Jason Manolopoulos.
Greece's 'Odious' Debt: The Looting of the Hellenic Republic by the Euro, the Political Elite and the Investment Community.
London: Anthem Press, 2011.
Book information: Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.
Book Notices and Reviews:
Buttonwood, "Be aware of Greeks bearing books," The Economist, 08 June 2011.
Hamish McRae, "A tragedy, from the nation that invented it," The Independent, 12 June 2011.
Note: The title of this review is a symptom of the western Europeans' confusion of the ancient Greece they idealize from what they learned in school Classics versus the far less illustrious realities of modern Greece. That is, the culture that "invented" tragedy existed 2,500 years ago and has very little to do with modern Greece which has a corrupt underdeveloped third-world economy and whose government during its nearly (and only) 200 years of existence has been chronically indebted to western European powers.
Dereck Conway, "Greece's 'Odious' Debt written by Jason Manolopoulos," Epilogue, PressTV, 29 August 2011 (with guests Rodney Shakespeare and Marco Pietropoli).
"The book explores the historical legacy and psychological biases that have shaped an on-going drama. While leaders of the European Union criticize 'the markets' for destabilizing the single currency, Manolopoulos interrogates the shared beliefs of the EU and the investment banking community - and how they colluded for a decade in the illusion that lending huge sums to peripheral Euro zone countries was safe."
A very good introduction to the topics of this book.
Other Links:
Jason Manolopoulos, "You can blame the Greeks – but they have been betrayed by their leaders: Shocking examples of kleptocracy by the political elite explain the ferocity of the reaction. And it is this which has repercussions for the rest of Europe," The Independent, 18 June 2011.
"Odious debt," Wikipedia.
"European sovereign debt crisis," Wikipedia.
"2000s European sovereign debt crisis timeline," Wikipedia.
"Greek government debt crisis," Wikipedia.
"Argentine economic crisis (1999-2002)," Wikipedia.
"Optimum currency area," Wikipedia.
Yanis Varoufakis, the blog of a Greek economist who frequently discusses Eurozone issues.
Antonis Kamaras, "The Origins of the Greek Financial Crisis: Letter from Thessaloniki," Foreign Affairs, 13 December 2011.
Zero Hedge, has frequent reports on the Eurozone.
ekathimerini.com, news of Greece in English.
See also my recent post of links to Kyle Bass's letters to investors: link.
Sunday, December 25, 2011
Saturday, December 03, 2011
Kyle Bass and the World Economic Outlook: conversations and interview
A conversation with Kyle Bass, AmeriCatalyst, November 2010:
[via Zero Hedge]
Kyle Bass, BBC HARDtalk, November 2011:
[via Zero Hedge]
Note: The hostile and condescending questioning by the interviewer doesn't allow him to explain his answers in any detail, but does provoke him into letting off a few memorable quotes. See the friendlier AmeriCatalyst conversations for explanations of his economic outlook.
Kyle Bass redux, AmeriCatalyst, November 2011:
[via Zero Hedge]
Links from the November 2011 AmeriCatalyst conversation:
An article recommended by Bass:
Nassim Nicholas Taleb & Mark Blyth, "The Black Swan of Cairo: How Suppressing Volatility Makes the World Less Predictable and More Dangerous," Foreign Affairs, May/June 2011.
At one time you could get a PDF of the article here.
The books recommended by Bass are:
Bethany McLean & Joe Nocera. All the Devils Are Here: The Hidden History of the Financial Crisis. New York: Portfolio / Penguin Group (USA), Inc., 2010.
[Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com; Wikipedia: McLean; Wikipedia: Nocera.]
Carmen M. Reinhart & Kenneth Rogoff. This Time Is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly. Princeton University Press, 2009.
[Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com; Wikipedia: Reinhart; Wikipedia: Rogoff.]
Read the latest letter to investors from Kyle Bass, Hayman Capital Management, L.P., 30 November 2011: at Zero Hedge; at Scribd.
Some earlier letters: 14 Feb 2011; 11 May 2010.
Another notable person who has called attention to (and studied) the macroeconomics of (unsustainable) debt is Steve Keen.
Update, 01 Jan 2012: Additional item mentioned by Bass:
"The Budget and Economic Outlook: Fiscal Years 2011 to 2021," The Congress of the United States, Congressional Budget Office, January 2011.
"CBO's 2011 Long-Term Budget Outlook," The Congress of the United States, Congressional Budget Office, June 2011.
"The Budget and Economic Outlook: An Update," The Congress of the United States, Congressional Budget Office, August 2011.
For more information see Budget and Economic Information, Congressional Budget Office.
Note that US government budget economists (by law?) base their analyses on unrealistically optimistic (i.e., empirically false) expectations for key economic variables: (1) a plateau (non-increase) in the amount of US government debt as a percent of GDP; (2) a decreasing unemployment rate; (3) increasing tax revenues; (4) decreasing yearly government budget deficits as a percent of GDP.
Update, December 2012:
Kyle Bass at AmeriCatalyst 2012:
[via Zero Hedge]
Kyle Bass, BBC HARDtalk, November 2011:
[via Zero Hedge]
Note: The hostile and condescending questioning by the interviewer doesn't allow him to explain his answers in any detail, but does provoke him into letting off a few memorable quotes. See the friendlier AmeriCatalyst conversations for explanations of his economic outlook.
Kyle Bass redux, AmeriCatalyst, November 2011:
[via Zero Hedge]
Links from the November 2011 AmeriCatalyst conversation:
An article recommended by Bass:
Nassim Nicholas Taleb & Mark Blyth, "The Black Swan of Cairo: How Suppressing Volatility Makes the World Less Predictable and More Dangerous," Foreign Affairs, May/June 2011.
At one time you could get a PDF of the article here.
The books recommended by Bass are:
Bethany McLean & Joe Nocera. All the Devils Are Here: The Hidden History of the Financial Crisis. New York: Portfolio / Penguin Group (USA), Inc., 2010.
[Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com; Wikipedia: McLean; Wikipedia: Nocera.]
Carmen M. Reinhart & Kenneth Rogoff. This Time Is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly. Princeton University Press, 2009.
[Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com; Wikipedia: Reinhart; Wikipedia: Rogoff.]
Read the latest letter to investors from Kyle Bass, Hayman Capital Management, L.P., 30 November 2011: at Zero Hedge; at Scribd.
Some earlier letters: 14 Feb 2011; 11 May 2010.
Another notable person who has called attention to (and studied) the macroeconomics of (unsustainable) debt is Steve Keen.
Update, 01 Jan 2012: Additional item mentioned by Bass:
"The Budget and Economic Outlook: Fiscal Years 2011 to 2021," The Congress of the United States, Congressional Budget Office, January 2011.
"CBO's 2011 Long-Term Budget Outlook," The Congress of the United States, Congressional Budget Office, June 2011.
"The Budget and Economic Outlook: An Update," The Congress of the United States, Congressional Budget Office, August 2011.
For more information see Budget and Economic Information, Congressional Budget Office.
Note that US government budget economists (by law?) base their analyses on unrealistically optimistic (i.e., empirically false) expectations for key economic variables: (1) a plateau (non-increase) in the amount of US government debt as a percent of GDP; (2) a decreasing unemployment rate; (3) increasing tax revenues; (4) decreasing yearly government budget deficits as a percent of GDP.
Update, December 2012:
Kyle Bass at AmeriCatalyst 2012:
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