The Global Minotaur: A theory of the Global Crisis
My documentary for Channel 4: The Eurozone, the Ant and the Grasshopper
, 21/02/2012
A Special Report commissioned by Channel 4 (UK), based on an earlier post in this blog entitled Never Bailed Out: Europe’s ants and grasshoppers revisited See also the piece I wrote for Channel 4’s website. And do not neglect to watch the full interview with Mr Robert Halver, Baader Bank’s Chief economist. It sheds plenty […]
Die Zeit Online on the German edition of my Global Minotaur
, 21/02/2012
On the occasion of the publication of the German edition of my Global Minotaur, Die Zeit Online just published extracts from the book under the title Die große Ratlosigkeit in der Krise. Click here for the article.
The Global Minotaur – as featured in the New York Times Magazine
, 15/02/2012
Russell Shorto kindly interviewed me for the New York Times Magazine on my Global Minotaur, as part of a long article entitled The Way Greeks Live Now. For the complete article, as it appears on the New York Times website, click here. The piece that concerns my book follows here:
The Global Minotaur: Interviewed by Naked Capitalism
, 14/02/2012
Phil Pilkington, of nakedcapitalism.com, were kind enough to interview me on my Global Minotaur. To read it from their website, please click here. The Global Minotaur: An Interview with Yanis Varoufakis Philip Pilkington: In your book The Global Minotaur: America, The True Origins of the Financial Crisis and the Future of the World Economy you lay out […]
On ABC Radio National's Breakfast program – discussing Greece
, 10/02/2012
This is an interview on ABC Radio National’s Breakfast program. One of the rare occasions when I was afforded sufficient ‘room’ to unfold arguments.
The Global Minotaur now available in Greek
, 06/02/2012
Six months after its launch, The Global Minotaur has now been published in Greek by A.A. Livanis. Click here for the relevant web site. A brief description in Greek follows. For the English, original, version click here. And for the German translation here. «Το βιβλίο αυτό είναι μια από εκείνες τις πολύ σπάνιες εκδόσεις για […]
Canada’s Stark Options: Recovery or Regress?
, 26/01/2012
[Here is the speech I intend to give later today at the CCPA workshop on ‘Canada: How can we avoid a lost decade?’ ] If everything is (as economists seem to believe) relative, then Canada is doing reasonably well in the aftermath of the Crash of 2008. Its governing politicians are, of course, stretching credulity […]
The Global Minotaur now in German
, 24/01/2012
It is with great joy, and some trepidation, that I received the news of the German edition of my Global Minotaur. At this delicate juncture of Europe’s ‘evolution’, the opportunity to speak directly to German readers’ perceptions of the Crisis, and in German, seems significant. Click here for my presentation of the book at Columbia […]
Ending 2011 with a fable for our times
, 23/12/2011
As 2011 is drawing to a close, with the ECB only having managed to paper over the deepening cracks of the eurozone, it is time to allow ourselves to abandon the barricades for ten days or so. If the soldiers in the Great War’s killing fields could maintain a humane ceasefire, tend to the wounded, […]
The Global Minotaur: The Crash of 2008 and the Euro-Zone Crisis in Historical Perspective. Columbia University, Nov. 2011
, 20/11/2011
On 9th November 2011, Mark Mazower (Professor of History at Columbia University) kindly organised an event, at the University of Columbia, to launch my recent book (The Global Minotaur: America, the true causes of the world economy and the future of the world economy). Justin Fox (author of The Myth of the Rational Market) […]
The Global Minotaur: Book launch at the University of Columbia, today – with Alan Beattie, Justin Fox and Mark Mazower
, 09/11/2011
An event-discussion on my new book will take place today at Columbia University under the title: The Global Minotaur: The Crash of 2008 and the Euro-Zone Crisis in Historical Perspective. The meeting has been organised by Professor Mark Mazower, Director of the Heyman Center at Columbia, who will chair the proceedings. Alongside him, I shall be [...]The Modest Proposal in Toronto. Today, Monday 7th November, 16.00
, 01/11/2011
7th November, University of Toronto: Invited to speak on The Euro and the European Crisis by the Munk School of Global Affairs at Toronto University. The advertisement states: “As the eurozone crisis is unfolding, threatening in the process to infect the global economy, the debate currently raging in Europe (on how to tackle the cascading defaults and insolvencies) […]
Los Angeles Review of Books: On Yanis Varoufakis’s new theory of the global financial crisis, by Brian Collins
, 18/10/2011
