Latest posts
Inflation in Germany is not an automatic remedy to the periphery's economic woes
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While having already addressed the argument which asserts a mechanical alleviation of the economic duress in the eurozone's periphery by virtue of spontaneous or instigated rising inflation in the core, Germany in particular, I continue to feel an in...
Critique on the ex cathedra pronouncement of Barroso that there is no eurocrisis
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The present author finds it pertinent to express the feeling of amazement that is always born in him by the exposition to the Olympian pronouncements of the European Commission's President, Mr. José Manuel Barroso; amazement not in the sense o...
The meta ta politika of Europe
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Fellow citizen Ralf Grahn (@RalfGrahn) recently suggested that European bloggers should consider producing an article under the twitter hashtag #MyEurope, in light of the commemoration of Europe Day, on the 9th of May. The idea is to invite the autho...
Footnotes on Jürgen Habermas' lecture in Leuven about the European crisis
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On April 26 2013, I had the great honor to attend a lecture on Democracy, Solidarity, and the European Crisis by one of the foremost thinkers of our age, Professor Jürgen Habermas. The event, which can now be watched online, took place at the pr...
Europe did not cause the crisis in Cyprus
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The kind of default reaction of many Cypriot opinion molders and citizens to the latest decisions on the country's macroeconomic adjustment programme, has been to put the brunt of the blame for Cyprus' economic demise on "Europe" in general; often dr...
The independence of the European Central Bank and its democratic accountability on Cyprus
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The legal basis of the European Central Bank guarantees its institutional independence in conducting monetary policy, while it also extends the separation of powers to all other central banks comprising the European System of Central Banks (ESCB). In...
Europe: A banking union to break the feedback loop between states and banks
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Perhaps the deepest flaw in the Euro edifice has been the symbiosis between banks and states. The insoluble ties that are shared by sovereigns and their domestic banks are to a great extent a permanent feature of the modern (crony-)capitalist system,...
Doomsday scenarios: With capital controls in place, is Cyprus effectively outside the Euro?
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As has been the case with all the other periods of duress in the 3.5 year-old eurocrisis, the case of Cyprus has provided the impetus for the cultivation of a number of doomsday scenarios regarding the fate of the Euro. One of them is that Cyprus is...
Cyprus: A Eurogroup deal that is painful but more just than before
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In the early hours of March 25, the eurogroup has reached an agreement on the macroeconomic adjustment programme for Cyprus, which is in my humble opinion more just than the previous deal that placed asymmetric losses on small depositors while not to...
Cyprus: Thoughts on capital controls and the "National Solidarity Fund"
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The parliament of the Republic of Cyprus has approved a total of nine new pieces of legislation aiming at restructuring the domestic banking system by, inter alia, granting more powers to the Central Bank and providing a backstop to the disorderly di...
Cyprus bailout: A suboptimal and unjust agreement of the Eurogroup
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The Eurogroup has reached a political agreement over the terms of the macroeconomic adjustment programme for Cyprus. The Memorandum of Understanding that the Cyprus government will have to sign, will now be finalized by the European Commission, the E...
Eurobills: On the joint issuance of European debt instruments
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One of the schemes that is being contemplated in the chambers of European politics, is that of the joint issuance of sovereign debt instruments. This is currently related to the negotiations on the so-called "two-pack", where the legislative reports...
Single Supervisory Mechanism: How it relates to the institutional morphology of the European Union
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NOTE: This is a lengthy essay and is meant to be used as a point of reference, a "pillar article" so to speak, rather than a spontaneous blog post. It has been separated in various sections to facilitate reading. I hope this will prove useful for all...
On European meta-nationalism: A critique of the exogenous impetus to integration
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The Berlaymont building, housing the European Commission, on a snowy day. Picture credit: Protesilaos Stavrou CC BY-NC-SAOne of the essential features of the European federalist movement that escapes the attention of many—federalists included&m...
My comment on UK's Soft Secession from the EU
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Picture credit: Horatiu Ferchiu Fellow blogger Horatiu Ferchiu has posted an interesting article on the case of the UK in the EU, titled "Soft secession in the EU?". Here is the 'short' comment I left on his blog:This is a very interesting approach i...
On the European identity and the nation-less democracy
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The mythical origins of Europe Picture credit: Wikipedia As I have already noted in several of my last articles, a sovereign two-tier state is emerging within the European Union; a state that will be relatively limited in scope, as it shall be confin...
Tougher rules on Credit Rating Agencies are not enough
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Financial ratings of European States by Standard & Poor's Picture credit: Wikipedia This week the European Parliament adopted a resolution which decisively restricts many of the operations of Credit Rating Agencies (see provisional edition of the fi...
The distinction between the Banking Union and the Single Supervisory Mechanism
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With the plethora of information available, it can be assumed that even the uninitiated to the mechanics of the Euro and the Economic and Monetary Union have recognized the importance of a financial union to underpin the single currency and to ensure...
Eurocrisis far from over: The challenges ahead
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I am of the opinion that to understand the politics and orientations of the eurozone, one must start from assiduously studying the remarks of the European Central Bank's president, Mr. Mario Draghi, its vice-president, Mr. Vítor Constâncio and the...
On the monetary policy prescriptions of Bundesbank president, Jens Weidmann
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Jens Weidmann, president of the German Bundesbank Picture credit: Wikipedia To those familiar with the politics underpinning the creation of the Economic and Monetary Union, it is well known that the European Central Bank was modeled according to th...
