pages of the NY Times to explain why Berlin is balking on a further bailout for Europe. Amongst the points that Sinn makes against German sharing in the debt of the [...]Euro-Australia: An instructive counter-factual
, 12/06/2012
In this counter-factual history I narrate (in ‘real time’) the disintegration that would have befallen the Federation of Australia if, in 1901, its founding fathers had used the Eurozone as a template. (A piece commissioned by www.theconversation.edu.au)
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, […]