English
2008 and the International New Deal we need for the post-2018 world – OECD Keynote, 14 SEP 2018
, 18/09/2018
2008 marked globalised capitalism’s near death experience. A decade later we have no right to be looking at those events as part of our economic history. The reason? We are still entangled in the crisis that the events of 2008 sparked off. They remain very much at the centre of our present. The […]
Is the world safer than it was in 2008? Ten Guardian writers think not
, 17/09/2018
Yanis Varoufakis: Risk has not been diminished, just taken out of sight Ten years after its near-death experience, capitalism is back to its old ways. Bailouts for the few and austerity for the many have caused global debt to rise 40% since 2007. Yes, British and European banks have contracted (as US authorities required Barclays, Deutsche […]
Our Progressive International movement will fight, at once, two authoritarianisms: The National International and the Financialised Globalists who paved the ground for them – Yanis Varoufakis & Bernie Sanders in THE GUARDIAN (13th September 2018)
, 14/09/2018
YANIS VAROUFAKIS: Our new international movement will fight rising nationalism, its underlying fascist moment, and the pseudo-liberal establishment whose policies gave rise to it (Click here for The Guardian) Our era will be remembered for the triumphant march of a globally unifying rightwing – a Nationalist International – that sprang out of the cesspool of financialised capitalism. […]
Lessons from 2008 for beyond 2018: Keynote this Friday 14th September at the OECD, Paris
, 12/09/2018
Before 2008 we could all see that global trade imbalances were growing inexorably, creating a glut of savings in surplus countries that flowed into deficit countries, causing house price, stock exchange and debt bubbles whose bursting would never end well. What few could see, however, was that, behind the dominant narrative of unfettered competition and […]
How should the Left approach Europe? Interviewed, along Manuel Bompard, by Jacobin (France)
, 12/09/2018
The European Parliament elections will be a major battleground that the neofascist forces of the emergent Nationalist International (Salvini, Kurz, Orban, AfD, CSU, parts of the CDU, and of course figures like Donald Trump and Steve Bannon) will contest enthusiastically. DiEM25 and our EUROPEAN SPRING are determined to confront them on the basis of a […]
Ten Years After Lehman’s Collapse: What caused the Crash of 2008 is now shaping our post-modern 1930s – der Freitag
, 10/09/2018
In the autumn of 2008 events unfolded in Wall Street that the crushing majority of people around the world had been led to believe could never occur. It was the financial equivalent of watching the sun spinning out of control soon after it rose above the horizon. Humanity watched on in collective disbelief. The […]
Im Reich der Gier – der Freitag
, 10/09/2018
Mythos Der Kapitalismus ist entzaubert und bringt uns das größte Faschismusproblem seit den Dreißigern Was im Herbst 2008 an der Wall Street geschah, hatten die allermeisten Menschen bis dahin für unmöglich gehalten, schließlich hatte man ihnen jahrelang weisgemacht, dass etwas Derartiges schlichtweg nicht passieren könnte. Es war, als ob man dabei zuguckt, wie die Sonne, kurz […]
Democracy, Socialism, Europe and Scottish Independence – four clips on STV
, 05/09/2018
PART 1 – WHY SOCIALISM? Interviewer: You are meeting with Jeremy Corbyn to discuss socialism. Why? Varoufakis: Because democracy needs a healthy democratic socialist movement to be part of the political process in order to be healthy PART 2 – REASONS TO BE CHEERFUL PART 3 – DEMOCRATS MUST GET TOGETHER ACROSS PARTY POLITICAL AND NATIONAL […]
The three tribes of austerity: enemies of big government, Germany’s social democrats, and tax-cutting Republicans – op-ed in Project Syndicate
, 31/08/2018
No policy is as self-defeating during recessionary times as the pursuit of a budget surplus for the purpose of containing public debt – austerity, for short. So, as the world approaches the tenth anniversary of the collapse of Lehman Brothers, it is appropriate to ask why austerity proved so popular with Western political elites following […]
Greece was never bailed out; it remains a debtor’s prison and the EU won’t let go of the keys – op-ed in The Observer
, 27/08/2018
