Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts from August, 2015

HOW GROSS NATIONAL HAPPINESS CAN REINVIGORATE THE LEFT IN EUROPE

I could not have been more wrong in my assessment , prior to the conclusion of the marathon negotiations that averted, for the time being, at least, Greece's departure from the Euro, that her prime minister Mr Tsipras would not sign up to a deal that would heap further damage on his country's economy. Like other observers , I had over-estimated the contingency planning of Greece's left-wing Syriza government, which turned out not to have a plan B - not one, at least, that it was willing to execute . It was obliged, therefore, to fall in with whatever accommodation the other Eurozone members were prepared to extend to them. In thus finally succumbing to the ineluctable pressure of his Eurozone colleagues, Mr Tsipras tacitly acknowledged on behalf of his party the overwhelming power of money to frame political decision-making. The Eurozone is structured to prevent governments from unnerving the markets by borrowing more than they can easily afford. Since attracti