Crisis

The political economy of a long depression

23 May 2018 - by Joseph Choonara

It is now a full decade since the financial turmoil that heralded the beginning of the “long depression”. On a global scale, the recession that developed in the wake of the collapse of the Wall Street bank Lehman Brothers in autumn 2008 was over after a year. However, while the recession (...)
Shocking report: Macroeconomic indicators improve but Greece’s society is suffering

9 February 2018 - by Confédération hellénique des cadres, artisans et marchands

Greek society in economic decline: Three out of four are long-time unemployed. 51% of the households depends on pensions. One in five households is afraid to lose its home. 70% of the young Greeks want to look for a work abroad. 16.3% say they cannot afford to cover an extraordinary expense of (...)
The Asian financial crisis: Lessons learned and unlearned

18 August 2017 - by Yilmaz Akyüz

Governments in both mature and emerging economies no doubt draw lessons from financial crises in order to adopt measures to prevent their recurrence. However, it is often the case that such measures are designed to address the root causes of the last crisis but not the next one. More (...)
Today Greece, tomorrow the world

20 July 2015 - by Mike Roscoe

Greece has been living beyond its means, having borrowed too much during the easy times. Its underlying economy is too weak to support its preferred lifestyle, which is why the Greek government is now being told by its main creditors, the IMF and the Eurozone central banks, that it needs to (...)
Six years later...

30 September 2014 - by Sushovan Dhar

We vividly remember how the collapse of Lehman Brothers almost destroyed the world financial system There was neither remembrance nor anamnesis of that horrible day which shook the financial world and brought it to its knees six years ago. On September 15, 2008, the world witnessed the (...)
’Deglobalisation’ Is the Way to Reduce Inequality

19 June 2014 - by Pablo Solón

The race of globalisation is leaving the majority of the world’s population far behind. According to Unicef, the richest 20% of the population gets 83% of global income, while the poorest quintile has just 1%. This trend is getting worse. A new UNDP report called “Humanity Divided: estimates that (...)
Spanish State: After the abdication of the king, it’s time to checkmate the regime

5 June 2014 - by Esther Vivas

The regime is collapsing, it is dying and in its last-ditch struggle to survive, the king has abdicated. Never has the regime resulting from the Transition been as widely challenged as it is today. The pillars on which it rests, the monarchy, the judiciary, bipartisanship, have been greatly (...)
Actors and revendications in the Ukrainian protests

24 March 2014 - by Szymon Martys

At 21 November 2013 when president of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych did not sign the association agreement with the European Union in Kiev and several other cities popular protests began. They soon gained the title Euromaidan. Initially, demonstrators gathered mainly under pro-European banners but (...)
Does the EU think 40 Egyptian lives are worth less than one Ukrainian life?

24 February 2014 - by Platform

On Wednesday, the European Union’s house bank froze its lending in Ukraine with the escalating violence, as the death toll passed 26. There have been reports of ‘death squads’ kidnapping opposition activists from hospitals, and today deaths have spiralled – some protestors claimed that 100 died. (...)
The euro crisis and contradictions between countries in the periphery and centre of the European Union

21 November 2013 - by Eric Toussaint

The crisis that started in the United States in 2007-2008, hit the European Union head on in 2008, and has been causing major problems in the eurozone since 2010. Banks from the strongest European countries are responsible for spreading this plague from the United States to Europe, because they (...)
The CADTM international network’s statement against “invasion” of ERT by Greek police forces

7 November 2013 - by CADTM international

CADTM international network (present in 30 countries, www.cadtm.org) denounces the “invasion” of ERT (the public television channel in Greece) by police forces and brings once again its support to the greek people. With the “invasion” of the special police units to ERT premises, on November the (...)
Banks: Fudged health report

6 August 2013 - by Eric Toussaint

The Basel II accords were drafted at a time of neoliberal euphoria when capitalist bankers had obtained the cancellation of the few prudential rules that still remained from the 1930 Great Depression.
Banks bluff in a completely legal way

4 July 2013 - by Eric Toussaint

If a bank posts significant losses (a major corporation goes bankrupt and cannot pay back a loan, or more often, due to losses on financial products traded on the derivatives market, such as ABS-RMBS, and CDOs, in particular linked to the real estate crisis or bad bets on how the exchange rate (...)
FEMINIST INITIATIVE FOR THE ELIMINATION OF VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN

