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Greek Prime Minister George Panpandreou survived a confidence vote on Saturday but yesterday was pushed to resign, lacking enough allies to form a broad coalition government. The Greek parliament is scrambling to name a replacement who will be tasked with leading a divided nation through its economic crisis. Reuters reports the front runner is Lucas Papademos, a former European Central Bank official. Uncertainty abounds in Europe. Last week the G20 summit held in Cannes, France, ended on Friday without a new plan to contain the European Financial Contagion. There is political turmoil across the EU as the IMF and European Central Bank (ECB) are already overseeing the bailouts of Ireland, Portugal, and Greece, which some leaders have admitted may be forced to leave the EU. Italy appears poised for a bailout request and there are calls for Italy’s prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi to resign. The consensus at the G20 summit was that the IMF’s powers need to be increased by boosting its resources in order to deal with the crisis. Reportedly up for discussion at the Summit was the Tobin Tax, also known as the Robin Hood tax. Supporters say it would raise billions by imposing a tax on financial transactions, and its inclusion behind closed doors at the G20 is being interpreted as a victory for the Occupy Wall Street movement and international protests against inequality and austerity in Greece and elsewhere. The G20 was not spared the attention of protest groups, and an estimated 3000 protestors gathered for demonstrations throughout the week, many camping out in Nice. The opposition was far outnumbered by police, with 12,000 officers deployed to monitor protest activities.

GUEST: Dean Baker is co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington, DC. He is frequently cited in economics reporting in major media outlets. He writes a weekly column for the Guardian Unlimited (UK), the Huffington Post, TruthOut, and his blog, Beat the Press, features commentary on economic reporting.

Read Dean Baker’s blog here: www.cepr.net/index.php/beat-the-press/

Download Dean Baker’s latest book The End of Loser Liberalism for free, here: http://www.cepr.net/index.php/publications/books/the-end-of-loser-liberalism