by Ingeborg Beugel on September 11, 2012   Dutch and German politicians like to blame Greece for refusing to stick to the agreements — but, in truth, the Greeks are doing more than they should.   Everyone who talks about Greece these days — even well-intentioned liberals — seems to assume a priori that Greece is somehow “opposing the reforms” and “refusing to stick to the agreements”. With Dutch P ...

  Protesters objecting to plans for a multi-million dollar gold mine in northern Greece’s Halkidiki peninsula clashed with riot police who said they were pelted with firebombs that set a forested area ablaze before being extinguished. Demonstrators said that a Coalition of the Radical Left (SYRIZA) Member of Parliament who had joined them was hit by a tear gas grenade thrown by police. Local residents ...

By LIZ ALDERMAN ATHENS — Anastasia Kastaniotou, a struggling mother of three, stood near the Greek Parliament building on Wednesday and threw up her hands as she contemplated an €11.5 billion austerity package that her country’s government was trying to tie up this week to keep Greece in the euro.   Prime Minister Antonis Samaras has been scrambling to seal a deal with his coalition government for fres ...

Its neighbors may be suffering, but the euro crisis has created conditions that actually benefit the German economy. Not only is the government enjoying the windfall of negative interest rates on bonds, but unemployment is down and exports are booming. By Stefan Schultz   It's every debtor's dream. When asked for a loan, the bank not only agrees, but actually pays the borrower for their patronage. It s ...

Greece’s bailout money is feeding the profits of German armaments manufacturers. Even as the Greek economy continues its agonizing collapse, with the nation struggling to submit to extreme austerity measures being enforced by its masters in Berlin, the nation’s unelected technocratic government is overseeing a giant fiddle of the books involving the channeling of bailout money into the coffers of Germany’s ...

Tax evasion in Greece In flagrante   "If I could get everyone in this room to pay their taxes, I wouldn’t need to be here." So muttered a member of the troika last year, in a room filled with Greece’s great and good. The problem of tax evasion in Greece has been pointed out many times during the debt crisis: Christine Lagarde, the head of the IMF, got into hot water over the summer with her comments th ...

A leaked email sent to the Greek Ministries of Finance and Labor from the Troika says Greek private sector workers should work six days a week and longer hours. The letter, which was published on August 31, shows that the Troika expects the Labor Ministry to implement a number of other new measures. They include reducing the notice period before firing a worker, and cutting certain severance packages by 50 ...

Yiannis Baboulias  for guardian.co.uk   The thuggish members of Golden Dawn, with their neo-Nazi ties and attacks on immigrants, should be banned from parliament The Greek far-right party Golden Dawn has been flirting with an "outlaw" rhetoric lately. Appealing to a disgruntled electorate, its MPs constantly try to point out that the Golden Dawn is unlike any other political party in Greece. They are r ...

 Roemer's Presence in a Coalition Could Tip Balance of the Netherlands' Approach to the Euro-Zone Crisis By MATTHEW DALTON BOXMEER, the Netherlands—Emile Roemer is the smiling face of an electoral force that is upending Dutch politics and threatening to challenge Europe's German-led austerity strategy for solving the euro-zone crisis. Mr. Roemer, a former elementary-school teacher, is head of the Dutch Soci ...

Actual fascists in actual black shirts are waving swastikas and murdering ethnic minorities in Athens   "After the immigrants, you're next." That's what was written on flyers that appeared this week in the gay clubbing district of Athens. As violence against immigrants and ethnic minorities escalates across Greece, supporters of the ultra-right Golden Dawn party have also begun to promote hate attacks ...