The following appeal for solidarity was today made in a letter to the Guardian. It can be signed here. The people of Greece face an unprecedented economic and political crisis (Violence grips Athens, 13 February). They are being driven to poverty and mass unemployment by the demands of the so-called Troika. Hospitals in Greece are running [...]
Posts Tagged ‘Debt crisis’
Greece: the explosion of a revolution
Feb 9th, 2012 by David Osler.My next scheduled visit to Athens is only four months away, and I guess the city will still look pretty much the way it did last time I was there, its skyline dominated as ever by the Parthenon and the Acropolis. But in social and political terms, Greece is going to feel very different. Such [...]
As the cuts bite and growth stagnates, who will challenge our reckless bankers?
Feb 6th, 2012 by Ann Pettifor.The humiliation of Fred Goodwin may have appeased a public baying for vengeance, but has done little to fix the broken global banking system or reverse the Second Great Depression. But then the public have been given very little leadership as to how to address the causes of this crisis. Politicians, economists, central bankers and [...]
We’re all economists now (part three)
Feb 1st, 2012 by Ben Mitchell.Parts One and Two appeared earlier this week. Once in office, the coalition has decided to run roughshod over the economic reality. For the last 21 months or so they have pursued a series of tough austerity measures: aggressive cuts combined with huge reductions in public spending, believing that this is the only way to [...]
We’re all economists now (part two)
Jan 31st, 2012 by Ben Mitchell.Part one appeared yesterday. In order to make sense of the UK’s debt and deficit figures they need to be put into context. In historical terms, the UK had the largest budget deficit since 1945, and the biggest since the early 1990s. Its current debt stood at the highest levels since the late 1960s. History [...]
We’re all economists now (part one)
Jan 30th, 2012 by Ben Mitchell.The British/ European/ global economic downturn/ credit crunch/ crisis/ recession from 2008, and now making an unwelcome return in 2011/12, seems to have piqued many peoples’ interest in all things economic. You don’t need to fully understand what exactly a hedge fund does, or what is meant by derivatives or naked short selling (if only [...]
Minus 0.2 percent! Cameron can run but he can’t hide
Jan 27th, 2012 by Michael Meacher.Cameron’s seeking to explain away yesterday that the national economy was now shrinking by 0.2% in the last quarter of 2011 won’t wash. He blamed high inflation, Labour ‘mismanagement’ and the eurozone problems. High inflation is irrelevant to a contraction of national output which is clearly down to lack of demand because of squeezed incomes. [...]
The cause of the slump is still misunderstood
Jan 26th, 2012 by Michael Meacher.The news that the public sector net debt has now passed the £1 trillion mark isn’t really news since it’s long been on track to reach £1.4 trillion by 2014. What is far more disturbing is that the government, in its obsession to cut the public sector deficit regardless, has completely ignored the impact this [...]
Golden rule of banking – don’t kill off your customers
Dec 9th, 2011 by Will Howley.First Golden rule of banking is: ‘don’t kill off your customers‘. But as the BBC 2 TV documentary Inside Job broadcast on Wednesday night confirmed, top bankers don’t care and live in a arrogant-elitist cocoon of their own making away from the reality the rest of the 99% who have no choice but to endure [...]
The political motivations of Standard & Poor’s
Dec 6th, 2011 by David Osler.First they downgraded America. Now it is the turn of the eurozone. Standard & Poor’s is well aware of the weight financial markets attach to its pronouncements, and of late has developed the alarming habit of timing them to maximise their impact. Nicolas Sarkozy and Angela Merkel have issued a statement, noting curtly that they [...]
