Tag Archives: Syriza

Can Greece Slip The Austerity Trap?

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Greek Prime Minister paid tribute to Greek patriots executed by Nazis during WWII. His message to the Germans was clear: we bailed you out, now it's our turn. [Credit: The Guardian]

Greek Prime Min­is­ter paid trib­ute to Greek patri­ots exe­cut­ed by Nazis dur­ing WWII. His mes­sage to the Ger­mans was clear: we bailed you out, now it’s our turn. [Cred­it: The Guardian]

Short­ly after his elec­tion last Sun­day as Greece’s Prime Min­is­ter, Alex­is Tsipras chose not lay a wreath on the Tomb of the Unknown Sol­dier in Athens’ Syn­tag­ma Square.  Instead, he went to a war memo­r­i­al in the Athens sub­urb of Kessar­i­ani where Nazi sol­diers exe­cut­ed hun­dreds of Greek Resis­tance fight­ers dur­ing the bru­tal Ger­man occupation.

Tsipras’s mes­sage was not lost on Angela Merkel and oth­er Euro­pean lead­ers: the world for­gave most of Ger­many’s debt; now it’s Greece’s turn. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

Good News Coming On The Deficit. Well, Sort Of.

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Syriza party leader Alexis Tsipras hopes to prevail in today's Greek elections, which could mark a turning point in his nation's struggle against a crushing load of debt. Meanwhile, U.S. government deficits are improving. Sort of.

Syriza par­ty leader Alex­is Tsipras hopes to pre­vail in today’s Greek elec­tions, which could pro­voke a show­down between Euro­pean lead­ers and Greece, which strug­gles under a crush­ing load of debt. Mean­while, U.S. gov­ern­ment deficits are improv­ing. Sort of. [Cred­it: BBC]

On Tues­day morn­ing, the Con­gres­sion­al Bud­get Office will announce that the fed­er­al deficit con­tin­ued to decline last year.

The announce­ment will trig­ger an orgy of self-con­grat­u­la­tion in Wash­ing­ton.  The Admin­is­tra­tion will claim that its poli­cies have been vin­di­cat­ed.  Repub­li­cans also will take a bow, tout­ing spend­ing con­straints they’ve imposed since win­ning the House majority.

But you’ll hear noth­ing from the Wash­ing­to­ni­ans who most deserve cred­it for reduced deficits: the Fed­er­al Reserve Board of Gov­er­nors.  By hold­ing inter­est rates near zero and lend­ing tril­lions in free mon­ey to the Trea­sury, the Fed has allowed the gov­ern­ment to reduce deficits even as it gorged on debt. Con­tin­ue read­ing →