Don Quijones: Rajoy Horror Picture Show Nears Grisly Climax in Spain
Don Quijones describes Rajoy’s record of misrule and how the major parties are jockeying in advance of its almost certain unraveling.
Read more...Category Archives: Europe
Greece Submits Insufficiently Detailed Reform List; Tsipras Tells Parliament of “Peace with Honor,” Um, “Honorable Compromise”
The Greek government continues to climb down substantively on its promises of resistance to the dictates of its creditors as time pressure intensifies.
Read more...The Troika’s Leverage Over Greece: The Ongoing Bank Run
Why Greece’s bank run, and the risk of a banking system collapse, gives the ECB the whip hand over Greece.
Read more...Ilargi: Kiev, Moscow, Bonds and Haircuts
Why the proposed Ukraine bond restructuring is a geopolitical matter, part of the US push against Russia via Kiev, and not mere high finance.
Read more...Mathew D. Rose: Greece – Plus ça change
Whether the Greek government’s protests are substantive or mere grandstanding, any show of opposition is more that the Eurocrats are prepared to accept. And a successful left-leaning government is also seen as a threat in quite a few quarters.
Read more...Greece Raids Public Health Service Kitty as It Scrambles for a Short-Term Lifeline; ECB Refuses to Cut a Break. Updated: No Deal, Greece Given Ultimatum
As Greece continues to scramble to raise funds to avert default and keep paying pensioners and government officials, the end game is becoming clearer.
Read more...Leaked Tsipras Letter to Merkel Shows Increased Desperation, Warns of Imminent Default
If the plan of the Troika was to starve the Tsipras government and produce either capitulation or a loss of domestic credibility, their effort appears to be on track.
Read more...Latest Greece Talks End in Confusion, Dissent
It’s hard to fathom Greece’s approach to its dealings with its oppressors, um, creditors.
Read more...Yanis Varoufakis: Of Greeks and Germans: Re-imagining our Shared Future
Varoufakis addresses the need for Greeks and Germans to stop the blame game and work together.
Read more...Michael Hudson: Europe Tilts East Towards China
The sudden rush of countries joining China’s infrastructure bank, including supposed US allies like the UK, Germany, and France, demonstrates the desire of not just emerging but also advanced economies to have access to international institutions that are not dominated by the US. Whether the infrastructure bank actually winds up being better, as opposed to simply different than existing institutions remains to be seen. But as Hudson describes, the World Bank sets a low bar.
Read more...Rob Parenteau: “Goebbelnomics – Austerian Duplicity and the Dispensing of Greece
A case study in Goebbelnomics, here used by austerians to justify the class and economic war against Greece.
Read more...IMF Labels Greece “Most Unhelpful Client in its History”
This report does not bode well for Greece Prime Minister Alex Tsipras’ efforts to resolve what he regards as an impasse over negotiating process, but the IMF and possibly the ECB regards as a more fundamental outtrade.
Read more...Negotiations with Greece Close to Breakdown as Budget Strains Worsen
Things are not looking good for Greece.
Read more...John Helmer: IMF Loan to Ukraine Props Up Failing Banks, Enriches Oligarchs
One reason for our continued coverage of the IMF generosity to Ukraine isn’t simply to demonstrate how the institution is bending its rules to support US adventurism. It’s also to highlight the striking contrast with the treatment of Greece. While Greece has a class of oligarchs that specialize in tax-evasion, Ukraine is widely recognized as a spectacularly corrupt country, to the degree that it makes Greece look like a paragon of virtue.
Read more...John Helmer: IMF Makes Ukraine War-Fighting Loan, Allows US to Fund Military Operations Against Russia, May Repay Gazprom Bill
For the first time, an IMF loan is funding a country at war, and one that is an impossible basket case economically. It’s hard not to conclude that the IMF largesse served to solve the wee problem of getting Congress to approve funding for US adventurism in Ukraine.
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