Essays
Taking stock of 2012: Interviewed by Doug Henwood on KFPA
, 09/01/2013
Just before New Year’s Eve, I had the pleasure of being interviewed by Doug Henwood once again. As the New Year was approaching fast, our talk, naturally, summed up developments on the Euro Crisis during 2012 and the prospects for 2013. To listen click: Behind the News with Doug Henwood for December 27th 2012 Podcast Contents […]
Up from Here? Panel discussion on 'The Impediments to Recovery' with K. Arrow, R. Gordon, E. Laursen and Y. Varoufakis
, 06/01/2013
On 4th January 2013, in the context of the ASSA-AEA Annual Conference, EPS (Economists for Peace and Security) organised a panel to discuss the ‘Global Crisis and the Impediments to Recovery’. The organisers afforded me the distinct honour of sharing a platform, to discuss our world’s most pressing issues, with Kenneth Arrow and Robert Gordon. […]
Ten highs and ten lows, circa 2012: my intensely biased list
, 26/12/2012
THE HIGHS The definitive discovery of the Higgs boson particle that confirms our capacity to grasp the ways of the universe first through logic and theory and later empirically; a triumph of human reason Mitt Romney’s implosion at the ballot box At last, a decent James Bond flick A piece of graffiti in downtown Athens […]
Will the real economy rebound, following Wall Street's resuscitation? And what of Europe? – Interviewed by El Confidencial
, 20/12/2012
Another Spanish newspaper, El Confidencial, were kind enough to interview me on the global and european crisis, on the occasion of the Global Minotaur‘s Spanish translation-edition. Here is the interview, in English (the actual article will appear in Spanish, of course). Read on…
Taking stock of the Global and Euro Crisis
, 16/12/2012
A Spanish journalist interviewed me on the Spanish language edition of The Global Minotaur. Her questions, however, gave me an opportunity to look retrospectively at the Global Crisis, its Eurozone offshoot and, of course, the worst aspect of the latter, the Greek calamity. In the process, I refer to what I call the ‘death of […]
"We all live under the dark cloud of the same crisis" James Galbraith at Germany’s IG Metall Trades Union Congress, 7th December 2012
, 12/12/2012
There is only one crisis. The various ‘episodes’ of US subprime mortgages, European and American banks, Greek debt, the recession of the Eurozone today, the trials and tribulations of Ireland, etc., all these are part of the very same, deeply interconnected world crisis. Pretending otherwise is fuel that gives this global crisis another lease of life, […]
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 […]
China after the Global Minotaur
, 27/11/2012
This post follows up from earlier ones entitled Europe after the Global Minotaur and America after the Global Minotaur. These posts are extracts from the forthcoming new edition of The Global Minotaur.
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 […]
Interviewed by The Washington Post on "The Economics of Video Games"
, 28/09/2012
The Washington Post has just published an article by Brad Plumer on The Economics of Video Games, based on (amongst other things) an interview that I gave him on my work at Valve. Click here for the Post’s site or read on…
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 […]