Essays
DiEM25’s Vision of Europe for the post-Pandemic Era: Some personal thoughts
, 23/04/2020
DiEM25 was created in February 2016 because Europe was disintegrating as a result of a pseudo-technocratic takeover of the EU that was imposing austerity everywhere in response to the financial crisis caused by the EU pseudo-technocracy’s controllers. Today, now that a mindless virus has placed European capitalism in suspended animation, it is time to re-assess […]
What Comes After Capitalism? (VIDEO by Sustainable Human)
, 22/04/2020
Free market capitalism died over a 100 years ago and gave way to monopoly capitalism. Monopoly capitalism is now not even able to reproduce itself, let alone sustain the planet, common decency etc. But what comes next? Thanks to the good people at PATREON for putting imagery to my words. Support the creation of more […]
DiEM-TV’s ‘ANOTHER NOW’ with Yanis Varoufakis, Mondays at 20.00 CET | Ep.1 – Introduction to ‘Another Now’ & special guest Johann Hari
, 14/04/2020
Covid-19 has turned our lives inside-out, upside-down. It has put capitalism in suspended animation. It destroyed lives. It caused a new tsunami of poverty, demonstrated the deep class and race divides as some of us are privileged enough to be in isolation while an army of people out there labour for a pittance and at […]
On the toxic impact of the Eurogroup agreement of 9th April 2020 – With CNN’s Richard Quest (AUDIO)
, 13/04/2020
Discussing the toxic impact of the Eurogroup agreement of 9th April 2020 on Italy and Europe at large. Interviewed by Richard Quest on CNN’s Quest’s World
The EU’s new coronavirus relief deal is a gift to Europe’s enemies – THE GUARDIAN
, 13/04/2020
Europe suffered a historic defeat on Thursday night. After weeks of impasse, the Eurogroup gathering of finance ministers, whose countries share the euro, reached a decision on their collective response to the coronavirus pandemic’s economic impact. Besides constituting an epic dereliction of duty, the Eurogroup’s decision dealt a decisive blow to the foundations of the European […]
“The European Union Is Determined to Continue Making the Same Errors It Made After 2008” – JACOBIN interview
, 12/04/2020
The lack of EU help for the states hardest hit by COVID-19 is the latest sign of the hollowness of “European solidarity.” As Yanis Varoufakis tells Jacobin, the European Union’s institutions are hardwired to ignore the needs of the social majority — preferring to allow mass suffering than to change their own rules. Yanis Varoufakis is used […]
The Brown University Journal of PPE interviews Krugman, Pinker & Varoufakis on Inequality, Financialisation, and Populism
, 11/04/2020
JPPE: Many economists have their explanations about where inequality comes from, such as financialization, credit, globalization, technology, and bad policy. When thinking about the causes of inequality in the last thirty years, are there specific areas you think we ought to devote our attention to? Yanis Varoufakis: Well, there’s one word that answers your question: […]
For a global movement with a radical agenda – long interview in THE HINDU (its FRONTLINE magazine)
, 08/04/2020
In this interview, the first to Indian media, Yanis speaks elaborately on the 2019 British election, Brexit, the E.U. crisis, the 2020 U.S. presidential election, the global financial crisis, rising ultra-national forces, the need for a progressive international movement, the DiEM25, rising inequality and the Greek crisis. How important is this year’s U.S. presidential election […]
Why are they saying no to the eurobond? The case for constructive disobedience in the EU Council
, 30/03/2020
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTil8xccFJA
How deep will the Depression occasioned by Covid-19 be? Debate on BBC World Service’s THE REAL STORY
, 20/03/2020
Coronavirus: The economic crisis – Just how bad will the downturn be and can anything be done to soften the blow? Contributors Stephanie Flanders – head of Bloomberg Economics Yanis Varoufakis – Greek economist, politician, secretary-general of DiEM25 who also served as Greek finance minister during 2015Linda Yueh – economist and author of the book: ‘The Great Economists’ […]
Monetising misery & the future of capitalism – ABC Radio National, BIG IDEAS program
, 20/03/2020
Enormous global corporations and financial institutions are now, some say, more powerful than governments. Rules that once constrained and regulated capitalism have gone. And when their power causes massive destruction, the captains of Big Capital find ways to profit from the destruction. So, is modern capitalism, itself, a threat to capitalism? Or will corporations always […]
On the lethal interaction between the coronavirus contraction & global capitalism’s never-ending post-2008 crisis – VIDEO
, 16/03/2020
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mm-wpDZkie4&feature=youtu.be
Yanis Varoufakis: “Syriza Was a Bigger Blow to the Left Than Thatcher” – JACOBIN
, 11/03/2020
