Politics and Economics
The three tribes of austerity: enemies of big government, Germany’s social democrats, and tax-cutting Republicans – op-ed in Project Syndicate
, 31/08/2018
No policy is as self-defeating during recessionary times as the pursuit of a budget surplus for the purpose of containing public debt – austerity, for short. So, as the world approaches the tenth anniversary of the collapse of Lehman Brothers, it is appropriate to ask why austerity proved so popular with Western political elites following […]
Greece was never bailed out; it remains a debtor’s prison and the EU won’t let go of the keys – op-ed in The Observer
, 27/08/2018
Over the past week, the world’s media have been proclaiming the successful completion of the Greek financial rescue programmemounted in 2010 by the European Union and the International Monetary Fund. Headlines celebrated the end of Greece’s bailout, even the termination of austerity. Buoyant reports from ground zero of the eurozone crisis portrayed Europe’s eight-year long Greek […]
On the Deep State – an audio essay in seven parts
, 19/08/2018
Is there a Deep State in our western liberal democracies? If so, is it a conspiracy or something more ‘interesting’ than that? These are questions that the Left has been traditionally engaged with, especially when facing undercover campaigns to prevent progressives from winning power or, on occasion, to unseat or destabilise left-wing governments. However, more recently, the Alt-Right […]
Greed, ineptitude and austerity fanned the flames of the Greek wildfire – The Sunday Times
, 30/07/2018
ATHENS: A biblical calamity befell the Attica region last Monday. I saw its first sign in the late morning at Athens airport, where I was seeing off my daughter to Australia. A strong whiff of burning wood caused me to look up to the sky, where a whitish-yellow sun beckoned, surrounded by the tell-tale eclipse-like […]
On The Jolly Swagmen podcast, discussing economics, the economy, politics, Europe & Greece
, 26/07/2018
Joe speaks with former Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis, the man who defied Europe to save Greece – and failed. Yanis, the suave economics professor turned unexpected politician, has recently announced he will run for Prime Minister of Greece at the next national elections. He is the author of multiple books including And The Weak Suffer […]
Ushering in a new school of principled politics: a discussion between Yanis Varoufakis (DiEM25) & Aldo Cazzullo (Corriere Della Sera) – openDemocracy
, 20/07/2018
“The reason we formed DiEM25 was the diagnosis that old wine in new bottles will not help revive the spirits of progressives in Italy or in the rest of Europe.” Aldo Cazzullo, Corriere Della Sera (AC): Let us start from the beginning? Why did you decide to resign after OXI’s victory in the Greek referendum? Yanis […]
If Trump wants to blow up the world order, who will stop him? op-ed in The Guardian
, 19/07/2018
Even before Donald Trump drove to tears of dismay NATO’s leaders, Theresa May, the EU’s officialdom and Washington’s own ‘intelligence community’, the writing was on the wall: Trump is methodically dismantling a world order that he no longer believes to be in the interests of the United States’ ruling class. Mon 11 Jun 2018 16.23 BST Donald Trump’s early […]
Profiles in Euro-Denial: The thwarted euro reforms & Greece’s permanent debt bondage – Project Syndicate op-ed
, 28/06/2018
ATHENS – Europe’s establishment is luxuriating in two recent announcements that would have been momentous even if they were only partly accurate: The end of Greece’s debt crisis, and a Franco-German accord to redesign the eurozone. Unfortunately, both reports offer fresh proof of the European Union establishment’s remarkable talent for never missing an opportunity to […]
The Italian crisis was the Left’s final warning – New Statesman op-ed, 6 June 2018
, 06/06/2018
The Left must adopt a new, credible EU policy agenda: It’s time to explain how the bloc, and the euro, could be run differently, democratically and sustainably Italy’s recent political crisis has at once confirmed the European Union’s unsustainability and the left’s impotence. That the euro is a currency system within which a country like Italy cannot […]
Live at ‘Politics and Prose’, Washington DC
