Here are the countries with the most to lose if Greece defaulted. The countries that report data to the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) are: In Europe: Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, United Kingdom. Rest of the World: Australia, Canada, Chile, India, Japan, United States, Chinese Taipei, Singapor ...

The same economists who failed to predict the 2007 financial crash are still in the driving seat – and just as clueless in a crisis When did the IMF learn about the economy? That's what people around the world should be asking as the IMF presents its latest assessment of the fiscal and economic prospects for nations around the world last week. Much of the world remains mired in the worst downturn since the ...

Without sovereign control of their country's debt, the Greek people are being punished with extortion by the ECB and IMF. "Mark Weisbrot for guardian.co.uk" Imagine that in its worst year of our recent recession, the United States government had decided to reduce its federal budget deficit by more than $800bn – cutting spending and raising taxes to meet this goal. Imagine that, as a result of these measures ...

By Amitabh Pal, June 16, 2011 The global austerity agenda is encountering a hurdle in Greece: The Greek people aren’t prepared to put up with forced deprivation. In order to have loans to foreign creditors made good, international institutions, led by the European Union, are demanding ever-harsher assaults on Greek society. But the Greek people have fought back, protesting in huge numbers and causing the ne ...

Next financial crisis is in public services by Serge Halimi, March 2010 States rescued the banks in country after country, neither asking nor getting anything in return. The banks are now using their newfound strength against the state, threatening to reveal the accounting tricks the banks themselves had recommended to hide some of the debt. After all, interest rates on loans are higher when the financial r ...

By LOUISE STORY, LANDON THOMAS Jr. and NELSON D. SCHWARTZ February 14, 2010 Wall Street tactics akin to the ones that fostered subprime mortgages in America have worsened the financial crisis shaking Greece and undermining the euro by enabling European governments to hide their mounting debts. As worries over Greece rattle world markets, records and interviews show that with Wall Street’s help, the nation e ...

For over a year, Deutsche Bank and the ECB made us believe that a Greek default would be disastrous for Europe. They were lying through their teeth. In Frankfurt, two of Europe’s most powerful men sit virtually across the street from one another in the high-rise headquarters of two of the continent’s most important institutions. No one elected these men to rule over us. No one voted for their institutions t ...

LATE one night in September 2008, as the financial world trembled,Josef Ackermannreceived an urgent call from Berlin. On the line was Angela Merkel, the German chancellor. She needed his help — now. A big German bank was about to collapse, much the way Lehman Brothers had only days before. It was 12:45 a.m. and shaky financial markets were about to open across Asia. Fear was in the air. Mrs. Merkel asked wh ...

I was just asked to prepare a shortened version (600 words) of the Modest Proposal for publication in the UK Government Gazette. Since some of you may be interested in a handier, punchier version, here it is: It is now abundantly clear that each and every response by the eurozone to the galloping sovereign debt crisis has been consistently underwhelming. The reason is simple: The eurozone is facing an escal ...

Investment analyst Marc Faber explains in short the implications of sovereign debt for economies and societies worldwide: http://bit.ly/jynblm "Usually before countries default they'll print money. Then you'll have hyperinflation and that destroys essentially the middle class and the working class and benefits, say...I don't want to pick on Goldman Sachs, but it benefits the financial wizards, the speculato ...