Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-fscjk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-24T00:43:27.612Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The European Central Bank, machinic enslavement, and the Greek public sector

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 January 2024

Radman Selmic
Radman Selmic*
Affiliation:
Goldsmiths, University of London, UK
*
Corresponding author: Radman Selmic, Centre for Cultural Studies, Goldsmiths, University of London, London, SE14 6NW, UK. Email: [email protected]
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

This article investigates the role of the European Central Bank (ECB) in transferring financial and moral responsibility for the Eurozone crisis from the private to the public sector. Focusing on Greece, I argue that the ECB constructed the morality of the public debtor in such a way as to make this transfer of responsibility easier and the imposition of austerity measures justifiable. This in part relied on a shift in the ECB's discourse, which came to define the crisis exclusively in terms of public sector responsibility. However, the ECB also employed a range of non-linguistic policy measures aimed at intervening in the crisis. To interpret these measures I draw on Deleuze and Guattari's concept of ‘machinic enslavement’, arguing that the ECB contributed to the Greek crisis not only by defining it discursively but also by reshaping the country's financial infrastructure in crucial ways.

Keywords

European Central Bankdebtorpublicprivatemoralitymachinic enslavement
Type
Article
Information
Finance and Society , Volume 2 , Issue 1: Ethics of debt , 2016 , pp. 45 - 61
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BYCreative Common License - NCCreative Common License - ND
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits noncommercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is unaltered and is properly cited. The written permission of Cambridge University Press must be obtained for commercial re-use or in order to create a derivative work.
Copyright
© 2016 The Author(s)

