DiEM25
THE MODEST PROPOSAL AND THE DEMOCRATIC DEFICIT
, 18/04/2012
In an astute commentary on the INET panel in which I appeared (see here for the text), to talk about Europe’s future, Eves Smith had this to say: “It is worth noting that one of the questions after the various presentations on the Eurozone mess raised the issue of the ‘democratic deficit’. The various speakers […]
The Modest Proposal in Berlin – INET Conference, 13th April 2012
, 16/04/2012
The invitation to address INET’s Berlin Conference, and to deliver a fresh version of the Modest Proposal, gave me the impetus to revisit the latter. The extended summary below (of my INET talk) will soon spawn Version 3.0 of the Modest Proposal. Europe’s strategy for dealing with the Euro Crisis has been to ringfence, at […]
CBS’s 60 Minutes program on An Imperfect Union: Europe’s Debt Crisis. An ‘eyewitness’ assessment
, 09/04/2012
On 8th of April, CBS’s 60 Minutes featured a section on the Euro Crisis in which I appeared. Here is my account, and assessment, of it.
Europe’s April, and how to thwart it
, 08/04/2012
The editor of a Swedish magazine asked me to contribute a short piece that combines elements of my Global Minotaur with the address I am about to deliver at the INET conference in Berlin this coming week on the Future of Europe. Here is the piece I concocted. Its title is borrowed from T.S. Elliot’s […]
Europe’s Periphery: A postmodern version of Britain in the 1930s?
, 01/04/2012
While it is quite correct to draw parallels between the Crashes of 1929 and 2008, it is important to distinguish not only between the two eras but also between the different experiences of different nations within the same era. The simple, but not insubstantial, point of this post is that Europe’s Periphery is not in […]
My most recent radio piece on the Greek and European Crisis
, 30/03/2012
Click here for my latest, comprehensive, interview with Austin Hellenic Radio.
Keynesian Legacies neither Europe nor Keynes deserved: A critique of New and ISLM Keynesians in the context of Europe’s Crisis
, 28/03/2012
In a previous article, entitled On the Political Economy of Eurozone Bailouts – The curious case of Greece’s neoliberals, I took great pleasure in lambasting the internal inconsistency of Europe’s (and in particular Greece’s) neoliberals. In today’s article I cast a critical gaze at the ‘other camp’; that which consists of self declared Keynesians. The article […]
Politics as television by other means: Mrs Merkel telling us that Greece is here-to-stay and the ESM will co-exist with the EFSF
, 26/03/2012
In television, I was once told, you can never lose money by underestimating the intelligence of the audience. Mrs Merkel seems to have drawn heavily from that nugget of wisdom. Her take on it is that, in European politics, you cannot lose votes if you underestimate the electorate. Just keep telling them the same thing […]
Interviewed by Telepolis (German and English versions)
, 24/03/2012
Telepolis just published an interview of mine under the title Die Europäische Union zerbricht. For the original article, in German, click here. Below I copy my original answers in English.
Something not wholly uninteresting happened the other day at the EFSF
, 21/03/2012
In the midst of a great deal of inanity coming from Mr Klaus Regling, the head of the European Financial Stability Fund (EFSF), the precursor to the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) that will come ‘online’ later this year (assuming the German Parliament and Constitutional Court do not throw spanners in its works), one of his […]
Ringfencing Europe
, 18/03/2012
A Modest Proposal for a Decent European Future[1] Summary of presentation to be made on 13th April 2012, at INET’s Berlin Conference Session: The Future of Europe Abstract Europe is currently caught up in a false dilemma between current policies, which are contributing toward the eurozone’s disintegration, and a ‘federal move’ that cannot possibly unfold swiftly enough […]
The IMF’s preemptive smokescreen for covering up another foretold program failure
, 17/03/2012
Having bent its own rules, and after turning a blind eye to its own experts’ assessment of the sustainability of Greece’s 2nd ‘bailout’, the IMF is now preparing for failure. Ms Lagarde found it hard to convince her board to go along Europe down the path of locking Greece into yet another unsustainable future.
