Year: 2014
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 [...]James K. Galbraith on Inequality and the Eurozone (audio)
, 05/03/2014
at the Progressive Economic Conference, Brussels 2nd March 2014
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)…
Austerity as a destabilising assault on the New Deal institutions: A joint presentation by J.K. Galbraith & Y. Varoufakis (video)
, 27/02/2014
A debate involving James K. Galbraith, Yanis Varoufakis and Jeff Sommers (in the role of moderator) took place on 24th February at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee in the context of the George Kennan Distinguished Lecture Series. An amateurish recording is available here. For ease of ‘navigation’, a list of topics (with their location on […]
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…
Can the Internet democratise capitalism?
, 21/02/2014
Technological fixes to time-honoured problems are all the rage these days. Bitcoin is meant to fix money, social media are seen as an antidote to Rupert Murdoch and assorted tyrants, networked robots are to help countries like Japan deal with demographic declines etc. Perhaps the largest claim is that the Internet has helped (or is […]
The Folly of Biblical Economics: Lessons from Europe that Americans must heed
, 18/02/2014
Moralizing and generalization have always been terrible foundations for public policy.
BITCOIN: A flawed currency blueprint with a potentially useful application for the Eurozone
, 15/02/2014
The responses of many to my post on Bitcoin reveal a powerful tendency to underestimate the ill-effects of deflation on a social economy. This tendency to underestimate deflation’s deleterious impact matters beyond debates on Bitcoin per se. For example, in Europe the incapacity of the European Central Bank (ECB) to act in the face of […]
Europe's Economy: the eurozone, Greece, the Scottish question, France and Italy – on RT tv
, 14/02/2014
To watch my interview jump to 13′
The US-Mexican Border Fence 20 years after NAFTA – Danae Stratou’s installation
, 12/02/2014
On 6th and 7th February 2014, the LBJ School of Public Affairs (University of Texas at Austin) organised a conference on the 20 years since the signing of the North America Free Trade Agreement Treaty, entitled NAFTA+20: Intended and Unintended Consequences. The organisers commissioned Danae Stratou to produce a photographic installation in the entrance of the […]
Μία μετριοπαθής πρόταση για την επίλυση της κρίσης του ευρώ
, 10/02/2014
Από το 2010, μαζί με τον Stuart Holland και τον James K. Galbraith, επεξεργαζόμαστε μια ολοκληρωμένη, ρεαλιστική, μετριοπαθή πρόταση για την επίλυση της Κρίσης της Ευρωζώνης. Πατήστε εδώ (PDF) για ολόκληρο το κείμενο της πρότασης, συμπεριλαμβανομένης και της εισαγωγής που συνέγραψε ο τ. πρωθυπουργός της Γαλλίας κ. Μισέλ Ροκάρ, Πρόκειται για τις πολιτικές που, αν μου […]
Peter Bofinger’s Euro-bundles are a Step Backwards – to the EFSF’s toxic bonds. But they do point to a real solution
, 10/02/2014
by James Galbraith, Stuart Holland and Yanis Varoufakis (*) Peter Bofinger’s proposal for Euro-bundles (see here for an introduction) serves the noble purpose of rekindling the debate on the Eurozone’s fiscal and monetary incoherence. The idea behind Euro-bundles is to issue a common bond without joint liability that the ECB can then purchase in the […]
Peter Bofinger’s Euro-bundles: What are they? A primer plus pertinent queries by George Krimpas
, 08/02/2014
His proposal for a Eurobond, as an instrument of fiscally consolidating the Eurozone, was soundly rejected by the German Chancellor. Now, with an ECB paralysed in the face of a major deflationary onslaught, Professor Peter Bofinger comes up with a variant of the rejected Eurobond, which he calls ‘Euro-bundles’, only this time as an instrument […]
GERMANY’S CHOICE: AUTHORITARIANISM OR HEGEMONY? (*)
, 03/02/2014
For those of us who grew up under totalitarian regimes, it is noteworthy that Europeans are resorting to a time-honoured tradition: telling jokes as a form of defiance. Here is one: “Why did Europeans agree to form the euro?” “Because”, the joke goes, “the French feared the Germans, the Irish wanted to escape Britain, the […]
War spikes in the Eve Online universe: A political economist’s account
, 30/01/2014
Vicious, intense war broke out the other day. Hundreds if not thousands of people, in New York, in Chicago, in the great capitals of Europe, in China, rushed home on the news that hard-earned assets they were keeping in an inhospitable far away place had been placed under sustained, brutal military attack. By the end […]