At a symposium of the GUE/NGL group in the European Parliament on "The ECB - Europe's unelected government" (video from min. 22), I gave a presentation on the nature and motives of central banks in general and the European Central Bank in particular, characterizing it as an integral part of the banking community. Harald Schumann (from min. 47) presented a lot of juicy detail about highly questionable machinations of the ECB during the bank-"rescues" in Greece and Cyprus. The text of my intervention is below.

 Randall Wray is probably the best known representative of a branch of economic thinking called Modern Monetary Theory (MMT). On Naked Captilism I read his polemic called "Debt-free money and banana republics". I am more than a bit disappointed. From somebody like Randall Wray, who specializes on debt, I would have expected a more careful treatment of the relation of money and debt, especially if he wants to be vitriolic and call those cranks, who argue for “debt-free money”. Randall does not seem to know, what debt is.

Dear Mr. Haering, I came across your blog post, “The microcredit mafia lowers its socially responsible mask,” and am compelled to respond to your assertions. I believe we share the same concern for client interests. FINCA also values an open discussion on how best to deliver critical financial services to people across the world, wherever they may live.

Muhammad Yunus and his Grameen Bank have received the Nobel Peace Prize on the promise of conquering poverty by giving poor people in poor countries access to debt. A whole industry of lending to the poor has developed from this. It is making its leading figures quite rich and is pushing many customers into misery and debt slavery. A recent tax-filing of the large microcredit-“charity” FINCA and an internal report tell us a lot about this business.  

Where will be an important conference from 26.-28. November in Berlin on the need to reform economics education and on ways to do this. The meeting will be held partly in English, partly in German at the Berlin School of Economics and Law (HWR)

The Group of Thirty, a mixed group of international commercial bankers and central bankers, has just released a report on central banking. The report is again presented as if it was representing the opinion of the group as a whole, including Mario Draghi. This proves that the new guidelines for communication of the members of the Executive Board of the ECB are nothing but window dressing.

Early in 2013 the EU-Ombudsman ruled on a complaint of Corporate Europe Observatory and found that ECB-President Mario Draghi can legitimately be part of the Group of Thirty, a mixed group of international bankers and central bankers. My research shows that the reasons he gave at the time are not valid any more. Draghi will not be able stay in this highly problematic group, nor will ECB-Top-Supervisor Julie Dickson be able to continue to "contribute her experience".

Anasthase Contagyris is a French and Greek economist living in Athens. He is Co-Founder of Attac-Greece, CEO of Dialogos Ltd, an Athens  Startup coaching and export facilitation consultancy he founded in 19887. He is a member of the Truth Committee on Public Debt of the Greek Parliament, which recently issued a preliminary report. We met in Frankfurt. He is well conneted, though not a member, to Syriza.

At the meeting of the Shadow ECB Council on 27 May 2015 it became clear that the spectre of Grexit is polarizing not only policy makers but also economists. About half the members of the Shadow ECB Council would regard an exit of Greece from the currency union a very bad and dangerous outcome. Roughly the other half would consider it well manageable or even desirable.

Presentation for the seminar “Economics and Power” on 23 March 2015, House of Lords, London: Ladies and Gentlemen, To pay tribute to the Marxist jargon, in which Lord Skidelsky has phrased the title of my subject, I would like to start with a quote from Karl Marx: "The ideas of the ruling class are in every epoch the ruling ideas. … The ruling ideas are nothing more than the ideal expression of the dominant material relationships, … the relationships which make the one class the ruling one, therefore, the ideas of its dominance." In my own words, that means that not all economic ideas are created equal.

 In June 2011, Spiegel Online conducted and published a remarkable interview with Albrecht Ritschl. Ritschl is one of Germany’s most renowned economic historians, teaching at the London School of Economics.  Already for years ago, he warned that Germany, being the worst debt offender in history, would ultimately regret it, if it insisted on behaving like the tough taskmaster of Athens and the rest of Europe. What Ritschl predicted is

You have to see this Video from dutch TV. Translateion from Pastebin: 'Jeroen Dijsselbloem': "I'm Jeroen Dijsselbloem, minister of finance and political phenomenon. Due to the frown line on my forehead and my penny-pinching look, you can immediately see that I'm an expert. I'm the right man for this position, let the Greek come my way- I will make them mad. I will get the money back, as it is my duty- and you cannot