Europe
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Greece – Ireland – Portugal – Spain – Italy – UK – Europe’s Financial Domino Effect Washington’s Blog
Iceland has the world’s 112th biggest economy, Ireland the 38th, and Portugal the 36th. In contrast, Spain has the world’s 9th biggest economy, Italy the 7th and the UK the 6th. A failure by one of the latter 3 would be devastating for the world economy. Continue reading
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Mick Barry, “The Socialist Alternative to IMF/EU Diktats”
The bailout of Anglo Irish Bank is set to cost the taxpayer between €29.3 billion and €34.3 billion according to the Government and up to €40 billion according to some economists. The bank should be closed down immediately and the losses should be taken by bondholders, private banks who lent to Anglo and wealthy depositors.… Continue reading
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The echo of the past war By Natalia Meden
Great Britain has unveiled plans to cut its military budget by 8% in the next four years, which is the biggest cut since the end of the World War II. On hearing it Washington voiced concern over possible weakening of its ally’s defense potential. In Germany the reaction on the plan of David Cameron’s Cabinet… Continue reading
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French lessons
THE FRENCH revolt against austerity has transformed politics in France–and it has the potential to do the same across Europe and beyond. The relentless international drive to force down working-class living standards has run smack into a united and determined working class with one of the most militant traditions in the world. Continue reading
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Cine-Tract: No to Retirement Reform
Cine-Tract: No to Retirement Reform. No to the retirement reform, yes to better work sharing Continue reading
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Why France Matters Here Too By Rick Wolff
For many weeks now, the historic social change sweeping across France has drawn increasing attention globally. It should. A genuine, mass democratic upsurge has surprised all those who thought, hoped, or feared that such things could no longer happen in countries like France or the US. Millions of French people — in left political parties,… Continue reading
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Engdahl on France: Cutting pensions instead of military spendings?
Frederick William Engdahl, an American writer and journalist based in Germany, questions the reform saying it could be aimed at protecting tiny elite in France. Continue reading
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The Revolt Shaking France
This revolt is the latest in a wave of struggles that have rocked France over more than a decade, dating back to a wave of public-sector strikes in 1995 that stopped a conservative government from imposing changes to the pension system. Continue reading
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Thank God for France By Mike Whitney
Thank God for France. While American liberals tremble at the idea of sending an angry e mail to congress for fear that their name will appear on the State Department’s list of terrorists, French workers are on the front lines choking on tear gas and fending off billyclubs in hand-to-hand combat with Sarkozy’s Gendarmerie. That’s… Continue reading
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France paralyzed over retirement age rise
In France, public transport is paralyzed, flights cancelled and one million people protesting, demanding the government backs down from retirement age reforms. The protests erupted into violence after President Nicolas Sarkozy vowed his conservative party would press ahead with raising the retirement age from sixty to sixty-two, still lower than in most European countries. Young… Continue reading
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Yanis Varoufakis, “First as History, Then as Farce: The Euro Crisis Revisited”
When the Crash of 2008 hit Wall Street, European capitalism was thrown into disarray. With the demise of the export-absorbing monster that was the US consumer market, what in 2003 Joseph Halevi and I called ‘The Global Minotaur, Europe not only lost a critical source of aggregate demand but also discovered that its own banks… Continue reading
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France shows the way
Government estimates put the total number of protesters at around 850,000, while unions said between 2.5 million and 3 million had taken to the streets. Continue reading
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Joseph Halevi, "Beijing's Europe"
The widening of the conflict over exchange rates means that major capitalist countries are now trying to ‘solve’ the crisis by grabbing slices of each other’s markets through exports. For the US, though, the official issue is how to reduce the dependence upon the external deficit given that the crisis has highlighted the damage done… Continue reading
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The Protest Movement. Financial Fraud in Iceland By Rady Ananda
As proceedings begin against Iceland’s former Prime Minister, Geir Haarde, for the banking crisis of 2008, at least two thousand Icelanders took to the streets in two days of protest this weekend. Iceland joins over a dozen other nations protesting economic measures taken out on the public while banks and large corporations receive bailouts. Class… Continue reading
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The Neoliberal Experiment and Europe’s anti-Austerity Strikes: Governments must Lower Wages or Suffer Financial Blackmail By Michael Hudson
Most of the press has described Wednesday’s European-wide labor demonstrations and strikes across in terms of the familiar exercise by transport workers irritating travelers with work slowdowns, and large throngs letting off steam by setting fires. But the story goes much deeper than merely a reaction against unemployment and economic recession conditions. At issue are… Continue reading
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Statewatch News Online – 1 October 2010 (17/10)
Home page: http://www.statewatch.org/ e-mail: office@statewatch.org EU: Parliaments to have no say over the “harmonisation” of national ID cards EU: Schengen Information System: SIS II to hold 100 million records EU-FRONTEX: AI and ECRE: Briefing on Commission proposal USA: Government Accountability Office: Fusion centres UK: European Commission: Refer UK to Court over data protection EU: “State… Continue reading
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Renaissance of Ethnic Separatism In ‘United Europe’ By Pyotr ISKENDEROV
New serious inter-ethnic conflicts are brewing in Europe as it battles the global economic crisis. Typically they are deeply rooted in history, but the very fact that the renaissance of ethnic separatism in Europe is taking place in the epoch of European integration is noteworthy. Obviously, the enlargement of NATO and the EU neither brought… Continue reading
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“Kosovo is as independent as Vichy France” – RT Top Stories
‘Kosovo is as independent as Vichy France was in WWII. It’s a puppet state. It suffers from endemic corruption, abuse of power. Its governmental structure can be better described as organized crime,’ the journalist added. Continue reading
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Keiser Report 62: Markets! Finance! Scandal!
This week Max Keiser and co-host, Stacy Herbert look at the latest scandals with stolen credits and the debt in Europe. In the second half of the show, Max talks to his guest Gregor MacDonald about the role of energy in US economy. Continue reading
The New Dark Age 