Category Archives: Europe

Don Quijones: “Everything Has Come to a Standstill”- Political Fallout Hits Business in Spain

By Don Quijones, Spain & Mexico, editor at Wolf Street. Originally published as Wolf Street. On Friday, Spain’s benchmark stock index, the Ibex 35, plumbed depths it had not seen since the worst days of 2013, the year that the country’s economy began its “miraculous” recovery. Of the 35 companies listed on the index, 15 […]

Eurozone Delays and Half Measures

Are the eurozone’s continuing woes the result of its incomplete construction or because of policy errors in responding to the crisis?

Mathew D. Rose: Now It Is Poland’s Turn

Germany is very upset that Poland has voted in a populist, Euroskeptic, anti-austerity government. And Germany is particularly unhappy that the new regime is increasing its control over public media….which Germany already has in place.

How the Labor Cost Competitiveness Myth is Making the Eurozone Crisis Worse

A new article makes a devastating attack on a fundamental belief driving Eurozone policy, that the member economies need to be made more “competitive,” meaning labor needs to be squeezed, for the currency union to achieve more growth.

Louis Proyect: Greece as Rashomon

Like Akira Kurosawa’s “Rashomon”, the story of Syriza is also one about a rape told from different, self-serving and contradictory perspectives.

The Predictability of Political Extremism

What’s at stake: The rise of the extreme right in the latest French election has mostly been treated as surprising or reflecting special circumstances like the November 13 Paris attacks. But a large literature linking extreme right votes to persisting depressed economic conditions suggests that longer run factors are at play.

Why We Brits Should Vote for Brexit

Why England would be better served by leaving the European Union.

Ilargi: Marine Le Pen Will Reap What The EU Has Sown

Thanks to EU and Eurozone misrule, Le Pen is right when she says: “Nothing can stop us”.

Michael Hudson: The IMF Changes Its Rules….for Ukraine

The IMF has now been drawn into the U.S. Cold War orbit.

Is France Building an Apartheid State?

In France, members of Arab and African communities languish in a spiral of poverty, relegated to second-class citizenship and physically separated through deliberate planning.

Ilargi: Greece is a Nation Under Occupation

Apparently, if 15 countries vote to occupy Greece, it’s a done deal.

German Financialization and the Eurozone Crisis

German financialization and input on the eurozone’s financial architecture promoted deficits, increased systemic risk, and facilitated the onset of Europe’s subsequent crises.

“Failed: What the ‘Experts’ Got Wrong about the Global Economy”

An excerpt from CEPR co-director Mark Weisbrot’s important new book, Failed.

Mathew D. Rose: The Ordeal of Angela Merkel

A chronicle of Angela Merkel’s rise and a catalogue of recent political mistakes which are putting her chancellorship at risk.

Rebooting the Eurozone: Step 1 – Agreeing a Crisis Narrative

The Eurozone needs fixing, but it is impossible to agree upon the steps to be taken without agreement on what went wrong. This column introduces a new CEPR Policy Insight that presents a consensus-narrative of the causes of the EZ Crisis. It was authored by a dozen leading economists from across the spectrum. The consensus narrative is supported by a long and growing list of economists.