IMF and Germany Are Hell-Bent on Finishing Off Even a Moderate Left in Greece By C.J. Polychroniou

Negotiations between Greece and its official creditors – the European Commission, International Monetary Fund (IMF) and European Central Bank – are currently in renewed deadlock. Yet, only a few days ago, in the Euro summit on Monday, June 22, all indications were that Europe’s political beasts and the “criminal IMF” were ready to accept thelatest capitulation on the part of …

On the Delphi Declaration by MICHAEL HUDSON

Many readers of the European and American press must be confused about what actually is happening in the negotiations between Greece (Alexis Tsipras and Yannis Varoufakis). The European Troika (the IMF, European Central Bank and European Council now object to the name and want to be called simply “the Institutions”) have stepped up their demands on Syriza. What is called …

Greek Democracy Is Failing – Paul Craig Roberts

The Greek debt is unpayable. It is simply too large to be repaid. The austerity that the EU and IMF have imposed on Greece has worsened the problem by driving down the Greek economy, thus making the burden of the debt even heavier. Despite the obvious fact that the EU’s austerity policy is a failure and cannot succeed, the Greek …

Bee Health Committee Chairman Praises Neonicotinoids, Denies Connection to Bee Deaths – Christine Sarich

Want proof that our representatives are likely taking handouts from Syngenta, Bayer, and other Big Ag makers of bee and butterfly killing neonicotinoids? Elected representative Rodney Davis of Illinois, who also happens to be the bee health committee chairman appointed to study pesticide and herbicide connections to colony collapse disorder, is singing the praises of neonicotinoids (neonics). Davis claims that the bee-killing …

Trans-Pacific Trade Deal Is Latest Threat to Our Democracy – John Buell

‘Neoliberal capitalism is already global,’ writes Buell. ‘Resistance to it must itself be global and democratic.’ Conservatives warn us that deficit spending will turn the U.S. into a fiscal basket case, like Greece. No longer truly independent, Greece is ruled by the IMF, the ECB, and the European Commission. What conservatives seldom point out is that membership in the Eurozone …

A Sharp Spike in Honeybee Deaths Deepens a Worrisome Trend – MICHAEL WINES

A prolonged and mysterious die-off of the nation’shoneybees, a trend worrisome both to beekeepers and to farmers who depend on the insects to pollinate their crops, apparently worsened last year. In an annual survey released on Wednesday by the Bee Informed Partnership, a consortium of universities and research laboratories, about 5,000 beekeepers reported losing 42.1 percent of their colonies in the …

The Choice Before Europe – Paul Craig Roberts

Washington continues to drive Europe toward one or the other of the two most likely outcomes of the orchestrated conflict with Russia. Either Europe or some European Union member government will break from Washington over the issue of Russian sanctions, thereby forcing the EU off of the path of conflict with Russia, or Europe will be pushed into military conflict …

European Biofuel Bubble Bursts – Sean Buchanan

Ten years of debate in the European Union over the detrimental effects of the demand for biofuels for transport on food prices, hunger, forest destruction, land consumption and climate change have come to an end. The European Parliament finally agreed new E.U. laws on Apr. 28 to limit the use of crop-based biofuels, setting a limit on the quantity of …

Highlighting Double-Standard, Probe Shows Germany Spied on EU Neighbors for NSA – Nadia Prupis

Though German Chancellor Angela Merkel raised loud objections when it was revealed that the NSA had been monitoring her private communications, a new inquiry by the German parliament revealed last week that the spy agency under Merkel’s command conducted secret operations against its EU neighbors on behalf of the US government. Germany’s national intelligence agency, Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND), helped the NSA …

Greek Debt Crisis: Is Default or Exit Inevitable by JACK RASMUS

This past week, April 24, European finance ministers met in Riga, Latvia. High on the agenda was the topic of Greek debt negotiations. Two months after theFebruary 28 interim agreement between Greece and the EU ‘troika’—the IMF, European Commission, and European Central Bank—in which both sides agreed to continue negotiating—little has changed. In fact, led by its de facto spokesperson, hardline …