How the world sees Greece
Even as global stock markets climb, worries are building among investors that long-simmering debt problems in Greece and Italy will put additional strain on the euro. Over the past year, aggressive bond buying by the European Central Bank and encouraging ...
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When most people think of eggs, they usually think breakfast. For a quick meal any time of day, however, eggs can’t be beat. Add some Greek flavor to your eggs... The post Eggs and Tomatoes, Not Just for Breakfast appeared first on The National Herald.
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… required to be so from Greece and Italy to other EU … '' to leave overstretched Greece and Italy to try to … Italy and 2,000 from Greece. So far, 11,966 refugees …
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… conditions for migrants in the Greek islands. The funding is part … at supporting actions by the Greek defense ministry aimed at providing … allocated another 509 million for Greece as part of the 2014-2020 …
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THE EU faces a crisis that threatens the sustainability of the eurozone after the International Monetary Fund warned that Greece’s debts are on an “explosive” path despite years of austerity measures and economic reforms. Global financiers at the IMF ...
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[Preview] EU member states have only relocated slightly more than 15,000 asylum seekers from Italy, Greece and Turkey out of 160,000 the EU initially pledged to resettle from these overburdened countries under the controversial mandatory refugee quota system. Read Full Article at RT.com
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The results of the “Turkish Policy Elites’ Perception on Turkish Foreign Policy and Greek-Turkish Relations” study conducted by the Center for International and European Studies (CIES) at Kadir Has University were recently released.
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Greece’s public debt is “highly unsustainable” and likely to become “explosive” within the next few decades, a report from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has claimed. In a 92-page staff report on the Greek economy, the IMF warned that a ...
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Omar Quarles indicted in death of Charles Fields, 86, of Greece A local man has been indicted on murder and burglary charge, accused of killing an 86-year-old Greece man. Check out this story on DemocratandChronicle.com: http://on.rocne.ws/2kOS5YT
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Greece sold 1.138 billion euros ($1.21 billion) of three-month T-bills to refinance a maturing issue, the country's debt agency PDMA said on Wednesday. The three-month paper was sold at a yield of 2.70 percent, unchanged from a previous sale last month.
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This week the IMF will publish a new report on the state of the Greek economy within which some pretty scary numbers are expected to get scarier. Leaks from a preliminary report a couple of weeks ago sent bond yields spiking and the euro lower as figures ...
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GREEK consumers believe that the supermarket sector has contributed significantly, amid the economic crisis, according to a pan-Hellenic survey ...
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The International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) economic forecasts on Greece do not reflect the actual picture of the country’s economy, Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos said in a letter attached to the fund’s report on the Greek economy )article IV ...
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Growing speculation in Athens this week that the leftist Tsipras government will accede to creditors' demands for "precautionary measures" to apply after 2018 -- but with immediate enactment -- was underscored on Tuesday evening with the convening of the ...
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The Greek crisis intensified on two fronts yesterday as the likely US ambassador to the EU said the eurozone might break up, and the Netherlands warned it will not take part in another bailout if the International Monetary Fund drops out of the process.
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In March, the European Commission will decide whether to start penal procedures against the countries which do not admit a sufficient number of refugees under the mandatory quotas. Since December, Bulgaria has not relocated new refugees from Greece and Italy under the scheme for solidarity relocation, reported the EC. Still, the number of refugees actually admitted is 29 - from Greece. This was the data in the previous report of the European Commission at the beginning of December last year. Not a single refugee has arrived from Italy to Bulgaria, in spite of the promised quota of 471 people. The data covers only the mandatory system of solidarity relocation voted in 2015 for the quota relocation and resettlement of 160,000 refugees from Italy and Greece. By the autumn of 2017, Bulgaria is under legal obligation to relocate at least 1,302 refugees from these two countries. Not a single person has been relocated to Bulgaria under the other scheme adopted by the EU – for the voluntary relocation of persons from Turkey, the Lebanon and Jordan. Bulgaria has announced 50 free places under this latter scheme. The rest of the countries are also procrastinating with respect to the relocation of refugees and, so far, the number of relocated persons under the mandatory quotas is a mere 12,000, complained Deputy President of the EC Frans Timmermans.
