Greek Crisis
Greece’s Choice: Bargaining versus pleading (a piece to appear in the Huffington Post)
, 15/06/2012
This piece was prepared for the french version of Huffington Post and was also published in English by The Conversation When two sides bargain, their interaction reflects a potential mutual benefit but also a measure of conflict. For instance, when a firm and its supplier reach a deal, there is often more than one price […]
Solidarity Euro-Style: Finnish loans, ECB bond purchases, EFSF tough love and assorted horror stories from the postmodern Euro-Workhouse
, 07/06/2012
The world seems convinced that Europe, perhaps under duress, put together a large Solidarity Fund (the EFSF) for the purposes of helping the fiscally-stricken Eurozone member-states avoid bankruptcy once they were frozen out of the money markets. The criticisms waged at this type of ‘solidarity’ centred on two issues: First, that the Fund’s size was […]
Discussing SYRIZA with Die Zeit
, 06/06/2012
Syriza handelt verantwortungsvoll Der deutsche Steuerzahler solle sich über die radikale Linke in Griechenland freuen, sagt der Ökonom Yanis Varoufakis im Interview. Das Land sei nicht reformunwillig. ZEIT ONLINE: Herr Varoufakis, die Griechen wollen mehrheitlich den Euro behalten, wählen aber mit Syriza und ihrem Spitzenkandidaten Alexis Tsipraseine Partei, deren Pläne zu einem Austritt aus der Währungsunion führen könnten . […]
Why Europe should fear Fine Gael-like ‘reasonableness’ much, much more than it fears Syriza
, 03/06/2012
The establishment view in Europe is that the problem is too much debt (by profligate countries like Greece) and, therefore, that the solution must involve (a) austerity and (b) structural reforms (which increase the competitiveness of the weaker states). The problem, however, is that the establishment view is profoundly mistaken and, as a result, the […]
Italy’s Own Goal: Guest post by Joseph Halevi
, 03/06/2012
The Eurozone’s idiocy is obvious to all those with eyes and ears. It can be witnessed anywhere we turn these days: from the evolving bank run to the non-debate on eurobonds. Joseph Halevi, friend, co-author and serial guest of this blog, just sent me a missive that offers new insights into our continent’s infinite inanity: […]
Interviewed by FXstreet.com on Grexit…
, 31/05/2012
One year ago we heard for the very first time about rumors of Greece leaving the Eurozone. What has changed in one year to go from considering it just gossip to taking it as a real fact? Something very simple: at long last the truth bubbled up to the surface of the murky pond [...]For Europe’s sake Greece must renege on its bailout commitments – my op-ed in Le Monde
, 25/05/2012
Le Monde commissioned me to write an op-ed explaining my view that it is in Europe’s interest that Greece resists the ‘terms and conditions’ of its bailout package while staying within the eurozone. In effect, to explain why there is no contradiction between (a) the Greek people’s determination to stay in the eurozone, and (b) […]
Bloomberg Businessweek on UADPhilEcon – the progressive Athens University PhD Economics Program that is now threatened by the Crisis
, 25/05/2012
A few days ago, Brendan Greeley, of Bloomberg, got in touch with me to discuss UADPhilEcon, the Doctoral Program in Economics that I helped set up at the University of Athens. The following article was the result: Greece’s Brain Drain Has Begun Apparently, Brendan had heard me say, in some interview, that one of the […]
On ABC Radio National's 'The World Today', interviewed by Eleanor Hall
, 21/05/2012
This morning I visited the ABC’s Ultimo studio for three interviews on (what else?) Greece and the eurozone. Here is one of them (the other two were for ABC TV). For the ABC’s website page, which includes the audio and the transcript, click here. The full interview (too long to broadcast on live radio) can […]
Guest Post: Today Germany is the big loser, not Greece – by Marshall Auerbach
, 20/05/2012
Just before the Crisis erupted, in April 2010, with Greece falling into the troika’s embrace in May 2010, I had written an article (A New Versailles haunts Europe) to argue that Germany was about to commit the error that the winners’ of World War I had committed by imposing upon Germany the Versailles Treaty. It was […]
Discussing Grexit in Washington Post, Huffington Post and ABC Radio
, 19/05/2012
My piece in The Huffington Post entitled Sure there’s Greece… But what about Spain? My ‘take’ featured in The Washington Post under the title How bad would it be for Greece to leave the euro? Participating in a radio debate, ABC Radio National, on whether Greece should exit the euro, entitled No happy ending if […]
Assorted questions on Greece and Europe by Chinese and Swedish journalists – with brief answers
, 19/05/2012
During the last two days, I was asked several questions by a Chinese and a Swedish press agency over email. Below I list the questions and my answers to them, hoping they might be useful.
