The Greek Financial Crisis
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Greek Society in Crisis and in Motion: Building the Material Bases for an Alternative Society from the Bottom up Georgia Bekridaki and Antonios Broumas
Interface: a journal for and about social movements Article Volume 9 (1): 230 – 255 (2017) Bekridaki and Broumas, Greek society in crisis Greek society in crisis and in motion: building the material bases for an alternative society from the bottom up Georgia Bekridaki and Antonios Broumas Abstract In the last six years, Greece has been hit by a vicious circle of relentless neoliberal restructuring programs. During the years of the crisis, throughout the country urban and rural communities of struggle have been formed, which tend to employ instituent practices and to acquire constitutive characteristics, in order to collectively address unmet social needs / desires and ensure their collective survival. In this context, socially reproductive commons in germ form have emerged with social and solidarity economy initiatives in their peripheries, alternative forms of life in common have been shaped and societies have been set in motion with the potential to establish the material foundations of their collective autonomy. Within this huge gap of social (re)production, the constituent power of social movements emerges in germ form as a resurgent force with the potential to address these needs and desires and, correspondingly, shape life in common. In the neoliberal era, it is this potential of a constituent counter - power that has the capacity to constitute the contending power to the dominant force of the capital - state complex. Keywords: Greece, social movements, mutual aid, commons, social and solidarity economy, constituent power. Introduction Greece is at the forefront of a social war raging throughout the south and, gradually spreading towards the north of Europe. On the one side, capital loots wealth and accumulates social power from vulnerable populations directly by dispossession of small property, public wealth and the commons and less by the traditional means of extracting value through exploitation (Harvey 2014: 65). -
The Role of Macro-Prudential Oversight and Monetary Policy in Preventing Financial Instability
Crisis in a Global Economy. Re-planning the Journey Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, Acta 16, 2011 www.pass.va/content/dam/scienzesociali/pdf/acta16/acta16-papademos.pdf THE ROLE OF MACRO-PRUDENTIAL OVERSIGHT AND MONETARY POLICY IN PREVENTING FINANCIAL INSTABILITY LUCAS PAPADEMOS I. INTRODUCTION Over the past three years, we have experienced a financial and econom- ic crisis of exceptional scope, severity and complexity. Since the summer of 2009, financial market conditions have broadly improved and the Euro- pean and other economies have been gradually recovering. Nevertheless, the crisis is not over yet. Financial market tensions persist and significant policy challenges remain, as developments in the sovereign debt markets in recent weeks have amply demonstrated. The ongoing adjustment in the banking system and the sizeable fiscal imbalances – largely but not entire- ly due to the crisis – still cast a shadow over the outlook for global econom- ic developments and financial stability. The experience with the crisis has triggered a comprehensive and far- reaching set of policy responses aimed at preventing the occurrence of similar episodes in the future, as well as better managing crisis situations and mitigating their effects. At the core of these actions and initiatives is the regulatory and supervisory reform agenda that is being pursued by the Financial Stability Board under the political guidance of the G20 lead- ers. This agenda aims primarily – though not exclusively – to reinforce the resilience of the financial system by various means, mainly by strength- ening the regulatory and supervisory framework of financial institutions and markets. At the same time, the crisis has clearly demonstrated the need to adopt a macro-prudential approach to the regulation and supervision of the financial system as a whole. -
Briefing Library European Parliament