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Both senators of Greek background
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Greek photographer enters his house
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[marine le pen] Nationalism has come back in vogue across Western Europe, prompting analysts to investigate underlying, big-picture trends that might be correlated with this political phenomenon. And one such trend folks have fixed on is globalization. In a new working paper, Italo Colantone and Piero Stanig from Bocconi University looked into the relationship between the impact of globalization and electoral outcomes in fifteen European countries between 1988 and 2007. More specifically, they looked at the relationship between the economic shock due to the surge of imports from China and voter behavior. They found that a stronger import shock from China at the district level was linked to an increase in support for nationalist parties, a general shift to the right in the electorate, and an increase in support for radical right parties. To measure the effects of trade, the team built a region-specific indicator based on the idea that different regions' exposure to growth in Chinese exports depends on what industries are concentrated in each region. By looking at those regional industry concentrations and national-level trade data for the products of the various industries, the researchers were able to estimate the overall impact of Chinese trade on different regions. In the paper, the team found that the shock from an increase of imports from China to Europe "had a heterogeneous impact across European regions, depending on their historical employment composition." Using data from 76 legislative elections across the fifteen countries, they found that areas with a stronger regional exposure to the trade shock saw a larger increase in support for nationalism and the radical right than regions with less trade exposure. The countries examined by the team include Austria, Belgium, Findland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. All are EU members save Norway and Switzerland. [Leader of the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) Nigel Farage speaks to media after a launch for an EU referendum poster in London, Britain June 16, 2016.] Europe is not the only part of the world where trade shocks have been correlated with political shifts. Back in November, economists David Autor, David Dorn, Gordon Hanson, and Kaveh Majlesi found that areas in the US hit the hardest by trade shocks were more likely to shift away from centrist politicians. Notably, the move to more extreme political positions wasn't caused so much by incumbent politicians shifting their views away from the center, but rather the electorate voting in new representatives who espoused more left- or right-leaning ideas. Although the authors of the paper looked at elections between 2002 and 2010, trade was a huge issue in the 2016 US presidential election. We saw a similar pattern with the emergence of nontraditional candidates like Donald Trump and — to a much lesser degree, but still espousing a shift away from the center — Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders. Both pointed a finger at trade with China. Even Hillary Clinton, more centrist than either Trump or Sanders, eventually abandoned support of the Trans-Pacific Partnership deal — after previously calling it the "gold standard" of trade agreements — ostensibly in an attempt to address voters' concerns. Ultimately, we should note that a trade shock is, of course, not the sole variable affecting voters' decisions. The relationship of economics, race, social trends, institutions, and politics in both Europe and the United States is far too complex to be limited to two studies — not to mention the fact that sometimes these factors are interconnected. And even within economics, trade is not the whole story. Automation, for example, has also affected American jobs. In short, trade is just one part of a bigger picture. But these studies do raise questions about not only how politicians will continue to respond during elections to voters' grievances amid a shifting socioeconomic landscape, but more importantly how they will respond when it comes to actually making policy. And regarding that, Colantone and Stanig offered their own analysis. "The main message of this paper is that globalization might not be sustainable in the long run in the absence of appropriate redistribution policies aimed at compensating the so-called 'losers' of globalization: those segments of society that bear most of the adjustment costs of international trade," the authors wrote in their paper. They continued (emphasis ours): "The unequal sharing of the welfare gains brought about by globalization has resulted in widespread concerns and a general opposition to free trade. Such a sentiment is interpreted and promoted especially by nationalist and radical-right parties, whose policy proposals tend to bundle support for domestic free market policies with strong protectionist stances. This policy bundle has started to be referred to as 'economic nationalism' also in public discussion. AS PARTIES OFFERING SUCH A POLICY MIX BECOME INCREASINGLY SUCCESSFUL, WE MIGHT SEE THE END — AND POSSIBLY EVEN A REVERSAL — OF GLOBALIZATION." CHECK OUT THE FULL PAPER HERE. SEE ALSO: WHAT 25 MAJOR WORLD LEADERS AND DICTATORS LOOKED LIKE WHEN THEY WERE YOUNG Join the conversation about this story » NOW WATCH: Here's how to use one of the many apps to buy and trade bitcoin
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Greece’s Central Archaeological Council has given its approval for a horseback parade through central Athens, planned as the opening event of the international exhibition ‘documenta 14′ on April 6. The Council drew a line, however, at the organizers’ request to use miniature Skyrian ponies. “The horses taking part must be of normal size,” the Council […]
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Dutch Finance Minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem said that “The Netherlands will stop aid to Greece, if the International Monetary Funds stays out of the Greek program.” Dijsselbloem said this at the Dutch parliament and adding that the same is valid for the Greek Parliament.” “IMF involvement is necessary,” Jeroen Dijsselbloem told […]
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The deep rift between Greece’s European lenders and the International Monetary Fund leads to nothing else than to a delay in the conclusion of the second review. For one more time, the rift has triggered fears that another Greece debt crisis is looming ...
