THE GREEK CRISIS: AN INSIDE VIEW

Nothing has been decided, yet (Angela is still thinking). 

by Dimitrios Papageorgiou

The referendum in Greece stunned most of the Greek media who did not expect a landslide victory for the “No” side. After one week of capital controls, with banks not opening and long queues at the ATMs to extract a daily allowance of 60 Euros, many thought that the result would be much, much closer. But despite these measures, which, it was thought, would promote caution among voters, the “No” vote apparently soared in the last few days. Now, a lot of people think that it was exactly this kind of pressure that made many Greeks swing to the “No” side.

THE UNFORTUNATE NON-DEMISE OF THE EURO

by Colin Liddell

I don’t know the exact words of the popular refrain now doing the rounds, but I think it goes something like this: “Now Greece. Now Ireland. Next Belgium, then Spain—panic, panic, panic—collapse of the €uro, blah blah blah, etc., etc.”

When it comes to the Euro, we’ve been treated to one gleeful prophecy of doom after another. And, actually, such doom would be something of a blessing in terms of stopping the worrying march of Euro Federalism, but as with a lot of popular predictions, there is a sizable chunk of wishful thinking involved.

OK, the Euro looks crap right now, but what a lot of people don’t realize—including many who should know better—is that it was always intended to be a bit crap, unlike the Deutschmark that it replaced—more Vorsprung Durch Scheiße than Vorsprung Durch Technik.