A new phase in capitalism’s global economic crisis appears to be opening up. As is usual, this crisis has first hit the financial sector of capitalism.

First, it was in the privately-owned banks and other financial institutions. Now the contagion has spread to public treasuries. The sovereign debt crisis in Dubai was the first warning. Now it is Greece.  Read more »

LONDON — Iceland’s voters expressed their outrage on Saturday against bankers, the government and what they saw as foreign bullying, overwhelmingly rejecting a plan to pay $5.3 billion to Britain and the Netherlands to reimburse customers of a failed Icelandic bank.

With about 30 percent of the votes counted, roughly 93 percent of voters said no to the plan, in the first public referendum ever held on any subject in Iceland. Less than 2 percent voted yes, and the rest of the votes were invalid.  Read more »

Wednesday’s general strike in Greece, involving 2 million workers in the public and private sectors, marks a turning point in the political situation throughout Europe.

It represents the most significant manifestation of a growing movement of resistance to the attempt by Europe’s governments and corporations to make workers pay for the economic crisis and the multi-billion-euro bailout of the banks.  Read more »

Open warfare has broken out at the top of the European Union with governments accusing the new president, Herman Van Rompuy, of making a power grab.

National leaders are concerned Mr. Van Rompuy, who had been expected to take a back seat role, is attempting to expand his position.  Read more »

The International Monetary Fund operates primarily as a banker bailout machine. They cajole and tempt and confuse and threaten the leaders of governments worldwide to pay off the failed bets of the big bankers using the taxpayer funds of their countries.

This has been going on a long time, at least since the early 1980s.  Read more »

Greece is turning into a battle royal between the global financial elites and the average worker in the industrial West.

This started out as a more limited struggle, pitting the finance ministers and central banks of the European Union against the Greek unions, but the fight has unexpectedly broadened with news of the surreptitious involvement of Goldman Sachs in helping Greece avoid borrowing constraints.  Read more »

The Eurosceptics are in the ascendancy. They may be mostly Tories, but they have been proven right.

In previous recessions, the troubled eurozone countries - Greece, Portugal, Ireland and Spain - would have eased their economic problems by devaluing the currency, printing money (now called "quantitative easing") and cutting interest rates.  Read more »