English
Ushering in a new school of principled politics: a discussion between Yanis Varoufakis (DiEM25) & Aldo Cazzullo (Corriere Della Sera) – openDemocracy
, 20/07/2018
“The reason we formed DiEM25 was the diagnosis that old wine in new bottles will not help revive the spirits of progressives in Italy or in the rest of Europe.” Aldo Cazzullo, Corriere Della Sera (AC): Let us start from the beginning? Why did you decide to resign after OXI’s victory in the Greek referendum? Yanis […]
Reality & Nightmare: A brief assessment of the Eurozone’s ‘reforms’ – in Der Freitag, Issue 26, 2018
, 19/07/2018
The official version reads as follows: Europe is on the road to recovery, the consequences of Brexit are under control, Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Emmanuel Macron would now create the new foundations on which Europe will establish a stronger alliance. Even the Greek debt crisis, it is said, was over after the decision of the […]
If Trump wants to blow up the world order, who will stop him? op-ed in The Guardian
, 19/07/2018
Even before Donald Trump drove to tears of dismay NATO’s leaders, Theresa May, the EU’s officialdom and Washington’s own ‘intelligence community’, the writing was on the wall: Trump is methodically dismantling a world order that he no longer believes to be in the interests of the United States’ ruling class. Mon 11 Jun 2018 16.23 BST Donald Trump’s early […]
A letter to my daughter about the black magic of banking…
, 19/07/2018
As you grow up and experience more of the ups and downs of the economy, you will notice a piece of mindbending hypocrisy: during the good times, bankers, entrepreneurs—rich people in general—tend to be against government. They criticize it as a “brake on development,” a “parasite” feeding on the private sector through taxation, an “enemy […]
AUSTERITY (in 144 pages)- A Vintage mini
, 17/07/2018
How do we choose between what is fair and just, and what our debtors demand of us? Yanis Varoufakis was put in such a dilemma in 2015 when he became the finance minister of Greece. In this rousing book, he charts the absurdities that underpin calls for austerity, as well as his own battles with […]
Why Germany neither can nor should pay more to save the eurozone – IFO Munich Seminar, 11 June 2018
, 17/07/2018
“I wanted a Germany that was hegemonic and efficient, not authoritarian and caught up in a European Ponzi scheme. That was in 2013.” Excerpt from the Munich Seminar. This CESifo group Munich seminar took place on June 11, 2018 in Ludwig-Maximilian University, in Munich, in the Grosse Aula of the Ludwig-Maximilian University. The euro crisis has highlighted […]
INTERNATIONAL SOCIALISM, NOT SOCIALISM IN ONE COUNTRY: On the UK Left’s relation with Europe – Open Labour document
, 17/07/2018
Socialism is internationalist. As socialists, we ought to be taking down borders between workers; not putting new ones up. Labour deserves, at a minimum, the same rights and freedoms as capital if we are to be masters of the system, not its servants. The political aim of the Left has always been to improve labour, […]
An anniversary to savour: the three days that shook Europe – 3rd to 6th July 2015 (Extracts from my ADULTS IN THE ROOM)
, 05/07/2018
Three years ago, today, the people of Greece staged a rebellion against their debt bondage. Though this rebellion was overthrown from within almost immediately, it remains a remarkable testimony to the power of a people to say No to the oligarchy, to wrestle control of the narrative of their circumstances from the inanely authoritarian elites, […]
Yanis Varoufakis è un pazzo o un profeta? Il Post, 15 June 2018
, 30/06/2018
Abbiamo passato una giornata con l’ex ministro greco, che alle prossime elezioni europee vuole riunire la sinistra di tutto il continente e rivoluzionare l’Unione Europea di Davide Maria De Luca – @DM_Deluca (ANSA / MATTEO BAZZI «Avete notato come le persone cattive stiano tutte insieme? Salvini, Le Pen, Orban: insieme stanno benissimo». Mercoledì pomeriggio una piccola […]
Varoufakis Says There’s an EU Crisis, Not a Refugee Crisis – Bloomberg
, 29/06/2018
Former Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis discusses the European Union agreement on migration which he calls “a fudge” and “complete failure.” He speaks on “Bloomberg Surveillance.” (Source: Bloomberg) June 29th, 2018, 2:05 PM GMT+0300
Profiles in Euro-Denial: The thwarted euro reforms & Greece’s permanent debt bondage – Project Syndicate op-ed
, 28/06/2018
ATHENS – Europe’s establishment is luxuriating in two recent announcements that would have been momentous even if they were only partly accurate: The end of Greece’s debt crisis, and a Franco-German accord to redesign the eurozone. Unfortunately, both reports offer fresh proof of the European Union establishment’s remarkable talent for never missing an opportunity to […]
Germany has been wasting its wealth in a manner that prevents the rest of the Eurozone from earning its keep – Video interview for Mission Money, Munich
, 26/06/2018
Er galt als der große Euro-Schreck während seiner Amtszeit als griechischer Finanzminister! Doch waren die Vorwürfe von Politikern und Medien gegen Yanis Varoufakis wirklich gerechtfertigt? Im Interview mit der Mission Money vertritt Varoufakis spannende Positionen. Deutschland dürfe nicht für Pleite-Staaten haften, fordert er. Und außerdem werde Deutschland aus dem Euro austreten, wenn ein ganz bestimmtes […]
