First as Tragedy, Second as Farce, Thirdly as Vassal State
Introduction: The Greek people’s efforts to end the economic depression, recover their sovereignty and reverse the regressive socio-economic policies, which have drastically reduced living standards, have been thrice denied. First, the denial came as tragedy: When the Greek majority elected Syriza to government and their debts increased, the economy plunged further into depression and unemployment...
Read MoreSyriza, the new Greek government that intended to rescue Greece from austerity, has come a cropper. The government relied on the good will of its EU “partners,” only to find that its “partners” had no good will. The Greek government did not understand that the only concern was the bottom line, or profits, of those...
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How the ‘Hard Left’ embraces the policies of the Hard Right
Introduction: Greece has been in the headlines of the world’s financial press for the past five months, as a newly elected leftist party, ‘Syriza’, which ostensibly opposes so-called ‘austerity measures’, faces off against the “Troika” (International Monetary Fund, the European Commission and European Central Bank). Early on, the Syriza leadership, headed by Alexis Tsipras, adopted...
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SHARMINI PERIES, EXEC. PRODUCER, TRNN: Welcome to the Michael Hudson Report on The Real News Network. I’m Sharmini Peries coming to you from Baltimore. The Euro is slipping against the dollar, and the European financial markets are in flux, expecting Greece to fail on its 1.6 billion Euro repayment due to the International Monetary Fund...
Read MoreThe mass drowning of eight or nine hundred—nobody knows precisely—illegal immigrants in the Mediterranean last Sunday triggered a lot of commentary about these boat people, most of it stupid. Here are some of the grosser stupidities. They’re just seeking a better life. Who isn’t? I guess there are some Lotus eaters among us who are...
Read MoreWashington in its arrogance, seeing itself as “indispensable,” poses a continuing threat to the lives of hundreds of millions of people. The extraordinary number of dead that Washington has murdered in the 21st century–”The American Century”–is dismissed as “collateral damage” in the “war on terror.” The war on terror is a hoax. It is a...
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The European Union is not a state or a federation of states, it is something not seen before, but is assumed to grow state-like characteristics like a center of political accountability. It does not have a head of state or head of government. But political entities of any kind will at some point, when under...
Read MoreVaroufakis vs. the Troika
A disagreement over the terms of a deal to provide a bailout extension for Greece, has set the stage for a final clash between the Eurogroup and members of the Greek ruling party, Syriza. Although the agreement was approved on Tuesday when a list of reforms were submitted by Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis to...
Read MoreA Valiant Effort
It’s not easy to negotiate with a gun to your head. Nevertheless, that’s the situation Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis found himself in on Friday preceding a crucial meeting with the Eurogroup. According to one report, the objective of the last-ditch confab “was to prepare a consensus text that would be the basis for the...
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Don't Tell Anyone in Berlin
If you haven’t been following developments in the Greek-EU standoff, you’re really missing out. This might be the best story of the year. And what makes it so riveting, is that no one thought that little Greece could face off with the powerful leaders of the EU and make them blink. But that’s exactly what’s...
Read MoreMonday's Deadline
Monday is a crucial deadline in Greece’s struggle against Brussels-imposed austerity. Eurozone finance ministers are set to meet in the morning to decide whether Greece has made sufficient progress on previous agreements to justify further support. The new leftist government of Greece, Syzira, has rejected provisions in the so-called bailout, saying that the loans have...
Read MoreIntroduction: The Obama Administration actively pressured Europe to impose harsh sanctions on Russia in order to defend the violent takeover (‘regime change’) in the Ukraine. England, France, Germany and the rest of the European regimes gave in to Washington’s demands. Russia responded by imposing reciprocal sanctions, especially on agriculture goods, and is establishing alternative trading...
Read MoreAlthough British voters have for decades wanted out of the European Union, that possibility has hitherto been expertly forestalled by a less-than-democratic left-right alliance of London-based elites. Now suddenly all bets are off. In local council elections yesterday, England’s long-suffering grass-roots voters finally rose up. They snubbed both main parties, the Conservatives and Labor, to...
