Op-ed
LIBERATION: Bruno Le Maire dans les pas de Yánis Varoufákis?
, 14/06/2017
Le ministre de l’Economie va proposer une indexation du remboursement de la dette grecque en fonction de la croissance du pays. Neuf thérapies en forme d’austérité budgétaire, trois plans d’aides, un changement de gouvernement et, au bout du compte, un énorme fiasco. Malgré l’obstination de la «troïka» (BCE, FMI et Commission européenne), qui n’a cessé d’imposer (le pistolet […]
John Kampfner’s review of Adults in the Room – The Observer
, 15/05/2017
Maybe Barack Obama isn’t such a saint after all. Before welcoming Greece’s embattled finance minister to the Oval Office, the then president told his Greek-American audience: “I might as well walk up to him and ask to borrow some money.” The presidential joke fell flat. Greece had become the object of mirth and bullying by […]
Congratulations, President Macron. Now We Oppose You! – Project Syndicate op-ed
, 15/05/2017
ATHENS – Prior to the second round of the French Presidential election, DiEM25 (the pan-European movement of democrats, mostly of the left, that I helped to found) promised Emmanuel Macron that we would “mobilize fully to help” him defeat Marine Le Pen. This we did – incurring the wrath of many on the left – […]
Paul Mason’s review of Adults in the Room in The Guardian
, 03/05/2017
Yanis Varoufakis once bought me a gin and tonic. His wife once gave me a cup of tea. While dodging my questions, as finance ministers are obliged to, he never once told me an outright lie. And I’ve hosted him at two all-ticketed events. I list these transactions because of what I am about to […]
The six Brexit traps that will defeat Theresa May – Guardian op-ed 3 May 2017
, 03/05/2017
“It’s yours against mine.” That’s how Wolfgang Schäuble, Germany’s finance minister, put it to me during our first encounter in early 2015 – referring to our respective democratic mandates. A little more than two years later, Theresa May is trying to arm herself with a clear democratic mandate ostensibly to bolster her negotiating position with European powerbrokers – […]
Why we support Macron in the second round – op-ed in Le Monde (English original) and DiEM25 France in Mediapart
, 02/05/2017
In today’s Le Monde I call upon French progressives to vote for Macron in the second round of France’s Presidential election. The article explains my recommendation to French voters and finishes off with the following promise to Emmanuel: “I shall mobilise fully to help you beat Le Pen with the same strength that I shall […]
Daily Telegraph’s serialisation of Adults in the Room
, 29/04/2017
Prior to the publication of my ADULTS IN THE ROOM, the Daily Telegraph serialised ten of the events the book turns on: A strange visit by Merkel’s go-between The blocked Chinese deal The key Berlin meeting Osborne meeting Tapped phone calls Coup d’état: How the government overthrew the… voters Dressing with dash: The story of that leather jacket The […]
Europe’s Illiberal Establishment – Project Syndicate op-ed
, 03/04/2017
ATHENS – On March 25, Europe’s leaders convened in the birthplace of the “European project” to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome. But what exactly was there to celebrate? Were they reveling in Europe’s disintegration, which they now call “multi-speed” or “variable geometry” Europe? Or were they there to applaud their business-as-usual […]
PM Theresa May has miscalculated – Op-ed in THE MIRROR
, 02/04/2017
Theresa May has miscalculated her Brexit strategy, says the former Greek finance minister who handled his country’s EU negotiations. Yanis Varoufakis, writing exclusively for the Mirror, says the PM’s threat of a “ hard Brexit ” will not make Britain’s departure any easier. Mr Varoufakis said: “By making a hard Brexit the default of the negotiating […]
How does the triggering of article 50 look from Europe? Op-ed, The Guardian
, 02/04/2017
How do I feel now that article 50 has been triggered? I feel sad that so many good people in Britain will feel so disappointed when they realise that Brexit has not helped them “take back their country”. I feel alarmed that, driven by Brexit, EU leaders chose its 60th anniversary, last Saturday, to embrace […]
CNN op-ed following Article 50: The EU cannot survive if it sticks to business as usual
, 02/04/2017
March for a Different Europe in Rome, March 25, 2017. From DiEm25 facebook page. Allowing EU member states to move in different directions and at different speeds is precisely the wrong way to address the differing concerns of Europeans living in different countries – and it seems an odd way to unite them behind a […]
Socialising androids – Two Project Syndicate op-eds & one Guardian commentary
, 14/03/2017
Click here for my Project Syndicate op-ed in which I reply to Bill Gates’ proposal for a tax on robots, counter-proposing the idea first canvassed here of a universal basic dividend from a public share trust fund. See also this commentary in The Guardian.
