Theoretically, Greece should have been a laboratory of left-wing policies, with its terrible combination of inequality, poverty and unemployment. But how feasible are left-wing policies within the eurozone? The question is relevant, not only because of the SYRIZA-led government in Greece, but also due to the prospect of a leftist coalition in Portugal. Global capitalism is conducive to leftist protest,…
The world in which our desires materialize provided we strongly want it is a perfect world. It has only one weakness: it exists in our imagination – and in bad literature. Students of politics prefer to focus not on the power of will, but on the impact of external constraints. Practitioners of politics and policymakers naturally tend to blame outside…
According to Greek mythology, the noble Iphigenia was sacrificed so that the warships could have a fair wind to Troy. According to eurozone mythology, Greece should become the Iphigenia for the euro to sail ahead. However, this sacrifice would fail to do the trick. Since Greece cannot access capital markets and Greeks have no appetite to leave the eurozone, a…