As Feminist Initiative for the elimination of Violence Against women, we state our opposition to the coup d’etat of the government, that is the closure of public Radio/Television, ERT, and the dismissal of 2.700 workers all over Greece. We participate in the struggle for revocation of this (...)
For the cradle of democracy is not its tomb

13 June 2013 - by Altersummit

Over two days, June 7th and 8th, thousands of activists and leaders of social movements and trade unions, including a thousand from 22 different countries, came together to proclaim the “Athens Manifesto” and to enhance the convergence of their local, national and European struggles to end (...)
Czech Republic : Society Cannot be Cut Out

20 April 2013 - by ProAlt

A Manifesto by ProAlt – Initiatives for Critique of Reform Measures and Supporting Alternatives. They call it a “government of fiscal responsibility,” but they are actually implementing policies that are irresponsible to nature and to society. It is incumbent upon us, the citizens, to take (...)
The Mockery of Banking Discipline

23 March 2013 - by Eric Toussaint

“Markets have become too huge, complex, and fast-moving to be subject to twentieth-century supervision and regulation. No wonder this globalized financial behemoth stretches beyond the full comprehension of even the most sophisticated market participants. Financial regulators are required to (...)
Even the IMF agrees…

15 March 2013 - by Eric Toussaint

IMF declarations that do not please European leaders In October 2012, the IMF provided a key explanation of why the crisis was getting worse in Europe. Its Research Department wrote that every euro cut from public spending would result in a .90 to 1.70 euro decrease in Gross Domestic Product (...)
Irish campaigners support Europe-wide protests against austerity in run-up to EU Summit, reject claims of Irish ‘success story’

14 March 2013 - by Anglo: Not Our Debt Campaign

Press release, 13 March 2013: Issued by: Anglo: Not Our Debt Campaign For immediate release The EU Summit taking place in Brussels this Thursday, 14th March, is set to increase poverty and inequality within Ireland and across the EU, according to campaigners. ‘For a European Spring’ – a (...)
The Banks, Fragile Giants

15 February 2013 - by Eric Toussaint

“In order to facilitate the financing, insuring, and timeliness of all that trade, the volume of cross-border transactions in financial instruments has had to rise even faster than the trade itself. Wholly new forms of finance had to be invented or developed, credit derivatives, asset-backed (...)
A journey into the vice-ridden world of banking

2 February 2013 - by Eric Toussaint

“As the Economist put it at year-end 2006, ‘having grown at an annual rate of 3.2% per head since 2000, the world economy is over halfway towards notching up its best decade ever. If it keeps going at this clip, it will beat both the supposedly idyllic 1950s and the 1960s. Market capitalism, the (...)
Banks versus the People: The Underside of a Rigged Game!

12 January 2013 - by Eric Toussaint

The first three parts of the series ’Banks versus the People: the Underside of a Rigged Game!’ published in 2012, have been collected together in this one document. This series is to be continued during January 2013. Part 1 : 2007-2012: Six years that shook the banking world Since 2007-2008, (...)
The greatest offensive against European social rights since the Second World War

12 January 2013 - by Eric Toussaint

Part One of this series “” was published on 2 December, 2012.. See 2007-2012: Six years that shook the banking world Part 2 “The ECB and the Fed at the service of the major private banks” was published on 10 December 2012. We should not underestimate the capacity of the elites to make the most (...)
The ECB and the Fed at the service of the major private banks

10 December 2012 - by Eric Toussaint

Part One of this series “2007-2012: Six years that shook the banking world” was published on 2nd December, 2012. The actions of the European Central Bank and the “Fed” Beginning in June 2011, the European banks entered a highly critical phase. Their situation was almost as serious as on 15 (...)
2007-2012: Six years that shook the banking world

2 December 2012 - by Eric Toussaint

Since 2007-2008, the major central banks (the ECB, Bank of England, the “Fed” in the USA, and the Swiss National Bank) have been making it their absolute priority to attempt to avoid a collapse of the private banking system. Contrary to what has been said more or less everywhere, the principal (...)