A Safe and a Shotgun or Publicly Owned Banks? The Battle of Cyprus

By Ellen Brown, Web of Debt Mar 22, 2013 For now, the government of Cyprus has overwhelmingly rejected a proposed levy on bank deposits as a condition for a European bailout. But if technocrat bankers can push through their confiscation scheme, precedent will be established for doing it elsewhere when bank bailouts become prohibitive for governments. Dig deeper ( 7 Min. Read )

The Confirmed Insanity of Austerity

Alexander Reed Kelly / Truthdig Mar 19, 2013 Austerity threw the 17 countries that use the euro back into recession in the third quarter of 2012. As a result, unemployment is expected to rise 12.2 percent, leaving half of young people in Spain and Greece without jobs, and public debts -- the expressed target of the reductions -- are growing as well. Dig deeper ( 2 Min. Read )

Controlling the International Flow of Money

Alexander Reed Kelly / Truthdig Feb 3, 2013 “For the past 35 years, the world’s largest financial institutions and most Western governments have worked to strip away all obstacles to the free flow of money from country to country,” and the results have been disastrous, the New Economics Foundation reports. Dig deeper ( 3 Min. Read )

A Reality Check on Iceland

Alexander Reed Kelly / Truthdig Jan 2, 2013 Expat Icelander Baldur Bjarnason has had it with people depicting his native land as a post-crash “progressive paradise” when it’s really a “Thatcherite’s wet dream.” Dig deeper ( 2 Min. Read )

IMF Help

Pavel Constantin, Cagle Cartoons, Romania Sep 6, 2012 Dig deeper

Creditors Demand Six-Day Workweek for Greece

Alexander Reed Kelly / Truthdig Sep 5, 2012 A leaked letter from Greece's lenders -- the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund -- orders the country to introduce a six-day workweek as part of a package of austerity demands for a second bailout. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

Stimulus Package Ahead for the Eurozone

Alexander Reed Kelly / Truthdig Jun 22, 2012 The leaders of France, Germany, Spain and Italy made a bid to save the euro Friday, pledging to push for a $163 billion program to stimulate growth in the depressed European economies. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

Public-Sector Banks: From Black Sheep to Global Leaders

By Ellen Brown, Truthout Mar 8, 2012 Conventional wisdom holds that government bureaucrats are bad businesspeople. But around the world, the many countries with strong public banking sectors generally have strong, stable economies. Dig deeper ( 6 Min. Read )

Will Greece Be Ruled by the Bankers or Its People?

By Peter Bratsis, Truthout Mar 4, 2012 The most central and constant dilemma in modern politics—whether the will of the people or that of bureaucrats and specialists should rule--is on full display in Greece. Dig deeper ( 8 Min. Read )

DSK Off the Hook in (Another) Rape Case

Staff / Truthdig Oct 13, 2011 It's been a few months since former International Monetary Fund head Dominique Strauss-Kahn made news for all the wrong reasons, and on Thursday yet another headline about DSK's sexual past cropped up. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

Greece Bailout

Martin Sutovec, Slovakia Jul 25, 2011 Dig deeper

Obama Thinks Big, Republicans Balk in Deficit Talks

Staff / Truthdig Jul 11, 2011 No visible progress was made during deficit talks Sunday in which President Barack Obama failed to persuade House Republicans to support $4 trillion in cuts over the next 10 years. (more) Dig deeper ( 2 Min. Read )