Category Archives: Economic fundamentals

Odds Favor a Greece Deal Failure and Defacto Grexit

The odds now favor the tentative deal struck over the weekend to “rescue” Greece, which many have correctly depicted as a brutal economic colonization of Greece by its lenders, coming unraveled.

Greeks Rebel Against Bailout, Risk Collapse

Greek unions and other groups are mobilizing against the punitive deal tentatively agreed with Greece’s creditors. But can they really stand in its way?

The IMF’s Olivier Blanchard Writes a Greek Tragedy

The IMF’s research head, Olivier Blanchard, attempted to defend the IMF’s sorry record in Greece. What if any of his argument makes sense?

The Awful Press Coverage of Lew and Lagarde That Fueled Delusion Wednesday

By Nathan Tankus, a writer from New York City. Follow him on Twitter at @NathanTankus Part of the difficulty of writing in detail about the Greek crisis is how awful the reporting is. Headlines often say misleading or outright lies, backed up by articles that are usually somewhat less misleading but require strong parsing to […]

Tentative Deal Strips Greece of Sovereignty, Makes Debt Relief Dependent on Compliance

The tentative deal deal with Greece and its creditors is simply vicious.

The Greek Last-Chance Proposal: Stepping Backwards to Move Forward?

An analysis of the proposal approved by the Greek parliament yesterday by 251 votes out of 300.

“Tsipras Has Just Destroyed Greece”

Tsipras has managed to deliver to the neoliberals a victory more complete than they could ever have engineered on their own.

Wolf Richter: Microsoft Tallies the True Costs of the M&A Boom: Layoffs, Write-Offs, Shut-Downs, and Economic Decline

Microsoft illustrates the real-world fallout of letting corporate executives, either out of desperation or out of finding deal making more fun than the grind of making businesses perform better, follow the siren song of M&A mavens.

Grexit: Your Humble Guest Writer Talks to YSI INET

Nathan Tankus talks to YSI INET about a Grexit and Greece

Why Growth in Finance is a Drag on the Real Economy

New evidence shows that when the financial sector grows more quickly, productivity tends to grow disproportionately slower in industries with either lower asset tangibility or in industries with higher research and development intensity. It turns out that financial booms are not, in general, growth-enhancing.

Greece Told to Submit Proposal By Thursday, Complete Deal By Sunday, or ECB Shoots Its Banks and Forces Grexit (Updated: Greece Requests Three Year Bailout)

Greece has been given a maximum of five days to come up with a proposal acceptable to its lenders. And “acceptable” would be more stringent than if it had agreed to the memorandum when Syriza assumed office in January

Chinese Stock Market Rout Continues; Trading Halted in Over Half of Listed Stocks

The Chinese stock market meltdown is accelerating despite government intervention and is blowing back to commodities markets, including copper and oil, which are trading down based on concern that the stock market plunge is a harbinger of even more economic weakness. And the decline may represent the beginning of the end of the faith in China’s command and control economy.