References

Blanchard, O. and Leigh, D. (2013) Growth forecast errors and fiscal multipliers. IMF Working Paper, 13/1. Available at: <http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/wp/2013/wp1301.pdf/>. Accessed 16 March 2016.Google Scholar
Callon, M. (ed.) (1998) The Laws of the Markets. London: Wiley-Blackwell.Google Scholar
Callon, M. (2007) What does it mean to say economics is performative? In: MacKenzie, D., Muniesa, F. and Siu, L. (eds) Do Economists Make Markets? On the Performativity of Economics. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 311–57.Google Scholar
Chang, H. (2013) Europe is haunted by the myth of the lazy mob. The Guardian, 29 January. Available at: <https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/jan/29/myth-lazy-mob-hands-rich/>. Accessed 12 March 2016..+Accessed+12+March+2016.>Google Scholar
de Goede, M. (2005) Virtue, Fortune, and Faith: A Genealogy of Finance. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
Deleuze, G. and Guattari, F. (1987) A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia, trans. by Massumi, B.. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
Deleuze, G. and Guattari, F. (2004) Anti-Oedipus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia, trans. by Hurley, R., Seem, M. and Lane, H.. London: Continuum.Google Scholar
ECB (European Central Bank) (2009a) Longer-term refinancing operations [Press release], 7 May. Available at: <https://www.ecb.europa.eu/press/pr/date/2009/html/pr090507_2.en.html/> Accessed 14 April 2016.+Accessed+14+April+2016.>Google Scholar
ECB (2009b) EU Banks’ Funding Structures and Policies [Online], May. Available at: <https://www.ecb.europa.eu/pub/pdf/other/eubanksfundingstructurespolicies0905en.pdf/>. Accessed 14 March 2016..+Accessed+14+March+2016.>Google Scholar
ECB (2009c) Financial Stability Review [Online], December. Available at: <https://www.ecb.europa.eu/pub/pdf/other/financialstabilityreview200912en.pdf?59003c77f87b44c0c34782e3573ccb03/>. Accessed 12 March 2016..+Accessed+12+March+2016.>Google Scholar
ECB (2010a) Financial Stability Review [Online], June. Available at: <https://www.ecb.europa.eu/pub/pdf/other/financialstabilityreview201006en.pdf?19bfebe20cdfd99b872c14e1abdb52e0/>. Accessed 13 March 2016..+Accessed+13+March+2016.>Google Scholar
ECB (2010b) ECB decides on measures to address severe tensions in financial markets [Press release], 10 May. Available at: <https://www.ecb.europa.eu/press/pr/date/2010/html/pr100510.en.html/>. Accessed 13 April 2016..+Accessed+13+April+2016.>Google Scholar
ECB (2010c) Interview with Jean-Claude Trichet, President of the ECB, and Libération, conducted by Jean Quatremer on Thursday 8 July 2010 [Online], 13 July. Available at: <https://www.ecb.europa.eu/press/key/date/2010/html/sp100713.en.html/>. Accessed 5 March 2016..+Accessed+5+March+2016.>Google Scholar
ECB (2012a) Financial Stability Review [Online], June. Available at: <https://www.ecb.europa.eu/pub/pdf/other/financialstabilityreview201206en.pdf?6b3b7eb08f53f6ad069f5b6dd15275c8/>. Accessed on 3 April 2016..+Accessed+on+3+April+2016.>Google Scholar
ECB (2012b) Financial Stability Review [Online], December. Available at: <https://www.ecb.europa.eu/pub/pdf/other/financialstabilityreview201212en.pdf?9bc3b98825a415f9dd214d292d931a63/>. Accessed 23 April 2016..+Accessed+23+April+2016.>Google Scholar
ECB (2012c) Speech by Mario Draghi, President of the European Central Bank at the Global Investment Conference in London, 26 July. Available at: <https://www.ecb.europa.eu/press/key/date/2012/html/sp120726.en.html/>. Accessed 13 March 2016..+Accessed+13+March+2016.>Google Scholar
Foucault, M. (2010) The Birth of Biopolitics: Lectures at the Collège de France, 1978-1979, trans. by Burchell, G.. New York, NY: Picador.Google Scholar
Fouskas, V. and Dimoulas, C. (2013) Greece, Financialization and the EU: The Political Economy of Debt and Destruction. Basingstoke: Palgrave.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Graeber, D. (2011) Debt: The First 5000 Years. London: Melville House.Google Scholar
Hein, E. (2015) The crisis of finance-dominated capitalism in the euro area, deficiencies in the economic policy architecture, and deflationary stagnation policies. In: Bitzenis, A., Karagiannis, N. and Marangos, J. (eds.) Europe in Crisis: Problems, Challenges, and Alternative Perspectives. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 121–42.Google Scholar
Holmes, D.R. (2014) Communicative imperatives in central banks, Cornell International Law Journal, 47(1): 15–61.Google Scholar
Jones, T. (2015) Six key points about Greece's debt. Jubilee Debt Campaign [Online], 26 January. Available at: <http://jubileedebt.org.uk/reports-briefings/briefing/six-key-points-greek-debt-weeks-election/>. Accessed 30 March 2016.. Accessed 30 March 2016.' href=https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Jones,+T.+(2015)+Six+key+points+about+Greece's+debt.+Jubilee+Debt+Campaign+[Online],+26+January.+Available+at:+.+Accessed+30+March+2016.>Google Scholar
Krugman, P. (2012a) European crisis realities. The New York Times, 25 February. Available at: <http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/25/european-crisis-realities/>. Accessed 3 February 2016..+Accessed+3+February+2016.>Google Scholar
Krugman, P. (2012b) Greece as victim. The New York Times, 17 June. Available at: <http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/18/opinion/krugman-greece-as-victim.html?_r=0/>. Accessed 3 January 2016.Google Scholar
Krugman, P. (2016) Brexit: The morning after. The New York Times, 24 June. Available at: <http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2016/06/24/brexit-the-morning-after/?_r=0/>. Accessed 5 July 2016.Google Scholar
Lapavitsas, C. et al. (2012) Crisis in the Eurozone. London: Verso.Google Scholar
Lazzarato, M. (2012) The Making of the Indebted Man: An Essay on the Neoliberal Condition, trans. by Jordan, J.D.. Los Angeles, CA: Semiotext(e).Google Scholar
Lazzarato, M. (2014) Signs and Machines: Capitalism and the Production of Subjectivity, trans. by Jordan, J.D.. Los Angeles, CA: Semiotext(e).Google Scholar
MacKenzie, D. (2010) Material Markets: How Economic Agents are Constructed. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Marenko, B. (2010) Contagious affectivity: The management of emotions in late capitalist design. Swiss Design Network Conference [Online]. Available at: <https://architecture.mit.edu/sites/architecture.mit.edu/files/attachments/lecture/MARENKO_Contagious%20Affectivity.pdf/>. Accessed 3 February 2016..+Accessed+3+February+2016.>Google Scholar
Mazzucato, M. (2015) The Entrepreneurial State: Debunking Public vs. Private Sector Myths. London: Anthem Press.Google Scholar
Mirowski, P. (2013) Never Let the Serious Crisis Go to Waste: How Neoliberalism Survived the Financial Meltdown. London: Verso.Google Scholar
Nietzsche, F. (1994 [1887]) On the Genealogy of Morality, ed. by K. Ansell-Pearson, trans. by C. Diethe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Pisani-Ferry, J. (2014) The Euro Crisis and Its Aftermath. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pogatsa, Z. (2015) Corrupt, lazy Greeks?: Debunking ethnic stereotyping substituting economics. Pogátsa Zoltán Blogja [Online], 27 June. Available at: <https://pogiblog.atlatszo.hu/2015/06/27/corrupt-lazy-greeks-debunking-ethnic-stereotyping-substituting-economics/>. Accessed 20 February 2016..+Accessed+20+February+2016.>Google Scholar
Roitman, J. (2013) Anti-Crisis. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.Google Scholar
Selmic, R. (2015) An inspiring guide for de-ontologizing the crisis. Journal of Cultural Economy, 9(1): 101–04.Google Scholar
Stiglitz, J. (2010) Dangers of deficit-cut fetishism. The Guardian, 7 March. Available at: <https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2010/mar/07/deficit-fetishism-government-spending/>. Accessed 23 March 2016..+Accessed+23+March+2016.>Google Scholar
Stiglitz, J. (2016) The Euro and Its Threat to the Future of Europe. London: Allen Lane.Google Scholar
TCPD (Truth Committee on Public Debt) (2015) Preliminary Report, Hellenic Parliament [Online]. Available at: <http://debt-truth.gr/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Report_UK_new.pdf/>. Accessed 23 April 2016..+Accessed+23+April+2016.>Google Scholar
Triandafyllidou, A., Gropas, R. and Kouki, H. (eds) (2013) The Greek Crisis and European Modernity. London: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Varoufakis, Y. (2015) The great Greek bank robbery. Project Syndicate [Online], 15 December. Available at: <https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/latest-greek-bank-bailout-by-yanis-varoufakis-2015-12?barrier=true/>. Accessed 12 January 2016..+Accessed+12+January+2016.>Google Scholar