Smoking and Drinking Rise as Money Worries Hit Home
IRISH EXAMINER: SALARY cuts and reduced working hours are affecting almost half of all households, with money matters now having overtaken the pursuit of personal happiness in lists of priorities, a study has found.

As the effect of the recession deepens, the 2011 Pfizer Health Index indicates the toll the austere times are taking on our health. Pointing to increased drinking and smoking and lower motivation for personal improvement, the survey finds seven out of 10 people are struggling to make ends meet. » | Catherine Shanahan | Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Meltdown – Final Part: After the Fall
Some responded with denial, others by re-thinking capitalism, but who is preparing for the next crisis?
Watch Part 4 here

Meltdown Part 3: Paying the Price
As the toll of the financial crisis continues to mount, many are looking for its true causes - and finding a crime
Watch Part 3 of Meltdown here
Related: Parts 1 & 2 »

Meltdown Part 2: A Global Financial Tsunami
Meltdown examines how an epidemic of fear caused banks to stop lending, triggered protests and led to industrial action.
Watch video here
Related: Meltown Part 1 »

Greeks Pay for Economic Crisis with Their Health
THE GUARDIAN: Rising demand and cost-cutting put services at breaking point, while drug addiction, HIV and suicide rates increase

It is 4am on the emergency ward of Evangelismos general hospital - the biggest in Greece - and the stream of patients is relentless. Dr Michalis Samarkos has not stopped working since he started his shift some 14 hours earlier, and he has been besieged by patients unable to afford the tests or the drugs they need.

Many, like the unemployed diabetic man he has just examined, have gone without treatment for several days. "When you see a diabetic unable to afford his insulin you know he is going to die," says Samarkos. "There is no infrastructure to help these people. On every front the system has failed the people it was meant to serve."

Greeks are paying for their economic disaster with their health, according to a new study.

In a letter to the Lancet medical journal, a team lead [sic] by Dr Alexander Kentikelenis and Dr David Stuckler from Cambridge University and Professor Martin McKee from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine warns of a potential "Greek tragedy". They point to signs of a dramatic decline in the health of the population and a deterioration of services at hospitals under financial pressure.

Many Greeks have lost access to healthcare coverage through work and social security plans, and rising poverty levels mean growing numbers who would previously have used the private sector are now flocking to state hospitals. Alongside savage spending cuts, the rise has put an immense strain on a chaotic and corrupt system that was already in decline. » | Helena Smith in Athens and Sarah Boseley | Monday, October 10, 2011

Angela Merkel Bets All On Greek Myths

THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH: The euro crisis vote has turned Germany's European dream into a nightmare, writes Clemens Wergin of Die Welt.

When George Papandreou addressed an audience of businessmen in Berlin on the painful subject of the euro crisis last week, he must have been surprised by the warmth of his welcome: far friendlier than anything the increasingly isolated Greek prime minister is used to back home.

Even more remarkable, given that Greece and its ever-expanding need for a bail-out is the cause of so much angst in Germany, the applause he received was louder than that for the Chancellor, Angela Merkel.

But the reason goes directly to the heart of the problem Germany faces. None of the industrialists – representatives of great German manufacturing companies like Siemens, BMW and Volkswagen – who gathered a 1960s conference centre in the former communist east of Berlin to hear him speak, want the euro to fail. Most would rather gamble just a little bit more of Germany's hard-earned cash to help Greece get out of its mess. And all wanted to believe his message, that the tough reforms promised by Greece would not only be delivered, but would work.

"We're not asking for applause, but we are simply asking for respect of the facts," he said. "Is there any hope? Will we ultimately succeed? My answer is yes, we can!"

As it turned out, last week was a decisive one for Mrs Merkel. On Thursday, she saw off a rebellion in her own ruling coalition and got the plan for an expanded bail-out fund through the German parliament, the Bundestag, with enough votes not to have needed the strong support that also came from the opposition.

But the question for Germany is still unanswered. Are Germans right to continue, grudgingly, to help their southern European cousins out of the mess that their bad habits have got them into? Or are we simply pouring good money after bad? Continue reading and comment » | Clemens Wergin*, in Berlin | Sunday, October 02, 2011

*Clemens Wergin is Foreign Editor of Die Welt

Greece Is Slipping into the Abyss

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: As the economic crisis worsens, the very fabric of society in Athens is being ripped apart as the Greeks lose their good humour and generosity.

