The Eurozone is an instrument of the globalization process that is setting financial elites over all nations of the world, including the democracies. The situation in Greece exposes the true nature of the Eurozone institutions as a naked fact, beyond spinning, for all to see. They are popular sovereignty-thieves and democracy-killers, with the power necessary to shut democratic governments down.
The architectural flaw in the Maastricht Treaty: that the nations of Europe were giving up their monetary sovereignty, was immediately recognized as fatal by acute economists, and many predicted failure. But, what was not seen clearly were the political implications of giving the ECB, the ability to deny liquidity to the banking systems of nations, and, in so doing to perform, essentially, coups rendering elected governments of democratic nation states powerless to enact policies they were elected to pass. This “theft of democracy” contradicts the EU’s commitment to advance democracy. It steals what was so hard won from the peoples of Europe.
This book provides a detailed narrative about the proceedings of a panel of well-known economists convened by Senator Sanders at the Hart Senate Office Building on July 30, 2015, on the Greek debt crisis, and its implications for austerity, the Eurozone, the looming crisis in Puerto Rico, and democracy. The panel session included introductory speeches by Senator Sanders, Greece’s Ambassador to the United States, Cristos Panagopoulos, and panel presentations by economists, Joseph E. Stieglitz, Jacob Funk Kirkegaard, and James K. Galbraith. The panel was moderated by Stephanie A. Kelton.
The book also provides a detailed analysis and commentary on the Senator Sanders’s opening speech, which I found revealing, the panel presentations, which I found of great interest, and also very acute, and the Q & A period, which brought certain matters about what to do in order to Grexit to a head. It concludes with chapters on uncooperative “Grexit”, Information Technology problems of Grexit, and the death of democracy. These address issues that came up but, I think, were unresolved in the panel discussion.
The additional chapters review issues brought up at Naked Capitalism and at other progressive blogs on how to manage Grexit, and how to solve its Information Technology problems (or not), as the case may be. These issues are very important for the future of the Eurozone.
Here’s the link to the Kindle e-book at Amazon. Also, I’m reminded that not everyone who sees this post will know that even if they don’t have a Kindle brand tablet, then can still read Kindle e-books by downloading Kindle software for the Mac, PC, and Android, just below the book cover image at no charge, and then proceeding to download the book and read it. So, please just download the software, and proceed from there. And enjoy! Also, please review the book, that will help!
Joe! I’m so glad you took the time to put this all together. I purchased it and look forward to reading it. One of the things about the Greek crisis which has most interested me in recent weeks has been the seemingly high knowledge-base of Greek citizens and voters. American parties pitch to the lowest common denominator and then manage to aim even lower (see: Trump, Donald). The Greek referendum was able to put an extremely complex problem on the ballot and bring people to the polls in a week. I’ll be interested to read what, if anything, Panagopoulos and Galbraith had to say about that.
…and then there is the magic that is Yanis Varoufakis. His blog is great but watching a smart (and completely entirely observationally correct) man do battle with the PTB was something to behold. He fought (and fights) the good fight.
After months and months of covering Greece for Netroots Radio I’ve got a Kindle book in the works too. As was “The Smart Bunny’s Guide to Debt, Deficit and Austerity,” the new book, “The Smart Bunny’s Guide to (What the Hell is Happening in) Greece,” will be an introductory level guide to the MMT of the crisis. Hopefully, it will be half as astute as is yours.
Perhaps someday we will actually meet over coffee/carrot juice instead of the internet.
Thank you for all that you do and…Carrots!
Thanks for your comment, Arliss. I agree with your perspective as I think you know. We may not be able to meet over coffee, but we can certainly each get a cup of coffee and meet over Skype. Good luck with completing your new book. I’m sure it will be excellent, as was your first Smart Bunny book. There’s a discussion about the IT chapter in my book going on at Naked Capitalism. I don’t agree with many of the perspectives being expressed there including the post by Louis Proyect, but I have a post in the works now replying to him, and perhaps another replying to a commenter and occasional blogger there named Clive.
In any event, I’m sure you’ll be interested in the issues raised in the various posts on this subject, since these issues will impact Greece in the future.
Btw, did you see the Declarations of Dependence e-book?