Library Briefing Library of the European Parliament 16/03/2012 Greek debt restructuring Greece has recently secured a deal with private- offer, exceeding expectations. Major banks and sector lenders to ease its financial situation. Its other creditors were asked to accept up to 75% government announced that 85.8% of the losses on the value of their bonds, wiping out investors had agreed to participate in its debt €106 billion of Greek debt, instead of facing restructuring. Implementing this deal will make the possibility of getting no money back. it possible for Greece to receive further bailout Participation will rise to 95.7% as collective funds from the European Union (EU) and the action clauses have been activated to bind International Monetary Fund (IMF). unwilling creditors to the agreement. (The remainder is made up of foreign-law bonds, The economic crisis in Greece whose private-sector holders have until 23 In October 2009, the new Papandreou March to tender them for exchange.) government announced that previous The great majority of private holders accepted administrations had falsified budget figures to to swap their old bonds for new debt cover up a growing debt. In May 2010 the instruments with lower face value and European Commission, the European Central generating lower interest. With repayment Bank and the IMF agreed on a first €110 billion dates further in the future, Athens gains extra loan. In return, the Greek government adopted time to repay part of its debts. After the debt major public-sector cuts, reducing pensions, swap deal, Greece's total debt still amounts to salaries and jobs, implemented austerity about €254 billion. -
S Account of the Greek Crisis: a Self-Incrimination Pt 1
Yanis VaroufakisâEuros"s Account of the Greek Crisis: a Self-Incrimination Pt 1 https://internationalviewpoint.org/spip.php?article5474 Yanis VaroufakisâEuros"s Account of the Greek Crisis: a Self-Incrimination Pt 1 - Features - Economic and debt crisis - Publication date: Wednesday 25 April 2018 Copyright © International Viewpoint - online socialist magazine - All rights reserved Copyright © International Viewpoint - online socialist magazine Page 1/39 Yanis VaroufakisâEuros"s Account of the Greek Crisis: a Self-Incrimination Pt 1 Proposals Doomed to Fail In his latest book, Adults in the Room [1] Yanis Varoufakis gives us his version of the events that led to the Tsipras governmentâEuros"s shameful capitulation in July 2015. It essentially analyses the period 2009-2015, though it makes incursions into earlier periods. With this voluminous work (550 pages), Yanis Varoufakis shows that he is a gifted narrator. At times he succeeds in moving the reader. His direct and vivid style makes it easy to follow events. From the authorâEuros"s demonstration, we can clearly see that his behaviour and the politico-economic orientation he defended contributed to the disaster. Yanis Varoufakis clearly claims to have played a major role in working out the strategy adopted by a handful of Syriza leaders âEuros" Alexis Tsipras, Yanis Dragasakis, and Nikkos Pappas, essentially âEuros" before their victory in the January 2015 election. Varoufakis does not plead guilty. He is convinced that had Tsipras actually taken the orientation he proposed and which Tsipras had agreed to late in 2014, the result would not have been defeat for the Greek people. Contrary to the conviction Varoufakis expresses, an attentive reading of his book leads to the conclusion that he contributed to that defeat Varoufakis explains how he gradually convinced Tsipras, Pappas, and Dragasakis not to follow the orientation adopted by Syriza in 2012, then in 2014. -
The Question of Who Succeeds Jean-Claude Trichet
Gunfight at the ECB Corral The question of who succeeds Jean-Claude Trichet. urope’s eleven-year-old monetary union is still being tested by skeptical investors and markets. It was barely saved by a €750 ($955) billion rescue plan that European Union leaders B Y K LAUS C. ENGELEN put together in May of this year. Although the immediate danger of Greece—or other eurozone member countries like Portugal or Spain— defaulting seems to have been averted, the pressure from markets to cut public deficits, stabilize banks, and reform economies remains. A look at the interest rates and insurance premia that financially Eweak eurozone countries have to pay on their new sovereign debt issues makes it clear that the crisis is not over. A year of major challenges for the sixteen-member eurozone is in store, with an uncertain outcome. For Europe’s central bankers and