Monday, January 21, 2013

Δ. Ραυτόπουλος: Η Αριστερά θέλει να αλλάξει όλον τον κόσμο εκτός από τον εαυτό της


Η συνέντευξη του Δ. Ραυτόπουλου δημοσιεύθηκε στο ΒΗΜΑ την20-1-2013.
http://www.tovima.gr/books-ideas/article/?aid=493698
Ένας από τους τελευταίους σημαντικούς κριτικούς της ελληνικής μεταπολεμικής λογοτεχνίας μιλάει για την πρόσφατη συλλογή δοκιμίων του με θέμα τον Εμφύλιο και τις συνέπειές του, για την Αριστερά, τη βία, την κριτική και τον δυτικό πολιτισμό.

Sunday, January 20, 2013

Makeshift bomb injures two at Greek shopping mall


By George Georgiopoulos
ATHENS | Sun Jan 20, 2013 9:48am EST
(Reuters) - A makeshift bomb lightly injured two security staff at a large shopping center near Athens on Sunday, in escalating political violence in the crisis-hit country.

Explosive device at shopping mall near Athens injures two


ATHENS | Sun Jan 20, 2013 4:29am EST
(Reuters) - An explosive device went off on Sunday at a shopping centre near Athens causing damage and lightly injuring two security employees, police said.

Saturday, January 19, 2013

UPDATE 2-IMF sees up to 9.5 bln euro Greek funding gap in 2015-2016


 Jan 18, 2013 9:35pm EST
* Greek economy likely to shrink again this year

* Brazil opposes loan tranche to Greece

By Lesley Wroughton

WASHINGTON, Jan 18 (Reuters) - The International Monetary Fund estimated on Friday that Greece faced a financing gap of between 5.5 billion and 9.5 billion euros for 2015 and 2016 and said it had assurances from Europe it would deliver the aid in the final years of the bailout.

Thursday, January 17, 2013

A Strong Euro Starts to Worry Europe


By Carol Matlack on January 16, 2013 
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-01-16/a-strong-euro-starts-to-worry-europe#r=nav-fst
A new obstacle lies in the path of euro zone economies struggling to regain traction. It’s the strength of the euro currency, which is trading this week near a 10-month high of $1.34 against the dollar and threatening the competitiveness of European exporters. “Dangerously high” was how Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker described the exchange rate in a Jan. 15 speech.

IMF OKs Greek next aid tranche; Lagarde sees progress


By Lesley Wroughton
WASHINGTON | Wed Jan 16, 2013 6:18pm EST
(Reuters) - Greece's bailout program is moving in the right direction, the head of the International Monetary Fund said on Wednesday after the IMF board agreed to pay the next aid tranche to Athens under the country's 240-billion-euro international bailout.

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

The year ahead in the euro zone: Lower risks, same problems



By Nouriel Roubini JANUARY 14, 2013
Reuters
Financial conditions in the euro zone have significantly improved since the summer, when euro zone risks peaked because of German policymakers’ open consideration of a Greek exit, and the sovereign spreads of Italy and Spain reached new heights.

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

The Wall Street Journal's Bad Plan for Greece


By Josh Barro Jan 14, 2013 11:46 PM GMT+0200
Bloomberg
The Wall Street Journal ran a staff editorial in today's newspaper urging Greece to adopt a flat tax as a road out of its economic troubles. This is a demonstration of the first rule of the Journal's editorial writing: Whatever your problem is, it can be fixed with a flat tax.

Number of U.S. working poor families grows as wealth gap widens


By Susan Heavey
WASHINGTON, Jan 15 (Reuters) - The number of U.S. families struggling with poverty despite parents being employed continued to grow in 2011 as more people returned to work but mostly at lower-paying service jobs, an analysis released on Tuesday shows.

Monday, January 14, 2013

Gun attack on PM's party HQ escalates Greek violence


By Dina Kyriakidou and George Georgiopoulos
ATHENS | Mon Jan 14, 2013 5:21am EST
(Reuters) - Unidentified attackers opened fire on the headquarters of Greece's governing New Democracy party with a Kalashnikov assault rifle early on Monday, in what the government said was a worrying escalation in political violence.