, 03/06/2018
Yanis Varoufakis discusses his books, Adults in the Room and Talking to my Daughter About the Economy, at Politics and Prose on 10th May 2018 In his eye-opening memoir, Adults in the Room, Varoufakis, Greece’s former Finance Minister, recounts his frustrating struggle to resolve Greece’s debt crisis without resorting to austerity measures. His book give […]
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 […]
On YouTube’s ‘The Young Turks’ (TYT), interviewed by Nomi Konst on Capitalism, Democracy and Crisis – 21 MAY 2018
, 27/05/2018
Nomiki Konst (TYT Politics) interviews former Greek Finance Minister and Greek Member of Parliament Yanis Varoufakis. Get ‘Talking to My Daughter About the Economy: A Brief History of Capitalism’ here: http://a.co/eXqqRNt
At the New School, discussing ‘Capitalism and the Present Moment in History’ with Will Milberg – 7 MAY 2018
, 25/05/2018
On the day of this discussion/presentation, students and staff were occupying part of the New School as part of a twin labour dispute: one regarding the cafeteria staff facing dismissal and partial re-employment under worse terns and a second dispute concerning low pay and lack of rights for student workers-TAs. It is in this context […]
Trump vs. Europe – Interview for The Nation podcast
, 24/05/2018
Trump vs Europe: He’s threatening European banks and industries with sanctions. If they don’t cut off trade with Iran, they would be barred from American markets and transactions with American banks. We asked Yanis Varoufakis for his analysis—he’s the former finance minister of Greece who led the resistance to European Bankers demanding austerity—now he has co-founded […]
On Trump’s tariffs and why we should never trust ‘economic experts’ – interviewed by Scott Gamm for TheStreet
, 19/05/2018
Click photo above or here for the video discussing Trump’s trade tariff strategy Click photo above or here for the video regarding the so-called ‘economic experts’
On Iran Nuclear Deal Demise, US Trade Negotiations, Europe’s Far Right & Capitalism – TV interview with Amy Goodman on Democracy Now!
, 18/05/2018
Click the photo above or here for Part 1: Yanis Varoufakis on Lost U.S. Credibility in Middle East, from Iran Deal to Israel Embassy Move Part 2: Yanis Varoufakis on Iran Nuclear Deal Demise, US Trade Negotiations, Europe’s Far Right & Capitalism In the latest economic fallout from President Trump’s decision to pull the United […]
THE NATION: Yanis Varoufakis’s vision for a more democratic Europe – a review of ‘Adults in the Room’, ‘Talking to My Daughter About The Economy’ & ‘And the Weak Suffer What They Must?’ by Atossa Araxia Abrahamian
, 15/05/2018
The idea of a unified Europe didn’t always elicit the current mixture of exasperation, boredom, and rage, in politicians and ordinary people alike. In fact, there was a time when the European Union seemed like a great initiative, especially on a continent ravaged first by two hot wars, then broken in half by a cold […]
Marx predicted our present crisis; and points the way out – The Guardian, LONG READ, 20 APR 2018, print and audio versions
, 15/05/2018
For a manifesto to succeed, it must speak to our hearts like a poem while infecting the mind with images and ideas that are dazzlingly new. It needs to open our eyes to the true causes of the bewildering, disturbing, exciting changes occurring around us, exposing the possibilities with which our current reality is pregnant. […]
Turn the Brexit page and let’s move on by uniting progressives in the UK and in the EU: Interview in BIG ISSUE NORTH, 22 APR 2018
, 15/05/2018
Progressive people and politicians in the UK should end the “idiocy” of wishing for a second referendum on Brexit and instead turn to what can be salvaged from leaving the EU, according to Yanis Varoufakis, the former Greek finance minister. Even though the UK is likely to leave the EU with a bad deal, it […]
Liberal Totalitarianism – Project Syndicate op-ed, 30 APR 2018
, 15/05/2018
LISBON – It used to be an axiom of liberalism that freedom meant inalienable self-ownership. You were your own property. You could lease yourself to an employer for a limited period, and for a mutually agreed price, but your property rights over yourself could not be bought or sold. Over the past two centuries, this […]
