Greek elections

[brogdale]

Not a European country, or indeed a country at all

Quite right, I've checked again on 4OD and, butchersapron was quite right, Jon Snow did say "...the most left wing government ever elected by a European democracy..".

So Jon Snow was right, then? Historic.

 

[DotCommunist]

you know something Jon Snow

 

[J Ed]

BTW, here is an interview of the new Greek finance minister by the excellent Doug Henwood

 

[Jeff Robinson]

Just watching last night's newsnight coverage. Under a minute in and they've already crammed two pieces of hammer and sickle imaginary in

 

[DotCommunist]

see if you can make it to ken clarke at the end without punching your screen

 

[Jeff Robinson]

The report is mentioning a grassroots support network called 'solidarity for all'. Does anybody know about this group - what sort of activities it gets up to etc. Is it worth donating to, and if so how?

 

[phildwyer]

I'm booking Kos again for August.

I'm going to be there then too. Kos and Rhodes.

 

[friedaweed]

I'm going to be there then too. Kos and Rhodes.

I'll message you closer to the time if I finally get it agreed booked with the lover and buy you a cold beer

 

[phildwyer]

I'll message you closer to the time if I finally get it agreed booked with the lover and buy you a cold beer

Let's do it! We can send urban an in-depth investigative report on the progress of the revolution.

 

[teqniq]

New Greek PM Alexis Tsipras appoints radical economist to new government

Greece’s new leftist prime minister, Alexis Tsipras, is set to announce his anti-bailout government, with the post of economics minister – chief negotiator with the country’s international creditors – going to a radical economist who has described austerity programmes as “fiscal waterboarding”....

 

[friedaweed]

Let's do it! We can send urban an in-depth investigative report on the progress of the revolution.

I was there during the last phase. It's going to be included in my Moped Hire Diaries due out next summer

 

[SpackleFrog]

I hear what you are saying but if they had disregarded constitution (and even been able to do so?) they'd spend thier entire incumbency dogged by people calling them undemocratic thives- its not a good start to do that surely?

I guess it depends whether the partnership with the Independent Greeks causes them problems that will dog them for their entire incumbency

 

[free spirit]

I have read the article in the link. I am suspicious that the politicians were only too happy to follow the conclusions of the false figures produced by the so called economists Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff because it suited their purposes in producing cut-backs. These cut-backs enabled the politicians to reduce spending on the public sector in particular because they wanted to tip the balance of European economies towards the private sector. This desire for privatization was purely political and idealogical.

I never believe the figures produced by economists especially in forecasting the future, because I don't think economics is a science. It may have the trappings of a science in the form of charts, diagrams and spreadsheets but it is purely political propaganda.

oh I'd definitely agree with that, but I'm sure they used that research to justify their policies between themselves, and also to wave at any sceptical voices and silence them.

Says a lot about the state of academia and economic academia in particular that something as obviously false as that data could not only pass through the peer review process unchallenged, but also just be accepted by the academic establishment and it took a sodding student to unpick the figures and prove they were wrong.

It obviously continues to deserve it's reputation as the dismal science.

 

[free spirit]

also that paper wasn't exactly about predicting the future, it was about analysing the past, and then using the past data to offer advice, which is actually the sort of economics I could support if done correctly - the testing of hypothesis against real world data.

Had the research been carried out objectively, and the data analysed correctly it would have been a useful contribution that would have pretty clearly given the lie to the austerity bullshit, as shown in the graph I quoted.

Instead the false results gave the opposite impression and were allowed to sit unchallenged and doing untold damage for 2-3 years, presumably because the academic establishment saw these harvard professors as some sort of economics geniuses that they felt unable to challenge / were in capable of getting anything wrong.

 

[phildwyer]

I was there during the last phase. It's going to be included in my Moped Hire Diaries due out next summer

I go to Kos every year, on day-trips from Bodrum. It always struck me as a pretty apolitical or even conservative place, but it will be more interesting this time.

 

[friedaweed]

I go to Kos every year, on day-trips from Bodrum. It always struck me as a pretty apolitical or even conservative place, but it will be more interesting this time.

I do it the other way round and go to Bodrum. I usually stay at the other end of the Island to Kos Town but I like hiring a moped and leaving the girls on the beach and me and Larden go off touring. It's a wonderful place to just go off into the hills and mooch plus there's loads of coastline where you're unlikely to be sharing it with anyone else only a few miles from the road.

