By Maria Tsiouri Why are the Swiss good at everything? ask the Huffington Post. People. “Countries that invest in human capital end up getting returns in terms of economic growth. And then countries that have that economic growth are able to reinvest further in human capital. So you have this virtuous cycle that’s established.”
With all the talk of public sector reform in Greece these days, it would not be surprising if a casual reader might ask, what alternatives are there to the current state of affairs? Where might one start to look? Fear not, Google has an answer. It is called Constitute. It works, too, according to a recent […]
By Krysta Kalachani Maria Houkli has a point in her editorial on the closure of ERT in glimatikotika.gr Friday morning. But there can also be strong criticism to what she says. In my view the way that the government decided to close down ERT sends messages drawn from other political systems: the public or state […]
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 […]
By Evangelos Kontos Experiencing these difficult days in Greek society first hand makes any person regardless of their political views, economic status, education, feel uncertain for the future, for the days to come. This uncertainty can transform to fear instantly and fear brings always his best friend with him, panic. A society in panic is […]
“J’ai mal à la Grèce.” Angélique Kourounis
The Project on Government Oversight seeks to “provoke accountability” in the workings of the US Federal Government. About POGO Founded in 1981, POGO originally worked to expose outrageously overpriced military spending on items such as a $7,600 coffee maker and a $436 hammer. In 1990, after many successes reforming military spending, including a Pentagon spending […]
Who’s doing what and where to get Greece out of this mess, courtesy of the Omikron Project.
This weekly feature offers a glimpse of what is happening in and around Thessaloniki. Compiled by Laura Strieth. Thu 4th April- Wear Vintage Bazaar- Spring time’s new vintage arrivals are available for purchase today. Hundreds of cool 70s, 80s and 90 pieces can be found. Abel Nagengast and Tako Reyenga will on the decks playing […]
“If you make people’s lives better they will pay you for it — bottom line.” — Rob Markey
By Tom McLaughlin Our first prime minster, Sir John A. Macdonald, said “A public man should have no resentments.” His seething successors demonstrate that this adage is in desperate short supply in Canadian politics today. Faithful to the partisan glue binding them to their parties, our political class is doing everything possible to diminish, demean, […]
By Bill Moyers and Michael Winship We were struck this week by one response to our broadcast last week on gun violence and the Newtown school killings. A visitor to the website wrote, “It is interesting to me that Bill Moyers, who every week describes the massive levels of corruption in our government… [and] the […]
By Christina Flora A Greek team of student-entrepreneurs won first place at the Pan-European trade fair, organized by the international organization Junior Achievement Europe (JA-YE), in Riga, Latvia, with 450 pupils from secondary schools and high schools from 30 countries of Europe and Africa participating. Business ideas were presented in the exhibition and combined technology […]
Euros arriving by truck to Cyprus from Brussels.
By Kevin Featherstone Last week’s dramatic decision to close down Greece’s state broadcaster, ERT answers a question Greece’s political leaders – in and out of government – have lacked the will to confront for a generation. At one level, the move is gesture politics: a sudden, unilateral act intended to impress the Troika (the EU, […]
Surveying the panoply of contemporary European leaders, John Lloyd quips in Reuters, “All this grey almost makes you wish for Silvio Berlusconi to return, to lighten the mood.” “At times it seems that Europe, both in its national leaders and in the little-known men who are presidents of one EU institution or another, chooses obscurity […]
The Dukakis Center will host a virtual launch of “Still at Aulis: Essays on Crisis and Revolution in Greece and the Eurozone,” a Kindle e-book by David Wisner, Executive Director of the Center, on Thursday, March 6, 2014, from 12 noon throughout the afternoon. Interested parties can follow the event on the “Still at Aulis” […]
If you are reading these lines, you are very weird. You’re spending spare time considering arguments about politics, which most people don’t bother to do. — Ezra Klein
This is a question on the tip of many people’s tongues, in Europe and elsewhere. As the folks at Debating Europe phrase it: should Turkey join the European Union? Have events in Turkey the past few days changed opinions about the intentions and objectives of the current Turkish government?
I recently found myself obliged to spend some time in a public hospital. Aside from the obvious benefits to my health, it was a most revealing experience. Ihave no complaints about my treatment. The rather negative opinion I had formed previously about this particular hospital, based largely on the impression of utter chaos and lack […]