Poverty is definitely not some bucolic ideal that we should romanticise. It is ugly, brutal and should be fought against. But there are lessons from the poor that we, in affluent (and frequently complacent…
Kevin Davis, Australian Centre for Financial Studies
Welcome to the latest in our In Conversation series, between risk analyst and author Satyajit Das and Kevin Davis, Research Director of the Australian Centre for Financial Studies. Satyajit Das is an internationally-known…
Harald Sander, Cologne University of Applied Sciences (CUAS)
Greece is rescued, for now…maybe. Perhaps it’s time to move on to the next basket case. So, which of the PIIGS is the next Greece? For the moment, Portugal looks to be the front-runner. The country’s public-debt-to-GDP…
As Greek politicians approved a tough austerity package amid fierce protests, one question dominates: is an orderly exit from the Eurozone available for Greece? And just what might be the consequences…
Europe this week has voted for tough new fiscal rules aimed at reining in high deficits, as world economic leaders continue to grapple with solving the sovereign debt crisis. But not all measures have…
Harald Sander, Cologne University of Applied Sciences (CUAS)
Early this week, sovereign bonds spreads for France and other Euro-core countries peaked. Around noon on Tuesday the spreads on French and Austrian 10-year government bonds exceeded the German bund rate…
Is the Eurozone about to crash and burn, leaving Club Med in its wake? Not so fast. Reports have suggested that French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel have discussed a strategic…
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi appears set to become the largest political casualty so far of the Eurozone’s continuing inability to resolve its massive sovereign debt problems. Berlusconi, who…
The Greek Prime Minister will resign in an effort to save the bailout deal agreed by the European Union to dig the country out of its debt crisis. George Papandreou agreed to go following talks with the…
Greece’s cabinet has given unanimous backing to Prime Minister George Papandreou’s plan for a referendum on the government’s austerity program. Papendreou emerged from talks with fellow EU leaders at the…
Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou has taken the bold step of planning a referendum on the country’s EU-imposed austerity measures, in a bid to claim a mandate for his efforts to avoid a default on…
It has been a tumultuous week in the life and times of democracy in the Mediterranean. Seven days punctuated by joyous hope and its ugly opposite, sullen despair. The promising news came from Tunisia…
The “Occupy” movement has swept the world in the last five weeks, as seems appropriate in this year of demonstrations by people tired of a clapped-out status quo. Of course, the Occupy movement is quite…
Another round of violent protests erupted in Greece last week, following the latest austerity cuts to public service jobs and pay. Meanwhile, the creeping consequences of austerity measures are beginning…
Global markets look set for a rough week amid new concerns that Greece could default on its massive debt. The Australian share market has spent most of the day down 3% after reports that Germany could…
European leaders signed off on a second, 109 billion euro bailout for Greece overnight, while also establishing what has been described as an “infant monetary fund” to intervene if the bloc’s sovereign…
As Margaret Thatcher’s trade minister in the 1980s, Norman Tebbit devoted much of his time to dealing with the European Community – the precursor to the European Union. Routinely, at meetings in Brussels…
Athens is no longer considered by scholars as the birthplace of democracy but all of a sudden it has become the epicentre of a powerful political earthquake rocking the foundations of every democracy in…
As international markets react to the unrest in Greece amid fears of contagion, mass protests have also continued in fellow European Union member country, Spain. This protest movement, called the “indignant…
Standard & Poor’s downgraded Greece’s sovereign debt rating by three notches on Monday, reflecting its view that it would be next to impossible to imagine a scenario where the country could restructure…