Essays
I just pulled out of a conference in Turkey in protest at the invasion of Northern Syria’s Kurdish region
, 11/10/2019
It is with profound regret, and after much reflection, that I am pulling out as a speaker at an interesting and worthy international conference organised by TRT World in Istanbul on 21st October. I do so in protest of the Turkish armed forces’ invasion of Northern Syria. The ongoing invasion is not only an assault […]
Η μόνη καλή λύση για το Brexit – Κυριακάτικη Real News
, 30/09/2019
Οταν το 1946 οι ευρωπαϊστές ενθουσιάστηκαν ακούγοντας τον Ουίνστον Τσόρτσιλ να μιλά ενθουσιωδώς υπέρ της δημιουργίας των Ηνωμένων Πολιτειών της Ευρώπης, μάλλον δεν πρόσεξαν την επόμενη φράση του με την οποία ξεκαθάριζε ότι η Βρετανία δεν θα έμενε εκτός, καθώς, αναφερόμενος στη χώρα και τον λαό του, είπε: «Εμείς είμαστε με την Ευρώπη αλλά δεν είμαστε της Ευρώπης». Η […]
Time for ECB bonds! (Yes , things are this bad) – Project Syndicate op-ed
, 26/09/2019
ATHENS – During his tenure as President of the European Central Bank, Mario Draghi forged a variety of weapons that he deployed to shield the eurozone from menacing deflationary forces. Without them, the euro would have been history. However, the deflationary specter haunting Europe was never truly defeated and is now back with considerable vengeance. In the […]
Must we replace the dollar with a shared international currency unit? On the BBC World Service’s REAL STORY
, 06/09/2019
Mark Carney, Governor of the Bank of England, recently said that we need a new international currency unit to replace the US dollar. In this BBC World Service program, I was asked what I thought of the idea. For more of a background to my answer click here. (For the whole BBC program, click here.)
Boris is doing a troika, not a Varoufakis – IRISH EXAMINER
, 27/08/2019
ATHENS – Ever since Boris Johnson moved into 10 Downing Street vowing to re-negotiate the United Kingdom’s withdrawal agreement with the European Union, the conventional wisdom among many Brexit opponents has been that the UK’s new prime minister is “doing a Varoufakis” and will be crushed in similar fashion. The BBC’s Katya Adler reported from […]
IQ Squared presents Yanis Varoufakis and Brian Eno on Money, Power and a Call for Radical Change – London, 4th November
, 09/08/2019
The liberal order is under threat. Increasing inequality, the rise of far-right nationalism and the climate emergency pose unprecedented challenges. It’s time for some radical thinking. On November 4th Intelligence Squared is bringing to its stage two of the world’s great radicals – Yanis Varoufakis, the former Greek finance minister known for his trademark leather jacket, motorbike and […]
Jeremy Corbyn’s finest hour? IRISH EXAMINER (Project Syndicate)
, 31/07/2019
Jeremy Corbyn must expose Boris Johnson’s no-deal Brexit as a Trump-deal Brexit and put forward Labour’s plan to end the interminable Brexit ordeal immediately, suggests Yanis Varoufakis Boris Johnson is the first British prime minister in a long time who is free of dilemmas regarding his approach to the European Union. For better or worse, Johnson’s […]
Lagarde at the ECB – my take in The Guardian
, 16/07/2019
Christine Lagarde was a key member of the infamous troika – Greece’s official creditors – who crushed our people’s resistance to perpetual debt bondage. The other key figure alongside the International Monetary Fund’s then managing director was Mario Draghi, president of the European Central Bank, who played a central role in that drama by engineering the closure of […]
Against extractive practices (social & environmental). Interviewed by Kate Aronoff for DISSENT
, 15/07/2019
“We have to talk to people in a way that combines addressing these [economic] anxieties with the issues of the environment. Unless we manage to do that, we will fail.” Kate Aronoff Summer 2019 Yanis Varoufakis celebrating the anniversary of the Carnation Revolution in Portugal in 2018 (Pedro Ribeiro Simões/Flickr) The last few years have been […]
A tiny incident at Paris airport that speaks volumes about our Europe – the whole story
, 14/07/2019
Small incidents can pack hefty messages. Yesterday afternoon, a tiny drama unfolded at Paris airport, as I was disembarking the airplane that had brought me over from Athens. It speaks volumes about the state of our European Union and the drift toward inane authoritarianism. A French policeman, for no obvious reason, took it to himself […]
How Syriza’s capitulations allowed the Greek right to escape the dustbin of history – The New Statesman
, 09/07/2019