The Globalising Wall: How Globalisation built walls and divisions. By Y. Varoufakis & D. Stratou, in the Architectural Review
, 20/06/2018
Our theme is a wall. A wall that is neither some ordinary physical structure at a specific site, nor a symbolic wall. It takes a material form in sites around the globe while transcending locations and leapfrogging whole continents as if in a strange quest to globalise itself, to infect our supposedly unifying world with […]
Handesblatt interview: On Germany and Europe’s crisis, 12 June 2018
, 12/06/2018
München941.000 Follower bei Twitter ist in der Währung der digitalen Neuzeit ein Spitzenwert. Für einen Ökonomen ist es ein Rekord. Und so steht Yanis Varoufakis, 57, an diesem Montagabend im nachtblauen Anzug mit nachtblauem Hemd auf der Bühne der altehrwürdigen Münchener Ludwig-Maximilian-Universität und verbreitet Rockstar-Image. Der Rebell des Euro-Systems, für fünf wilde Monate des Jahres […]
The Italian crisis was the Left’s final warning – New Statesman op-ed, 6 June 2018
, 06/06/2018
The Left must adopt a new, credible EU policy agenda: It’s time to explain how the bloc, and the euro, could be run differently, democratically and sustainably Italy’s recent political crisis has at once confirmed the European Union’s unsustainability and the left’s impotence. That the euro is a currency system within which a country like Italy cannot […]
Interviewed by Vanity Fair Italia on the new 5S-Lega government – Read the original Q&A in English
, 05/06/2018
Vanity Fair’s interviewed me on the new Italian government (see here). The complete, original Q&A follows below: So, Italy has finally a government. New Premier is Giuseppe Conte, a technician who was never elected. Do you think this is acceptable? The new government has the consent of the majority of parliament. So, it is legitimate. […]
Interviewed by Il Fatto Quotidiano on developments in Italy, Europe and Greece. Here is the original Q&A in English
, 05/06/2018
Italian daily Il Fatto Quotidiano interviewed me (see here) regarding the latest developments in Italy, Europe and Greece. The original Q&A (in English) follows: Greece is about to exit from the notorious memorandum, the austerity plan signed with the troika. Public finance has improved at a high price for the population as we all know. […]
Live at ‘Politics and Prose’, Washington DC
, 03/06/2018
Yanis Varoufakis discusses his books, Adults in the Room and Talking to my Daughter About the Economy, at Politics and Prose on 10th May 2018 In his eye-opening memoir, Adults in the Room, Varoufakis, Greece’s former Finance Minister, recounts his frustrating struggle to resolve Greece’s debt crisis without resorting to austerity measures. His book give […]
The terrible prophesies of Brexit – op-ed in literary magazine FIVE DIALS
, 03/06/2018
Brexit rode to victory on the coat-tails of a type of discontent whose power sprang from its insuperable reluctance to specify its nature. Seemingly focused on a foreign power centre that British voters saw (with some justification) as the usurper of their democratic rights, its real focal point was nebulous and imprecise enough to encompass […]
With his choice of prime minister, Italy’s president has gifted the far right – THE GUARDIAN
, 01/06/2018
Italy should be doing well. Unlike Britain, it exports considerably more to the rest of the world than it imports, while its government spends less(excluding interest payments) than the taxes it receives. And yet Italy is stagnating, its population in a state of revolt following two lost decades. While it is true that Italy is in serious need […]
Complete text of my interview with Corriere Della Sera’s Aldo Cazzullo (in English)
, 31/05/2018
Corriere Della Sera, the Italian daily, published today an interview that I gave to Aldo Cazzullo. For the published version (in Italian of course), you can visit the paper’s site here. However, the published text is a heavily reduced version of the exchange between Mr Cazzullo and myself. For those interested in the full exchange, see […]
Merkel’s Comeuppance is Europe’s – and the World’s – Misfortune – Project Syndicate op-ed
, 30/05/2018
JOHANNESBURG – One of the most common mistakes European leaders make in interpreting US President Donald Trump’s hostility toward America’s traditional allies, or the alacrity of his administration’s efforts to blow up the international order, is to assume that all of this is unprecedented. Nothing could be further from the truth. To continue reading for […]
The Open Letter sent to me in 2015 by Paolo Savona & Giulio Tremonti, two former Italian ministers, on reforms to the EU that they considered necessary
, 29/05/2018
Rome, July 24, 2015 To Yanis Varoufakis and Dominique Strauss-Khan Dear Yanis, dear Dominique, There is a place on earth that represents Europe’s very roots: Greece. Let us begin there. Athens, April 28, 1955. Albert Camus’ conference on “The future of Europe”.[1] On this occasion, participants agreed that the structural characteristics of European civilization are essentially […]