Year: 2012
DESIGN DEFECTS AND POLICY FAILURES: An institutional analysis Of The Eurozone Crisis: Video of the Varoufakis-Auerback presentations, Columbia Law School
, 13/11/2012
Back in October, the Columbia Law School organised a debate on the Eurozone Crisis as part of their series Modern Money & Public Purpose 3: The Eurozone. Click below for the talks by Yanis Varoufakis and Marshall Auerback
Hanging in quiet desperation is (becoming) the Greek way
, 12/11/2012
This blog has a tendency to worship the large picture and to focus on the great issues of the day, with the Euro Crisis as its usual focus. There are times, however, when the small, miniscule picture, some snapshot of one person’s world, offers a stupendously large perspective from which to gather the greater scheme […]
A world without the Global Minotaur: Why is the world economy failing to recover?
, 10/11/2012
Almost two years have passed since the first edition of The Global Minotaur was written. Its prognosis for our tormented beast was not good. Have events since confirmed that the Global Minotaur’s wounds were too deep to allow it to continue to perform its miraculous global surplus recycling? Is this still the best explanation available […]
Which Second Haircut for Greece? By Kunibert Raffer
, 09/11/2012
Cross-posted from FSB Watch “Europe Pushed by IMF’s Lagarde to Consider Greek Debt Write-Off” Bloomberg reported recently. More cautious, the Wall Street Journal remarked that Lagarde had not expressly said so, although “some” saw a “public, albeit oblique, acknowledgment” of this necessity, and “some economists say” her request “would necessarily require restructuring Greek debt held […]
An emergency program for Greece
, 05/11/2012
The Greek government, under intense pressure from the troika of its lenders (IMF-EU-ECB), is about to give the wheel of depression another, powerful turn. At a time when national income is shrinking at a rate not seen since the Great Depression in any post-feudal society, in an economy where the circuits of credit (not just […]
A small victory for press freedom in Greece’s struggle against its cleptocracy
, 02/11/2012
A couple of hours ago, Kostas Vaxevanis, editor of HOT DOC, was acquitted by an Athenian court for having published the so-called Lagarde List. The charge was that he violated data protection legislation by publishing a list of more than two thousand names who had held a bank account with HSBC in Geneva. The not-guilty […]
My message to British Eurosceptic parliamentarians: "Those who despise the euro the most have the highest moral duty to help fix it!"
, 31/10/2012
Last Monday (29th October) evening, I had the opportunity to address a meeting convened by the European-Atlantic Group in the British Parliament. Later on that night, I was also honoured with an opportunity to deliver the after-dinner speech at the Caledonian Club. The topic of both events was “Global and European Recovery: What will it […]
Monday 29th October, in the House of Parliament, London, debating "European and Global Recovery – What Will It Take?"
, 25/10/2012
Next Monday, the European-Atlantic Group is organising a debate in the Grand Committee of the House of Commons, on what it will take for Europe and the world to return to growth and end the Crisis which began in 2008. In the Chair: The Rt Hon The Lord Hamilton of Epsom Speakers: Professor Marcus Miller, (Professor of […]
Discussing Greece and Europe on Business Spectator; interviewed by Robert Gottliebsen
, 25/10/2012
Robert Gottliebsen, one of Australia’s leading business and economics journalist, interviewed me recently in Melbourne for Business Spectator. Like many anglosaxon business commentators, Robert clearly thinks that Greece is facing an impossible future within the Eurozone and that it would be better off leaving the currency union. In this interview, he began by asking me […]
On ABC Radio National: The Euro Crisis and how to resolve it
, 25/10/2012
Following my Sydney CPA address on the Euro Crisis, ABC Radio National (RN Drive) interviewed me on (what else?) the Euro Crisis and how it should be resolved. Click here for the interview or visit the ABC’s webpage here.
The worst enemies of European unity are those who profess to serve it: Address at the CPA Sydney Conference, 2012
, 25/10/2012
Last week, Norman Lamont and I addressed the CPA 2012 Conference in Melbourne. Yesterday we repeated that ‘gig’ in Sydney. Unwilling to deliver the same speech as in Melbourne (which was posted here), I chose to discuss the Euro Crisis from a slightly different angle (with very few overlapping paragraphs). As this was a closed-to-the-public […]
The Euro Crisis as a spectacular political failure. MELBOURNE ADDRESS – CPA, Tuesday 16th October 2012
, 18/10/2012
Last Tuesday, at the CPA Annual Conference in Melbourne, I was invited to debate Norman Lamont, the UK’s former Chancellor of the Exchequer (under John Major’s government), on the Euro Crisis. The event was closed to the public (invitation only) and thus it was not possible offer a video link. But now here is the […]
Should the completion of the Single Market be Europe’s top priority now? Watch the video of the 90-minute debate
, 17/10/2012
Last week Intelligence Squared, Google and Youtube, with the support of the European Commission, organised a televised debate on the future of Europe using their standard debate format. The statement that was put to the audience was: Europe, wake up! We will only return to growth and prosperity if we complete the Single Market A […]
In Melbourne tonight: Euro Crisis as the impetus for Continental Consolidation? Or a case of Reverse Alchemy?