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February 7 – The various charges against Olympiacos owner Evangelos Marinakis – some legally and others through the media – are rapidly ...
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Only one day after Eurogroup’s Jeroen Dijsselbloem stated that the IMF’s take on the Greek debt was “unnecessarily Pessimistic,” the finance minister warned that without the Fund’s participation in the Greek bailout, the Netherlands would also ...
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Just about everyone is Greek this weekend in Naples. The annual Greek Fest at St. Katherine Orthodox Church continues to grow since it began 30 years ago, with 13,000 to 15,000 people expected to attend Friday through Sunday. It's likely among the largest ...
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Washington (AFP) - IMF chief Christine Lagarde defended her organization's pessimistic outlook for the Greek economy, saying Wednesday the fund must be the "ruthless truth teller" even if some do not like the analysis. The International Monetary Fund and ...
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BRUSSELS. The position adopted by U.S. President Donald Trump will be key in resolving EU-IMF differences over Greece, top European analyst Daniel Gros told the Athens-Macedonian News Agency (ANA) on... The post Trump’s position ‘a catalyst’ for EU-IMF differences on Greece appeared first on The National Herald.
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English Publication Date: February 7, 2017 ISBN/ISSN: 9781475575743/1934-7685 Stock No: 1GRCEA2017002 Price: $18.00 (Academic Rate:$18.00) Format: Paper Pages: 47
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City-wide analysts continue to tread with caution when it comes to Aberdeen as there are no “buy” ratings on the mid-cap stock. Nevertheless, RBC has made the bold call nine months ahead of its full-year results that Aberdeen has the earnings capacity to …
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… Extended Fund Facility (EFF) with Greece approved in March 2012. The … or 2,159 percent of Greece’s quota at the time … ). The program was supported by Greece’s EU partners, who committed …
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… membership in the currency union, Greece has made significant progress in … the substantial progress achieved by Greece, it still faces fundamental challenges …
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… recent evidence, while Bank of Greece governor Yannis Stournaras said it … was unduly pessimistic. Talks between Greece and creditors for the completion … the actual achievements of the Greek government during its bailout program …
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THESSALONIKI, Greece — Greek police say two more Turkish families have illegally entered the country across a border river and plan to request asylum, claiming they face persecution in Turkey. Authorities say more than 100 Turks have requested asylum in ...
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Greece is once again caught between the interests of its lenders and its own citizens. As part of a 2015 rescue package, Greece must meet strict fiscal targets to unlock more financial aid and keep the International Monetary Fund, an important creditor ...
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Alternate Foreign Minister G. Katrougalos met in Brussels this afternoon with the heads of the political groups represented in the European Parliament. More specifically, Mr. Katrougalos met with the Chair of the Group of Socialists and Democrats, Gianni Pitella, and the Chair of the Confederal Group of the European United Left, Gabriele Zimmer. Mr. Katrougalos highlighted that the Greek government's firm goal is the formation of new alliances for the promotion of a new policy with a social face, with all of the progressive political forces, and mainly with the Socialists Democrats and the Greens. Moreover, as...
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WASHINGTON Greece still needs to improve its reporting of economic data but transparency issues are likely not the cause of differing views over Greece's debt sustainability, International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde said on Wednesday.
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Greece needs European creditors to release cash from a bailout agreed in 2015 so it can make debt repayments, but officials are at loggerheads.
