Naked Keynesianism

Not yet!The Left should create a popular front against the EUBy Stavros D. Mavroudeas* (Guest blogger)In the 5th of July 2015 the huge majority of the Greek people (61%) rejected the insolent demands of the EU for the extension and deepening of the austerity and pro-capital restructuring policies in Greece. These demands were codified in the so-called Juncker Plan for Greece that set barbaric terms for the extension of the previous austerity program (the 2nd Economic Adjustment Program for...

The results of the new Greek bailout announced Sunday should not be a surprise. The program requires tax increases, pension cuts, weakening of collective bargaining clauses, and “ambitious” primary surplus targets, which would require € 13 billion in spending cuts, in exchange for € 50 billion to avert default and the collapse of banks. The adjustment program will deepen the already incredibly prolonged and severe collapse of the Greek economy. It implements a draconian fiscal adjustment,...

Via the Economistes Aterrés blog a dispatch from the 1919 Peace negotiations.Thanks to the departure of an arrogant negotiator, serious negotiations can now beginThe negotiations on the Treaty of Versailles have so far been disrupted by the attitude of a British negotiator, a certain John Maynard Keynes. He has a flamboyant personality and dubious morals, and has consistently employed an arrogant and professional tone to crush other negotiators with his contempt.Ignoring the elementary...

The referendum that just took place in Greece in which 61.3% of voters rejected the terms of an international ‘bailout’ package should not be read as a vote in favour of leaving the euro. The ‘No’ vote – όχι in Greek – is, as correctly pointed out by James K. Galbraith, the only hope for Europe. On the other hand, it may very well be used by the Troika – the European Union (EU), the European Central Bank (ECB), and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) – as an instrument for expelling Greece...

Nobody knows what it means yet, but the no vote is the only one that at least gives some hope.

The paper cited, 9 Myths about the Greek Crisis, is available here.

By Stavros Mavroudeas* (Guest blogger)For six months, after its January 2015 election victory, the SYRIZA government began negotiations with the EU. In these negotiations SYRIZA was confronted with the stubborn and increasing intransigence of EU and its companion institutions (the ECB and the IMF). SYRIZA very soon accepted the logic and the structure of the troika program; that is the Economic Adjustment Program for Greece popularly called the Memorandum. It simply tried to modify it by...

Mark Weisbrot on why Greeks should vote no."Well, I would go for a no-vote, because you have to look at who is responsible for this mess, who is responsible for six years of depression, who is responsible for the bank closing right now. It’s because the European Central Bank decided last Sunday to limit the amount of emergency liquidity assistance, so that the banks wouldn’t have enough money to open. And they did this very deliberately, I think, to intimidate the voters into...

An interview with Esteban Pérez Caldentey in Tan Cerca/Tan Lejos, a radio program produced at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. First half in English, second one in Spanish.