A review by Krysta Kalachani of Alain Badiou, “Greek anti-fascism protests put the left’s impotence on display,” The Guardian, October 3, 2013. Here are my first thoughts but one has more to say. This is no ordinary article: one must read it carefully. There are some interesting views there, while one can find counter arguments […]

Peter Economides has a post in praise of Cypriots on his blog. “There is no such thing as a financial crisis. It’s the result of a social crisis, a values crisis, a confidence crisis, a how we feel about ourselves crisis. And I am starting to feel that the current European crisis is a crisis […]

By Krysta Kalachani A couple recent articles, the one in Proto Thema, the other in To Vima, relate to an older (2011) news story about a big fraud that was taking place at the Kallithea office of IKA. One of the employees exposed a case of fraud where some employees had found ways to collect […]

By David Wisner I faced a small crisis the other day when one of the students whom I advise failed a course in his last semester at college. I discussed the issue and solicited from colleagues ways to resolve the student’s predicament while remaining firmly within school rules and, above all, seeking to uphold a […]

By Krysta Kalachani Who were the aganaktismenoi, the Greek indignados? They were mostly people who were not supporting strongly any ideology or party. They might have been coming from all parties and all ideologies, meaning that they could have voted for one party or another in the past, but the gatherings in Syntagma Square during the […]

Matthew O’Brien says in this month’s Atlantic, “No, the United States will never, ever turn into Greece.” What he means is that, contrary to the view of certain economists, the US will never “spend itself into bankruptcy.” According to the popular wisdom O’Brien seeks to debunk, “too much public debt makes markets nervous. Nervous markets […]

Civic Work, Civic Lessons explains how and why people of all ages, and particularly young people, should engage in public service as a vocation or avocation. Its authors are 57 years apart, but united in their passion for public service, which they term “civic work.” The book provides unique intergenerational perspectives. Thomas Ehrlich spent much […]

Americans look at the crisis in Europe and think they see “an underdeveloped version of the American polity,” that if European leaders only acted more like us, everything would be solved.  This article by Russell A. Berman inspects that fallacy of logic and offers an informative run down of the euro crisis and Merkel’s budgetary […]

What do politicians do when they are not politicians? Or better yet, what did they do before they became politicians? Two scholars, Mark Hallerberg and Joachim Wehner, asked more or less these questions. They were particularly interested in the circumstances when an electorate would choose technocrats to lead a government. Their findings? “Our analysis of data […]

“The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts: therefore, guard accordingly, and take care that you entertain no notions unsuitable to virtue and reasonable nature.”  — Marcus Aurelius

By David Wisner I first drafted this note over a year ago. If anything, the tendency I described, and its implications for the future of Greece and the EU, are all the greater. A worldly Greek acquaintance likes to tell the following anecdote. Foreign investors of a bygone era come to Greece, only to lose […]

By Politis The third annual Philanthropic Bazaar (Bazaar Ευθύνης) took place this past weekend at the Thessaloniki Regency Casino. Some thirty non-profit charities and NGOs working with needy and handicapped children took part in the event, which also featured live music. children’s games, and food. The event was staffed by volunteers who are otherwise employed […]

Ralph Nader has suggested that the 2016 US presidential election may be dominated by self-financing independent third party candidates. “Here’s what I think is going to happen… We will have the usual Green Party and libertarian parties in 2016. But there are some mega-billionaires who are seriously considering running third party… Mayor Bloomberg almost did […]

We all know the expression, “Send a letter to your Congressman.” A company in India has just launched a Short Message Service (SMS)-based grievances redress mechanism in India, essentially to do just that. There is no indication yet how frequently citizens will use the service, or how well the system will function.

SEQUESTRATION ORDER FOR FISCAL YEAR 2013 PURSUANT TO SECTION 251A OF THE BALANCED BUDGET AND EMERGENCY DEFICIT CONTROL ACT, AS AMENDED By the authority vested in me as President by the laws of the United States of America, and in accordance with section 251A of the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act, as amended […]

Eric Liu posed an interesting question in the Atlantic yesterday. “… what if a rite… existed for everyone in America, attached not to a specific faith tradition but to a national creed of values, political traditions, and pro-social character? What if we created a civic confirmation experience that was both constructive and common to all?” […]

By John Lloyd The rich are always with us, and we’ll have more of them soon. A report last week from Boston Consulting Group shows that the global millionaire population is some 13.8 million. That is twice the size of Switzerland, which is, incidentally, where many of them have parked much of their wealth. More […]

Say you are an eager entrepreneur seeking to launch you own business. In the past, says Alexis Papahelas of Kathimerini, you might have faced “tailor-made amendments, biased legal and standards committees, and odd circulars were all mobilized in an effort to erect obstacles in the path of people outside the loop who wanted to enter […]

By Jiya Pinder Stability — economic, political and social — is a state that most countries strive for, any of the three aspects can offset or compromise the next, making national stability difficult to achieve for any government. In democratic societies and in societies in transition, “youth” play an essential role in maintaining stability. As […]

Excerpts from Vangelis Mandravelis’ analysis of the myriad difficulties faced by Greek authorities seeking to move ahead with Greece’s privatization program, from today’s Kathimerini English pages. “Although Greece has been discussing its privatization program for almost three years, precious little has materialized to date. In essence, the sell-off program is yet to start, given that […]