The financial meltdown of 2008 prompted calls for a global financial system that curtails trade imbalances, moderates speculative capital flows and prevents systemic contagion.That, of course, was the goal of the original Bretton Woods system.

“Greece has at last returned to economic growth.”That was the official European Union storyline at the end of 2014.Alas, Greek voters, unimpressed by this rejoicing, ousted the incumbent government and, in January 2015, voted for a new administration in which I served as finance

“Europe will be democratised or it will disintegrate!”That maxim is more than a catchphrase from the manifesto of the Democracy in Europe Movement – DiEM25, the group I just helped to launch in Berlin.

Imagine a depositor in the US state of Arizona being permitted to withdraw only small amounts of cash weekly, and facing restrictions on how much money he or she could wire to a bank account in California.Such capital controls, if they ever came about, would spell the end of the

“The costliest minor government reshuffle in Greece’s history.” That is at least one way to describe the result of the Greek general election on September 20.Indeed, with few exceptions, the same ministers have returned to the same offices as part of an administration backed by t

Greece’s public debt has been put back on Europe’s agenda.

The point of restructuring debt is to reduce the volume of new loans needed to salvage an insolvent entity.

On July 12, the summit of eurozone leaders dictated its terms of surrender to Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, who, terrified by the alternatives, accepted all of them.