The context: In the middle of a mighty bushfire the fire brigade just held a summit between its chief fire fighters (Mrs Merkel and Mr Sarkozy) to discuss the importance of biodiversity, leaving the flames to destroy the forest. Italy and Spain are collapsing. The EFSF, the only institution that was set up to deal [...]

The Coalition of Resistance is organising a European conference against Austerity, Cuts and Privatisation, and in defence of the Welfare State on Saturday 1st October in London.
You can register and get details about the European Conference Against Austerity & Privatization here.
From the website:
The economic crisis of 2008 is still gripping Europe. Governments are telling us [...]

How to judge the nth European agreement ”to save Greece” stipulated on Thursday 21st July? The financial markets have already provided their verdict: on Friday 22 the spread between the Italian ten-years Treasury Bonds and the German Bunds was still 258 basic points (2,58%), a level unsustainable for the Italian public finances. The next week begun [...]

This article was originally posted on Yanis’ blog today. Republished with the kind permission of the author.
The Agreement reached yesterday by Europe’s political and financial elites is meant to tackle, once and for all, the Greek debt problem. Just as in May 2010 the idea was that intra-eurozone contagion could be prevented by ringfencing Greece [...]

Last Sunday Michael Burke had an article in the Guardian’s Comment is Free on the European Banking Association’s stress tests and the current Eurozone debt crisis. Michael argues that the spending cuts imposed on “bailed out” economies are being imposed as a mechanism to save European banks, and the conditions around the paying of those [...]

Yes, we got a pat on the head. Yes, as Stephen Kinsella put it, there was a ‘nothing to see here, keep moving,’ quality to the EU-IMF’s performance report. And, yes, the IMF is forecasting that Ireland, under the current programme, won’t repair its finances by 2015, 2016 or potentially [...]

As Europe’s debt crisis intensifies again an interesting international aspect is the policy choices this poses for China.
It is a further sign of the growing international effect of China’s economic strength that it had already become part of the discussion on how to resolve Greece’s specific debt crisis - which is [...]

See also, CEO’s new report published on the 27th of June, Europe’s Resources Grab.

The great majority of serious economic commentators know that the ‘bailout’ package just agreed between the EU and Greece is going to fail. That in the end Greece will be forced into partial default worsening the terms for its creditors. This will, of course, be politely termed ‘rescheduling’, ‘reprofiling’ [...]

A special supplement of Socialist Voice dealing with debt question in Greece, Spain, Portugal and here at home is now available.  In the supplement we posed a series of questions to each of the four party’s and we have printed their replies.
We wanted to to give Irish workers an opportunity to read and understand the [...]