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International Political Economy Series International Political Economy Series Series Editor: Timothy M. Shaw, Visiting Professor, University of Massachusetts Boston, USA, and Emeritus Professor, University of London, UK The global political economy is in flux as a series of cumulative crises impacts its organization and governance. The IPE series has tracked its development in both analysis and structure over the last three decades. It has always had a con- centration on the global South. Now the South increasingly challenges the North as the centre of development, also reflected in a growing number of submissions and publications on indebted Eurozone economies in Southern Europe. An indispensable resource for scholars and researchers, the series examines a variety of capitalisms and connections by focusing on emerging economies, companies and sectors, debates and policies. It informs diverse policy commu- nities as the established trans-Atlantic North declines and ‘the rest’, especially the BRICS, rise. Titles include: Vassilis K. Fouskas and Constantine Dimoulas GREECE, FINANCIALIZATION AND THE EU The Political Economy of Debt and Destruction Hany Besada and Shannon Kindornay (editors) MULTILATERAL DEVELOPMENT COOPERATION IN A CHANGING GLOBAL ORDER Caroline Kuzemko THE ENERGY–SECURITY CLIMATE NEXUS Hans Löfgren and Owain David Williams (editors) THE NEW POLITICAL ECONOMY OF PHARMACEUTICALS Production, Innnovation and TRIPS in the Global South Timothy Cadman (editor) CLIMATE CHANGE AND GLOBAL POLICY REGIMES Towards Institutional Legitimacy Ian Hudson, Mark Hudson and Mara Fridell FAIR TRADE, SUSTAINABILITY AND SOCIAL CHANGE Andrés Rivarola Puntigliano and José Briceño-Ruiz (editors) RESILIENCE OF REGIONALISM IN LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN Development and Autonomy Godfrey Baldacchino (editor) THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF DIVIDED ISLANDS Unified Geographies, Multiple Polities Mark Findlay CONTEMPORARY CHALLENGES IN REGULATING GLOBAL CRISES Helen Hawthorne LEAST DEVELOPED COUNTRIES AND THE WTO Special Treatment in Trade Nir Kshetri CYBERCRIME AND CYBERSECURITY IN THE GLOBAL SOUTH Kristian Stokke and Olle Törnquist (editors) DEMOCRATIZATION IN THE GLOBAL SOUTH The Importance of Transformative Politics Jeffrey D. Wilson GOVERNING GLOBAL PRODUCTION Resource Networks in the Asia-Pacific Steel Industry International Political Economy Series Series Standing Order ISBN 978–0–333–71708–0 hardcover Series Standing Order ISBN 978–0–333–71110–1 paperback (outside North America only) You can receive future titles in this series as they are published by placing a standing order. Please contact your bookseller or, in case of difficulty, write to us at the address below with your name and address, the title of the series and the ISBN quoted above. Customer Services Department, Macmillan Distribution Ltd, Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS, England Greece, Financialization and the EU The Political Economy of Debt and Destruction Vassilis K. Fouskas Professor of International Politics and Economics, University of East London, UK Constantine Dimoulas Lecturer, Panteion University, Greece © Vassilis K. Fouskas and Constantine Dimoulas 2013 Foreword © Donald Sassoon 2013 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2013 978-1-137-27344-4 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, Saffron House, 6–10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The authors have asserted their rights to be identified as the authors of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 2013 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of St Martin’s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN 978-1-349-44523-3 ISBN 978-1-137-27345-1 (eBook) DOI 10.1057/9781137273451 This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress. To Constantine Tsoukalas, our teacher at the University of Athens (1984–88), in the hope that this work continues the arduous inquiry he began in the 1960s with Nicos Poulantzas and Nicos Svoronos This page intentionally left blank Contents List of Tables ix List of Figures xi Foreword xii Acknowledgements xvii Timeline of main events in Greece and Europe (October 2009–March 2013) xix List of Abbreviations xxiii 1 Introduction 1 Part I Financialization and European ‘Integration’: Theoretical Considerations 2 The Sinews of Capital and the Disintegrative Logics of Euro-Atlanticism 11 2.1 Preliminary remarks 12 2.2 ‘Real’ capital, ‘fictitious’ capital and uneven (and combined) development 20 2.3 Global fault-lines and the imperial geo-politics of debt 34 2.4 Capitalism, populism and the state 45 2.5 Final touches 49 Part II Greece’s Fault-lines and the Political Economy of Debt 3 The Vassal and the Lords 59 3.1 The beginnings and the ‘birthmarks’ 60 3.2 Exit the 19th century/kampfplatz-1 and default 64 3.3 Enter the 20th century/kampfplatz-2 and default 67 3.4 A tentative conclusion 78 4 Passive Revolution and the ‘American Factor’, 1940s–70s 81 4.1 The geo-political foundations of post-war growth 83 vii viii Contents 4.2 Miracles and mirages: the ‘golden age’ of the drachma 88 4.3 Kampfplatz-3: lines of stress and fault-lines 97 4.4 Summing up 106 5 Kampfplatz-4 and the ‘European Factor’, 1974–89 109 5.1 The peculiarity of Greece: a bird’s-eye glimpse 111 5.2 The Right against the Right 115 5.3 Crisis of crisis management in the 1980s 121 5.4 Concluding remarks 131 6 Debt and Destruction: The Making of the Greek and Euro-Atlantic Ruling Classes 134 6.1 Greece, the Euro-Atlantic world and the power-shift to the ‘global East’ 135 6.2 The Greek workshop of debt and the profile of the new bourgeoisie 139 6.3 The disintegration of the middle classes 168 7 By Way of a Conclusion: Greece’s Debt Crisis Today and Some Normative Reflections 186 7.1 Seisachtheia in Greece, Europe and the world 187 Notes 192 Bibliography 226 Primary Sources 226 Think-Tank Reports 227 Secondary Sources 227 Index 237 Tables 3.1 Foreign loans and bankruptcies of the modern Greek state (1824–32) 62 3.2 Balance of trade, 1920–30 (million drachmas, 1985 prices) 76 4.1 Evolution of the balance between exports and imports of Greece, 1930–2008 90 4.2 Sectoral composition of GDP and rate of growth of GDP at 1958 constant prices up to 1960, and from 1960 to 1974 at 1970 constant prices (million drachmas) 94 4.3 Percentage increase, GDP and manufacturing in selected European countries (1950–70) and Japan (1960–70) 95 5.1 Sectoral structure of GDP at factor costs as percentage of total 117 5.2 Hours lost in strikes (in thousands) for 1976, 1978 and 1980 117 5.3 Balance of payments deficit and invisible receipts (1960–80) in millions USD; current prices 120 5.4 Some key economic indicators, 1974–89 122 5.5 Defence spending in selected countries in 1988 as percentage of GDP 122 5.6 Evolution of GDP, expenditures of the ordinary budget, expenditures for health, welfare and social insurance and public debt in million drachmas in current prices, 1977–91 124 5.7 State aid to manufacturing (selected countries) 125 5.8 Inflation and money supply in Europe in the 1980s 126 5.9 Gross public debt in EEC countries (in % GDP) 127 5.10 General government net lending (+) or borrowing (–) (in % GDP) 127 5.11 EEC/EC transfers during PASOK’s second term, 1987–89 (% change from previous year) 128 6.1 Evolution of public debt in selected countries as percentage of GDP and per person, in nominal USD (2002, 2007 and 2012) 136 6.2 National Elections in Greece, 1974–2012 140 6.3 Athens Stock Exchange share price indices, 1980–2002 152 ix x List of Tables 6.4 Profitability of Greek banks as a percentage of their assets, 1988–2003 153 6.5 Profitability of Greek banks as a percentage of their assets, 2004–10 153 6.6 Mergers and acquisitions in the Greek banking sector, 1997–2010 154 6.7 International activities of Greek banks in 2010 156 6.8 Impact of the EU structural funds on Cohesion (PIGS) Countries, 1986–2006 160 6.9 EU cohesion funds committed to PIGS, 2000–09 (in 1999 prices) 160 6.10 Evolution of the Greek public debt and its relation to GDP in USD, 2000–2012 162 6.11 Annual loans of the Greek State, state receipts, receipts from EC/EU and expenditures, 1998–2008 163 6.12 Annual change of exports over imports, the share prices in Athens stock exchange and GDP in market prices, 1994–2010 164 6.13 Annual expenses of the Greek state in million euros, 1995–2011 179 6.14 Population +15th years and employment in Greece in thousands,1998–2010 180 6.15 Employees according to their occupational status in thousands, 1998–2010 181 Figures 6.1 Percentage of employment in agriculture, hunting and forestry.
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