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“The issue of Turkish citizens enjoying similar rights to GREEK citizens on the island is an issue that we and Turkey attach great importance to. At any ...
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Over-taxation is a huge counter-incentive for any investor, Greek or foreigner, considering an investment move in Greece, the Greek International Business Association SEVE said in an announcement. SEVE underlined that a tax-collect policy is putting at ...
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Some people didn’t appreciate Alphaville’s recent comparison of Greece’s economic performance since 2007 with that of the United States during the Great Depression, which implied the Greek government missed a trick by committing to remain a member of ...
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Greek energy firm Energean has selected France’s TechnipFMC for front-end design of the Karish and Tanin gas fields, off Israel’s Mediterranean coast. Energean said that, by midyear, it would submit a development plan for the two adjacent fields ...
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[Florence, Italy]LeeYiuTung/ iStock You might expect a vacation to Europe to be expensive—and it could be—but there are plenty of ways to visit the continent on a budget. For starters, the euro to U.S. dollar exchange rate is the lowest it’s been in the past decade, at nearly one to one. We took a look at Oyster.com data and found that average prices for rooms across Europe last year ranged from $130 to $300, depending on the country. Here, we name the 15 cheapest European destinations by average hotel price according to our own numbers. Keep in mind that there's a whole spectrum of hotels that range from ultra-luxe to bottom-line budget in each destination, so you can choose a place to stay that fits your specific needs. 15. GREECE TripAdvisor When thinking about Greece, images of cerulean seas, white sand beaches, and ancient structures probably come to mind. While the airfare can be pricey, Greece itself can be affordable. Try going in the autumn or spring (the off seasons) and picking a destination where you can save. Though the average hotel rate for Greece as a whole is $297, you can value rooms in Athens during the summer peak for less than $100 per night. From wonderful shopping to some of the most iconic ancient buildings in the world (the Acropolis and the Parthenon among others), Athens also has beautiful public parks and world-class museums such as the National Archaeological Museum and the Acropolis Museum. And if staying in Athens, you aren’t just stuck with the city. Beaches are a short drive away, and ferries regularly depart to gorgeous islands, including Santorini, which—though known for its luxury hotels—can also have some surprisingly great hotel deals. Discover our picks for value hotels in Santorini. 14. ICELAND Daria Medvedeva/Shutterstock With crazy airfare sales, Iceland is all the rage in the travel world. While room prices clicked on averaged $296 per night last year among Oyster.com users, there are plenty of hotels that cost less than $100. The time of the year is a big factor in pricing. Opt for visiting in early spring, late fall, or winter for the best discounts, as the peak season starts in May and runs through October. Though Iceland only has a few hours of daylight in the colder months, this gives you a chance to chase the Northern Lights. Hiring a guide or joining a tour would be the most effective in your search, but you can rent a car and search yourself to make it more affordable. Of course you won’t need a car if you plan on just staying in Reykjavik (where you can find free tours, museums, and landmarks to enjoy such as Hallgrímskirkja, the majestic church), but there are so many natural wonders to visit across the island country, many of which don't cost a thing to explore. Consider driving out to the black sand beach of Reynisfjara and the three national parks, Vatnajökull, Þingvellir, and Snæfellsnes. Discover our picks for value hotels in Iceland. 13. FRANCE Reuters hough France had an average nightly rate of $283, a trip to Paris can be done on a budget. The capital city, which has been dubbed the most romantic in the world, has a plethora of museums and monuments, some of which are free to the public. Walk around as much as you can and take in the stunning architecture, from the iconic Eiffel Tower to the Gothic Notre Dame cathedral to the basilica of Sacré-Cœur. Visiting in the summer might mean higher hotel rates, but there are many free concerts and festivals to take advantage of. Consider staying on the outskirts of town—with the metro, it shouldn't take you more than 20 minutes to get to the center of the city. SEE THE REST OF THE STORY AT BUSINESS INSIDER
