Today, UK's Chancellor George Osborne set out the Conservative Government’s fiscal plans for the current Parliament and beyond. First reactions to the Chancellor’s speech from four members of the network Economists for Rational Economic Policies (EREP). Normal 0 false false false EN-US JA X-NONE
How does consumerism undermine democracy?
Osborne's charter is the latest move in a long line of reforms sharing a clear aim - to move decision making from the democratic sphere to the technocratic.
Since Greek voters rejected Troika rule by a landslide, the Hellenic citizenry presents a threat far greater than the government it elected. It must be punished.
The IMF disregarded its own rules and its management of the Greek debt crisis has been an unmitigated disaster. It's time for Christine Lagarde to do the honourable thing and step down.
Much like the mythical Atlas, Greece must carry the struggle against austerity on its shoulders as punishment for its government challenging the neo-liberal European consensus in Europe.
The revolt is real against authoritarianism, whatever the outcome of the referendum.
The negotiations between the Troika and Greece are a sham. Greek submission to the neoliberal EU project or forced exit was the Troika game plan from the moment Syriza formed a government.
In Greece for the first time the EU authorities demand a government complete a programme that it has neither designed nor has a democratic mandate to implement.
Expenditure reduction leads to falling household incomes, contraction in public services and a rising incidence of poverty, all without progress toward the professed goal, reduction in the nominal public debt.
The reason that the German government, Deutsche Bank and financial interests everywhere require tranquilizers when contemplating a Greek election is the clear and present danger that democracy might prove contagious in Europe.
The instigators of these anti-social and anti-democratic policies, rules and treaties defend them as the mechanisms to bring recovery, end fiscal deficits and reduce public indebtedness. Were they successful, their authoritarian nature should make them unacceptable.
