Euro

December 4th was a great day in Italy. We hoped such an outcome, but did not expect it. When we saw so much turnout by voters we were not sure how to interpret it, because the media and the government had claimed that more voters would result in a higher percentage of “yes” to the constitutional reform. Well, it was the other way round. An unprecedented (for a referendum) participation rate brought to a clear rejection of the reform proposal, and of the government.

The surge in right-wing and anti-establishment sentiments as a result of failed neo-liberal policies in Europe is likely to lead to collapse of the EU in “a tragic development,” prominent American linguist, scholar and activist Noam Chomsky told RT.

BEFORE American voters—especially white, male, rural and older ones—carried Donald Trump to victory in America’s presidential election, aggrieved British voters with a similar profile voted to leave the European Union. Equally surly voters in France have been flocking to Marine Le Pen of the far-right National Front for months; she is tipped to make the run-off in next year’s presidential election. Alternative for Germany, an anti-immigrant party, is picking up support ahead of a federal election in Germany, also in 2017.

This election is great news. A lesson in democracy. In Trump's program, there are such theses as putting an end to wars and the export of democracy around the whole world, revising NATO and the UN’s roles, and pursuing friendly relations with Russia. Great attention is also paid to what is happening in the United States: the war against illegal immigration and the introduction of proportional taxation (a flat tax).

Pressed into service once again as the main legitimising factor for another drive towards deeper union is the glorious 60-year history of European integration, which must be continued. Since this rather emotionally focused line of argument is wearing thin after years of the Troika’s impoverishment policy, another element has been added to it, namely fear of

Since the crisis began in 2008, an intense European discussion has challenged official policy priorities. Civil society organisations (CSOs), trade unions, think tanks and grassroots campaigns have called for ending austerity and restoring shared prosperity, reforming (or dismantling) EU institutions, reducing inequality and making Europe more inclusive, achieving

Left critics will have no problem to show that Stiglitz is an ‘ordinary’ neo-keynesian, whose thinking is not that different from mainstream economic theory. He makes no secret of his credo in ‘inclusive capitalism’. When he speaks of full employment, it is in the sense of the NAIRU, which in fact subordinates a social need to a macroeconomic model. He promotes the

The Euro currency project is unworkable in its current form and at the risk of “collapse”, its principal architect has warned. Professor Otmar Issing, the European Central Bank’s first chief economist who helped create the single currency at the turn of the century, has warned that the Euro cannot survive in its current form.

The location of the third European No-Euro-Forum itself, Chianciano Terme in Tuscany, can be considered symbolic for the urgent need of an exit strategy to leave the corset of the currency union: during the 80ties it was a prosperous small town with it’s hot springs and hundreds of hotels where workers and pensioners spent their spa stays, financed from a

The Ventotene summit among Prime Minister Renzi, Chancellor Merkel and President Hollande took place recently. Crucial issues were on the agenda: the geo-political conflicts at the borders of the European Union; internal security; migratory flows; economic growth. A strong wind of rhetoric about relaunching the ideals of the founding fathers of a united Europe