A few weeks ago, while in New York, Rob Johnson (Chair of the Institute of New Economic Thinking) invited me to their offices where we recorded a conversation on my The Global Minotaur, the true causes of the Crash of 2008, the reasons why the global economy cannot find its poise after that momentous Crash, and of course Europe. You can visit INET’s own page on this conversation or keep reading below:
Director’s Chair: Yanis Varoufakis – The Global Minotaur and The True Origins of the Financial Crisis
In this four-part INET “From the Director’s Chair” interview, INET Executive Director Robert Johnson talks with Greek economist Yanis Varoufakis about Varoufakis’s new book The Global Minotaur: America, The True Origins of the Financial Crisis and the Future of the World Economy.
“The Global Minotaur” is Varoufakis’s metaphor that tells the story about “what went wrong in 2008 and why the world economy is finding it so hard to rediscover its poise after the debacle in 2008.” After refusing a multilateral, more democratic exchange regime post-WW II, the US eventually became the world’s buyer of last resort. But how to finance America’s growing trade deficits? Feed the beast, says Varoufakis, drawing parallels to the story from Greek mythology about the Minotaur who had to be fed human sacrifices as tribute.
This economic approach led to the “Walmart and Wall Street model of economic growth,” he says, and to the rampant financialization that has rightly born much of the blame for the 2008 crisis. With great insight and a sharp wit, Varoufakis gets right to some of the root causes of our current crises. Can we find a way out of the Minotaur’s labyrinth? Or should we revive the beast?
Part 1: The Global Minotaur
Part 2: Bankruptocracy
Part 3: The Two Faces of the Crisis
Part 4: Europe by (Mis)Design
