Pirooz Daneshmandi interviews Tom McDonnell, economic policy analyst with TASC on the state of the economy, how we got here and what alternatives are available to the Government.
In the interview Tom talks about the TASC discussion paper ‘The Debt and Banking Crisis: Progressive Approaches for Europe and Ireland’, which he wrote and about possible solutions [...]

There are people today who think that Conor was a little rough on David McWilliams. This is not the case at all. If anything, he didn’t go far enough on someone who in 2009 still didn’t understand the idiocy of the Bank Guarantee that he advised the government to implement and which rewarded stupid investors [...]

The following is the introduction to the Manifesto on the crisis of the Euro, which was produced by Attac Germany’s Scientific Council on March 1st 2011.
The statement accompanying it says:
“The public debt crisis can only be overcome through fundamental reforms of the global financial system as well as the EU”
In order to get an understanding [...]

It is quite difficult to comprehend the credibility granted to the economic establishment in terms of defining the options that we can adopt to address our economic problems. This is all the more extraordinary when considered against what can only be described as the worst reputational performance by any set of associated professions in history. [...]

The April edition of the Socialist Voice is out. You can view it in PDF here, or read it on the Website here.
The articles this month are:
* Stress tests needed for working people! [NL]
* Anglo-Irish Bank records historic losses [NL]
* A tale of two Europes [NC]
* Workers in struggle
* Workers’ rights under sustained attack [EMC]
* [...]

An article by Michael Hudson, on today’s “Icesave” Referendum in Iceland. Republished with permission. Thanks to Gunnar Skuli Armannsson for passing it on.
A year ago, in March 2010, Iceland’s economy was so small that it did not warrant much attention when 93% of its voters rejected the Social Democratic-Green government’s surrender to Gordon Brown [...]

What if an easily accessible paper was drawn up illustrating the following:

What may have been earned for the people if the banks were nationalised when there were profitable
What effective and efficient public utilities could have delivered for us (in money terms) if kept in state control
The benefits (again, in financial as well as the obvious [...]

“Of course we are under tremendous pressure on the financial arrangements (of the EU-IMF deal) but getting the economy going again, returning to growth will make that affordable,”
“If our economy goes well, if we get back to growth, get to full employment, then we can pay this easily. If economic growth is weak, then it [...]

A copy of the following letter has been sent by a small Icelandic group campaigning in advance of the forthcoming referendum on the terms of  the Icesave deal with Britain and the Netherlands to several officials within the EU and EFTA as well as to the ministeries of Britain, Holland and Iceland to whom this [...]