With Greece and Eurozone Creditors Far Apart, Bailout Talks Collapse

Natasha Hakimi Zapata / Truthdig Feb 17, 2015 Eurozone finance ministers have designated Friday as the deadline for the country to accept yet another austerity-filled deal, but Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis has made it clear he will not rest until an "honorable agreement" is negotiated. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

Greece’s Economy Looks Like Germany’s After World War I

Alexander Reed Kelly / Truthdig Feb 16, 2015 “Austerity”—the redirection of funds away from government and public services and toward a country’s creditors—“has devastated Greece just about as much as defeat in total war devastated imperial Germany,” economist Paul Krugman writes in The New York Times. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

NYT Criticizes Syriza Finance Minister, Gets It Wrong

Alexander Reed Kelly / Truthdig Feb 15, 2015 The New York Times fell on its face when it suggested that Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis (pictured here) did not understand the basic debt dynamics of his country, writes Andy Robinson at Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting. Dig deeper ( 2 Min. Read )

Truthdigger of the Week: Yanis Varoufakis

BLANK Feb 1, 2015 The Syriza finance minister confirmed his party's intentions to fight EU oppression by refusing to negotiate with representatives of Greece's "hated troika of lenders." Dig deeper ( 2 Min. Read )

Trojan Hearse: Greek Elections and the Euro Leper Colony

By Greg Palast, To Xoni Jan 29, 2015 Alexis Tsipras, the leader of Syriza, would like to pretend that austerity and the euro are two different things. Apparently, he's blissfully ignorant of the history of the euro. The horror of austerity is not the consequence of Greek profligacy: It was designed into the euro’s plan from the beginning. Dig deeper ( 6 Min. Read )

The Collapse of Europe?

By John Feffer, TomDispatch Jan 29, 2015 The European project is teetering on the edge of failure. Growth is anemic at best and socio-economic inequality is on the rise. The countries of Eastern and Central Europe, even relatively successful Poland, have failed to bridge the income gap with the richer half of the continent. And the highly indebted periphery is in revolt. Dig deeper ( 12 Min. Read )

‘The Most Powerful Woman in the World’

Alexander Reed Kelly / Truthdig Nov 27, 2014 A New Yorker profile of German Chancellor Angela Merkel depicts a shrewd politician cut to the shape of leadership in our age: bland, personally reserved and entirely uninterested in challenging the prevailing neoliberal order. Dig deeper ( 2 Min. Read )

Bankers Win Both Ways: Now They Can Take Both Taxpayer and Depositor Money

By Ellen Brown, Web of Debt Mar 29, 2014 On March 20, European Union officials reached a historic deal to save failing banks by tapping both taxpayer and depositor funds. It may be illegal under EU Parliament, but is being rushed through to lock taxpayer and depositor liability into place before the dire state of eurozone banks is exposed. Dig deeper ( 7 Min. Read )

Discredited Economic Theory Holds Europe in Deflationary Thrall

William Pfaff / Truthdig Nov 6, 2013 Why there is such iron fidelity to neoliberal austerity in the contemporary community of official, semiofficial and even academic economists? It can't be that it works. It doesn't work. Dig deeper ( 3 Min. Read )

The Bank Guarantee That Bankrupted Ireland

By Ellen Brown, Web of Debt Nov 2, 2013 When the indomitable Irish spirit is awakened, organized and mobilized, the country could become the poster child not for austerity, but for economic prosperity through financial sovereignty. Dig deeper ( 6 Min. Read )

Can the EU Be Saved?

William Pfaff / Truthdig May 15, 2013 It is not simply the euro zone that is threatened by the dramatic economic discrepancies that now exist among its members. Now it is the European Union itself that is in danger. Dig deeper ( 4 Min. Read )

Why Putin Let Russia’s Richies Take a Bath

Ivo Mijnssen / Truthdig May 15, 2013 The collapse of the Cypriot banking system reveals much about the complex relationship among ordinary Russians, "offshore oligarchs" and a political system that depends on both. Dig deeper ( 5 Min. Read )