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 ...

 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 ...

While the eurozone teeters on the brink, construction work is underway in Frankfurt’s financial district on new headquarters for the European Central Bank (ECB). Due for completion in 2014, the 185 metre tall, futuristically designed skyscraper will have double the office space of the ECB’s current residence, the Eurotower. It embodies the expectations for the future of the single currency from the one inst ...

This debit crisis is following same path as one 30 years go. Time to rethink how economics is taught to avoid another lost decade. Monday marks a significant anniversary in recent economic history for it was on this day in 1982 that Mexico announced a moratorium on its international debts. The default marked the start of what became known as the third world debt crisis. Three decades later that crisis is no ...

Xenophobia, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia and anti-Roma sentiment have plagued many places in Europe this summer, as a rising tide of far-right extremism washes over the continent. A legislator from Hungary's far-right Jobbik party made headlines last week when he was dismissed from the party and pressured to quit his position in the EU Parliament after news of his Jewish roots became public. Csanad Szegedi's ...

The true believer’s faith is strengthened by disaster. So the true believers in a federal Europe have no intention of abandoning the monetary, budgetary and commercial integration policies that have exacerbated and prolonged the economic crisis. On the contrary, they want to increase the authority of those responsible for these policies. If European summits, stability pacts and disciplinary measures haven’t ...

Saturday June 16th Solidarity rally 15:00 Beursplein, Amsterdam From Athens to Amsterdam: NO to the cutbacks! Solidarity with the Greek resistance against European austerity The developments in Greece concern all of us. The long-lasting implementation of harsh austerity measures has led the country into a deep social crisis. The EU and the IMF demand the continuation of these disastrous policies in Greece a ...

We live in Europe where currently any alternative suggestion about how to structure our society and economy is met with negative criticism by the media and the vast majority of our society. Any movement or development that questions the “economic orthodoxy” is treated at best as non realistic and at worst as dangerous. At the same time, the rise of nationalism, racism, fascism and Nazism does not seem to ra ...

Recent elections in France and Greece have generated a good deal of comment, suggesting that the years of center-right governance in Europe may be coming to an end. The defeat of President Nicolas Sarkozy of France by the Socialist candidate Francois Hollande, and the collapse in Greece of political parties that allowed unrestrained capitalism and chaos to take hold, are major developments. But whether they ...

Elections in Western parliamentary systems are always about the center. The standard situation is one in which there are two dominant parties – one somewhat right of center and one somewhat left of center. There are differences between the policies these parties pursue when in office, but there are also enormous similarities. The election never reflects a profound political split. Rather, it is about recent ...