PIIGS share in euro area GDP is a little bit more than a third! More than double of what the IMF spokesperson thinks it is. Do they have a clue? Do they understand that German exports only promote growth because these countries (PIIGS) go further into debt? Do they understand that Germany grows so quickly because the crisis hit so hard there? more »

It was obvious to those who understand Modern Money Theory that the set-up of the European Monetary Union was fatally flawed. We knew that the first serious financial and economic crisis would threaten its very existence. In a sense, it was from the beginning much like the US in 1929, on the eve of the Great Depression—with excessive lender fraud, household and business debt, and a boom that had run on too long. more »

The following is an outline for a proposed new Greek government bond issue to provide all required medium term euro funding for Greece on very attractive terms. The new bond issue includes an addition to the default provisions that eliminates the risk of loss to investors. The language added to the default provisions states that while in default, and only in the case of default, these transferable securities can be used directly, by the bearer on demand, at face value plus accrued interest, for payment of any debts, including taxes, owed to the Greek government. The Mosler Plan is now making the rounds in Europe as an alternative to the French Plan that is currently under serious consideratio… more »

And as Econintersect's Dr. Elliott R. Morss has documented in an earlier piece, Greece has entered into an unemployment-generating program in return for IMF/EU financial support. The program is not popular in Greece: the government barely got the IMF/EU austerity package though the Greek parliament. There have been riots, and there will be more riots. more »

The fight for Europe’s future is being waged in Athens and other Greek cities to resist financial demands that are the 21st century’s version of an outright military attack. The threat of bank overlordship is not the kind of economy-killing policy that affords opportunities for heroism in armed battle, to be sure. Destructive financial policies are more like an exercise in the banality of evil – in this case, the pro-creditor assumptions of the European Central Bank (ECB), EU and IMF (egged on by the U.S. Treasury). more »