Saturday 2 April 2016

Greece-European Union: economics lecture

Lecture with economics professor and Syriza advisor James K. Galbraith.


The view from someone working for the Syriza government. The elections' results were due to the social crisis together with the dismantling of the Greek state. The harsh measures of the IMF, the European Central Bank and the European Commission led to a lot of despair.

However, one question remains: what's the alternative? Who's going to pay the debt? Here's the professor's view on the issue:

"The Greek government, elected in January 2015, tried for five months to obtain policy changes through negotiations with creditors. They decided to enact counter-productive and socially destructive policies under existing contracts and the Eurosystem. The intense negotiations conducted were unsuccessful and resulted ultimately in July in a surrender. Greece has become the laboratory for liquidation and expropriation.

The conclusion should be that left-wing governments in small EU countries, although it cannot be prevented, are not able to enforce a policy change. This is, however, not simple, to resign the voters in Portugal. And again it shows: tensions remain between the creditor-debtor regions and regions and they will deepen the instability of the euro zone. The search for alternatives and concrete ways out does not end with the implementation of austerity policies towards Greece."

James K. Galbraith has in common with his friend Yanis Varoufakis and Stuart Holland Scripture written "A Modest Proposal to solve the euro crisis" and thus the later Syriza government given a conceptual basis in the hand.

He is known for his numerous publications, in particular to inequality and received in 2014 for his services to economics Leontief Prize. James Galbraith (b. 1952) is a professor at the Faculty of Public Affairs at the University of Texas' LBJ "in Austin.

Event Website: http://www.rosalux.de/event/54723

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