Is the Grillo bug catching?

ΠΗΓΗ: El Pais

Economic crisis, youth exclusion, discredited political parties: The situation which triggered the success of the Italian Five Star Movement could produce the same effect in southern Europe’s other countries, warns a Spanish sociologist.

Enrique Gil Calvo

The victory of Jiminy Cricket (as Beppe Grillo has always been translated in Spain, after the character in the Pinocchio story) in the recent Italian elections has once again brought to the fore the resurgence of populism, triggered by the contradictions between capitalism and democracy, that have launched a political crisis caused by financial speculation.

The situation in Greece, where its party system collapsed under pressure from the markets, has led to big gains at the polls for two populist parties at opposite ends of the political spectrum (the far-right Golden Dawn](2608201) and Syriza on the radical left, following a period of emergency technocratic government that laid out a strict financial plan for reform.

The immediate question that springs to mind is whether something similar could happen in Spain during the next elections either in 2015 or even earlier, if the current ruling party collapses? There are signs that our current democratic model is going through a profound political crisis, greatly aggravated by the serious social effects of the inequitable fiscal adjustment. Catalonia is de facto becoming independent, while its electoral majority party, Convergencia i Unió, is collapsing at the polls.

Πωλ Κρούγκμαν Vs "Ρεν του Τρομερού"

ΠΗΓΗ: euro2day

Σε ….κακό μπελά έχει αναδειχθεί ο νομπελίστας Οικονομολόγος Πωλ Κρούγκμανγια τον επίτροπο Οικονομικών υποθέσεων της ΕΕ Όλι Ρεν, τον οποίο θεωρεί το «σύμβολο» της αυτοκαταστροφικής λιτότητας στην ευρωζώνη και τον κατηγορεί ότι με τις επιλογές του έσπρωξε την Ευρώπη βαθιά στην οικονομική κρίση. 

Την περασμένη εβδομάδα, οι νομπελίστας κατάφερε διπλό πλήγμα στον Επίτροπο. Αρχικά σχολίασε ότι ο κ. Ρεν είναι «η προσωποποίηση του αρνητικισμού όσον αφορά τις επιπτώσεις της λιτότητας» και εν συνεχεία τον επέκρινε για την θεωρία του ότι η λιτότητα είναι που έχει προκαλέσει σχετική ηρεμία στις αγορές το τελευταίο διάστημα, ενώ ο κ. Κρούγκμαν πιστεύει ότι η ηρεμία οφείλεται στις κινήσεις της ΕΚΤ. 

Λίγες ημέρες νωρίτερα, ο κ. Κρούγκμαν είχε αναφερθεί στον αντιπρόεδρο της Κομισιόν ως «Ρεν ο Τρομερός», σχολιάζοντας ότι οι επανειλημμένες δηλώσεις του επιτρόπου ότι η ανάπτυξη επιστρέφει στην ευρωζώνη, είναι εντελώς λάθος. 

Kaletsky: The age of austerity is ending

By Anatole Kaletsky

 

FEBRUARY 28, 2013

ΠΗΓΗ: REUTERS

Whisper it softly, but the age of government austerity is ending. It may seem an odd week to say this, what with the U.S. government preparing for indiscriminate budget cuts, a new fiscal crisis apparently brewing in Europe after the Italian election and David Cameron promising to “go further and faster in reducing the deficit” after the downgrade of Britain’s credit. But politics is sometimes a looking-glass world, in which things are the opposite of what they seem.

Discussing the outcome of Friday’s “sequestration” of U.S. government spending is best left to the month ahead, when we see how the public reacts to government cutbacks. But in Italy, Britain and the rest of Europe, this week’s events should help convince politicians and voters that efforts to reduce government borrowing, whether through public spending cuts or through tax hikes, are both politically suicidal and economically counterproductive.