A crisis in the capitalist system is a kind of wake up call: speculative bubbles burst, the price of assets [8] moves back towards their real value; the least profitable corporations go bankrupt, and capital is destroyed [9]. Crises are in a way part of Capitalism's...
borrowing
Barclays, the City, and a system in crisis | by James Meadway
Barclays was fined after admitting attempting to rig the London Interbank Offered Rate (Libor), a measure of how much it costs banks to borrow from each other. Libor is calculated by taking an average – each morning - of the rate that banks report they can borrow at....
Living in Rats’ Alley – Europe’s Crash Landing | by Mike Whitney
“Italy is now mathematically beyond the point of no return.” –Barclays Capital The situation in Europe gets more depressing by the day. Policymakers have waited too long and now events are beyond their control. The only way to avert a disorderly breakup and another...
A looming global recession | by CP Chandrasekhar
All recent economic indicators point almost unambiguously to a new global recession, one which threatens to be more severe and prolonged than the 2007 crisis. While the epicentre of this developing crisis is located in the metropolitan countries, specifically the EU...
The Greek and eurozone turmoil: A crisis with deep roots
The ongoing eurozone crisis is often projected in the media, somewhat superficially, as wholly the product of Greece's financial profligacy. There are, however, more fundamental reasons for this turmoil. The causes are to found, as the following analysis shows, in the...
Euro Bailout Failure | by 5 ducats
Have so many ever been so enthusiastic over a plan to beg, borrow, and steal $1.5 trillion? •Beg - Weaker European banks will have to raise over $100 billion in capital. •Borrow - Eurozone will borrow $1.4 trillion to bailout future sovereign and bank defaults. •Steal...
Austerity Versus Stimulus | by Prabhat Patnaik
IT is obviously silly to push for austerity in the midst of a recession, not just silly but cruel, since it prolongs the pain of unemployment. The recession is caused by a deficiency of aggregate demand. To overcome it what is necessary is an increase in demand which...
Africa’s Odious Debts | by James K. Boyce and Léonce Ndikumana
One side effect of the American/British occupation of Iraq is that it sparked public debate on a dark secret of international finance: the debts taken on by odious regimes. As Iraq's new rulers debate what to do about the billions of dollars in foreign debts inherited...

