Announcement approved at public meeting, 7 May 2014. The debt crisis has acted as a lever to dismantle labour rights and transform Greece into a creditor’s colony. The increase of unemployment to 27%, the reduction of wages and pension by 40% on average, the explosion of over 6000 recorded suicides, and the migration of young…
Spread (difference in interest rates): In the current crisis, this term primarily means the difference between the interest rate paid by an EU country borrowing money, and the rate paid for equivalent borrowing by Germany. It represents the premium paid by Greece to investors who prefer Greek from German bonds. Before Greece fell prey to…
Odious Debt: Under a UN proposal (of April 2010) a debt is considered odious not only if it is product of a suspicious exchange, but whenever its repayment involves the circumvention, violation or abolition of basic human rights. Whenever a country has to destroy jobs and cut people’s incomes, cut social and public spending, and…
In April 2010, when the Greek bond spreads exploded to new heights, rendering impossible Greece’s funding from the capital markets, the Prime Minister requested, from the remote island of Castelorizo, a bailout package for the country. It is basically a 3-year loan worth €110 bln, with an original interest rate of 5%; €80 bln are…
Debt (Public): The total loan obligations of the state. It may refer to the debt of the central government (the ministries and the decentralised governance bodies), or the general government (central government plus hospitals, pension funds, public companies, and local authorities). Depending on its origin, debt is divided into internal and external. As for debt…
Credit Default Swaps (CDS): Insurance contracts which cover the buyer (e.g. a bank that buys a bond) against the occurrence that the bond issuer (e.g. a country) defaults; they are a ‘fruit’ of the 1990s. A bank which purchases government bonds may insure its bond purchases with another bank, which undertakes to pay the insurance…
This dictionary was created by members of the Economy Working Group of Syntagma Square. Its purpose is to demystify and clarify some economic and financial terms which have dominated our lives recently. It is a form of resistance to the powerful who, invoking various unheard of until yesterday terms and concepts, dump the burden of…
13 August by Jérome Duval (PACD Spain) Six years of recession, an impressive drop in GDP from €231 billion in 2009 to €193 billion in 2012, unemployment at 26.9% in April 2013 from 7.5% in 2008, 57% for the under 25s, and an explosion of suicide cases… This overview of Greece is catastrophic and alarming…
The Greece Solidarity Campaign was set up just over a year ago, to mobilise support for Greece from the British public, politicians, academics, journalists and unionists, in these trying times. One of our main aims is to help Greece and the Greek people to counteract the negative images that have been promoted within the rest…
The government of the memorandum is falling apart, trapped in the consequences of its own austerity policies. Its panic became apparent when the Prime Minister circumvented the parliament and then bypassed even the cabinet. Unconstitutionally, the signature of one and only minister shut the public broadcaster, paving the way for this same method to be…
