Neoliberal economics planned in Brussels and Berlin will push Greece into third-world working conditions. The reporting of the Greek tragedy over the last couple of years gives the impression that economics is a master science. Yet, the mainstream economists who gave Lehman Brothers a certificate of rude health just before its collapse, predicted tat by 2012 the Greek economy would start growing. The econom ...

The beginning of the tragedy Only in the first three weeks after the collapse of Lehman Brothers, on September 15th 2008, almost 2.5 millions Americans lost their houses, being unable to repay off their mortgages. From October, 2007 to the first quarter of 2009, the international stock market losses had overcome those of 1929. More than 42 trillion dollars were lost, amount that, at that time, corresponded ...

Headlines the world over ‘agonise’, on behalf of Greece and Europe, on whether the PSI+ negotiations will come to a conclusion. The presumption is that, if they succeed, Greece will be reprieved and Europe (with France and the EFSF having recently been downgraded) will buy some much needed extra time to put, at long last, its house in order. Nonsense, I say! This PSI+ is yet another assault on Reason. It co ...

On the last day of 2011, a headline in The Wall Street Journal read: “Spain Misses Deficit Target, Sets Cuts.” The cruel forces of poor economic logic were at work to welcome in the new year. The European Union has become a vicious circle of burgeoning debt leading to radical austerity measures, which in turn further weaken economic conditions and result in calls for still more damaging cuts in government s ...

On November 25, two days after a failed German government bond auction in which Germany was unable to sell 35 per cent of its offerings of 10-year bonds, the German finance minister, Wolfgang Schaeuble said that Germany might retreat from its demands that the private banks that hold the troubled sovereign debt from Greece, Italy, and Spain must accept part of the cost of their bailout by writing off some of ...

While ordinary people fret about austerity and jobs, the eurozone's corridors of power have been undergoing a remarkable transformation.   The ascension of Mario Monti to the Italian prime ministership is remarkable for more reasons than it is possible to count. By replacing the scandal-surfing Silvio Berlusconi, Italy has dislodged the undislodgeable. By imposing rule by unelected technocrats, it has ...

For all the talk about a democratic crisis in euroland, politicians gave much of their sovereignty away in the past decade A novel sight was on display in southern Europe yesterday: voters actually choosing their next prime minister. Over the past month, the Greeks and Italians have seen their leaders tossed out of office and replaced with unelected technocrats. In the case of Spain, which went to the polls ...

EPA photo The most important statistic that came out of Greece this week had nothing to do with the economy. The EU said that 300 migrants are illegally crossing the border from Turkey every single day. Frontex, the EU Border Control agency which has monitors on the Greek-Turkish border, said that the total number for the month of October was 9,600, representing "an absolute monthly record". It describes th ...

By George Friedman at  STRATFOR Everyone is wondering about the next disaster to befall Europe. Italy is one focus; Spain is also a possibility. But these crises are already under way. Instead, the next crisis will be political, not in the sense of what conventional politician is going to become prime minister, but in the deeper sense of whether Europe’s political elite can retain power, or whether new poli ...

Greek austerity measures result in cuts of public sectors services with one exception - the police force. Nikolas Kosmatopoulos for aljazeera.net Greece increased its police force with 2,000 policemen and recently bought new anti-riot equipment [EPA] In the old days of the European colonial expansion eastwards, the Great Powers (England, France, Russia, and Austria) would rack their heads over the fate of w ...