, 17/10/2012
Where: Monash University Law Chambers, Level 1, Seminar Room 1, 555 Lonsdale Street, Melbourne When: Tonight, 17th October 2012, at 18.00 Everyone welcome Crises have been the motive power of European integration for over six decades. Optimists see the current Euro Crisis as the disaster Europe had to have so as to give its evolutionary […]
Greek Crisis: Why There Is No Such Thing (And How To Escape It), tonight in Melbourne
, 14/10/2012
The Greek Community of Melbourne is, as is well known, the largest and best established outside of Greece. It is, therefore, an honour to have been invited to address its members in a building reeking with history but which, quite fittingly (given my topic and the times Greece is going through), is about to be… […]
On the prospects of the Greek fiscal consolidation program: interviewed by Format
, 14/10/2012
Martina Bachler, of Format (Austria’s leading weekly business and economics magazine), kindly interviewed me on the prospects that Greece’s fiscal consolidation program could be put back on its tracks (under the policy mix favoured by the troika). Regular readers will not be surprised to read that I described this as a ‘zero probability event’. Click […]
On the Euro-Global Crisis: Four lectures in Australia and one in London, October 2012
, 11/10/2012
During the coming next fortnight, I shall be on a lecture tour of Australia and Britain. The first lecture will be delivered on Monday 15th October in Melbourne, at the Greek Community Centre (which will, fittingly, be demolished soon after!). Then, I shall be speaking at two CPA conferences, together with Lord Lamont (formerly Chancellor of the Exchequer) in […]
Audio of talk at Columbia Law School on the Causes and Nature of the Euro Crisis, 5th October 2012
, 11/10/2012
While the Columbia University technicians are preparing a proper podcast of my debate with Marshall Auerback (held last Friday, 5th October) on the Euro Crisis at the Columbia Law School, readers can have a pre-hearing (as opposed to a preview) of my presentation. The audio is reasonable and can be heard here: YV talk Columbia […]
The Global Minotaur returns: Introducing the second edition
, 06/10/2012
The second edition of my Global Minotaur has entered the presses, so to speak. At least, it has left my laptop and is now with the folks at Zed books, awaiting production. The point of working toward a second edition was to ask a simple question: Since January 2011, which is when I put the […]
Discussing the Eurozone Crisis at Columbia Law School with Marshall Auerback and Georges Ugeux; Friday 5th October, 6.15pm
, 03/10/2012
The Columbia Society for International Law Proudly Presents: Yanis Varoufakis and Marshall Auerback, moderated by Georges Ugeux DESIGN DEFECTS AND POLICY FAILURES: AN INSTITUTIONAL ANALYSIS OF THE EUROZONE CRISIS Part of the 2012-2013 Seminar Series on Contemporary Issues in Law and Political Economics organized by the Workers’ Rights Student Coalition, sponsored by the Richard Paul Richman Center for Business, […]
A 45' interview on the Global and Euro Crisis: Interviewed by Tom O' Brien
, 02/10/2012
Tom O’ Brien runs From Alpha to Omega, an excellent podcast-based blog focusing on political economics. He recently interviewed me on the Global and Euro Crisis. Click here to visit From Alpha to Omega, and listen to the 45′ interview. Or for a podcast uploaded on this site click here:
Interviewed by The Washington Post on "The Economics of Video Games"
, 28/09/2012
The Washington Post has just published an article by Brad Plumer on The Economics of Video Games, based on (amongst other things) an interview that I gave him on my work at Valve. Click here for the Post’s site or read on…
A Hobson’s Choice for Europe? Reply to Tom Hirst’s piece on ‘What Needs To Be Done’ in the Eurozone
, 26/09/2012
Tom Hirst, of Mindful Money, has posted a thoughtful piece on the Euro Crisis, with special emphasis on the deathtrap that Spain is now in. His analysis of the situation is spot on: so far, Europe’s responses to the Crisis have been piecemeal, disconnected from one another, and based on the denial that this is […]
Are digital currencies the future?
, 26/09/2012
In today’s edition of Business Daily, a BBC World Service radio program, Ed Butler investigates digital currencies. As you will hear, my contribution was to warn that, while digital currencies are the future, the libertarian (wet) dream of an international digital-gold standard that involves no collective agency (i.e. democratically or otherwise determined government) is a […]