We are possibly entering end game territory in the coming months. The news from bond markets about Greece resembles bulletins about Alpine peeks, not sovereign debt priced within reasonable parameters. Greek three-year bond yields jumped to over 22 per cent this week. Such surreal yield levels are pricing in the restructuring option to [...]
Read the interview with Prof. Loukas Tsoukalis published in the Japanese daily newspaper Asahi Shimbun GLOBE (8 million). Before the financial crisis struck in 2008-9, the Greeks had hardly any concept of recession. From the beginning of the 1950s until the middle of the 1970s, the country’s average rate of GDP growth was 7-8%; in [...]
During his recent European road show to London, Paris and Frankfurt, the Greek finance minister Papaconstantinou sought to highlight Greece’s achievements in fiscal consolidation during 2010 and provide an economic outlook for 2011. Papaconstantinou was accompanied by representatives from the so-called troika (IMF, European Union and European Central Bank). The troika’s presence was indicative of [...]
Godfrey Bloom – Europe of Freedom and Democracy Group The concept of financial regulation across 27 countries most of whom have no experience of financial services is not just flawed but dangerous. The United Kingdom, yes the City of London, is the only world class centre for financial services in the European Union. This is [...]
Nikolaos Chountis – Confederal Group of the European United Left – Nordic Green Left After the stock market and oil crisis in 1970s, the world economic system in general, and the financial system in particular, were based on three “pillars”: a) the collapse of the fixed exchange rates system, b) the internationalization and liberalization of [...]
In a strange move, the Portuguese President of the Republic recommended recently that all Portuguese nationals should spend their holidays in the country, instead of going abroad. The minister of the Economy did not like the idea, commenting that he wished that politicians abroad did not make similar statements because, if they did, and if [...]
When Prime Minister Zapatero announced a few weeks ago their plan to reduce the Spanish budget deficit, he said that the main problems of the Spanish economy are a 20% of unemployment rate and an 11.2% rate of public deficit. He was wrong again. Deficit and unemployment are not the problems but their consequences. [...]
A. The story of the economic crisis is daily unfolding before the eyes of a stunned audience. The show is new, the parts and casting have recently been distributed and the audience is still unclear whether the play is a tragedy, a soap opera, a Chekhov play or an opera buffa. What is certain is [...]
Being a citizen of a country that seems to be facing fire from all angles, I feel the duty if not to help, at least to take the time and read about what is going on in the Member State I live in. That is how I stumbled upon something that my basic understanding of [...]
Greece has attracted in recent weeks a great deal of rather unwanted and unsavoury attention due to its ailing state finances. The EU Council Meeting of 11 February fell short of announcing a bailout package; it stressed, however, European support for the Greek governments’ fiscal austerity programme and underlined that European authorities would support Greece’s [...]
