History
Europe’s latest illiberal democracy: Greece! – New Statesman
, 24/03/2023
“Like lambs to the slaughter” was how an elderly neighbour described the deaths of youngsters travelling on Intercity 62 which, on the night of 28 February, crashed head-on with a freight train in Greece killing 57 people. Many of the dead were students returning after a long weekend from Athens to their universities in Thessaloniki. […]
The causes of inflation and what to do about it – Keynote at Banking Conference, Sofia 2 DEC 2021
, 26/01/2022
Invited by the Bulgarian Central Bank’s Deputy Governor, here is a keynote I delivered in Sofia, on 2nd December 2021, in which I offer a historical explanation of the nature and causes of our current inflation – as well as a proposed policy response that would help (but which vested interests are impeding).
What is money, really? And why Bitcoin is not the answer (even if blockchain is brilliant & potentially helpful in democratising money)
, 02/08/2021
Recently, I argued that a central bank cryptocurrency can be a useful tool in the struggle to democratise money. Such a tool is, of course, not enough. The main task in democratising money is first to democratise the central bank – before deploying useful instruments like a central bank cryptocurrency. As many readers (correctly) pointed […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Does capitalism make us happy? On THINK AGAIN: A Big Think podcast – 26 MAY 2018
, 27/05/2018
Yanis Varoufakis – Happiness, Inc. – Think Again – a Big Think Podcast #149 Jason GOTS: As the Wu-Tang Clan once put it: “Cash moves everything around me… Get the money. Dollar dollar bill, y’all.” I grew up not wanting to believe this. All the stuff that seemed worth having was hard to put a […]
INTERNATIONALISM vs GLOBALISATION, at the Royal Festival Hall, London, in association with the adjacent Andreas Gursky exhibition at the Hayward Gallery – this Monday 9th APR 2018, 19.30
, 07/04/2018
Join economist and Democracy in Europe Movement 2025 (DiEM25) co-founder Yanis Varoufakis for a keynote talk on the economic force that has shaped our world: globalisation. This South Bank talk is punctuated by images from acclaimed German photographer, Andreas Gursky, whose iconic photographs have documented global capital and its effects for three decades, and whose […]
Behind Germany's refusal to grant Greece debt relief – Op-Ed in The Guardian
, 11/07/2015
Tomorrow’s EU Summit will seal Greece’s fate in the Eurozone. As these lines are being written, Euclid Tsakalotos, my great friend, comrade and successor as Greece’s Finance Ministry is heading for a Eurogroup meeting that will determine whether a last ditch agreement between Greece and our creditors is reached and whether this agreement contains the degree […]
GREECE: Still raging against the dying of the light
, 05/07/2015
In 1967 foreign powers, in cahoots with local stooges, used the tanks to overthrow Greek democracy. In 2015 foreign powers, in cahoots with local stooges, used the banks to overthrow the Greek government. In 1967 democracy’s defenders were in disarray and the prisons, the death squads, and the torturers were working overtime. In 2015 none […]
The euro’s first inkling – a piece in lieu of Best Wishes for 2015
, 26/12/2014
As 2015 is approaching, seemingly pregnant with crucial challenges for Europe, the euro and all those who have to live with it, I could not think of a better seasonal offering for readers of this blog than a suitable extract from my next book. I chose a piece that narrates, and interprets, the story of […]
Public Debt: How the classical economists looked upon it (wonkish) – Guest article by Nicholas Theocarakis
, 28/11/2014
With so much talk about public debt, the so-called debt crisis etc., it is perhaps time to take a close look at the history of the concept; of how public debt was born, on the evolution of its nature and, even more poignantly, of the manner in which economists have interpreted and evaluated its purpose […]
CRUSH THE GREEKS! The Greek bailout revisited in the light of the Geithner revelations
, 13/11/2014
Tim Geithner is now on the public record,[1] confirming that which we have always known: In February 2010, clueless as to the Euro Crisis that was about to engulf them, Northern European leaders decided to crush Greece. Collectively to punish (against even the Geneva Convention) a nation for having gone bankrupt within a Eurozone whose […]
Interviewed by Geraldine Dooge (ABC Radio National) on Greece's Wartime 'Loan' to Germany. Plus a simple proposal for killing two birds with one stone
, 15/10/2013
On Saturday 12th October, I was interviewed by Geraldine Dooge for the ABC Radio National’s program ‘Saturday Extra’ on the theme of Greek claims on Germany for wartime reparations and on a strange ‘loan’ that was extracted from the Greek government by the Nazi authorities. You can hear the interview here: Read on for […]
On Bruno Kreisky’s legacy: A reply by Klaus Kastner, with a rejoinder from me
, 08/12/2012
In yesterday’s post, I asked the question: Why has European social democracy abandoned the legacy of leaders like Kreisky, falling in line with a toxic economics and politics that thinkers like Kreisky would have dismissed in their sleep as pathetic claptrap? My allusion to, and explicit endorsement of, Bruno Kreisky (the late Austrian social democratic […]