austerity

We have learned that the Defense Minister is calling for a wholesale change of military leadership. I see this as an extremely alarming development. And in conjunction with Papandreou’s move to call a referendum, it would make sense to…

Austerity cuts demand too much to have the positive effects on deficits in the short-term that Europe wants it to have. All of these countries are likely to miss their targets. And then the Troika ‘occupations’ will commence. This is a…

Here's Roger Bootle talking to Bloomberg's Maryam Nemazee about the deal hammered out yesterday to 'save Greece.' He is quite sceptical. First, the 120% debt to GDP figure that the deal is predicated on reaching is still high and assumes a…

Poul Thomsen wrote an article on the IMF’s blog site about Iceland that I would to highlight. The lessons bear repeating given the economic problems in Europe and the US. The IMF worked with Iceland to stabilise the economy and avoid…

Let’s not get bogged down in numbers. The EFSF could have 440 billion euros behind, 1 trillion, 2 trillion, even 10 trillion euros, but it all comes back to the funding sources. The French are right: it makes no sense to implement this…

On the Max Keiser show, I said that Greece has been sent to debtor's prison. The goal is for creditors to Greece to get as much out of the Greek government as possible before they default.

Now watch the Greek protestors turn on each other. Makes you wonder if an EU plan to be announced Wednesday is really going to solve the core issues of the crisis in the eurozone: 1) too much debt that can't be paid back; 2) debt/credit…

One should fear an Italian debt spiral, yes. However, fiscal consolidation is an anti-growth policy that leads to higher deficits in the short-to-medium term. So what Draghi is saying doesn’t make a lot of sense.

My friend Rob Parenteau doesn’t think it will. His argument against it is similar to the one I have been making about the origins of this crisis. Here’s what I said.

In an interview from late September, Zulauf tells James Turk that he is very much a eurosceptic. The external imbalances in the euro zone make the euro an untenable currency union. Like David Blanchflower, Zulauf remarks how markets are…