Brian Collins honoured us (myself and my co-authors Joseph Halevi and Nicholas Theocarakis) with a long, extremely kind review which he just published in the Los Angeles Review of Books: Yanis Varoufakis, Joseph Halevi, and Nicholas Theocarakis, Modern Political Economics: Making Sense of the Post-2008 World, Routledge, July 2011. 552 pp. Yanis Varoufakis, The Global Minotaur: America, The […]
The Global Minotaur versus the Age of Greed: A debate on the ABC Radio National's Late Night Live, chaired by Philip Adams
, 19/09/2011
Since the late 80s one of my daily pleasures has been to listen to Late Night Live, the ABC Radio National's daily program in which Philip Adams, the renowned Australian film maker, author and public intellectual reviews the current political, social and cultural climate, talks to authors about a great variety of interesting books (that [...]Video: A brief introduction to The Global Minotaur, courtesy of ScotlandUnite
, 08/09/2011
Last Friday, 2nd September, a day after the launch of The Global Minotaur, ScotlandUnite, the trades union, invited me to their London offices where they kindly interviewed me on a number of issues, including the book. Here is the video of what I had to say about The Global Minotaur: America, the True Origins of […]
The Minotaur in the Room: Announcing the London launch of my new book on the true causes of the ongoing global economic tumult – 1st September 2011
, 09/08/2011
In London on Thursday 1st September at 18.30? Why not join us in the launch of The Global Minotaur at the Bookmarks bookshop , 1 Bloomsbury Street? Aditya Chakrabortty (of The Guardian) will introduce the book. (Click here for a pdf of the invitation) Meanwhile, here is a piece that sums up the reasons why this […]
The Minotaur’s Global Legacy, Part E – The rise of China
, 08/03/2011
In today’s post I conlcude the region-by-region assessment of the impact of the Global Minotaur’s demise post-2008. Previsously, we delved into the triangular relationship between Japan, East Asia and the USA, recalled Germany’s peculiar engagement with the rest of Europe (see here) and, lastly, re-visited the eurozone crisis.
The Minotaur’s Global Legacy, Part D – A brief history of a very European debacle
, 07/03/2011
The region by region assessment of the impact of the Global Minotaur’s demise post-2008 today proceeds to an analysis of the eurozone crisis. Having just looked at the story of Germany’s European engagement (see here), and after having scrutinised the triangular relationship between Japan, East Asia and the USA), we are (I hope) ready for a […]
The Minotaur’s Global Legacy, Part C – Germany's Europe
, 06/03/2011
The region by region assessment of the impact of the Global Minotaur’s demise post-2008 continues in today’s post with a close look at Germany and its attempt to remould Europe in its image. (The last posts looked at developments in the triangular relationship between Japan, East Asia and the USA).
The Minotaur’s Global Legacy, Part B – Wounded tigers: Japan, America and the South East Asian crisis
, 05/03/2011
Today I continue with a region by region assessment of the impact of the Global Minotaur’s demise post-2008. The last post looked at Japan. This one focuses on the nexus between Japan, SE Asia and the USA
The Minotaur's Global Legacy, Part A: The Dimming Sun
, 03/03/2011
On 25th March, European leaders have promised us a comprehensive solution to the eurozone risis. I am not holding my breath but, at the same time, I am redrafting the Modest Proposal for resolving the crisis. It will appear in this blog next week. In the meantime, I return to my Global Minotaur theme. The […]
The fifth of the Global Minotaur's Handmaidens: Toxic economic theory
, 22/02/2011
The last two posts examined four important contributors to the Global Minotaur: to America’s astonishing pre-2008 capacity to attract financing from the capital surpluses of the rest of the world sufficient for the purposes of funding its expanding twin deficits. They were, in turn, (a) the mergers and acquisitions drive, (b) hedging and leverage, (c) The Wal-Mart business model […]
The Minotaur’s Handmaidens Part B: The Wal-Mart business model and Wall Street’s toxic money
, 18/02/2011
In The Minotaur’s Handmaidens Part A, my last post, I looked at two important contributors to the Global Minotaur: to America’s astonishing pre-2008 capacity to attract financing from the capital surpluses of the rest of the world sufficient for the purposes of funding its expanding twin deficits. These two contributors were, on the one hand, the […]
The Minotaur's Handmaidens Part A: Mergers and take overs, Hedging and Leverage
, 16/02/2011
The last post presented the Global Minotaur as a peculiar, yet powerful, Global Surplus Recycling Mechanism (GSRM). Now, I move on to a discussion of the various submechanisms by which the US twin deficits managed to attract financing from the capital surpluses of the rest of the world so that this strange GSRM could operate […]