HERAKLION, Greece—The first time he despaired of his debts, Vaggelis Petrakis drank a poisonous brew of beer and gasoline. By MARCUS WALKER for the World street Journal   A note he left didn't mention the financial woes of his fruit and vegetable business, of which his family was well aware. Instead, he left instructions for his children on how to look after his animals. "Put mother rabbit in a differe ...

Anger mounting in Greece as government attempts taxation through electricity bills For the past months, weeks, days, two questions have been in more and more peoples’ mouths, both with some increasing urgency: When will the Greek economy officially go bust, and what happens then? And, when will the excruciating austerity measures break the bone of social consensus – when will people have enough? It seems li ...

By VPRO Kort na aanvang van de financiële crisis van 2008 verzamelt de socioloog Manuel Castells op verzoek van de vermogende Gulbenkian Foundation in Lissabon een kleine groep van internationale topintellectuelen om zich heen om dieper over de crisis na te denken. Terwijl de crisis zich ontpopt en steeds nieuwe vormen aanneemt, doopt Castells zijn groep The Aftermath Network, een verwijzing naar de nieuwe ...

In Griechenland heißt es, man habe Deutschlands Hilfe mehr als verdient. Immerhin seien aus dem Weltkrieg noch Rechnungen offen. "Welt Online" hat nachgerechnet. Autor: Sven Felix Kellerhoff on www.welt.de Here you can read it in English by NYT. In der aktuellen Debatte um eine mögliche Staatsinsolvenz melden sich in Griechenland immer mehr Stimmen zu Wort, denen zufolge Deutschland noch enorme Schulden aus ...

Think Ron Paul is the only person asking questions about the actual gold supposedly backing the currency in circulation. Think again: the "ask your central banker where his gold is" tour just went global after the Dutch the Dutch Socialists Party (SP)’s spokesman for financial affairs, Mr. Ewout Irrgang, asked the Dutch Secretary of the Treasury 10 detailed questions about the gold supposedly held by the Du ...

Social-democracy had its apogee in the period 1945 to the late 1960s. At that time, it represented an ideology and a movement that stood for the use of state resources to ensure some redistribution to the majority of the population in various concrete ways: expansion of educational and health facilities; guarantees of lifelong income levels by programs to support the needs of the non-”wage-employed” groups, ...

by ERIC TOUSSAINT In July-September 2011 the stock markets were again shaken at international level. The crisis has become deeper in the EU, particularly with respect to debts. The CADTM interviewed Eric Toussaint about various facets of this new stage in the crisis. CADTM: Is it true that Greece has to commit to paying about 15% interest rates to be allowed to contract ten year loans? Eric Toussaint: Yes, ...

Sep 12th 2011, 18:13 by R.A. | WASHINGTON MANY people have been linking to this Spiegel piece, on how the Germans are preparing for the possibility of a Greek default. It's a remarkable read. Consider: "The rest of Europe is losing patience with Athens. And after 18 months of crisis in the country, there is still no improvement in sight. Key economic figures are worsening, and there are growing doubts over ...

Britain likes to pretend it has moved on: but birth determines our destiny and income more now than it did 50 years ago. By Polly Toynbee Class is a dangerous subject, taboo in mainstream politics. The riots brought out a rash of comment implying that there is one great, respectable middle class and an inexplicable underclass beneath, quite unconnected to what's been happening to wages, incomes and the stre ...

In July, 2008, on the eve of the biggest financial crisis in memory, the European Central Bank did something both predictable and stupid: it raised interest rates. The move was predictable because the E.C.B.’s president, Jean-Claude Trichet, was an inflation hawk; he worried about rising oil and food prices and saw a rate hike as a way of tamping them down. But the move was also remarkably ill timed. The cr ...