Greek grannies are as ubiquitous and iconic as Greek cats. Dressed immaculately in widow’s black, and with their grey hair neatly styled, they are proud figures. They are treated with respect by even the most rebellious youths, and acknowledged by all as the head of the fiercely maternal family groups that bind Greek society together.

The old lady I saw on the street in Athens this week was typical, except in one shocking respect. She was begging. Beggars are normal here these days, but almost all are immigrants or drug users. This was different. The image of this proud woman sitting on a plastic crate outside the supermarket with her hands out has stayed in my mind. If a symbol is needed to illustrate the unravelling of Greek society, then this is it.

The Athens I knew 20 years ago has changed radically. I used to tell British friends that despite its chaos, it was a very civilised city. When I moved here, you didn’t have homeless people sleeping on the streets, there was little crime and the sick and needy were looked after. That civility is vanishing fast. With economic doom becoming ever more likely, it sometimes feels as if the fabric of society is being ripped asunder.

Muggings used to be a rarity; not any more. Walk down the main streets of central Athens at night and you will see people sleeping rough. The other day I had to deal with a young man who had passed out on my doorstep. He may have been drunk, but in these crisis-stricken days, it is just as likely that he was high on crack cocaine, now selling for 5 euros a hit. I wasn’t going to risk disturbing him – I had my children with me.

My area of central Athens is a relatively “bad” location, but there are much worse places. The neighbourhood of Psirri borders the popular tourist attractions. Ten years ago, Psirri was rejuvenated. Bars and cafes opened, old buildings were restored. A live jazz club opened that was an instant hit. The club is gone now, and most of the shops are closed. The area became so dangerous that people simply stopped going there. Now it’s riddled with drugs. People shoot up on the street and accost anyone foolish enough to stray through the area for money. And all of this takes place a short walk from the Acropolis. Read on and comment » | Christopher Humphrys | Saturday, October 01, 2011

The World from Berlin: Obama's Euro-Crisis Lecture Is 'Pitiful and Sad'

SPIEGEL ONLINE INTERNATIONAL: US President Obama has given the Europeans a harsh lecture on the dangers of their ongoing debt crisis. Offended by the unsolicited advice, Europeans have suggested the US get its own house in order first. Obama's remarks were "arrogant" and "absurd," German commentators say on Wednesday.

Europeans are well aware of the seriousness of their ongoing debt crisis. But they don't, it seems, like to receive lectures from other countries -- especially the United States, which is struggling to deal with its own mountain of debt.

On Tuesday, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble curtly rejected recent American criticism of Europe's approach to solving its debt crisis. "I don't think Europe's problems are America's only problems," said Schäuble, who has become increasingly sharp-tongued as the euro crisis deepens. "It's always easier to give other people advice."

Schäuble was referring to strongly worded comments made by US President Barack Obama and US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner in recent days. At an event in California on Monday, Obama warned Europeans that their inaction was "scaring the world." The Europeans, he said, "have not fully healed from the crisis back in 2007 and never fully dealt with all the challenges that their banking system faced. It's now being compounded by what's happening in Greece." He continued: "They're going through a financial crisis that is scaring the world, and they're trying to take responsible actions, but those actions haven't been quite as quick as they need to be." » | Kristen Allen and David Gordon Smith | Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Related »

'I Go to Bed Every Night and Dream of Another Recession': Moment Trader Told Shocked BBC Presenter the City Just LOVES an Economic Disaster
• 'We don’t really care whether they’re going to fix the economy, our job is to make money from it' • Twitter users claim Alessio Rastani is a member of 'Yes Men' hoaxers

An outspoken City trader left interviewers open-mouthed as he admitted that traders 'don't really care that much' about the prospect of an economic collapse.

Alessio Rastani astonished BBC viewers yesterday by describing his hopes of profiting from a recession, adding: 'The governments don't rule the world - Goldman Sachs rules the world.'

The self-styled 'independent trader' also claimed he had been 'dreaming of this moment for three years', as the global economy faces continuing uncertainty. » | Hugo Gye | Tuesday, September 27, 2011

The Greek Tragedy: No Money, No Hope

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Despairing middle classes could be the biggest threat to Greece's future, writes Paul Mason in Athens.

