The Greek Crisis has been a long-running drama that’s sucked in all of Europe (and even involved Russia to an extent), but for the most part, it hasn’t directly touched any of the Union’s peripheral countries. That may change, however, after the latest twist coming out of Athens. Per the debt agreement that’s been offered to the country, Greece must surrender …
Blaming the Victim: How Greece Became a Nation Under Occupation By Andrew Gavin Marshall
In the early hours of Thursday morning, July 16, the Greek Parliament passed a host of austerity measures in order to begin talks on a potential third bailout of 86 billion euros. The austerity measures were pushed onto the Parliament by Greece’s six-month-old leftist government of Syriza, elected in late January with a single mandate to oppose austerity. So what exactly happened …
A Trojan Horse in the Home of Austerity – Pepe Escobar
Greece invented democracy. Greek mythology forged the way the West looks at itself. Greece even invented the denomination of this Eurasian annex – “Europa”. “For it is only criminals who presume to damage other people nowadays without the aid of philosophy.” Robert Musil, The Man Without Qualities. Odysseus/Ulysses took ten years to go back home after the Trojan War. His descendants are now making history …
Fascism in Fancy Dress for the 21st Century by ROYA ARAB
Friends, who happen to be respected left-field musicians, were invited to Austria to perform a couple of gigs and film some music videos paid for by an Austrian arts grant. The lovely hosts were welcoming as was the creative coterie circling them in Vienna – the city of perfect public facades veiling the multifaceted private lives within (I don’t use this phrase lightly having encountered Austrian ways …
Alternative Visions – Brexit, Grexit, and Just ‘Bad’ Economics – 05.16.15
In the first half hour of the show, Jack Rasmus takes on the professional economics forecasting establishment and their continual missed prognostications about the condition and direction of the US economy. Reviewing the most recent US economic data for March and April, revisions of US first quarter 2015 GDP estimates in late May show the US economy performed worse in the January-March period than the 0.2% GDP initial estimated growth rate. Jack discusses how new data on business inventories, trade, and retail sales will show a -0.5% or even worse in first quarter US GDP. Data for March and April already show a continuing soft trend, with US retail sales flat, and sales of autos and big ticket items collapsing.