Read MoreLONDON – This week, the European Commission President, Jose Manuel Barroso, actually scolded Germany for producing too efficiently and exporting too much. Were the amiable Barroso not EU Commission president, he would likely be sitting under an olive tree in his native bankrupt Portugal, strumming melancholy fado songs on his guitar. What a lot of...
Read MoreThe news overnight is that the European Union has launched an investigation into the corporate tax policies of Ireland, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg. The probe could have major implications for Apple, Google, Microsoft, Amazon, and Starbucks, among many other virtuoso U.S. tax avoiders. As reported by the Irish Times, the named nations stand accused of...
Read MoreIntroduction: Many billions of Euros are being extracted from Europe’s vassal-debtor nations – Spain, Greece, Portugal and Ireland –and transferred to the creditor banks, financial speculators and swindlers located in the City of London, Wall Street, Geneva and Frankfort. Under what has been termed ‘austerity’ programs vast tributary payments are amassed by ruling Conservative and...
Read MoreCyprus in the Crosshairs
It was supposed to be a bailout. It turned out to be a death sentence. Given the checkered and unremarkable history of the Brussels bureaucrats, is anyone really surprised? Yes, an agreement was reached between Cypriot government officials and the so-called troika (the European Commission, the European Central Bank, and the International Monetary Fund) in...
Read MoreIn Need of a Platform
Italy's elections could signal the end of the euro or they could mean nothing at all. It's impossible to know just yet. But one thing is certain, Italians have "had it up to here" with austerity. Nearly 60 percent of the electorate voted for candidates who oppose the policy and who want a change of...
Read MoreLoans you shouldn’t pay back, violent partners, and who triumphs when Germany Banks & Greece go toe to toe. Seek truth from facts with former Chase banker Prof. Michael Hudson, Stockholm Syndrome theorist Dr. Carlos Encinas, anti-EU party boss Peter Mach, Greek Correspondent Nicolas Mottas and Financial Times Associate Editor Wolfgang Munchau.
From Greece to Spain
The Greek electorate has changed captains on the Titanic, but the ship is still sinking. So what difference did the elections make?
None. Unemployment is still rising, the deficits continue to widen, and the economy is in tatters. Everything is fundamentally the same as before, with one exception, the victor (New Democracy's Antonis Samaras) remains...
Read MoreCounterPunch Diary
Regard the Greek political landscape and how dramatically it has changed from last November. On November 2, 2011, Greek prime minister George Papandreou flew to Cannes before a G20 meeting and received one of the most humiliating rebuffs in European history since Pope Gregory VII left Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV shivering in the snow....
Read MoreThe eurozone may be in turmoil but the investing maestro says the currency will survive. As someone who exchanged some Japanese yen for the euro recently, I have been watching the latter’s gyrations with more than usual interest. My purpose was not to speculate but to finance a real estate transaction, but it is still...
Read MoreA Synchronized Global Slowdown
Growing troubles in the eurozone, a slowdown in China and a jobs report that was weaker than the most-pessimistic forecast, sent stocks plunging on Friday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 275 points on the day while the S&P 500 and the NASDAQ followed the DJIA into the red. All the gains of 2012 have...
Read MoreUnraveling the Welfare Safety Net
Yields on 10-year Treasuries plunged to a record-low 1.56 percent on Thursday morning as panicky investors stormed out of European financial assets into German and U.S. government bonds. Deteriorating credit conditions, a flurry of ratings downgrades, and bank runs in Spain and Greece have triggered a flight-to-safety which has pushed the benchmark 10-year below its...
Read MoreASTANA, Kazakhstan. “If it bleeds, it leads” says an old media industry maxim. So where the future of the world currency system is concerned, all eyes these days are on the badly battered euro. Almost all, anyway. One observer who has been trying to see beyond the current euro crisis is the Nobel Prize-winning economist...
Read MoreThe last time Greece faced a crisis of this magnitude was in 490 BC when the armies and fleets of the Persian Empire were converging on Athens. The great Athenian leader Themistocles rallied his countrymen and defeated the Persians. Alas, this time Greece has no Themistocles to save the embattled nation. Unlike the incompetent Persian...
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