Politics:
On Greece:
And, sure enough, what we are seeing now, 16 years after the eurozone institutionalised those relationships, is the antithesis of democracy: many European leaders want to see the end of prime minister Alexis Tsipras’ leftist government. After all, it is extremely inconvenient to have in Greece a government that is so opposed to the types of policies that have done so much to increase inequality in so many advanced countries, and that is so committed to curbing the unbridled power of wealth. They seem to believe that they can eventually bring down the Greek government by bullying it into accepting an agreement that contravenes its mandate.
The Guardian: Joseph Stiglitz: how I would vote in the Greek referendum, 30 June 2015
No side bears sole blame for the current mess. From the very start, the idea of a common European currency was built on a logical flaw. Put at its crudest, monetary union all but requires fiscal union, which in turn requires political union. Yet when the euro was launched, there were no such institutions or mechanisms, just the perennial but vague hope of ever closer union. What’s more, the world’s largest currency area was run on two unsustainable economic motors: Germany exporting ever more to southern Europe and the rest of the world, and southern Europe relying on cheap credit. That fragile system was crushed under the rubble of the financial crisis.
The Guardian: The Guardian view on the Greek crisis: the European project itself is at stake, July 1, 2015
Brookings on what we do know and what we don't know about the potential outcome of the crisis, Quartz on what's next after the end of the ECB assistance, openDemocracy argues that Greek defaulting might not be so bad after all and compares to the Argentinian experience.
openDemocracy on how utterly the international community failed Syrian civilians.
The US after Charleston:
It may seem odd, decades after the civil-rights movement, to note that for a sitting President to say that the Confederacy fought for the institution of slavery—and that doing so was a moral wrong—is a radical statement. Yet it is, and shortly after making it the President fell silent. It appeared that perhaps he had lost his way, but then, in a remarkable moment, he began to sing “Amazing Grace,” a hymn that is at once a lament, a prayer, and a hope—written by John Newton, a onetime slave trader who became an abolitionist. Immediately after the speech, people began debating whether the song had been part of the prepared text or whether the President sang it out of an impromptu spiritual imperative. In either case, he was likely hoping to see in the national culture precisely the transformation that Newton had experienced in himself, one that facilitated his first truthful accounting of the evil of slavery.
The New Yorker: Last Battles, July 6, 2015
Salon on why Republicans fail to acknowledge that right-wing terrorism is a more serious threat than Islamic terrorism, and Bree Newsome's statement after removing the Confederate battle flag from the South Carolina state house.
Chris Christie has joined the growing field of Republican contenders for the Presidential candidacy but might be more successful in ruining Jeb Bush's day than winning it for himself.
The US Deputy National Security Advisor on which region drives the Obama administration's foreign policy.
Pop Culture:
Ellen Page on her life after coming out, a portrait of Cosima Herter, the science consultant of the outstanding Orphan Black, Claire Denis will direct a science fiction film written by Zadie Smith.
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