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[Seth Klarman]Getty Images/ Scott Olson Welcome to Finance Insider, Business Insider's summary of the top stories of the past 24 hours. Elliott Associates. Bridgewater. Baupost. They're some of the biggest names in investing. They're also warning of increasing risks in the stock market. US stocks have had a good run since the election of Donald Trump. The promise of tax cuts, repatriation of overseas profits and deregulation had Wall Street abuzz almost immediately after Trump's win. But the speed and scale of the rally, and the realization that Trump's policies aren't only good news for investors, has a number of influential voices sounding the alarm. In related news: * A $200 billion investor just made "a special decision," and it highlights a huge risk in the stock market * Blackrock CEO Larry Fink is worried about two impending crises he sees for the US * ROUBINI: The Trump rally is about to smack into a wall of worry * A $30 billion hedge fund's foreboding letter on Trump starts with quotes from The Joker, "Lord of the Flies," and Thomas Jefferson * United Airlines CEO: Trump's Mexico wall is "damning and damaging" to America * "What the president says, I have money riding on": The ripple effects of Trump's import-tax plan * UNDER ARMOUR CEO: Trump is "a real asset for the country" * Trump reportedly called his national security adviser at 3 a.m. to ask if the US wanted a strong or weak dollar In hedge fund news, one of the most senior women in the hedge fund industry has left Dan Loeb's Third Point. And Hillary Clinton's son-in-law is reportedly shutting down his hedge fund. On Wall Street, the battle between the New York Stock Exchange and its critics just hit a new low: The participants in the war of words are now arguing over Game of Thrones references. And in deal news, Moelis beat Wall Street giants to be the sole adviser for the soon-to-be most valuable public company on earth. Greece's national debt is unsustainable and liable to become "explosive" once the country tries to refinance its loans at market interest rates from 2030, the International Monetary Fund said in a staff report. And Greece’s crisis flare-up couldn’t come at a worse time for France, according to Business Insider's Pedro da Costa. Lastly, here's the inside story of Fling, a startup whose founder partied on an island while his company burned through $21 million. _HERE ARE THE TOP WALL STREET HEADLINES FROM THE PAST 24 HOUR_ THE CASE FOR WHY AMAZON SHOULD BUY MACY'S - Macy's is reportedly in talks to sell itself to Saks owner Hudson's Bay, but its best possible buyer may actually be the company that triggered the decline of its retail dominance: Amazon. BITCOIN DROPPED SHARPLY AND SUDDENLY ON MORE NEWS OUT OF CHINA - Bitcoin tumbled by more than 4% in a matter of 15 minutes on Wednesday after Bloomberg reported that the People's Bank of China was meeting with several local bitcoin exchanges to discuss money-laundering concerns. A $2.3 BILLION EUROPEAN PAYMENT BUSINESS BACKED BY MARK ZUCKERBERG AND JACK DORSEY GREW BY 80% LAST YEAR - A European payments business backed by some of Silicon Valley's most famous names processed $90 billion (£72.8 billion) worth of payments in 2016. SHORT SELLERS ARE GETTING STEAMROLLED BY TESLA - Short sellers are getting steamrolled by the rally in Tesla. The company's shares have soared more than 40% since the company closed on its acquisition of SolarCity. APPLE CAN'T AVOID ITS $13 BILLION TAX BILL THROUGH TRUMP'S TAX REFORMS, EU SAYS - With President Trump talking about tax reform, is there a chance that Apple will be able to get out of its €13 billion Irish tax bill altogether? The short answer from the EU is: no. DISNEY BEAT ON EARNINGS DESPITE STRUGGLES AT ESPN - Disney, the media giant, reported slightly higher than expected earnings for their fiscal first quarter on Tuesday. BUFFALO WILD WINGS TUMBLES AFTER MISSING BIG ACROSS THE BOARD - Shares of Buffalo Wild Wings fell by as much as 6% after the company's fourth-quarter report missed by a wide margin on both the top and bottom lines. The company's full-year 2017 earnings outlook was also well below expectations.
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Euro zone investors are feeling increasingly queezy over the growing sense of risk surrounding elections across Europe, and Greece's bailout. As David Pollard reports, the nerves are driving yields on some bonds sharply higher.
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A firefighter holds a flare and shouts slogans during a protest, held for extension of their contracts, in front of GREEK Ministry of Administrative Reforms ...