policymakers, one of those challenges is to rebuild confidence in the euro and its guardian, the European Central Bank. Since the ECB joined the international rescue of Greece and other financially weak nations on Europe’s southern periphery and announced that it would indef- initely accept those countries’ debt as collateral regardless of credit rating, the ECB, its President Jean-Claude Trichet, and its governing council have been con- fronted with a credibility crisis. “Trust in the ECB, as measured by the standard Eurobarometer (and other) sur- veys, has fallen to an unprecedented low—especially in the larger euro area coun- THE MAGAZINE OF tries,” concludes a major empirical study by Daniel Gros and Felix Roth of the INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC POLICY Centre for European Policy Studies. -
The Greek Government Debt Crisis – an Overview
The Greek government debt crisis – An overview Nikolaos Bakirtzis R E P U B L I K A E SHQI P Ë R I S Ë MINISTRIA E FINANCAVE DHE EKONOMISË DREJTORIA E PËRGJITHSHME E FINANCIMEVE DHE KONTRAKTIMEVE PËR FONDET E BE-SË, BB-SË DHE DONATORËVE TË TJERË DREJTORIA PËR MENAXHIMIN E PROJEKTEVE IPA BulgariaThe Greek and governmentRomania’s EU debt Accession: crisis Lessons– An overview Learned NikolaosDimitar BakirtzisBechev © Copyright 2020. European Movement Albania (EMA) and Hellenic Foundation for European & Foreign Policy (ELIAMEP). All rights reserved. Nikolaos Bakirtzis Albania and shared regional experiences“ being implemented by EMA in partnership with ELIAMEP, Greece and with the support of Central Finance and Contracting Unit, Ministry of Finance and Economy in Albania under IPA funds of European Union ISBN: 978-9928-131-93-5 RREPUEPUBLBLIKIKAA EE SHQIPËSHQIPËRRISISËË MINISTRIAMINISTRIA E E FINANC FINANCAAVEVE DHE DHE E EKKONOMISËONOMISË DREJDREJTTORIAORIA E E P PËËRRGJITHSHMEGJITHSHME E E FINANCIM FINANCIMEEVEVE DHE DHE K KONTRAKTIMONTRAKTIMEEVEVE PPËRËR FONDET FONDET E E BE-SË, BE-SË, BB-SË BB-SË DHE DHE DON DONAATTORORËËVEVE TË TË TJERË TJERË DREJDREJTTORIAORIA P PËRËR MENAXHIMIN MENAXHIMIN E E P PRROJEKTOJEKTEEVEVE I PIPAA DisclIanimtegera:tion Facility 2014. publication are the sole responsibility of European Movement in Albania, of Hellenic Foundation for Europpeosanit iUonin ofn t.”he European Commission. 16 INTRODUCTION The subprime mortgage crisis of 2007 in the United States’ market was the beginning of what is now known as the most serious international financial crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s. A crisis that started as a domestic issue in the United States quickly had a drastic domino effect on the rest of the world after the collapse of the banking colossus Lehman Brothers in 2008. -
Former Greek Premier Mitsotakis Remembered Lanthimos Best
S o C V ΓΡΑΦΕΙ ΤΗΝ ΙΣΤΟΡΙΑ nd W ΤΟΥ ΕΛΛΗΝΙΣΜΟΥ E ΑΠΟ ΤΟ 1915 The National Herald 10 2 N anniversa ry www.thenationalherald.com A weekly Greek-AmeriCAN PubliCAtioN 1915-2017 VOL. 20, ISSUE 1025 June 3-9, 2017 c v $1.50 Ex-Premier Papademos’ Wife Says Bomb Hidden in CD Probe continues into domestic terrorism bombing and suspicious envelopes TNH Staff ATHENS – A bomb that went off inside the car of former Greek interim Premier Lucas Pa - pademos was hidden in a CD case inside a manila envelope that had first been left outside their home, his wife said as the probe continued into who sent it. Shanna Ingram-Papademos, who spoke during a morning current affairs program, said the large envelope had first passed through a bomb detection de - vice in Parliament before being hauled to the couple’s home in the upscale district of Paleo Faliro, the Greek capital’s “diplo - matic row”, where it remained tNh ArChiVes with other correspondence out - Former Greek interim Premier side for 24 hours. Lucas Papademos eurokiNissi She also said her husband, a With traditional Cretan songs and a solemn ceremony, Constantine Mitsotakis (insert photo) was laid to rest in Crete beside his former vice-president of one of the newspaper Kathimerini they late wife Marika. His son Kyriakos Mitsotakis delivered heartfelt words about his father at the state funeral in Athens. Greece’s lenders, the European were uncertain about that ac - Central Bank, and now vice- count from the unnamed person president of the prestigious re - who has been part of Pa - search-driven Academy of pademos’ security detail for sev - Former Greek Premier Mitsotakis Remembered Athens, was “lucky” not to have eral years. -
