In the millions of words written about Europe’s debt crisis, Germany is typically cast as the responsible adult and Greece as the profligate child. Prudent Germany, the narrative goes, is loath to bail out freeloading Greece, which borrowed more than it could afford and now must suffer the consequences. Would it surprise you to know that Europe’s taxpayers have provided as much financial support to Germany ...

The French and Greek elections have already shifted Europe's politics. But it needs real change to hold the right at bay. Revolt against austerity is sweeping Europe. The election of François Hollande has not only opened up the chance of a change of direction in France, but even in the citadels of fiscal orthodoxy in Brussels, Frankfurt and Berlin. In Greece, Sunday's electoral earthquake has all but destro ...

It's the inescapable question: would Greece now be better off outside the eurozone than inside? There are powerful and plausible arguments both ways. Those who answer in the negative point out that Athens is still, despite years of massive cuts, spending more than it takes in tax revenues. This means that if the country were to default on its debts and leave the eurozone tomorrow, it would have to impose br ...

The threat of a Greek exit The escalating Greek crisis leaves Ireland and Portugal, in particular, ever more vulnerable   THE deep uncertainty over what will happen next in Greece unnerved financial markets. On May 7th the euro touched its lowest value against the dollar since January while in Athens the stockmarket fell by 7% and bank stocks by 13%. Greek bonds also took a hit, with the yield on the t ...

The main message of the elections of May 6 is the denouncement of the austerity measures and their main supporters. The parties of the previous governmental coalition PASOK (socialists) and Nea Dimokratia (conservatives) that support the memoranda and the harsh austerity policies suffered huge losses. In particular, they lost about 3.000.000 votes and received together 32% of the total votes. This is a dram ...

By ALEN MATTICH   The European Union, European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund are negotiating hard among themselves about how to structure debt relief for the Greek economy. The latest reports suggest they might have come up with a temporary deal among themselves. But what the EU, ECB and IMF want won't matter unless they get the Greek government to play as well. And that's by no mean ...

The French are revolting. The Greeks, too. And it’s about time. Both countries held elections Sunday that were in effect referendums on the current European economic strategy, and in both countries voters turned two thumbs down. It’s far from clear how soon the votes will lead to changes in actual policy, but time is clearly running out for the strategy of recovery through austerity — and that’s a good thin ...

The elections of May 6th take place in a moment that people are facing the absolute misery. After two years of implementation of the destructive policies of the 'memorandums' (cc. the commitments of the Greek government towards the EU, the ECB and the IMF), the Greek elite, the EU, the IMF and the bankers hold the gun to people's head trying to gain moral and political justification for their policies. Duri ...

In the port of Piraeus, dozens of young men with shaven heads and black t-shirts packed a small room one evening to hear Golden Dawn's dream of a Greece purged of foreigners, its borders sealed with landmines. "We want all illegal immigrants out, we want to take their stench out of this place," said Frangiscos Porihis, an election candidate for the ultra-nationalist and highly secretive party. "They shouldn ...

Athens' fondness for weaponry, and willingness of Germany and France to feed it, under fire as Greece struggles with debt crisis. A few months before submarines became the talk of Athens, Yiannis Panagopoulos, who heads the Greek trade union confederation (GSEE), found himself sitting opposite Angela Merkel at a private meeting the German chancellor had called of European trade unionists in Berlin. When it ...