The left-wing party’s embrace of austerity created the conditions for a parasitic and cruel oligarchy to return The Greek right is back: greedier, uglier and more focused than ever. The incoming New Democracy government is determined to reclaim full control of the state on behalf of the most parasitic segment of Greece’s oligarchy and, of course, of […]
MeRA25: Greek progressives’ chance to take the fight against austerity back into Parliament – JACOBIN
, 11/06/2019
Amid the bad results for the Left in the European elections, the Greek outcome was particularly poignant. In the last such contest in 2014, Syriza rode the revolt against austerity to become the largest single party, in its final step toward national office. Five years later, in last month’s election, it finished ten points behind the […]
Since the Withdrawal Agreement cannot be re-negotiated before Brexit, only a stark General Election can clear the air – The Telegraph
, 05/06/2019
Theresa May’s sequence of strategic errors has rendered impossible a soft Brexit. By adopting red lines consistent solely with a hard Brexit, while denying herself the option of walking out without a deal, the Prime Minister engineered the current stalemate. Now, Mrs May is about to bequeath a poisoned chalice to her successor. The next […]
Why we are running in this EU election – FORTUNE magazine’s report
, 24/05/2019
Nothing has ever been subtle with Yanis Varoufakis, the leather-jacketed, motorbike-riding economist who was finance minister of Greece for six of the most tumultuous months in that country’s history. Plain-spoken (to say the least) and a self-professed radical, he is, at 58, not nearly done waging war on Europe’s major power players. This week, he […]
A Greek Canary in a Global Goldmine – Project Syndicate op-ed 17 May 2019
, 20/05/2019
ATHENS – The eurozone country that has become synonymous with insolvency is today proving to be a treasure-trove for some. Traders who bought Greek assets a few years ago have good reason to celebrate, having banked returns that no other market could have provided. But, as is often the case, an opportunity that seems too […]
The European elections could be an opportunity for a transnational Green New Deal – Adler & Wargan in The New Statesman
, 17/05/2019
Forget the People’s Vote: the upcoming elections for European Parliament have become the new second referendum. To one side, Nigel Farage hopes to gather the Leave vote behind his new Brexit Party. To the other, a splintered coalition of Greens, Changers, Lib Dems, and Labour candidates are campaigning for Remain. Both sides agree on the […]
Should Jeremy Corbyn commit to a second referendum? The Independent
, 12/05/2019
Should Jeremy Corbyn adopt an unequivocal commitment to holding a second referendum? Under normal circumstances, it should be an easy question to answer: democrats who think of referendums as a useful injection of direct democracy into our system of representative government, should be in favour. And those who are sceptical of referendums should be against. […]
Tageszeitung-TAZ: DiEM25 as the best hope for overcoming Europe’s nationalist resurgence
, 12/05/2019
Europe is in deep political crisis, and without renewal, the Union could soon fall apart. This is shown by Brexit, the strengthening of Euroscepticism in Italy, in Germany and many other countries. Many now rely on the French president as a renewal and saviour. But Emmanuel Macron is not the right person to stop the slow dying of the European […]
“DiEM25 is something I’m really pouring my heart into and I’m learning every day.” Pamela Anderson in FT Alphaville
, 11/05/2019
Pamela Anderson explains to FT Alphaville’s Jemina Kelly her enthusiasm for DiEM25: “The fact that a Greek economist, Yanis Varoufakis, and a Croatian philosopher, Srećko Horvat, are running in Germany show that these elections are not about national politics but about the future of Europe as such. I am glad to see that Europe finally […]
It is time the world unites around an International Green New Deal – The Guardian
, 24/04/2019
By Yanis Varoufakis and David Adler: In times of crisis and catastrophe, children are often forced to grow up quickly. We are now witnessing this premature call to action on a planetary scale. As the adults in government accelerate their consumption of fossil fuels, children are leading the campaign against our species’ looming extinction. Our […]
A Dream of Spring: Emma Steiner interviews DiEM25’s David Adler
, 18/04/2019
Yanis Varoufakis and the DiEM25 movement are making headlines with their call for a more democratic and just European Union. Varoufakis brings his experience dealing with the EU as the former finance minister of Greece to the table for the European Spring, a European Parliament electoral slate that includes an ambitious and audacious vision for […]