This book analyses the causes of the current Eurozone and Greek crisis. Jason Manolopoulos combines his experience of the global financial system, European politics and Greek society, to explore the economic policies, historical legacy, psychological biases that have shaped an ongoing drama.

Jason Manolopoulos lends a unique perspective, based on experience of the global financial system, emerging markets and crises, European politics and Greek society, to demonstrate how one of the EU’s smaller countries played a catalytic role in a crisis that threatens the future of the euro, and possibly even of the European Union itself. He digs beneath the headline economic data to explore the historical legacy and psychological biases that have shaped an ongoing political drama, in a book that has profound implications for our understanding of economics, as well as the policy choices for Europe’s elite.

For more information please visit the book website: greecesodiousdebt.anthempressblog.com/

1. From Buenos Aires to Athens; 2. Getting Lucky; 3. The Euro: A Hard Sell, or a Mis-sell?; 4. Western Branding, Eastern Legacy: A Country on a Fault-line; 5. The Looting of Greece: Scandals, Corruption and a Monstrous Public Sector; 6. Getting Unlucky: It All Begins to Unravel; 7. The Euro in Practice; 8. Liquidity Boom; 9. The Entertainers; 10. A Temporary Bail-out? A Crisis Made Worse by Satisficing; 11. The Man in the Arena; Notes; Index; INDEX 2

For more information please visit the book website:

greecesodiousdebt.anthempressblog.com/

Jason Manolopoulos combines his experience of the global financial system, European politics and Greek society to demonstrate how one of the EU’s smaller countries played a catalytic role in a crisis that threatens the future of the euro, and possibly even of the European Union itself.

He explores the historical legacy and psychological biases that have shaped an ongoing drama. While leaders of the European Union criticise ‘the markets’ for destabilizing the single currency, Manolopoulos interrogates the shared beliefs of the EU and the investment banking community – and how they colluded for a decade in the illusion that lending huge sums to peripheral eurozone countries was safe.

Policy and investment errors bear marked similarities with earlier financial crises – in particular the Exchange Rate Mechanism system and the Argentine debt crisis. This inability to learn history’s recent lessons begs fundamental questions of policy making, which this book discusses.

Greek society also comes under scrutiny, as shocking details of a kleptocratic political class and a wasteful public sector are revealed. Manolopoulos traces these developments back to dictatorship and civil war, but argues that there is no excuse for their continuation in a modern democracy.