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Neoliberal leaders are always pushing austerity measures because they're a way to implement a regressive agenda without appearing to do so, says economist and Cambridge professor Ha-Joon Chang. It may look like an attempt to balance the books but in reality, it's an attack on the working class and poor. [Author and economics professor Ha-Joon Chang. (Photo: New America; Edited: LW / TO)]Author and economics professor Ha-Joon Chang. (Photo: New America; Edited: LW / TO) For the part 40 years or so, neoliberalism has reigned supreme over much of the western capitalist world, producing unparalleled wealth accumulation levels for a handful of individuals and global corporations while the rest of society has been asked to swallow austerity, stagnating incomes and a shrinking welfare state. But just when we all thought that the contradictions of neoliberal capitalism had reached their penultimate point, culminating in mass discontent and opposition to global neoliberalism, the outcome of the 2016 US presidential election brought to power a megalomaniac individual who subscribes to neoliberal capitalist economics while opposing much of its global dimension. What exactly then is neoliberalism? What does it stand for? And what should we make of Donald Trump's economic pronouncements? In this exclusive interview, world-renowned Cambridge University Professor of Economics Ha-Joon Chang responds to these urgent questions, emphasizing that despite Donald Trump's advocacy of "infrastructure spending" and his opposition to "free trade" agreements, we should be deeply concerned about his economic policies, his embrace of neoliberalism and his fervent loyalty to the rich. C. J. POLYCHRONIOU: FOR THE PAST 40 OR SO YEARS, THE IDEOLOGY AND POLICIES OF "FREE-MARKET" CAPITALISM HAVE REIGNED SUPREME IN MUCH OF THE ADVANCED INDUSTRIALIZED WORLD. YET, MUCH OF WHAT PASSES AS "FREE-MARKET" CAPITALISM ARE ACTUALLY MEASURES DESIGNED AND PROMOTED BY THE CAPITALIST STATE ON BEHALF OF THE DOMINANT FACTIONS OF CAPITAL. WHAT OTHER MYTHS AND LIES ABOUT "ACTUALLY EXISTING CAPITALISM" ARE WORTH POINTING OUT? HA-JOON CHANG: Gore Vidal, the American writer, once famously said that the American economic system is "free enterprise for the poor and socialism for the rich." I think this statement very well sums up what has passed for 'free-market capitalism' in the last few decades, especially but not only in the US. In the last few decades, the rich have been increasingly protected from the market forces, while the poor have been more and more exposed to them. For the rich, the last few decades have been "heads I win, tails you lose." Top managers, especially in the US, sign on pay packages that give them hundreds of millions of dollars for failing -- and many times more for doing a decent job. Corporations are subsidised on a massive scale with few conditions -- sometimes directly but often indirectly through government procurement programs (especially in defense) with inflated price tags and free technologies produced by government-funded research programs. After every financial crisis, ranging from the 1982 Chilean banking crisis through the Asian financial crisis of 1997 to the 2008 global financial crisis, banks have been bailed out with hundreds of trillions of dollars of taxpayers' money and few top bankers have gone to prison. In the last decade, the asset-owning classes in the rich countries have also been kept afloat by historically low rates of interests. In contrast, poor people have been increasingly subject to market forces. In the name of increasing "labor market flexibility," the poor have been increasingly deprived of their rights as workers. This trend has reached a new level with the emergence of the so-called "gig economy," in which workers are bogusly hired as "self-employed" (without the control over their work that the truly self-employed exercise) and deprived of even the most basic rights (e.g., sick leave, paid holiday). With their rights weakened, the workers have to engage in a race to the bottom in which they compete by accepting increasingly lower wages and increasingly poor working conditions. In the area of consumption, increasing privatization and deregulation of industries supplying basic services on which the poor are relatively more reliant upon -- like water, electricity, public transport, postal services, basic health care and basic education -- have meant that the poor have seen a disproportionate increase in the exposure of their consumption to the logic of the market. In the last several years since the 2008 financial crisis, welfare entitlements have been reduced in many countries and the terms of their access (e.g., increasingly ungenerous "fitness for work tests" for the disabled, the mandatory training for CV-making for those receiving unemployment benefits) have become less generous, driving more and more poor people into labor markets they are not fit to compete in. As for the other myths and lies about capitalism, the most important in my view is the myth that there is an objective domain of the economy