Download/Print the Study in PDF Format
GENERAL ELECTIONS IN GREECE 17th June 2012 European Elections monitor The Greeks called to ballot again on June 17th in a bid to break the stalemate Corinne Deloy Translated by helen Levy The Shock of May 6th The general elections of May 6th in Greece caused a political earthquake in a country suffering an extremely serious financial and socio-economic crisis. People voted en masse against austerity and Analysis the European Memorandum, the agreement signed in February by Athens with the International 1 month before Monetary Fund (IMF), the Union and the European Central Bank. Both of the main government the pool parties – the Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK) and New Democracy (ND) collapsed, whilst together they won 77.40% of the vote in the previous elections of October 4th 2009, they only won 32.03% of the vote on May 6th last. ND won 18.85% of the vote (108 seats, +17) in comparison with the last general elections on October 4th 2009 and PASOK were totally wiped out with 13.18% of the vote (41 seats, -119). The real winner of the election was the Radical Left Coalition government together suggesting the establishment of a “na- (SYRIZA) which under the banner “They chose without us. tional salvation” coalition. After failing to do this the leader of Let’s move on without them,” campaigned on the rejection the party that came second, Alexis Tsipras (SYRISA) tried to of the Memorandum and the maintenance of Greece in the form a coalition. This was to no avail since the KKE refused euro zone. -
The Greek Cauldron
stathis kouvelakis THE GREEK CAULDRON he escalation of the Eurozone crisis in the closing months of 2011 has produced spectacular upheavals in the political land- scape. Within less than a fortnight, the Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou had announced a referendum on the Tpunitive terms of a loan agreed at the Eurozone summit on October 27, only to abandon the plan after public humiliation by Sarkozy and Merkel at the G20 summit in Cannes on November 4, and resign two days later. On November 10, Lucas Papademos, ex-chief of the Bank of Greece and a former vice-president of the European Central Bank, was installed at the head of a government of so-called national accord. Alongside ministers from the preceding pasok government, with several key figures— notably the Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos—keeping their posts, the centre-right opposition New Democracy party has been awarded six cabinet positions, including Defence and Foreign Affairs. Papademos’s government also includes a minister and two deputy ministers from the extreme-right laos party, which returns to office for the first time since the fall of the military dictatorship in 1974. By contrast, the parties of the Italian centre right, the Lega Nord and Popolo della Libertà, announced their opposition to the so-called technocratic government of the eu Commissioner Mario Monti, formed in Rome on November 12 after the forced departure of Silvio Berlusconi; thus scotching the plans of the centre-left pd, which had hoped to enter office on Monti’s coattails. The outcome in both Athens and Rome was above all determined by outside pressure from the German and French governments, accompa- nied by relentless assault from the bond markets, which have priced up both countries’ debts to unsustainable levels. -
2017 Delphi Economic Forum Speakers • Giorgia Abeltino
2017 Delphi Economic Forum _Speakers Giorgia Abeltino Director Public Policy of the Google Cultural Institute, Director of Public Policy for Italy, Greece & Malta Helene Ahrweiler Rector, President of the Administration Council of the European Cultural Centre of Delphi Dr. Maria Chr. Alvanou Criminologist, ITSTIME Research Team Savvas Anastasiadis Member of the Parliament, New Democracy party Dr. Despina Anastasiou Regional Leader, Dow Central Europe; President, Dow Hellas Simos Anastasopoulos President, American Hellenic Chamber of Commerce; Chairman and CEO, PETSIAVAS S.A. Dr. Andreas A. Andreadis President, Greek Tourism Confederation - SETE Nikos Andritsos Journalist, Director, SKAI 100,3 Dimitris Androulakis Project Leader, BCG Athens Alexandros Angelopoulos CEO, Aldemar Resorts Eleni Angelopoulou Head of Division