I've stayed on a couple of the Greek Islands since the big stir and there seems to have been little impact on the holiday resorts at least from the view of a tourist. I suppose outside of the season it's different.

 

[phildwyer]

New Greek PM Alexis Tsipras appoints radical economist to new government

Very good news. I was afraid that he might fall victim to the mainstream economists' pseudo-scientific psychobabble.

I've thoroughly enjoyed the last day or two's interviews with bemused mainstream economists. None of them can believe that anything can possibly interfere with their view of the economy. They all say: "this election changes nothing." As if their fantasy world of non-existent money, derivatives, futures, currencies etc were more real than the expressed will of the people.

It's really quite remarkable how intelligent people can be educated into believing such nonsense.

 

[phildwyer]

I do it the other way round and go to Bodrum. I usually stay at the other end of the Island to Kos Town but I like hiring a moped and leaving the girls on the beach and me and Larden go off touring. It's a wonderful place to just go off into the hills and mooch plus there's loads of coastline where you're unlikely to be sharing it with anyone else only a few miles from the road.

I've stayed on a couple of the Greek Islands since the big stir and there seems to have been little impact on the holiday resorts at least from the view of a tourist. I suppose outside of the season it's different.

You know it better than me, I just stay in Kos town, buy a statue of Hippocrates, and get pissed all day. I do more tourist stuff in Rhodes, which is also a day-trip from Bodrum. If you come to Bodrum this summer I can definitely show you a good time.

 

[SpackleFrog]

Any chance you two could arrange your holiday plans via PM rather than clogging up the thread tourist tips?

 

[ska invita]

"-David Cameron has offered British assistance to help Greece tighten up its tax collecting operations." you couldnt make it up. Maybe he'll advise Syriza how to turn Greece into a tax haven

"Panos Kammenos is expected to get the defense ministry" (not shipping as previously mentioned). - maybe worse than it sounds? any thoughts on that?

 

[phildwyer]

Any chance you two could arrange your holiday plans via PM rather than clogging up the thread tourist tips?

I tell you what. Why don't you mind your own business and stop telling others what they can and cannot post.

Seriously, where the fuck do you get off doing this? Piss off.

 

[treelover]

The report is mentioning a grassroots support network called 'solidarity for all'. Does anybody know about this group - what sort of activities it gets up to etc. Is it worth donating to, and if so how?

There is already the Greek Solidarity Campaign(with many LU key figures in it), maybe this other one is a new SWP vehicle.

 

[DotCommunist]

Ken Clarke painting podemos and syzira as part of a peculiar latin american socialist tradition.

 

[treelover]

Perhaps Greece could have a chat with Putin about basing some military bases there, that would concentrate minds in Brussels(and Washington.)

doesn't have to go ahead, but just the notion..

 

[belboid]

There is already the Greek Solidarity Campaign(with many LU key figures in it), maybe this other one is a new SWP vehicle.

You could just look it up. Then you'd see its a Greek initiative.

http://www.solidarity4all.gr/
http://www.solidarity4all.gr/sites/www.solidarity4all.gr/files/aggliko.pdf

 

[butchersapron]

'Solidarity for all' is greek. It's nothing to do with the SWP. Not everything is you know. It's actually something like what you're always going on about should be done.

 

[treelover]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2012/09/28/the-economics-of-video-games/


Maybe an interesting snippet, Yanis Varoufakis, the new Finance Minister is also an economist for Valve, the PC games platform, etc!

 

[SpackleFrog]

I tell you what. Why don't you mind your own business and stop telling others what they can and cannot post.

Seriously, where the fuck do you get off doing this? Piss off.

Just didn't see the relevance. I asked you politely. I thought I was compromising too - ideally I'd rather you didn't post at all.

 

[treelover]

'Solidarity for all' is greek. It's nothing to do with the SWP. Not everything is you know. It's actually something like what you're always going on about should be done.

Have just read some of the PDF, interesting stuff.

 

[phildwyer]

Just didn't see the relevance. I asked you politely. I thought I was compromising too - ideally I'd rather you didn't post at all.

Just stick to the topic and we'll have no problems, yes?