into which political logic should not intrude. Once you accept the existence of this exclusive domain of the economy, as most people have done, you get to accept the authority of the economic experts, as interlocutors of some scientific truths about the economy, who will then dictate the way your economy is run. However, there is no objective way to determine the boundary of the economy because the market itself is a political construct, as shown by the fact that it is illegal today in the rich countries to buy and sell a lot of things that used to be freely bought and sold -- such as slaves and the labor service of children. In turn, if there is no objective way to draw the boundary around the economy, when people argue against the intrusion of political logic into the economy, they are in fact only asserting that their own 'political' view of what belongs in the domain of the market is somehow the correct one. It is very important to reject the myth of [an] inviolable boundary of the economy, because that is the starting point of challenging the status quo. If you accept that the welfare state should be shrunk, labor rights have to be weakened, plant closures have to be accepted, and so on because of some objective economic logic (or "market forces," as it is often called), it becomes virtually impossible to modify the status quo. AUSTERITY HAS BECOME THE PREVAILING DOGMA THROUGHOUT EUROPE, AND IT IS HIGH ON THE REPUBLICAN AGENDA. IF AUSTERITY IS ALSO BASED ON LIES, WHAT IS ITS ACTUAL OBJECTIVE? A lot of people -- Joseph Stiglitz, Paul Krugman, Mark Blyth and Yanis Varoufakis, to name some prominent names -- have written that austerity does not work, especially in the middle of an economic downturn (as it was practised in many developing countries under the World Bank-IMF Structural Adjustment Programs in the 1980s and the 1990s and more recently in Greece, Spain and other Eurozone countries). Many of those who push for austerity do so because they genuinely (albeit mistakenly) believe that it works, but those who are smart enough to know that it doesn't still would use it because it is a very good way of shrinking the state (and thus giving more power to the corporate sector, including the foreign one) and changing the nature of state activities into a pro-corporate one (e.g., it is almost always welfare spending that goes first). In other words, austerity is a very good way of pushing through a regressive political agenda without appearing to do so. You say you are cutting spending because you have to balance the books and put the house in order, when you are actually launching an attack on the working class and the poor. This is, for example, what the Conservative-Liberal Democrats coalition government in the UK said when it launched a very severe austerity program upon assuming power in 2010 -- the country's public finance at the time was such that it did not need such a severe austerity program, even by the standards of orthodox economics. WHAT DO YOU MAKE OF ALL THE TALK ABOUT THE DANGERS OF PUBLIC DEBT? HOW MUCH PUBLIC DEBT IS TOO MUCH? Whether public debt is good or bad depends on when the money was borrowed (better if it were during an economic downturn), how the borrowed money was used (better if it was used for investment in infrastructure, research, education, or health than military expenditure or building useless monuments), and who holds the bonds (better if your own nationals do, as it will reduce the danger of a "run" on your country -- for example, one reason why Japan can sustain very high levels of public debt is that the vast majority of its public debts are held by the Japanese nationals). Of course, excessively high public debt can be a problem, but what is excessively high depends on the country and the circumstances. So, for example, according to the IMF data, as of 2015, Japan has public debt equivalent to 248 percent of GDP but no one talks of the danger of it. People may say Japan is special and point out that in the same year the US had public debt equivalent to 105 percent of GDP, which is much higher than that of, say,South Korea (38 percent), Sweden (43 percent), or even Germany (71 percent), but they may be surprised to hear that Singapore also has public debt equivalent to 105 percent of GDP, even though we hardly hear any worry about public debt of Singapore. A NUMBER OF WELL-RESPECTED ECONOMISTS ARE ARGUING THAT THE ERA OF ECONOMIC GROWTH HAS ENDED. DO YOU CONCUR WITH THIS VIEW? A lot of people now talk of a "new normal" and a "secular stagnation" in which high inequality, aging population, and deleveraging (reduction in debt) by the private sector lead to chronically low economic growth, which can only be temporarily boosted by financial bubbles that are unsustainable in the long run. Given that these causes can be countered by policy measures, secular stagnation is not inevitable. Aging can be countered by policy changes that make work and child-rearing more compatible (e.g., cheaper and better childcare, flexible working hours, career compensation for childcare) and by increased immigration. Inequality can be countered by