Stream of Reading (Prepare to be Forwarded) – An Archive of What I'm Reading
With Jean-Claude Juncker demanding a Unified European Army, it appears Germany is wasting no time in simultaneously boosting its own economy with warfare spending and comforting a ‘fearful populace’ with more military might. As Reuters reports, Germany plans to procure more than 100 additional Leopard 2 tanks, increasing its total Leopard 2 tank inventory by…
TIME World Greece Greece Seeks $305 Billion in WWII Reparations From Germany Louisa Gouliamaki—AFP/Getty Images Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis arrives to present his ministry’s new secretaries at a press conference in Athens on March 4, 2015. Amid a continuing negotiation over debt relief from the European Union bailout Greece released its first quantifiable demand…
Iceland sent a letter to the president of the European Union on Thursday, formally withdrawing plans to join the bloc. The letter (pdf) will have come as no surprise. Iceland had terminated negotiations aimed at bringing itself into union in 2013, when a new government came to power. One divisive issue that kept the two sides from reaching an…
The threat, made by the Greek justice minister and reported in the daily Kathimerini newspaper, has been supported by Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, who told the Greek parliament he would pursue the “very technical and sensitive” matter. Justice minister Nikos Paraskevopoulos has reportedly called for “war reparations, the repayment of a forced loan and the…
It’s a NIRP world and you are either in it, or are determined to lose the currency wars. And hours ago, the world’s oldest central bank, that of Sweden, announced that it too would join its NIRP peers in an attempt to preserve its currency’s fighting power in the global currency wars which make a…
One of President Obama’s top economic advisers says the rest of the world may have too much faith in the U.S. recovery. “If your economic plan is to count on exports to the U.S. [to produce growth], that’s not a plan that I would support,” said Jason Furman, who heads the President’s Council of Economic…
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has ruled out cancelling any of Greece’s debt, saying banks and creditors have already made substantial cuts. But Mrs Merkel told the Die Welt newspaper she still wanted Greece to stay in the eurozone. Greece’s left-wing Syriza party won last weekend’s election with a pledge to have half the debt written…
main LONDON (CNNMoney) Greece’s banks were slammed Wednesday as the country’s new anti-austerity government abandoned commitments made to its international lenders. Officials from Syriza, the party that won power in Sunday’s elections, said they would halt the privatizations of a major electricity company and port, and hike the country’s minimum wage. The party has also…
Bank of England Governor Mark Carney has attacked eurozone austerity. Photograph: Andy Rain/EPA The Bank of England governor, Mark Carney, has launched a strong attack on austerity in the eurozone as he warned that he single-currency area was caught in a debt trap that could cost it a second lost decade. Speaking in Dublin, Carney…
Alexis Tsipras, center, leader of Greece’s Syriza left-wing main opposition waves to his supporters after voting at a polling station in Athens on Sunday. Petros Giannakouris/AP hide caption itoggle caption Petros Giannakouris/AP Alexis Tsipras, center, leader of Greece’s Syriza left-wing main opposition waves to his supporters after voting at a polling station in Athens on…