Does Greece have a Tea Party?

April 26th, 2010

26th April, 2010

Dear readers….this is my latest Huffington Post.

“The humiliating surrender of Greece’s economic autonomy came just last Friday, 23 April, 2010. The democratically elected Prime Minister, George Papandreou transferred to unelected officials in Brussels and Washington the power to determine Greece’s fiscal policy. In other words, decisions about taxation, and how tax revenues should be spent.

In a 26 April interview with the Financial Times on the island of Rhodes, the Prime Minister, George Papandreou admitted his country had accepted “a partial surrender of sovereignty”.
“Our struggle” he went on to say, “will be to recover our autonomy and liberate Greece from the surveillance imposed by the forces of conservatism”.

Back in 1765 Bostonians such as James Otis and Samuel Adams regarded “taxation without representation as a form of tyranny”.

Today, a nation that served as the cradle of western democracy will effectively be governed by remote, invisible and unaccountable officials. Continue reading… ›

Tags: | Category: ECB, Euro, Euroland, Greece | 3 comments

Why the EU’s leaked document has got me in a rage

March 17th, 2010

By Ann Pettifor – Posted March 16th on Labour List

Together with the Prime Minister of Greece, Mr. George Papandreou, I am going to give evidence to the EU’s Special Committee on the Financial Crisis in Brussels this Thursday, March 18th.

So today’s leaked report from the EU, arguing that Labour’s plans for cuts to public spending are not “ambitious enough”, has got me really het up.

Labour, it appears, is just not ambitious enough about its goals for cutting investment and exacerbating unemployment. It does not have punitive enough targets for cutting benefits to the poor and services for the mentally ill and frail.

In the “imbecile idiom” (to quote Keynes) of today’s financial fashion, the EU, it seems, would prefer for unemployment to rise, for people to live in hovels, and for government “to shut out the sun and the stars” – so that we conform to an arbitrary number set in Frankfurt by a group of bankers, under a pact unwisely signed by an earlier British government.

Continue reading the article…

Tags: , , , | Category: Credit Crunch, ECB, Euroland, Financial Crisis, government borrowing, Greece, Treasury, UK financial crisis | 6 comments

How Greece's Crisis Could Impact America

March 2nd, 2010

3rd March 2010

If today’s speculators bring down the Greek economy, they will likely blow up more debtor nations, and then in a cascading effect, turn on their main benefactors, the now heavily indebted British and United States governments.

Citizens are rightly angry at the way both the Bush and Obama administrations, aided by Governor Ben Bernanke — pretty well unconditionally bailed-out the bankers of Wall St., just like governments in Europe and Asia.

While politicians and regulators rushed to dampen the flames of financial crisis with taxpayer funds, what happened to those guilty of financial arson?

Besides the odd rogue and loner like Bernard Madoff, none has gone to jail for crimes against the people, as far as I know.

As if to rub our collective noses in it, bankers have paraded their contempt for both politicians and taxpayers by using bail-out resources to post massive capital gains and bonuses. It’s hard to believe they could be guilty of worse.

But believe it you must. For now these self-same bankers are turning on their rescuers — the governments that bailed them out.

Continue reading… ›

Category: Debt, ECB, Euro, Euroland, Greece | 4 comments
« Newer Entries