The Greek Debt Crisis

Brexit

I meant to have thoughts about Brexit this morning. And then I started reading things, and realised that trying to think all those thoughts in a single morning was definitely optimistic. In the interim, here is a summary of the arguments from the Economist: My summary for the “Let’s Stay” Crowd: Everything will be more expensive if […]

Greek (e)Co(no)mics

Last night, the second round of legislation was passed by the Greek Parliament in order to allow a bailout deal to be negotiated. Which sounds like a record on repeat. Anyway, to backtrack slightly, I wrote about graphic novels back in January. And in particular, there was some serious praise written in the direction of Michael Goodwin […]

Drachma Rock and Austerity Hard Place

The IMF has now released an updated debt sustainability report to say that it has nothing but incredulity for the new proposed deal to make a bailout deal if the Greek parliament plays by the rules tonight and the other 6 parliaments play along later this weekend/next week. Here’s a link to the report itself, and here’s the executive […]

So, This Agreekment…

I’ve been somewhat glued to my phone and to twitter since the meetings first started on Saturday. Did they begin on Saturday? It’s all beginning to blur. Fun parts: Wolfgang Schäuble embarrassing himself by apparently allowing the talks to get “violent”. Wolfgang Schäuble having to remind people that he’s not stupid. Less fun parts: The Finns suddenly […]

Confusion: Did you say “No” or “Nai”?

The Greek cabinet has submitted its new “credible” program to the EU. If you push past the Greek cover pages, you can find the full scanned copy in English on the Hellenic Parliament website here. With some very minor differences, you’ll find that it’s practically a direct copy-and-paste of the EU proposals that the Greeks rejected just […]

What is this “Live Within Your Means” business…

I despise truisms. When you spout a truism, it requires no thought or contemplation or flexibility. It is just lazy. And actually, they’re not always true. My biggest irritation this week (and for the last few weeks, and actually any time that I’ve read a right-wing opinion piece on Greece since the beginning of the decade) has […]

A new OXI day and leaving the Eurozone

As a Greek child growing up in Zimbabwe, I spent a fair amount of time going to Greek National Day celebrations. We waved flags, read out Greek poems, wore the national dress and re-enacted scenes of Greek defiance for crowds of patriotic grandparents and the Greek ambassador. On the more religious public holidays, we’d be […]

Mr Tsipras Wrote A Letter

Disclaimer: this seems to have been the blog post where I discovered gifs. Apologies in advance. I didn’t mean to look like Buzzfeed. Also, might be worth waiting for the page to fully load. Sorry. Two seemingly incongruent things happened yesterday: The Greek Prime Minister sent a letter to Jean Claude, Mario and Christine, telling them […]

Should Greece Vote No? Grexit, Stage Left.

Good morning. It’s Default Day, and Greece is now in Restricted Default. Or it will be from midnight tonight. But the poker hand is now all-in – and on Sunday, the Greeks decide whether to fold or call the bluff. Well, more a decision to fold or Fold with a capital Exit. Starting with the European Commission […]

Greece: But Why Is There Cash In The ATMs?

So that…escalated quickly. Although given that the word “blackmail” was being thrown around on Friday, perhaps not that surprising? I guess? Anyway. Where we now find ourselves: The Greek government has imposed capital controls, closed Greek banks until Monday next week (at least), halted trading on the Athens Stock Exchange, and generally taken the country into suspense until […]

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