Greece’s Perpetual Crisis
, 14/02/2017
ATHENS – Since the summer of 2015, Greece has (mostly) dropped out of the news, but not because its economic condition has stabilized. A prison is not newsworthy as long as the inmates suffer quietly. It is only when they stage a rebellion, and the authorities crack down, that the satellite trucks appear. The […]
A New Deal to Save Europe
, 14/02/2017
LONDON – “I don’t care about what it will cost. We took our country back!” This is the proud message heard throughout England since the Brexit referendum last June. And it is a demand that is resonating across the continent. Until recently, any proposal to “save” Europe was regarded sympathetically, albeit with skepticism about its […]
A New Deal to Save Europe – Project Syndicate op-ed
, 23/01/2017
LONDON – “I don’t care about what it will cost. We took our country back!” This is the proud message heard throughout England since the Brexit referendum last June. And it is a demand that is resonating across the continent. Until recently, any proposal to “save” Europe was regarded sympathetically, albeit with skepticism about its […]
We need an alternative to Trump’s nationalism. It isn’t the status quo – The Guardian, op-ed
, 22/01/2017
The answer to neoliberalism’s Waterloo cannot be the retreat to a barricaded nation-state and the pitting of ‘our’ people against ‘others’ fenced off by tall walls Click here for The Guardian – or…
Greece’s perpetual crisis will not end via one-off handouts. It will end only when Athens ends the perpetual lie.
, 22/12/2016
ATHENS – Since the summer of 2015, Greece has (mostly) dropped out of the news, but not because its economic condition has stabilized. A prison is not newsworthy as long as the inmates suffer quietly. It is only when they stage a rebellion, and the authorities crack down, that the satellite trucks appear. [To read […]
Trump, the Dragon, and the Minotaur – Project Syndicate op-ed
, 28/11/2016
ATHENS – If Donald Trump understands anything, it is the value of bankruptcy and financial recycling. He knows all about success via strategic defaults, followed by massive debt write-offs and the creation of assets from liabilities. But does he grasp the profound difference between a developer’s debt and the debt of a large economy? […]
New Statesman interview: The Left’s duty after Trump’s awful victory
, 15/11/2016
I had no doubt Donald Trump would win, just like I had no doubt Brexit would happen, so maybe I’m not as shell-shocked as you,” says Yanis Varoufakis. The former Greek finance minister is speaking to me several days after the Republican candidate’s historic victory. He doesn’t sound smug about being so prescient, more resigned, deflated, […]
PSOE’s Penchant for Repeating PASOK’s Disappearing Act – El Diario (English & Spanish texts)
, 02/11/2016
el PASOK mordió el polvo por participar en el derrocamiento de su líder y, curiosamente, el PSOE ha tomado el mismo camino. EFE [For the El Diario site click here] History may repeat itself but never as quickly or as mindlessly as it does within Europe’s social democratic family. Spain’s socialists jettisoned Pedro Sánchez […]
The Universal Right to Capital Income – Project Syndicate op-ed
, 31/10/2016
ATHENS – The right to laziness has traditionally been only for the propertied rich, whereas the poor have had to struggle for decent wages and working conditions, unemployment and disability insurance, universal health care, and other accoutrements of a dignified life. The idea that the poor should be granted an unconditional income sufficient to […]
What the United States needs: Investment & Progressive Internationalism – CNN op-ed
, 15/10/2016
Click here for the CNN site. (Note that the title was chosen by CNN’s editor.) Arthur Miller once said that “an era can be considered over when its basic illusions have been exhausted.”
Radical internationalism: What Europe & the Left need – The New Statesman
, 29/09/2016
Yanis Varoufakis: The left never recovered from the fall of the Soviet Union — yet there is hope
Apple, Brussels, and Ireland’s Bruised Sovereignty – Project Syndicate op-ed
, 29/09/2016
ATHENS – Despite their unequivocal Europeanism, the Irish have been serially mistreated by the European Union. When Irish voters rejected the Treaty of Lisbon in 2008, the EU forced them to vote again until they delivered the “right” outcome. A year later, when private Irish banks imploded, threatening their (mainly) German private creditors with […]