The prominent French economist Thomas Piketty says the rise of new the anti-austerity political parties in southern Europe, including Podemos in Spain and Syriza in Greece, are just what the European economy needs in order to push back against the tide of regressive economic policies that have punished the continent's most vulnerable people at the behest of the wealthy and powerful.
In an hour-long interview set to air later this month with Pablo Iglesias, the de facto leader of Podemos, Piketty argues that the increasing popularity and political power of the leftwing populist parties—which have built their base of support around a rejection of austerity measures—is "good news for Europe."…
In a boon to Podemos, Piketty has agreed to act as an economic advisor to the party, which Iglesias said was "an honor" and would surely benefit their overall economic thinking.
Speaking of Syriza in Greece, Piketty said that though portions of their economic plan remain murky, "You have to offer them support because they want to build a democraticEurope, which is what we all need."…Common Dreams
Thomas Piketty: Strong Anti-Austerity Parties Are Just What Europe Needs
3 comments:
"It’s good to reduce deficits, but at a rate that’s commensurate with growth and economic recovery, but here growth has been killed off.”
This guy is a glorified accountant with little to no insight into the operation of systems
Ho hum, no news here. Life goes on. The alternative is what, to have the world do whatever Mike Norman wants? Syriza. I speak Greek and can't figure out what that term means. Sounds closest to 'whistle'.
The irony of course is that the Euro-skeptics are offering solutions to save the EMU after years and years of being dismissed and antagonized by the Euro-phile political majorities.
I'm worried that as Europe goes through the process of their internal devaluation and they become the largest financial leach that the world has ever known, it will destabilize all the countries in the region and almost certainly lead to war. As they run their $3-4 trln current account surpluses each year, many of the politically and economically weak countries just outside the EU borders have no chance and will be sucked into their debt trap.
The funny thing to me, is that the most effective weapon the world has to use against Europe's insane economic policy would be trade sanctions. I think this is the one time in the history of the world where trade sanction would actually be effective because it would address the uncooperative behavior directly. It would sting the Germans for their anti-social behavior and punish the exporters that benefit from the deflationary policies.
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