Over the past week, the world’s media have been proclaiming the successful completion of the Greek financial rescue programmemounted in 2010 by the European Union and the International Monetary Fund. Headlines celebrated the end of Greece’s bailout, even the termination of austerity. Buoyant reports from ground zero of the eurozone crisis portrayed Europe’s eight-year long Greek […]
Farewell Uri Avnery (1923-2018), Israeli humanist who demonstrated that there is no such thing as an Arab-Israeli conflict – just a constant struggle against racism, colonialism & misanthropy
, 27/08/2018
Humanism is poorer this week. Uri Avnery has died. Soldier number 44410 of the Israel army, spent the following decades defending human decency in the land that he loved and struggled to make a welcoming home for Jews and Arabs alike. From his 1953 report of the raid on Qibya in Jordan, where an Israeli unit commanded by […]
Greece was never bailed out and remains in debtor’s prison – Bild Zeitung interview
, 22/08/2018
BILD meets Yanis Varoufakis – the man who was THE symbol of the Greek left-wing government’s resistance against the targets set by the bailout troika for the broke state of Greece. We met the professor of economics – who co-founded left-wing movement DiEM25 – in his summer house in the mountains of the sunny island of Aegina. BILD: Mr. Varoufakis, […]
Der Spiegel – Verdammt zu 60 Jahren Entwürdingung
, 22/08/2018
http://www.spiegel.de/wirtschaft/soziales/griechenland-krise-beteiligte-und-betroffene-ziehen-bilanz-a-1221081.html
On the Deep State – an audio essay in seven parts
, 19/08/2018
Is there a Deep State in our western liberal democracies? If so, is it a conspiracy or something more ‘interesting’ than that? These are questions that the Left has been traditionally engaged with, especially when facing undercover campaigns to prevent progressives from winning power or, on occasion, to unseat or destabilise left-wing governments. However, more recently, the Alt-Right […]
CRASHED: Long version of my Observer review of Adam Tooze’s new book on the Crash of 2008
, 13/08/2018
Every so often humanity manages genuinely to surprise itself. Events to which we had previously assigned zero probability push us into what the ancient Greeks referred to as aporia: a state of intense bafflement urgently demanding a new model of the world we live in. The Crash of 2008 was such a moment. Suddenly, the […]
Greed, ineptitude and austerity fanned the flames of the Greek wildfire – The Sunday Times
, 30/07/2018
ATHENS: A biblical calamity befell the Attica region last Monday. I saw its first sign in the late morning at Athens airport, where I was seeing off my daughter to Australia. A strong whiff of burning wood caused me to look up to the sky, where a whitish-yellow sun beckoned, surrounded by the tell-tale eclipse-like […]
Behind Greece’s forest fires: a tragic reminder of our collective responsibility as Europeans
, 27/07/2018
ATHENS – A biblical calamity befell Attica last Monday. I saw its first sign in the late morning at Athens airport, where I was seeing off my daughter to Australia. A strong whiff of burning wood caused me to look up to the sky, where a whitish-yellow sun beckoned, surrounded by the telltale eclipse-like daytime […]
On The Jolly Swagmen podcast, discussing economics, the economy, politics, Europe & Greece
, 26/07/2018
Joe speaks with former Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis, the man who defied Europe to save Greece – and failed. Yanis, the suave economics professor turned unexpected politician, has recently announced he will run for Prime Minister of Greece at the next national elections. He is the author of multiple books including And The Weak Suffer […]
Free Gaza now!
, 21/07/2018
No one can be free if one person is in chains, let alone a whole people. It is in the interests of all, Jews & Arabs, Europeans & Americans, Asians & Africans that the blockade of Gaza and the collective abuse of its people ends now!
L’autre Europe de Yanis Varoufakis: Radio France Culture
, 20/07/2018
Yanis Varoufakis, ancien ministre des Finances grec, auteur de Et les faibles subissent ce qu’ils doivent ? : comment l’Europe de l’austérité menace la stabilité du monde, chez Actes Sud. L’ancien ministre des finances grec Yanis Varoufakis lors de la manifestation internationale du 1er mai 2018 à Athènes. •Crédits : GIORGOS GEORGIOU / NURPHOTO – AFP CLICK HERE FOR […]