Politics and Economics
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 […]
Internationalism vs Globalisation: Why progressives across Europe and beyond must forge a common internationalist movement – Talk at the Royal Festival Hall, accompanied by Andreas Gursky’s images and Danae Stratou’s ‘The Globalising Wall), 9 APR 2018
, 13/04/2018
Ladies and Gentlemen, my heartfelt thanks for your presence here tonight. Thanks also to the good people at South Bank who honoured me with the humbling idea and invitation to combine my own musings on globalisation with the remarkable images of Andreas Gursky – images which have, over the years, done so much to enlighten […]
INTERNATIONALISM vs GLOBALISATION, at the Royal Festival Hall, London, in association with the adjacent Andreas Gursky exhibition at the Hayward Gallery – this Monday 9th APR 2018, 19.30
, 07/04/2018
Join economist and Democracy in Europe Movement 2025 (DiEM25) co-founder Yanis Varoufakis for a keynote talk on the economic force that has shaped our world: globalisation. This South Bank talk is punctuated by images from acclaimed German photographer, Andreas Gursky, whose iconic photographs have documented global capital and its effects for three decades, and whose […]
No Brexit for a Eurozone Britain? Project Syndicate op-ed
, 04/04/2018
As British Prime Minister Theresa May is finding out, disentangling a member state from the EU is an arduous and complex undertaking. But how much harder would Brexit have been had the United Kingdom adopted the euro back in 2000? ATHENS – “You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave.” […]
The Guardian previews my Annual Shakespeare Lecture, tonight (19 March 2018) at the Rose Theatre
, 19/03/2018
Mark Lawson, in today’s Guardian, previews my Annual Shakespeare Rose Lecture, ahead of tonight’s delivery. He begins with its title ‘Shake the Superflux’ and the statement: ‘The beauty of King Lear is that it encourages us to think about inequality’. Is Theresa May Macbeth? Might King Lear agree with Jeremy Corbyn? On Monday night, one of Europe’s leading […]
‘Shake the Superflux’: Yanis Varoufakis to deliver the 6th Annual Rose Shakespeare Lecture, Monday 19th March 2018
, 18/03/2018
Yanis Varoufakis has emerged not only as an embattled finance minister, iconoclastic economist, and co-founder of the Democracy in Europe Movement (DiEM25), but a life-long lover of Shakespeare. He called the Greek debt crisis ‘a Shakespearean tragedy’, reported that observing the European Union is ‘like watching Othello’, and compared the world’s Deep Establishment to Shylock and Macbeth. Those […]
Was defeat inevitable? A review of Adam Tooze’s meta-review of ‘Adults in the Room’ [1]
, 07/03/2018
To read one excellent review of one’s book is a joy. To read an engaging and deeply thoughtful review of different categories of reviews of one’s book is a rare privilege. Normally, I should have left matters there, enjoying the diversity of opinion that Adults in the Room engendered. But this is not an academic book […]
The Magnificent Oomph: Aiming for Norway Plus to secure a progressive Brexit – transcript of speech
, 31/01/2018
Courtesy of opendemocracy.net, here is the transcript of my speech of 29th January at the House of Commons. The theme? How should Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party secure a progressive Brexit consistent with a socialist agenda for the UK but also with DiEM25’s campaign to democratise Europe. The main reason I am here, I believe – […]
Bloody Sunday, Brexit & The Democratic Process: Public lecture, followed by ‘In conversation with Bernadette McAliskey’ – Derry, 26th January 2018, 7.30pm
, 15/01/2018
Why ‘Bloody Sunday, Brexit & The Democratic Process’ ? Much like many other parts of the world at that time, the North of Ireland was undergoing a process of profound political change in the early 1970’s. By the time January 1972 came around the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association (NICRA) had already been holding peaceful protests […]
The Economists Who Stole Christmas – Project Syndu
, 30/12/2017
How might opposing schools of economic thought – from neoclassical and Keynesian to Libertarian and Marxist, view Christmas presents? Levity aside, the answer reveals the pompousness and vacuity of each and every economic theory. ATHENS – To welcome the New Year with a cheeky take on the clash of economic ideologies, how might opposing camps’ representatives […]
Bitcoin, Blockchain and the Future of Europe – Interviewed by Tom Upchurch for WIRED
, 25/12/2017
In an exclusive interview with WIRED, Yanis Varoufakis discusses Bitcoin’s bubble, the fantasy of apolitical money and the opportunities for the blockchain to reform Europe. By TOM UPCHURCH Saturday 23 December 2017 When I first met Yanis Varoufakis in the summer of 2014, he was a highly respected but relatively obscure economist. Back then, the price […]
The High Cost of Denying Class War – Project Syndicate op-ed, 8th December 2017
, 12/12/2017
ATHENS – The Anglosphere’s political atmosphere is thick with bourgeois outrage. In the United States, the so-called liberal establishment is convinced it was robbed by an insurgency of “deplorables” weaponized by Vladimir Putin’s hackers and Facebook’s sinister inner workings. In Britain, too, an incensed bourgeoisie are pinching themselves that support for leaving the European Union […]
One Schulz does not a federation make: Comment on Martin Schulz’s belated federalist speech
, 08/12/2017
Isn’t it remarkable how establishment European politicians speak common sense once they have lost power and are about to begin their long slide into oblivion? Martin Schulz just copied that pattern with his passionate federalist speech and his pronouncement that “the EU cannot afford another four years of German European policy à la Wolfgang Schäuble”. Pity that […]
Carry On Brexit: Is the long haul just beginning? – The Spectator podcast (audio)
, 07/12/2017
Yanis Varoufakis on EU negotiations, Sam Leith on Brexit language and Harry Mount andSophia Money-Coutts on the Glamocracy. Click here
A Tale of Two Faltering Unions (UK and EU); and what DiEM25 proposes in response – Address at the Oxford Guild, Oxford University, 28/11/2017 (Audio + Full Transcript)
, 04/12/2017
Yanis Varoufakis, co-founder of DiEM25, former Minister of Finance for Greece and high profile economist, academic and writer, addressed The Oxford Guild on Tuesday 28th November in the Said Business School Amphitheatre. He discussed the state of the European Union, of the United Kingdom, the political landscape globally and the political/economic/social agenda of DiEM25 across the […]
Keynote on ‘Europe and its Neighbours’, Chatham House event at the Royal Society of the Arts, London – 20th November 2017 (audio), followed by conversation with Quentin Peele
, 02/12/2017
“Britain is a great democracy imperilled by the delusion that it is a great power. The EU is a great power imperilled by the delusion that it is a great democracy. To stabilise our common neighbourhood, in the East, the Middle-East and Africa, both Europe and the UK must overcome their delusions and work toward simulating […]