Bill Black: Roger Cohen Laments his Inadequate Schadenfreude Because the Greeks Don’t Suffer Enough
Bill Black shreds a remarkably rancid anti-Greek screed.
Read more...Category Archives: Europe
Michael Hudson: Global Financialization – The State of Play in Ukraine and Russia
Michael Hudson gives a wide-ranging interview on the state of financial capital, with emphasis on fresh events in Ukraine and Russia.
Read more...Greece: The Negotiation That Never Happened…
Syriza thought that the economy (and the world) would stand still and wait for them to convince everybody else about the righteousness of their views – without ever getting into negotiating on the details. Rightly or wrongly, this didn’t happen.
Read more...Nathan Tankus: The Operational Issues of a Grexit Part One: Understanding the Payments System
The Greek ruling coalition and European politicians and bureaucrats say they want to avoid a Grexit, Nevertheless, it makes sense to examine that scenario. We start with the payment system and Target2 balances.
Read more...Creditors Reject Latest Greek Proposal, Tsipras Meeting with Merkel and Hollande in Doubt as Default Risk Rises
Greece’s creditors are not pleased, and perhaps more important, the Greek government has lost one of its few remaining advocates, Jean-Claude Juncker of the European Commission. The Eurocrats are finally waking up to the degree to which the two sides have talking past each other. The implication is that it is far less likely than they had believed.
Read more...Varoufakis’ Keynote on the Future of Greece Last Night in Berlin
Varoufakis was part of a panel discussion on the future of Greece within the EU last night, organised by the IMK.
Read more...Mathew D. Rose: Why the US Will Have to Clean FIFA’s Augean Stall
Having the US do the cleanup on FIFA exposes how lax prosecutors were elsewhere, above all in Germany and Switzerland.
Read more...Creditors Offered Bailout Extension Till March 2016 if Greece Agreed to Pension and Labor Reforms
As we’ve said, Greece’s creditors are continuing to demand that Greece give in on the two key sticking points in negotiations, that of pension and labor market “reform”
Read more...G-7 Throws Greece Under the Bus
Some observers thought that Greece might get a break in the G-7 summit this weekend. While the G-7 has one more day to run, the statements coming out of the summit strongly and uniformly back the creditor position.
Read more...Syriza Commits to Deep Austerity in Its Proposal to Creditors
Greece has already offered to continue with a program of significant austerity. No wonder the creditors are close to agreeing to that part of the government’s proposal.
Read more...Tsipras Fighting Two Front War as Revolt Within Syriza Intensifies, Forcing IMF Payment Delay, Cancellation of Negotiating Session
As Tsipras’ options narrow thanks to the revolt in his party, it is also becoming harder for even Merkel to forestall a default.
Read more...The Economics of Parallel Currencies
As Greece’s cash crunch continues and its negotiations are moving slowing and tending towards an impasse, it becomes more and more likely that the beleaguered borrower will issue some sort of scrip in order to fund operations while remaining in the Eurozone. How and how well might that work?
Read more...Satyajit Das: My Big Fat Greek Crisis
Yves here. Das published this post in February and I thought it would be useful to reprise it for three reasons. First, it has held up well to the passage of time. Second, for latecomers to the Greek saga, it summarizes the background, the stances of the parties, and key economic and financial considerations. Third, the section starting “Controlled Warfare” (about 2/3 of the way through the post) summarizes the consequences to the lenders of a Grexit. Those risks are why almost no one thought we’d wind up where we are now, with two sides issuing ultimatums a mere two days before a possible Greek default, and why most of the financial media still believes a deal will get done.
Read more...Greece’s Creditors Meet to Prepare Offer (Updated – Creditors Agree on Uncompromising Terms)
Greece’s creditors met to agree on a last-ditch offer. But it turns out “last ditch” reaffirmed their current position and removed IMF’s debt relief proposal.
Read more...Greece’s Shortening Negotiating Runway and Possibly Erroneous Assumptions
Le Monde published a defiant op ed by Alex Tsipras over the weekend. The wee problem is that Greece is well past the point where political appeals will work.
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