Essays
Heard the news? Greece's finance minister is no extremist – THE TELEGRAPH
, 27/01/2015
Yanis Varoufakis: Greece’s future finance minister is no extremist The man touted as frontunner to be Syriza’s finance minister is not the socialist firebrand which one might expect By Peter Spence, Economics Correspondent 3:07PM GMT 26 Jan 2015 Syriza, a hard left party, that outrightly rejects EU-imposed austerity, has given Greek politics its greatest electoral […]
Of Loss and Retrieval – latest and last article in WdW Review
, 27/01/2015
Photo of an unknown boy, which we can imagine to have been Kostas, who went missing in 1992 during the evacuation of ethnic Greek refugees from Smyrna. Image courtesy of Red Cross Archive, Greece. This is my eighth and, for the time being, final article for Witte de With Review (an initiative of Rotterdam-based Witte de With Center for Contemporary […]
Yesterday Greek democracy raged against the dying of the light. Europe and the World should join us
, 26/01/2015
Today, the people of Greece gave a vote of confidence to hope. They used the ballot box, in this splendid celebration of democracy, to put an end to a self-reinforcing crisis that produces indignity in Greece and feeds Europe’s darkest forces. The people of Greece today sent a message of solidarity to the North, to […]
Biblical economics leave everybody blind and toothless – Interviewed by Johanna Jaufer
, 25/01/2015
Am Sonntag wählt Griechenland ein neues Parlament. In den Umfragen liegt das Linksbündnis SYRIZA an erster Stelle. Die Partei rund um Alexis Tsipras wirbt mit der Ankündigung, sich um einen Schuldenerlass für Griechenland zu bemühen. Schon lange informeller Berater der Partei, ist der Ökonom Yanis Varoufakis seit kurzem offizieller Kandidat und wird immer wieder als [...]On the consequences of Mr Draghi’s impending QE announcement – in THE ECONOMIST
, 22/01/2015
Jan 20th 2015, 14:10 BY YANIS VAROUFAKIS | UNIVERSITY OF ATHENS Yanis Varoufakis is a professor of economic theory at the University of Athens and Syriza parliamentary candidate in the general election on 25th January. In November he outlined a plan to revive the euro-zone economy. Here he discusses quantitative easing in the euro zone.
Radio interview: Greek austerity before the 25th January General Election
, 20/01/2015
ON CHICAGO’s TOP RADIO SHOW
On the ECB’s latest contradiction (and how it helps Greece)
, 15/01/2015
There is little doubt that the OMT program has been Mr Mario Draghi’s (the European Central Bank’s dexterous-yet-severely-constrained President) greatest success story. In the summer of 2012 the euro was on the brink. Mr Draghi’s announcement of an intention to buy unlimited quantities of sovereign debt (Italian in particular) to stem the contagion in the […]
The world economy post-2008 – Interviewed by the Institute of Regulation & Risk
, 14/01/2015
Since the demise of Lehman Brothers in September 2008 and ensuing great financial crisis (GFC), it would seem rather obscenely that central bankers and monetary policy has been obsessed with “deflation”, rather than remedying the actual causes of the crisis itself. Is this a fair analysis?
Stop Greece’s fiscal waterboarding – interviewed by la Repubblica
, 05/01/2015
Interviewed today by la Repubblica. CLICK HERE (Italian version only). Or read on…
Greek and European prospects for 2015 – Interview in L’Antidiplomatico
, 01/01/2015
Interviewed by Alessandro Bianchi on Greece and Europe in the run up to the Greek general election of 25th January 2015 Click here for the L’Antidiplomatico site or, for the English original,…
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 […]
Interviewed by Thomas Fazi for ONEURO: Greece, the EUROZONE and the prospects of a SYRIZA government
, 15/12/2014
Thomas Fazi has just interviewed me for ONEURO on Greece and the Eurozone two months before a possible Greek election. To read the interview as published in Italian click here. For the Q&A in its English original…
Thomas Piketty’s Capital in the 21st Century from a Marxist Perspective – audio
, 14/12/2014
On 6th December, I was kindly invited by the editorial board of Science & Society (the oldest continuously published journal of Marxist scholarship worldwide) to deliver a keynote to its Editorial Board’s Annual Meeting. My talk was based on a recent critical review of Piketty’s Capital in the 21st Century which can be read here. To listen […]
How the US rolls (post-Global Minotaur) – by SLAVOJ ŽIŽEK
, 13/12/2014
In this article, aptly subtitled It’s lonely being the global policeman, Slavoj evokes a parallelism between the age of extremes that began as the British Empire was losing its grip with the present moment in history. Now that the Global Minotaur (quoting my book) is mortally wounded, “…the American century is over and we are witnessing […]
Ten questions on Greece & SYRIZA, with ten answers – Q&A with Jorge N. Rodrigues
, 11/12/2014
(For the Portuguese language version of this interview, click here. Otherwise read on…)
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard on Greece and the rise of SYRIZA – from THE TELEGRAPH
, 11/12/2014
In this powerful, balanced article, published today in conservative UK daily THE TELEGRAPH, Ambrose Evans-Pritchard makes important points on Greece and a prospective SYRIZA administration: Events have rudely exposed the illusion that the Greek people will submit quietly to a decade of colonial treatment and debt servitude… Greece was sacrificed to buy time for the alliance, […]
Burst Greek Bubbles, Spooked Fund Managers: A cause for restrained celebration
, 07/12/2014
The international press is replete with reports of how London-based fund managers were spooked when they heard of SYRIZA’s views on the nature of Greece’s conundrum and on the party’s intention to work towards a debt restructure and a re-orientation of social and economic policies toward social cohesion and economic growth. Here is my reply…
Bloomberg’s Clive Crook on our proposal for ECB purchases of EIB bonds
, 05/12/2014
In an article entitled “ECB should fire up its helicopters“, Clive Crook comments positively on this proposal for QE by the ECB taking the form of massive purchases of EIB bonds. The article also surveys other important ideas that would, if the political will were to be found, be helpful in the fight against misanthropic, unnecessary, stagnation. […]
Discussing Thomas Piketty's inequality treatise with Andrew Mazzone – video
, 03/12/2014
Prompted by this critical review article of Professor Thomas Piketty’s Capitalism in the 21st Century, which I recently published in Real World Economics Review, Andrew Mazzone (of the Henry George School Social Science) kindly interviewed me on the subject of inequality and Professor Piketty’s book.
A Program for Greece? A response to Christian Odendahl
, 03/12/2014
As a general election is looming larger on the Greek horizon, commentary on a prospective SYRIZA administration is becoming more frequent. In this piece Christian Odendahl proposes ‘A Program for Greece’. The ‘Program’ is sympathetic to the view that Greece was manhandled by a bailout loan that gave it little chance of recovery and makes several […]
Revisiting the Juncker Recovery Proposals – guest post by Stuart Holland
, 01/12/2014
Regular readers need no introduction to Stuart Holland; co-author of The Modest Proposal, former British MP and aid to Jacques Delors, responsible for starting the conversation about the Eurozone’s need for eurobonds (in… 1993), creator of the European Investment Fund and a staunch advocate of the need to turn the European Investment Bank into the […]