by John Lounsbury

Last week the French (banks and government) proposed a roll-over of Greek debt into new bonds, some with maturities as long as 30 years. By Thursday German lenders, insurers and government agreed to join the plan, which would cover debts falling due from now until the end of 2014.  As France and Germany are by far the largest Greek creditors, the world heaved a big sigh of relief as a Greek default was going to be avoided, at least temporarily. Stock markets around the world staged huge rallies.  Armageddon had been avoided again.

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by Guest Author Andrew Butter

What Worked in 1923 Germany would Taste Better than a Pound of Greek Flesh

As the bankers queue up to get served their pound of flesh, which is all that’s currently on offer, it’s hard not to notice the striking similarities between the Greece of today and Germany in 1923. Then Germany owed billions thanks to a treaty that was made in a French-speaking country along with an offer that couldn’t be refused, back then Versailles, this time Maastricht.

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Guest Author Derryl Hermanutz has contributed to GEI previously on topics related to theory of money and relationships between current events and economic history and philosophy.

A recent Econintersect post reported that the Congressional Budget Office has gone on record stating "fiscal policy cannot be put on a sustainable path just by eliminating waste and inefficiency; instead, changes will need to significantly affect popular programs, people’s tax payments, or both.

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Guest Author: Michael Hudson is a highly respected economist, who writes at Michael Hudson.com where this article first appeared.  His next book will be published in the fall:  "Debts that Can't be Paid, Won't Be". This article was originally posted at New Economic Perspectives with title: "Whither Greece?  Without a national referendum Iceland-style, EU dictates cannot be binding"

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).

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Guest Author: Frank Li (See bio at end of article.)

I already identified the root cause of many American ills as the incompetence of the American political system (see Cancer), and proposed a solution with 1-term (e.g. 6 years) for the Presidency being the core. This article will further support my position.

The American political system today is fundamentally flawed for two main reasons:

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