The Not-Brexit Negotiations as UK Referendum Looms
While virtually no one expects a Brexit, history suggests would be naive to expect the upcoming negotiations between the UK and EU to be a cakewalk.
Read more...Category Archives: Europe
Are The IMF and the EU at Loggerheads Over Greece?
An overview of the history of the economic dispute between the IMF and the Eurozone creditors over Greece, and what that means for the ongoing negotiations.
Read more...John Helmer: How Angela Merkel Has Been Abandoned By John Kerry, Victoria Nuland, And Vladimir Putin
How Merkel was sidelined in negotiations over Ukraine.
Read more...European Commission Tables Proposal on Greece to Break Logjam [Updated: EC Issues Denial]
More fog of reporting….did the European Commission lodge a proposal to break the Greek negotiating logjam? If so, it’s backpedaling at high speed.
Read more...Greece Cornered as IMF and ECB Refuse to Relent
A flurry of stories this weekend confirms that Greece and its creditors remain hopelessly at odds. The inertial path is to a Greek default
Read more...Greece’s Hot Summer
Figures confirm the pattern already observed last month, with a marked improvement in the primary balance achieved mostly via expenditure cuts and a more limited improvement in revenues.
Read more...“Why Syriza Will Blink”
Anatole Kaletsky has a cognent, forcefully argued new article at the Project Syndicate website, Why Syriza Will Blink, which independently comes to the conclusion we’ve reached, that the winning strategy for the creditors is to keep Greece in the sweatbox and use worsening economic and social conditions in Greece to crush domestic support for Syriza. Kaletsky goes further than we have, arguing that this is the course the Troika is taking, and the new coalition should have anticipated this as a likely strategy, since it’s the same one they used successfully against Cyprus two years ago.
Read more...Is the Push for Greater European Integration a Mistake?
The assumption among policy elites that more European integration will heal the union’s ills may be misguided.
Read more...John Helmer: Polish President Komorowski’s Defeat is a Blow to the War with Russia Party,
First-round presidential election results show that the Poles have not been persuaded to vote for a candidate promising to go to war in the Ukraine or on the Russian border.
Read more...Federal Reserve Goes Silent About Our Freedom of Information Request on Greece
Not surprisingly, the central bank has gone mum about a Freedom of Information Act request we submitted over two months ago.
Read more...Greece Authorizes €750 Million Payment to IMF Despite Failing to Get Concession Sought [Updated]
Today, Greece blinked. But one unconfirmed report suggests the government got some eyewash.
Read more...Greece Finally Threatens Default as Deal with Creditors Remains Remote
A Greek default looms, but what does that mean for Greece and its creditors?
Read more...Greece Says It Will Make IMF Payment Next Week As Stalemate Continues
Greece may succeed in avoiding a default next week, but it remains at loggerheads with its creditors.
Read more...The Persecution and Assassination of the People of Greece as Performed by the Inmates of the Troika, Under the Direction of the Eurogroup
A new paper shreds the myths that justified the misguided application of austerity and wage-rate reduction policies in Greece and the Eurozone.
Read more...Wolf Richter: China Containerized Freight Index Plunges to Multi-Year Low, Shanghai-EU Rates Totally Collapse, US Rates Morose
Weak demand in the Eurozone; inventory build-up in the U.S., and free money meant carriers added more and more ships. How does the movie end?
Read more...