Dmitris Andreou made the last sale out of his small estate agents business in June. His wife Mary, makes her living preparing high-school students for English exams.

But her living has dried up. Their savings are exhausted, their disposable income has dropped by about 50 per cent in two years, and they are angry.

"Some days we only buy the basics and a few days lately we were not able to buy even those. We have to count our cents to decide between buying bread, milk or butter," says Mary.

"Some days are better, but some are difficult. We don't buy clothes any more. People don't go out. There is simply no money around out there."

In their neat apartment in an Athens suburb, surrounded by family heirlooms and lace tablecloths, they are a world apart from the anarchist demonstrators who snatch the headlines whenever opposition to the EU-imposed austerity measures is discussed.

But what's happening in living rooms like theirs presents the bigger danger to the future of Greece. People are switching off: from politics, from the mass media, from social life.

"We would like to see the politicians executed," says Maria, not smiling as she delivers the joke. "Most people are saying this: politicians deserve capital punishment – at the Greek equivalent of Traitors' Gate. It would be a nice time for politicians to be heroes, to stand up and defend the people. But they're not." » | Paul Mason, BBC Newsnight's Economics Editor, Athens | Saturdaay, September 24, 2011

LOS ANGELES TIMES: Greece unveils more austerity measures: The struggling nation plans to cut 30,000 state jobs and reduce pensions in an effort to avoid default. » | Anthee Carassava, Los Angeles Times | Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Riots Herald a 'Dark Day' in Greek History as MPs Vote Through Austerity Cuts

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: A young woman staggered down the steps of Syntagma Square blinded by the acrid smoke as thick clouds of tear gas billowed across the heart of the Greek capital.

Bent double and choking, the thin surgical mask across her mouth failing to protect her lungs from the noxious fumes, she crumpled to the ground in front of the Parliament as an army of riot police closed ranks behind her.

Hooded youths, their faces hidden behind gas masks ripped what projectiles they could find from the streets to hurl at police chanting "cops, pigs, murderers!"

Police retaliated with baton charges accompanied by sporadic rounds of teargas and stun grenades releasing terrifying loud bangs - and the crowds fled, regrouping within minutes in other parts of the square.

Such scenes were repeated over and over throughout Wednesday during a second day of protests against a deeply unpopular austerity package.

The protests demonstrate a growing social unrest across all levels of society bubbling into unprecedented public anger at the politicians held responsible for bringing a nation to its knees. » | Fiona Govan, Athens | Thursday, June 30, 2011

Greek Protests Turn Violent
The streets of Athens have erupted in violence as Greece's parliament prepares to vote on a controversial austerity package.

The package involves job losses, privatisation and tax rises.

Without those measures Greece will not be given access to any more loans from the European Union or the International Monetary Fund. Opponents, however, say it that it condemns ordinary Greek citizens to years of poverty.

Al Jazeera's Barnaby Phillips reports from Athens, the Greek capital.

Inside Story: Greece Protests at Austerity Measures
Inside Story with presenter Teymoor Nabili discusses with guests: Vagelis Agapitos, independent economist; Yanis Varoufakis, professor of economics at the University of Athens; and Fotis Boblas, an activist and protester.

Greece in Turmoil as Papandreou Tries to Salvage Government

THE GUARDIAN: PM concedes he is unable to muster enough support for cuts required by international creditors to balance Greece's books

The economic and social mayhem gripping Europe's peripheries appeared to have claimed the scalp of another government after the Greek prime minister admitted he could not drive through reforms to shore up the beleaguered economy, and offered to make way for a government of national unity.

After a day on which tens of thousands marched on parliament to oppose the swingeing austerity measures designed to stave off bankruptcy, George Papandreou effectively conceded that he had not been able to muster enough support in parliament for the swingeing cuts required by international creditors to enable Greece to balance its books.

Emerging from intense negotiations with his conservative opposite number, Antonis Samaras, Papandreou said that his bid to create a unity government of broad acceptance had failed.

Catching even his own cabinet ministers off guard, the US-born leader had offered to step down if his political opponent accepted further cost-cutting measures.

