German politicians and media are intensifying pressure on Rome in anticipation of today’s EU Commission verdict on Italy’s national budget. Already last week, EU Budget Commissioner Günther Oettinger announced, in reference to the Italian deficit, that the Italian government must “correct” its draft budget. Media reports refer to a “black week” for Rome. Negative reporting – like rating agencies’ devaluation of Italy’s creditworthiness – can contribute to the destabilization of Italy’s financial and credit markets. The country’s current downward spiral threatens to re-escalate the banking crisis. Whereas Berlin insists that the EU take sharp measures against deficits, Germany’s Finance Minister at the time, Wolfgang Schäuble had prevented the EU Commission from taking measures against excessive surpluses, which the commission sees as potentially just as destabilizing. Germany has been achieving these surpluses year after year.
National Politics
Michael Vlahos – Ukraine Shares Same Fate as the South in the American Civil War
Is the Ukrainian army headed for collapse? American military historian Michael Vlahos has an outside view of the issue. Read HERE
Geopolitics
Stavroula Pabst: American security contractors walking thin line in Gaza
Former private soldiers say this new way of war — unofficial boots on the ground — could go sideways, while giving governments political cover Read HERE
Economics
Bill Mitchell: The Covid trade-off between health and the economy did not exist
Our health systems and labour markets have been pushed into unworkable states by the fiscal cuts, outsourcing, privatisation, casualisation, wage restraint, etc – all pursued in the name of making us all better off and […]
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