Former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis told Jacobin why he’s publishing his secret recordings of the critical Eurogroup meetings of 2015 — and why the Left around Europe is struggling to overcome Syriza’s disastrous legacy. Yanis Varoufakis during his speech in Hellenic Parliament. Dimitrios Karvountzis / Pacific Press / LightRocket via Getty INTERVIEW BY George […]
Climate change is capitalism’s Waterloo – IRISH EXAMINER
, 11/03/2020
Steven Mnuchin’s snide remark about teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg at this year’s World Economic Forum meeting in Davos outraged liberal commentators. US treasury secretary Mnuchin, responding to Thunberg’s call for an immediate exit from fossil fuel investments, said that she should go to college “to study economics” before “she can come back and explain […]
Brexit: A rational choice for the wrong reasons? – Financial News & Project Syndicate
, 11/03/2020
The motives and thinking behind Brexit were even less worthy than those behind US President Richard Nixon’s move in 1971 to ditch the Bretton Woods system. But, as with the “Nixon shock,” there is a singular underlying historical factor that explains Brexit. ATHENS – At pivotal historical moments, rational political ruptures often are brought about […]
Coronavirus has sparked a perfect storm of nationalism and financial speculation – THE GUARDIAN
, 09/03/2020
Nationalism and speculation have seldom had a better opportunity to combine forces as the one riding today on the coattails of Covid-19, known as the coronavirus. When Covid-19 leapfrogged from China to Italy, even ardent Europeanists normally appreciative of open borders joined the deafening calls to end freedom of movement across Europe’s national borders – a […]
Oligarchy & Xenophobia: The only beneficiaries of Greece’s economic ‘recovery’ – The Guardian
, 04/03/2020
Spring is already in the air across Greece. Even in the bleakest of times, nature’s renaissance renders hope irrepressible. But this one is proving a cruel spring for a people caught up in a decade-old crisis yielding one ritual humiliation after another. Costas runs a small bookshop in my central Athens neighbourhood. Although jovial by […]
Yanis Varoufakis and Brian Eno on Money, Power and a Call for Radical Change – video
, 17/02/2020
In November 2019, Intelligence Squared brought to its stage Brian and myself to discuss money, power and the prospects of a form of radical change that makes the world a better place for the many. Quick reminder: Brian and I are amongst the co-founders of DiEM25 – the Democracy in Europe Movement whose campaigns and […]
Euroleaks: Why release? And why now?
, 16/02/2020
During 2015’s first half, as Greece’s finance minister, I participated in thirteen crucial Eurogroup meetings – before the SYRIZA government (disrespecting the referendum result of 5th July) capitulated. The result of that capitulation was my immediate resignation and a permanent austerity program (until… 2060). From the beginning, the first Eurogroup, it was clear that the […]
The EU’s green deal is a colossal exercise in greenwashing – The Guardian
, 09/02/2020
Ursula von der Leyen’s signature proposal co-opts the slogans of climate activism, but has none of the substance Emergencies tend to reveal our true priorities. When our house is burning down or the storm waters are flooding in, we hold on to what we value most, and leave the rest behind. A decade ago, the […]
Dann wäre morgen die Revolution – KONTEXT Wochenzeitung
, 09/02/2020
Unter Meteorologen braucht es keine Meinungsvielfalt – so lange die etablierten Methoden fundierte Prognosen liefern. In den Wirtschaftswissenschaften, wo die Vorhersagen “allenfalls per Unfall” richtig lägen, sei das anders, meint der Ökonom und DiEM25-Initiator Yanis Varoufakis. Wenn die herrschende Lehrmeinung die Realität nicht mehr treffend beschreiben kann, brauche es alternative Blickwinkel. Der Einladung der studentischen Inititiative “Rethinking […]
From an Economics-without-Capitalism to Markets-without-Capitalism – University of Tübingen (video available)
, 04/02/2020
A lecture organised by University of Tübingen economics students, delivered on Monday 3rd February 2020 on the theme From an Economics-without-Capitalism to Markets-without-Capitalism. Mainstream economic models lack some important features of really-existing capitalism, including money, time and space. Its models offer ideological cover for a capitalist system that has usurped competitive, free markets. The result? […]
Imagining a world without capitalism – Financial News
, 09/01/2020
Anti-capitalists had a miserable year. But so did capitalism. While the defeat of Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour party in the UK this month threatened the radical left’s momentum, particularly in the US, where the presidential primaries loom, capitalism found itself under fire from some unexpected quarters. Billionaires, CEOs, and even the financial press have joined intellectuals […]