Saturday, January 12, 2013

Journalists in Greece Are Becoming Targets


By LIZ ALDERMAN
Published: January 12, 2013
The New York Times
¶ The Greek police on Saturday were looking for the people responsible for detonating makeshift bombs at the homes of five journalists in Athens, the latest in a series of actions taken against reporters in Greece who have raised questions about a deteriorating climate for media freedom.

Η στοχοποίηση ενός μάρτυρα


του Π. Μανδραβέλη
Τετάρτη, 09 Ιανουάριος 2013 10:58
«Αυτή είναι μια τακτική που ακολουθεί ο ΣΥΡΙΖΑ εδώ και πολλά χρόνια... κατηγορώντας άπαντες ως φασίστες για να καλύψει τις δικές του φασιστικές συμπεριφορές...»

Greeks Raid Forests in Search of Wood to Heat Homes


The Wall Street Journal
EGALEO, Greece—While patrolling on a recent cold night, environmentalist Grigoris Gourdomichalis caught a young man illegally chopping down a tree on public land in the mountains above Athens.

Thursday, January 10, 2013

Greek budget deficit improves but savings cuts push jobless rate to new high


By Associated Press, Updated: Thursday, January 10, 7:27 PM
Nikolas Giakoumidis/Associated Press
ATHENS, GreeceGreece’s coalition government on Thursday reported a steep drop in the budget deficit in 2012, but unemployment rose again at an alarming rate as state savings cuts continued to hurt the economy and erode living standards.

Economic change depends on culture and society


By Anne Applebaum, Thursday, January 10, 6:31 PM
Washington Post 
PARIS — For a brief moment before Christmas, self-doubt gripped France. The beloved French actor Gerard Depardieu — who recently played Obelix, an even more beloved French comic book character — announced he was moving to Belgium because President Francois Hollande had threatened to tax millionaires at 75 percent of their income.

Wednesday, January 9, 2013

TEXT-S&P: eurozone could start to overcome debt crisis in 2013


Reuters
Jan 9 - This could be a decisive year in determining whether the eurozone
(European Economic and Monetary Union) can emerge from its sovereign debt
troubles, says Standard & Poor's Ratings Services today in the report: "The
Eurozone Debt Crisis: 2013 Could Be A Watershed Year."

Monday, January 7, 2013

A surprising map of the best and worst countries to be born into today


Click to enlarge. Data from the Economist Intelligence Unit. (Max Fisher/Wash Post)
Posted by Max Fisher on January 7, 2013 at 9:00 am
If you came into the world today and could pick your nationality, there are at least 15 better choices than to be born American, according to a study by the Economist Intelligence Unit. The firm looked at 80 countries, scoring them across 11 variables to determine “which country will provide the best opportunities for a healthy, safe and prosperous life in the years ahead.” The results, mapped out above, are both surprising and not.

The Big Fail


By PAUL KRUGMAN
Published: January 6, 2013
The New York Times
And this year, as in past meetings, there is one theme dominating discussion: the ongoing economic crisis.

Greece’s Rotten Oligarchy


By KOSTAS VAXEVANIS
Published: January 6, 2013
The New York Times
Unfortunately, the bicycle of Greek democracy has long been broken. After the military junta collapsed in 1974, Greece created only a hybrid, diluted form of democracy. You can vote, belong to a party and protest. In essence, however, a small clique exercises all meaningful political power.

Saturday, January 5, 2013

Why Paul Krugman should be President Obama's pick for US treasury secretary


Not only is he the world's best-known economist, Krugman has the intellect and integrity to resist Wall Street's calls for austerity
Mark Weisbrot
guardian.co.uk, 
Saturday 5 January 2013 13.00 GMT
President Obama hasn't picked a treasury secretary yet for his second term, so he has a chance to do something different.