Below you'll find a list of all posts that have been tagged as “Greece”
SAINT-JEROME, Quebec –— Modern Greek tragedy is at play, and so are illusions. The big myth is that Greece overspent and the Greek government was reckless with its budgets, ultimately indebting Athens. It is true that Greek officials tried to gain influence and political support through spending. It’s also true that they signed lucrative contracts with local businesses. Athens, however, …
Today on “This Can’t Be Happening!” journalist Alfredo Lopez talks with colleague and host Dave Lindorff about two stories that intimately concern him. The first is a fierce attack by anti-abortion forces, most likely by hired experts located in Russia or China, on a progressive web-hosting service Lopez helped found, MayFirst.org. Lopez then talks about the debt crisis in Puerto Rico, arguably as bad or worse than the crisis in Greece, but far harder to combat because of the island’s colonial status under US domination.
Is the financial deprivation of entire nations engendering a new level of frustration and political unrest? Are the unlikely top-ranked US presidential candidates a sign that the Europeans aren’t the only ones who want to “throw the bums out?” Ellen engages these emerging political themes in her conversation with renown author, advisor and Economics professor Michael Hudson, just back from his consultations with Greece’s Syriza party. But also revolting is the blatant theft of national assets and impoverishment of the citizens of nations whose governments got caught up in the shady dealings of global bankers and their political cronies. To relieve the pressure, Swami Beyondananda offers a simple soliloquy on the money world and we borrow a bit of consumer financial planning advice from author Nomi Prins.
Debt: The Creation of A Global Crisis
The forced, politically engineered bankruptcy of the City of Detroit has been an ongoing discussion on Leid Stories for almost two years. Its historic bankruptcy court filing, to discharge $18 billion in debts, still wreaks havoc with Detroiters, who now must live under the yoke of blistering austerity.
Detroit, however, was a template for almost 60 U.S. cities said to be on the brink of bankruptcy because of debt, as Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory, grapples with an onerous debt of $73 billion.
But debt is a geopolitical contrivance, says Yanis Varoufakis, who on July 6 quit as finance minister in Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras’s government of Greece, opposing European Union, International Monetary Fund and bankers’ demands for drastic cutbacks to service the country’s debt obligations.
In a wide-ranging talk in Seattle three years ago, when he was an economics professor, Varoufakis deconstructs the myth of a global debt crisis.
Carolyn and Mark Matousek discuss his work with helping people transform through telling the truth about their own personal stories. Download this episode (right click and save)
Geneva International Centre for Justice released on 27 July 2015 its report ‘Swimming Against the Tides: Examining the EU Response to Irregular Migration through the Mediterranean Sea.’ GICJ has been following closely the recent developments at the European Commission with regards to irregular migration. GICJ wishes to highlight with this report the underlying causes of the crisis and the necessary …
From Brazil to India and from California to Detroit, taps are running dry, as the water crisis goes global. Detroit grabbed headlines when the city cancelled the water and sewerage service for more than 50,000 residents for lack of payment. But Detroit’s trials are not unique. “Caught between unaffordable rising water rates and the imposition of European-wide austerity measures, thousands …
What do you call a country that has grown 4.6 per cent – in total – since it joined the euro 16 years ago? Well, probably the one most likely to leave the common currency. Or Italy, for short. It’s hard to say what went wrong with Italy, because nothing ever went right. It grew 4 per cent its first year …
In 2010 the Greek state lost the capacity to service its debt. Put simply, it became insolvent and thus lost access to capital markets. To prevent a default on fragile French and German banks that had irresponsibly lent billions to irresponsible Greek governments, Europe decided to grant Greece the biggest loan in world history on condition of the largest ever …
The headline economic numbers are far better now than in 2008-2009. The unemployment rate, the GDP, the national deficit, the stock market, etc. have all improved. Yet many of us can’t shake the feeling that things are still stuck in 2008. Well, you aren’t crazy. Many areas of the economy have never recovered from the 2008, and some are even …