"I will form a new government and seek a vote of confidence," the prime minister said in an address to the nation following the talks. » | Helena Smith in Athens and agencies | Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Anti-austerity Greek Protesters Barricaded by Police
Protesters gathered at Syntagma Square in Athens are frustrated in their plan to prevent deputies from attending an austerity debate in the parliament

Bailouts Could Have Disintegration Effect on Europe - German MP

Klaus-Peter Willsch »

“I Can See Another Financial Bomb Going Off”

NEW STATESMAN: Once a self-styled free radical, Vince Cable is now grappling with the compromises of power. Here he talks about the ferocity of the press, his pact with George Osborne and why he doesn’t feel sorry for Nick Clegg

Consensus is growing that interest rates have been kept too low for too long and that inflation, which stands at 4.5 per cent, is accelerating dangerously, just as inequality deepens, growth flatlines and incomes decline. Worse still, as we enter the age of austerity, is that near-zero interest rates are artificially supporting an already unstable housing market. Spencer Dale, chief economist at the Bank of England and a member of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC), has spoken of the immediate need to raise the Bank's base rate and then to keep nudging it upwards. "I don't take lightly the impact this could have on some families," he said in an interview with the Financial Times on 21 May. "But I think the cost to our economy as a whole - were inflation to persist for longer and our credibility [to] start to be eroded - would be even worse."

The coalition government's "emergency" def¬icit reduction programme is based on one fundamental principle: when fiscal policy is so tight, monetary policy needs to remain as loose as possible. It's often said that, because of the rapidity and harshness of the cuts in public spending as well as the absence of growth in the UK economy, the government needs greater flexibility. It needs to be less rigid and more pragmatic. It needs a plan B, dare I use the cliché.

In one sense, it already has a plan B (abnormally low interest rates and the option of more quantitative easing). What it might soon need, especially if the MPC votes to raise interest rates, is a plan C (which would mean slower cuts and the kind of humiliating policy reversal that the Chancellor, George Osborne, would never sanction).

I put this to the Business Secretary, Vince Cable, when we meet on a bright, breezy afternoon at his office, with its high windows and fine views of Westminster Abbey. Reclining in a large, soft chair and sipping from a mug of tea, Cable, who has shrewd eyes and a rumpled charm, is quick to point out that the greater danger is not inflation, but deflation.

He cites the long deflationary slump that followed the financial crisis in Japan at the beginning of the 1990s as a warning of what might lie ahead for Britain. » | Jason Cowley | Wednesday, May 25, 2011

"I think the thing that worries me more than anything else [is that] we really haven't engaged with the real depths and seriousness of the financial crash. I was very impressed with that Warren Buffett metaphor that asset-backed mortgage lending was the atomic bomb, and that there are hydrogen bombs out there. I just don't think that collectively governments have got to grips with this at all." So another huge bomb could go off, sooner rather than later? "It's not imminent. But you can see this happening." – Dr. Vince Cable

NEW STATESMAN: The Vince Cable Interview »

Dutch PM and Wilders Clash on Greece
RADIO NETHERLANDS WORLDWIDE: Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte and populist Freedom Party (PVV) leader Geert Wilders clashed in parliament today over more financial aid for Greece. Mr Wilders is against a further bailout, saying that Greece should quit the euro.

The minority coalition of the conservative VVD and Christian Democrats (CDA) relies on support from the PVV on a majority of issues. However, the Greek euro crisis has caused a major divide between the PVV and the coalition parties.

The PVV and the opposition Socialist Party are against more financial aid for Greece. However, the government’s position of not ruling out more aid has the support of Labour, the D66 democrats and Green Left - all opposition parties. » | mw/hs | Thursday, May 19, 2011

Signals Spain May Seek Bailout Spelling Disaster for Eurozone
The shadows of people taking part in a demonstration organised by the group dubbed 'Youth Without a Future' in Madrid, to protest against professional and social conditions of the youth in Spain, May 15, 2011

Witness - Greece: Protesting the Protesters
This unusual take on the Greek protests centres on a small group of 'anti-activists' who think the austerity measures undertaken by the government are in fact a good thing for the crisis-ridden Greek economy. We follow Fotis and his friends in their Liberal Party as they mount their own campaign, while around them the masses gather on the streets for the huge protests that regularly rock the capital.