Weisbrot and Krugman are Wrong: Greece cannot pull off an Argentina
, 16/05/2012
Mark Weisbrot has been arguing, for some time now, that Greece must try to emulate Argentina; that is, to default on its debts not as a bargaining strategy that yields a New Deal within the Eurozone but, rather, in the context of exiting the Eurozone altogether and going it alone. Recently, Paul Krugman has endorsed […]
Debating 'Grexit' on France24 tv
, 15/05/2012
As the media are replete with talk of a Greek exit, and Europe’s leadership has decided to play a ‘game of chicken’ with the Greek voters, France24 organised a debate involving the following. Click here to watch it (and here for the second part). Yanis VAROUFAKIS. Professor of Economics, Athens University – from Seattle; Sony […]
On ABC Radio National, PM program: 'Stupendously idiotic' policies for Greece can't work.
, 14/05/2012
For the audio of the interview click. For the transcript (courtesy of ABC), continue reading…
Europe’s potential gains from a silent alliance between Paris and Athens
, 09/05/2012
Greece and France go back a long, long way. The Greek revolution, that procured our small, and constantly problematic, nation-state, was a spinoff (to all intents and purposes) of the French revolution and the culmination of a Greek Enlightenment that owed everything to the French Enlightenment (and almost nothing to either its German or Scottish […]
On CNN Int and Democracy Now, commenting of the Greek and French elections
, 09/05/2012
On Monday 7th May, a day after the French and Greek elections, I was asked to comment on both these momentous results first by Amy Goodman, of Democracy Now, and a little later that day by Christiane Amanpour, CNN International. Both interviews covered quite a lot of ground and departed from the usual epidermic coverage we […]
On China Radio International (中国国际广播电台), discussing the Greek elections
, 03/05/2012
A radio panel discussion on China Radio International discussing, for a whole hour (!), the (I am afraid) inconsequential Greek Elections that are coming up this Sunday. Click here PANEL: –Zhao Changhui, Senior analyst with the Export-Import Bank of China; –Yanis Varoufakis, Professor of Economic Theory at the University of Athens; –Nicholas Economides, Professor of […]
Interview with China's '21st Century Business Herld'
, 02/05/2012
Just interviewed by Chinese business daily 21st Century Business Herald (21世纪经济报道|). Here is the Q&A, in English of course…
CBS’s 60 Minutes program on An Imperfect Union: Europe’s Debt Crisis. An ‘eyewitness’ assessment
, 09/04/2012
On 8th of April, CBS’s 60 Minutes featured a section on the Euro Crisis in which I appeared. Here is my account, and assessment, of it.
Europe’s April, and how to thwart it
, 08/04/2012
The editor of a Swedish magazine asked me to contribute a short piece that combines elements of my Global Minotaur with the address I am about to deliver at the INET conference in Berlin this coming week on the Future of Europe. Here is the piece I concocted. Its title is borrowed from T.S. Elliot’s […]
Politics as television by other means: Mrs Merkel telling us that Greece is here-to-stay and the ESM will co-exist with the EFSF
, 26/03/2012
In television, I was once told, you can never lose money by underestimating the intelligence of the audience. Mrs Merkel seems to have drawn heavily from that nugget of wisdom. Her take on it is that, in European politics, you cannot lose votes if you underestimate the electorate. Just keep telling them the same thing […]
Interviewed by Telepolis (German and English versions)
, 24/03/2012
Telepolis just published an interview of mine under the title Die Europäische Union zerbricht. For the original article, in German, click here. Below I copy my original answers in English.
The IMF’s preemptive smokescreen for covering up another foretold program failure
, 17/03/2012
Having bent its own rules, and after turning a blind eye to its own experts’ assessment of the sustainability of Greece’s 2nd ‘bailout’, the IMF is now preparing for failure. Ms Lagarde found it hard to convince her board to go along Europe down the path of locking Greece into yet another unsustainable future.