in the Crisis Management Division, European Central Ban William J. Antholis Director and CEO, Miller Center, University of Virginia Peggy Antonakou CEO Microsoft Hellas, Cyprus & Malta Eva Antonopoulou Anchorwoman, SKAI TV Pascal Apostolides General Manager, AbbVie Pharmaceuticals SA; President, SFEE Dr. Vassili Apostolopoulos CEO, Athens Medical Group & President of the Board of Directors, Hellenic Entrepreneurs Association Vangelis Apostolou Minister of Agricultural Development & Food Grigorios Apostolou Head of Frontex LO/EUTRF in Greece Nadia Arbatova Head, European Political Studies Department IMEMO, Russian Academy of Sciences Mark Arey Executive Director, The Hellenic Initiative, USA Despina -
Yanis Varoufakis's Account of the Greek Crisis: a Self-Incrimination Pt 1
Yanis Varoufakis's Account of the Greek Crisis: a Self-Incrimination Pt 1 https://internationalviewpoint.org/spip.php?article5474 Yanis Varoufakis's Account of the Greek Crisis: a Self-Incrimination Pt 1 - Features - Economic and debt crisis - Publication date: Wednesday 25 April 2018 Copyright © International Viewpoint - online socialist magazine - All rights reserved Copyright © International Viewpoint - online socialist magazine Page 1/38 Yanis Varoufakis's Account of the Greek Crisis: a Self-Incrimination Pt 1 Proposals Doomed to Fail In his latest book, Adults in the Room [1] Yanis Varoufakis gives us his version of the events that led to the Tsipras government's shameful capitulation in July 2015. It essentially analyses the period 2009-2015, though it makes incursions into earlier periods. With this voluminous work (550 pages), Yanis Varoufakis shows that he is a gifted narrator. At times he succeeds in moving the reader. His direct and vivid style makes it easy to follow events. From the author's demonstration, we can clearly see that his behaviour and the politico-economic orientation he defended contributed to the disaster. Yanis Varoufakis clearly claims to have played a major role in working out the strategy adopted by a handful of Syriza leaders âEuros" Alexis Tsipras, Yanis Dragasakis, and Nikkos Pappas, essentially âEuros" before their victory in the January 2015 election. Varoufakis does not plead guilty. He is convinced that had Tsipras actually taken the orientation he proposed and which Tsipras had agreed to late in 2014, the result would not have been defeat for the Greek people. Contrary to the conviction Varoufakis expresses, an attentive reading of his book leads to the conclusion that he contributed to that defeat Varoufakis explains how he gradually convinced Tsipras, Pappas, and Dragasakis not to follow the orientation adopted by Syriza in 2012, then in 2014. -
A Critique of the Greek Indignant Movement
View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Newcastle University eTheses Crisis and Concomitant Forms of Collective Action: A critique of the Greek indignant movement Maria Bakola A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy School of Geography, Politics and Sociology Newcastle University February 2017 Abstract What can the Greek indignant movement tell us about the forces that shape political subjectivity and forms of collective struggle that can subvert and resist capitalist power relations? In this thesis I argue that Greek indignants’ desire for autonomy and a more “ethical” politics contributed to the decline of the movement, perpetuating the global politics of austerity and a liberal understanding of politics after the crisis that feeds inequalities produced within capitalism. I seek to unravel the forces that contributed to the decline of the Greek indignant movement and the social, political and economic mechanisms that contributed to the production of political subjectivities within the movement. My examination demonstrates that there is a tension between how participants maintain the diversity of the movement and how they build the movement as one with collective political goals; between a desire for autonomy and a desire for a cohesive and effective political programme that has been devised in a collective way. I navigate this tension by examining the production of contemporary forms of political subjectivities in these times of crisis. I engage in a critique of Laclau and Mouffe and Hardt and Negri’s theories on the mechanisms for the production of a collective political subjectivity.