English
Stuart Holland on: Where Angela Merkel is right, but should learn up from the New Deal
, 14/12/2010
Jean-Claude Juncker and Giulio Tremonti have broken the wall of silence on Eurobonds and are right to recommend the transfer of a major share of national debt to the Europen Union. As Yanis Varoufakis already has made plain, whether this is 40 per cent or 60 per cent as we have recommended for such a […]
A late night discussion with Richard Holbrooke remembered
, 14/12/2010
It was summer of 2003. The setting was the island of Kos, a stone’s throw from the Turkish coast. Richard Holbrooke was participating at that year’s Symi Symposium organised by George Papandreou, then Greece’s Foreign Minister, currently Prime Minister. Though not a participant in that symposium (which also featured notables like Bill Clinton, Segolen Royal […]
The Modest Proposal and the Juncker-Tremonti Plan: A comparison
, 14/12/2010
France and Germany have ensured that this week’s European Council will not debate the Juncker-Tremonti plan for addressing the current euro crisis by covering part of existing sovereign debt by issuing eurobonds. Nevertheless rumours of the plan’s death are premature overstated. France and Germany know well that something along the JT plan is unavoidable, if […]
Wikileaks' Precursor and Unsung Foe of Neoliberal Economics
, 11/12/2010
A tribute to Daniel Ellsberg, whose analytical work exposed the Achilles’ Heal of toxic economics forty seven years before the Crash of 2008, and whose courageous leaking of the Pentagon Papers stunned the world by exposing thousands of documents revealing the US government’s lies about Vietnam.
Twelve multiples choice questions for teaching the eurozone crisis to macroeconomic beginners
, 09/12/2010
My good friend and colleague Gary Dymski (Economics Professor at University California, Riverside) has sent me 12 multiple choice questions that offer a wonderful training ground for macroeconomic novices. It would be interesting to make our European political leaders take it. How well do you think they would do?
If greed did not cause it, what did?
, 07/12/2010
On Monday 6th December, I gave the keynote speech at a conference near Brisbane, Queensland (Australia) on the theme of Risk Management after the crisis. I was warned that the large audience of professionals (corporate lawyers, chartered accountants, risk managers etc. – people whose jobs I do not really understand) were tough cookies; that nothing […]
The Modest Proposal fully adopted by Europe’s Trades Union Council. And backed, in part, by Jean Claude Juncker in the FT
, 06/12/2010
In the past few days, our Modest Proposal for the resolution of the euro crisis seems to have made headway on two separate, quite disparate, fronts. On Wednesday 2nd December, the European Trades Unions Council (the confederation of Europe’s trades unions) endorsed it fully and unequivocally in its Agenda Item 5c which came under the […]
The Worst Case Scenario for the Eurozone
, 05/12/2010
And so the nightmare continues. Are we heading for the worst case scenario? To answer this, we must first work out what that is.
Antisemitism's handmaidens
, 02/12/2010
I was recently sent a book that warmed my heart and disturbed my soul. It is entitled Antisemitism: Real and imagined: Responses to the Canadian Parliamentary Coalition to combat antisemitism, edited by Michael Keefer (Waterloo Ontario: The Canadian Charger, 2010). Before I share my thoughts occasioned by reading it, a full disclosure is important:
The Art of the Possible: Or how to blend Eurobonds with Maastricht
, 02/12/2010
Gavyn Davies, in today’s FT (click here) suggests, as we do in our Modest Proposal, that eurobonds are preferable in the fight against the vicious circle facing the eurozone than the current strategy of loaning bankrupt states money they cannot repay under the offered terms. He writes: “[T]he ECB may eventually come to prefer…for the […]
The ECB's expensive folly: A new Maginot Line
, 01/12/2010
Behind the scenes the European Central Bank (ECB) is struggling to construct a barrier that will prevent the firestorm which started in Greece from breaching the Iberian defences and, eventually, from turning to Italy. It is only right and proper that the ECB should try to accomplish this. The only trouble is that the barrier […]
Cutting our noses to spite our faces
, 30/11/2010
The trouble with austerian logic is that it is grossly illogical. It does not even make sense in terms of the logic of microeconomics, let alone that of macroeconomics. Consider the current conundrum facing Greece and Ireland, the eurozone’s set of failed states (so far): Both countries have been forced to slice 10% off government […]
Stiffen your lip Wolfgang!
, 29/11/2010
In today’s Financial Times, Wolfgang Munchau identifies correctly the problem with the current EU strategy for arresting the euro crisis (click here for his article). His proposed solution is also on the ball. Indeed, it is, in substance, very, very similar to our Modest Proposal. However, though he identifies the problem and the essence of […]
Two radio interviews promoting the Modest Proposal for the Euro
, 29/11/2010
In my bid to promote the Modest Proposal for the Euro, I have embarked on a number of interviews. Here are links to two such, rather long, very recent interviews. The first one with Doug Henwood, Radio KPFA Berkeley, and the second one with Karen Coleman of Irish Radio Station Newstalk: 20th November 2010, Doug […]
Empty threats
, 27/11/2010
25th April 2010: Traders “will Lose Their Shirts’ Betting Against Us.” George Papakonstantinou, Greece’s Finance Minister a week before Greece declared effective bankruptcy and ran for cover into the steely bosom of the IMF-EU loan agreement. 26th November 201: “I should warn those investors who are short selling Spain that they are going to be […]
What will it take to stop the domino effect on its tracks before it reaches Spain and Italy?
, 25/11/2010
Richard Milne asks in today’s FT (click here for the article): What will it take to stop the domino effect on its tracks before it reaches Spain and Italy? He considers two ideas: One is a form of ECB “quantitative easing” under which the ECB massively accelerates its purchases of Spanish and Italian bonds in […]
Unilateral default vs negotiated debt reduction
, 24/11/2010
Michael Burke took me to task for writing, in our Modest Proposal, that it is “utopian to expect member states to default and remain within the eurozone.” Michael asks: “Why? Local, county and state authorities have all defaulted in the US, without having to flee the US Dollar area. Surely default, partial or otherwise, is an […]
The idea of a wholesale attack on private and public European debt is catching on.
, 22/11/2010
It seems that our idea of a multilateral negotiation for reducing the total size of state debt and bank losses is catching on. Here is what Gerald Holtman wrote in the FT today: The problem is that if you force investors to shoulder some of the losses you cannot move one country at a time. […]
A New Versailles Treaty Haunts Europe. (And this time it is not just me thinking so…)
, 21/11/2010
Last May, when the ‘rescue’ package was imposed by the EU and the IMF on Greece, all commentators were talking of a ‘bail out’ for Greece, differing only on whether it was deserved or not. A minority protested that the supposed rescue was bad for Greece, in that it came with some many strings attached […]
How would our Modest Proposal help Ireland?
, 19/11/2010
Here is an email exchange I just had with Alan Freeman on our Modest Proposal for Europe Alan Freeman: Do you have any opinion on what this proposal would imply for Ireland?
The Modest Proposal for the Euro in Greek
, 18/11/2010
Πατήστε εδώ και εδώ (σε δύο δόσεις) για την ελληνική έκδοση της Πρότασής μας για έξοδο της ευρωζώνης από την Κρίση, την οποία στα αγγλικά την αποκαλούμε A Modest Proposal. Ακόμα παρακάτω παραθέτω το κείμενο πρόσφατης ομιλίας μου με παρόμοιο θέμα: Ομιλία Γιάνη Βαρουφάκη στην Εκδήλωση της Επιστημονικής Ένωσης Δικηγόρων, Παρασκευή 26η Νοεμβρίου 2010, Πνευματικό Κέντρο […]