Assessing George Soros’ latest plan for saving the eurozone: Prelude to Modest Proposal 3.0
, 15/03/2012
In a few short weeks I shall be discussing the ‘Future of Europe’ in a panel comprising distinguished commentators including George Soros. In preparation, I decided to take a closer look at Soros’ latest proposals for the eurozone. Here are some preliminary thoughts emanating from these proposals which I also compare and contrast to our […]
What was it all for? The latest Greek Bailout-PSI in the Morning After’s cold light
, 12/03/2012
So, Greece defaulted. In the beginning, May 2010 to be precise, Europe and the IMF put up the largest loan in history supposedly to avert any kind of debt restructuring. Then, when by the summer of 2011 it had become clear that debt restructuring was unavoidable, Europe embarked on ten months of navel gazing and […]
What should Germany do? Triple interview in STERN, featuring Timothy Garton Ash, Tomas Sedlacek and Yanis Varoufakis
, 10/03/2012
Back in February I had the honour of participating in a debate with Timothy Garton Ash and Tomas Sedlacek, organised behind closed doors by Stern magazine, on what Germany ought to do. We spent more than an hour discussing the matter fruitfully and pleasantly. Indeed, that hour passed ever so quickly for all three of […]
Interviewed by Doug Henwood, on Behind the News (KPFA 94.1FM)
, 05/03/2012
Click here and jump to 29th minute.
Interviewed by The Occupied Times ~ of London
, 03/03/2012
The Occupied Times ~ of London honoured me with a request for an interview. It has just been published here. The text of the interview is also copied below. Please support them any which way you can. Money Talk$: Yanis Varoufakis In the wake of the brutal austerity package – cutting 3.3 billion euros of […]
On the Political Economy of Eurozone Bailouts – The curious bargain of Greece’s Hayekian neoliberals
, 28/02/2012
Following the Crash of 1929, an epic debate began between liberals who believed in capitalism’s automatic stabilisers and John Maynard Keynes who did not. Today, in Bailoutistan (Greece and the other fallen eurozone countries), this debate has taken an interesting, sad, twist.
Europe’s impending Phantom Limp Syndrome
, 26/02/2012
This being the weekend, and waking up in Adelaide about to be immersed in the performance and visual arts (also known as the Adelaide Festival), permit me a different kind of thought/post for the day; an impressionistic comment on all this talk about severing some of the eurozone’s member-states in order to ‘save’ the eurozone; […]
Winston Churchill on Greece's Bailout Mark 2 (almost)
, 24/02/2012
In my previous post I described Europe’s latest Agreement on how to deal with the Greek debt problem, and the looming Euro Crisis, as a form of Crisis Appeasement. A New Munich that will haunt us Europeans for a long while. Today I cannot resist the temptation to couch my views on Greece’s Bailout Mk2 […]
Crisis Appeasement: The new Greek Bailout as a ‘Euro in Our Time’ moment
, 22/02/2012
According to the official narrative, the euro was saved (again) by preventing a ‘disorderly’ Greek default and against the background of Mario Draghi’s Central Bank ‘activism’. So much for the official narrative. For in my estimation, the sight of our leaders proclaiming such victory against the Crisis has a strong whiff of the moment Neville […]
My documentary for Channel 4: The Eurozone, the Ant and the Grasshopper
, 21/02/2012
A Special Report commissioned by Channel 4 (UK), based on an earlier post in this blog entitled Never Bailed Out: Europe’s ants and grasshoppers revisited See also the piece I wrote for Channel 4’s website. And do not neglect to watch the full interview with Mr Robert Halver, Baader Bank’s Chief economist. It sheds plenty […]
Greek default does NOT equal Greek exit
, 18/02/2012
Perhaps the greatest enemy of the eurozone, at this particular juncture, is an erroneous assumption: that a Greek default is inextricably linked to a Greek exit from the eurozone. The problem with this assumption is twofold: First, it prevents Europe from escaping a trap of its own making. Secondly, it is false.