Against the Troika

Resumen del libro

A radical anti-capitalist alternative to Eurozone austerity
On the 25th January 2015 the Greek people voted in an election of historic importance not just for Greece but potentially all of Europe. The radical party Syriza was elected and austerity and the neoliberal agenda is being challenged. Suddenly it seems as if there is an alternative. But what?

The Eurozone is in a deep and prolonged crisis. It is now clear that monetary union is a historic failure, beyond repair and certainly not in the interests of Europe's working people.

Building on the economic analysis of two of Europe's leading thinkers, Heiner Flassbeck and Costas Lapavitsas (a candidate standing for election on Syriza's list), Against the Troika is the first book to propose a strategic left-wing plan for how peripheral countries could exit the euro. With a change in government in Greece, and looming political transformations in countries such as Spain, this major intervention lays out a radical, anti-capitalist programme at a critical juncture for Europe. The final three chapters offer a detailed postmortem of the Greek catastrophe, explain what can be learned from it and provide a possible alternative.

Against the Troika is a practical blueprint for real change in a continent wracked by crisis and austerity.

Biografía del autor

Economista griego, profesor en la Universidad de Londres SOAS (School of Oriental and African Studies) y periodista colaborador de la sección de opinión del diario londinense The Guardian. Sus investigaciones en economía incluyen la relación entre las finanzas y el desarrollo, la estructura de los sistemas financieros, y la evolución y el funcionamiento del sistema financiero japonés. Recientemente he empezado a trabajar en la interacción entre las relaciones de mercado y no de mercado en el sistema financiero. Como miembro de la investigación sobre dinero y finanzas (RMF) lideró junto a diferentes economistas de tradición keynesiana, e incluso marxista, un informe que criticaba la respuesta de los países de la Unión Europea a la crisis. El debate entonces se centraba en los ajustes fiscales y salariales adoptados en los países de la periferia. Ahora los problemas se han agravado, como sostuvo entonces. Sus publicaciones anteriores incluyen Social Foundations of Markets, Money and Credit y Political Economy of Money and Finance