more aggressive tax-and-transfer policy and by better protection for the weak (e.g., urban planning protecting small shops, supports for SMEs). Deleveraging by the private sector can be countered by increased government spending, as the Japanese experience of the last quarter century shows. Of course, saying that secular stagnation _can_ be countered is different from saying that it _will_ be countered. For example, the quickest policy that can counter ageing -- that is, increased immigration -- is politically unpopular. In many rich countries, the alignment of political and economic forces is such that it will be difficult to reduce inequality significantly in the short- to medium-run. The current fiscal dogma is such that fiscal expansion seems unlikely in most countries in the near future. Thus, in the short- to medium-run, low growth seems very likely. However, this does not mean that this will forever be the case. In the longer run, the changes in politics and thus, economic policies may change policies in such a way that the causes of "secular stagnation" are countered to a significant extent. This highlights how important the political struggle to change economic policies is. WHAT IS YOUR PROFESSIONAL OPINION OF DONALD TRUMP'S PROPOSED ECONOMIC POLICIES, WHICH CLEARLY EMBRACE NEOLIBERALISM AND ALL SORT OF SHENANIGANS FOR THE RICH BUT OPPOSE GLOBAL "FREE-TRADE" AGREEMENTS, AND WHAT DO YOU EXPECT TO HAPPEN WHEN THEY COLLIDE WITH RYAN'S AUSTERITY BUDGET? Mr. Trump's plan for American economic revival is still vague, but, as far as I can tell, it has two main planks -- making American corporations create more jobs [at] home and increasing infrastructural investments. The first plank seems rather fanciful. He says that he will do it mainly by engaging in greater protectionism, but it won't work because of two reasons. First, the US is bound by all sorts of international trade agreements -- the WTO, the NAFTA, and various bilateral free-trade agreements (with Korea, Australia, Singapore, etc.). Although you can push things in the protectionist direction on the margin even within this framework, it will be difficult for the US to slap extra tariffs that are big enough to bring American jobs back under the rules of these agreements. Mr. Trump's team says they will renegotiate these agreements, but that will take years, not months, and won't produce any visible result at least during the first term of Mr. Trump's presidency. Second, even if large extra tariffs can somehow be imposed against international agreements, the structure of the US economy today is such that there will be huge resistance against these protectionist measures within the US. Many imports from countries like China and Mexico are things that are produced by -- or at least produced for -- American companies. When the price of iPhone and Nike trainers made in China or GM cars made in Mexico go up by 20 percent, 35 percent, not only American consumers but companies like Apple, Nike and GM will be intensely unhappy. But would this result in Apple or GM moving production back to the US? No, they will probably move it to Vietnam or Thailand, which is not hit by those tariffs. The point is that, the hollowing out of American manufacturing industry has progressed in the contexts of (US-led) globalization of production and restructuring of the international trade system and cannot be reversed with simple protectionist measures. It will require a total rewriting of global trade rules and restructuring of the so-called global value chain. Even at the domestic level, American economic revival will require far more radical measures than what the Trump administration is contemplating. It will require a systematic industrial policy that rebuilds the depleted productive capabilities of the US economy, ranging from worker skills, managerial competences, industrial research base and modernised infrastructure. To be successful, such industrial policy will have to be backed up by a radical redesigning of the financial system, so that more "patient capital" is made available for long-term-oriented investments and more talented people come to work in the industrial sector, rather than going into investment banking or foreign exchange trading. The second plank of Mr. Trump's strategy for the revival of the US economy is investment in infrastructure. As mentioned above, the improvement in infrastructure is an ingredient in a genuine strategy of American economic renewal. However, as you suggest in your question, this may meet resistance from fiscal conservatives in the Republican-dominated Congress. It will be interesting to watch how this pans out, but my bigger worry is that Mr. Trump is likely to encourage "wrong" kinds of infrastructural investments -- that is, those related to real estate (his natural territory), rather than those related to industrial development. This not only will fail to contribute to the renewal of the US economy but it may also contribute to creating real estate bubbles, which were an important cause behind the 2008 global financial crisis.
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