1st GAPE Web Seminar (Spring 2022). Zhi Li: "The Greek Crisis Under Structural Constraints"

In May 28, 2022, Zhi Li from Renmin University (Beijing) will deliver the first GAPE web seminar for Spring 2022 titled as “The Greek Crisis Under Structural Constraints”.

Meeting Information

Date: May 28, 2021. Time: 11:00 (16:00 Beijing Time)

Meeting link:

https://uoa.webex.com/uoa/j.php?MTID=m84ba3a784388cc9753a7b2347d972865

Meeting number: 2730 152 2783

Abstract of the seminar

This article studies the Greece crisis since 2009 through a generalised Marxian framework by embedding the Greek capital accumulation process into the capitalist core-periphery structure in the EU. The institutional apparatus of the EU limited the policy independence of Greece as a peripheral country, and the mechanism of unequal exchange led to the outflow of value. These constraints deteriorated the economic competitiveness of Greece and adversely impacted its capital accumulation. Thus, Greece experienced a relatively low rate of profit in the neoliberal era with weak productive accumulation. On the other hand, the framework of EU helped Greece to sustain growth with the expansion of debt, especially the external debt for the Greek government. However, such mode of growth was not sustainable under weak productive accumulation. Since the international market lost confidence in Greece’s capacity to repay the debt, the economy lost the source of external funding, leading to the halt of the debt expansion and the burst of sovereign debt crisis. The Greek crisis reflects the structural constrains in developments faced by peripheral countries in the capitalist world system.

Keywords: Greek crisis; core-periphery structure; rate of profit; debt crisis; peripheral countries; development