Welcome! This is an unapologetic, agenda-free zone. Just commentaries on current events that’ll move you to think, laugh, rage, and even cry.
Fellow liberals upbraided me last week for arguing – in “Hello … China? Greece Calling,” July 6, 2015 – that: a) Greek leaders were delusional for holding a referendum on Eurozone bailout terms (i.e., instead of humbly accepting them); and b) Greek protesters were hopelessly misguided for expecting a no vote to lead to anything… Read more.
The people of Greece have presented the European Union with the greatest political crisis in its history after voters decisively rejected years of further austerity and effectively challenged Brussels to throw a member state into the economic abyss. The Syriza-led government in Athens celebrated what it called a victory of democracy over economic ‘terrorism’, as… Read more.
Yesterday, Greece finally held its anxiously awaited general election, which many regarded as a referendum on that country’s membership in the Eurozone. The consensus was that a win by the ruling New Democracy party, headed by Prime Minister Antonis Samaras, would mean more of the bitter austerity medicine Greeks have been taking for years as… Read more.
No doubt you recall that conservative economists were warning in 2009 that President Obama’s stimulus package would lead to a double-dip recession and trillion-dollar deficits in perpetuity. His stimulus measures were aimed at boosting economic recovery by, among other things, increasing government spending on everything from infrastructure to unemployment insurance. But Republicans claimed that, by implementing… Read more.
I find it stupefying that Greece is causing so much existential angst in Europe. Mind you, I used to accept the prevailing view that, like JPMorgan Chase, Greece is just too big to fail; moreover, that if it failed others would surely follow. I am now convinced, however, that this transformative logic simply does not… Read more.
