Politics and Economics
Our Present Moment in History: a wide-ranging discussion with Aaron Bastani in a packed EarthH Theatre – 14th FEB 2024
, 02/03/2024
On 14th February 2024, I had the great privilege of a live discussion with Aaron Bastani in front of a marvellous audience at EartH in Hackney, North-East London. We talked about, of course, Israel-Palestine, but also about China and, in particular, the New Cold War being waged for control of what I call cloud capital. […]
Novara interview on almost everything (e.g. Crisis, Democracy, Syria, Israel-Palestine, Journalism at gunpoint)
, 22/02/2024
Ash speaks to Yanis Varoufakis and film director Raoul Martinez about their new film Eye Of The Storm: The Political Odyssey of Yanis Varoufakis, what the left got wrong after 2008 and the West’s complicity in the genocide happening in Gaza. You can buy ‘In The Eye of the Storm: The Political Odyssey of Yanis […]
PoliticsJOE interview on capitalism, technofeudalism, the Labour Party, Western Hegemony and Gaza
, 22/02/2024
Sat down to discuss the downfall of capitalism and Western hegemony, the Labour Party’s shunt to the right, and the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Also, we discussed Raoul Martinez’s documentary In The Eye of the Storm: The Political Odyssey of Yanis Varoufakis
The Guilty Feminist Culture Club: In the Eye of the Storm with Yanis Varoufakis and Raoul Martinez
, 22/02/2024
Interviewed by by Deborah Frances-White in Brian Eno’s Studio, on the occasion of the launch of Raoul Martinez’s IN THE EYE OF THE STORM: Yanis Varoufakis’ Political Odyssey Recorded 15 February in London. Released 21 February 2024. For THE GUILTY FEMINIST side, click here.
On the causes and nature of Populism’s Surge – interviewed on BBC Radio 4’s The World This Weekend
, 11/12/2023
Discussing the surge of ultra-rightist populism, where I argued it all started with the West’s response to the 2008 crash – just like after 1929. When $35 trillion was printed on behalf of financiers (between 2009 and 2022), while most people were subjected to some variant of austerity, and given the Left’s failure to defend […]
How should we tax wealth & multinationals globally? Speech at UNDP, New York 14th NOV 2023
, 18/11/2023
Ms Assistant Secretary General of the United Nations, Esteemed colleagues, Ladies and Gentlemen, before I address the question of taxing serious wealth seriously, I you forgive my inability to proceed without an acknowledgement of the human tragedy in the Middle East. As Secretary General Goutières correctly put it, nothing happens in a vacuum, nothing is […]
Bill Black and Yanis Varoufakis discussing corruption in finance – video
, 14/09/2023
Invited and chaired by Patrick Lovell (director of The Con), in this video Bill Black and I discuss financial corruption in the USA and the EU. Bill Black needs no introduction. As a lawyer he filed over 1700 indictments for financial corruption in the US, from the S&L scandal to this day. He was also the […]
What is money and who rules the world? | Yanis Varoufakis on Escaped Sapiens #46
, 18/07/2023
On this episode of the podcast I speak with Yanis Varoufakis about the role of banks and politicians. Yanis is an economist, politician, author and Secretary-General of MeRA25. He is perhaps best known for his role as the Greek Minister of Finance during the Greek credit crisis. In our discussion we cover some fairly big […]
Who’s Afraid of Central Bank Digital Currencies? Project Syndicate op-ed
, 01/06/2023
Once upon a time, the greed of tobacco companies was channeled through libertarian outrage over the restriction of smokers’ freedom to choose cancer. Today, the outrage is serving the interests of bankers panicking at the prospect of central bank digital currencies. ATHENS – When First Republic Bank failed, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation organized a […]
The Strange Death of the Liberal Individual – Project Syndicate op-ed
, 01/06/2023
Only a comprehensive reconfiguration of property rights over the increasingly cloud-based instruments of production, distribution, collaboration, and communication can rescue the foundational liberal idea of liberty as self-ownership. Reviving the liberal individual thus requires precisely what liberals detest: a revolution. ATHENS – My father was the epitome of the liberal individual, a splendid irony for […]
Britain, Europe, the New Cold War Finance & Technofeudalism – at the Cambridge Union
, 24/03/2023
On 7th February 2023, I returned to the Chamber to discuss a wide variety of issues, beginning with a Europe-at-war, post-Brexit Britain, the New Cold War that marks capitalism’s global transition to (what I call Technofeudalism), the state of the Left in Eastern Europe and more. Thanks Cambridge Union!
AGE OF ECONOMICS interview on economics and capitalism – video
, 26/02/2023
A diverse group of global thinkers answers 8 fundamental questions about economics and capitalism. In this video interview, Yanis Varoufakis has a go: 0:00 – Prologue 01:19 – Intro 01:38 – 1. Why does economics matter? 03:00 – 2. What are the differences between economic science and economic engineering? 09:46 – 3. What role does […]
The New Non-Aligned Movement and New Economic System we have a duty to work towards – Havana Address, 27th January 2023
, 26/02/2023
The War in Ukraine has sped up the division of the world into two technofeudal fiefdoms – one US dollar denominated and one Chinese yuan denominated. As the world bifurcates, class struggles within each technofeudal fiefdom, as well as between them, generate destructive forces that threaten our species survival – from a New Cold War, […]
Exposing the scam that is an electricity ‘market’ – ANY electricity ‘market’
, 26/02/2023
So used are we to the idea of an ‘electricity market’ that the next sentence may jar in your mind: There is no such thing as an electricity market! In this video I explain why those who talk to us about electricity markets as something natural, clever and necessary are either deluded or in the […]
What’s behind the Great Volatility? Audio of SSGA Zurich Address
, 26/02/2023
From the Great Moderation to the Great Crash, the Great Recession, the Great Stagnation, the Great Inflation and, finally, to the Great Volatility. What are the forces driving this 50yr dynamic? Plus an answer to: “What did the euro crisis teach us about the EU’s various debt instruments?” A lecture delivered on 24th January 2023 […]
Crisis, Recession, the Left & the state of economics – INDIA & GLOBAL LEFT podcast
, 01/01/2023
00:00 Highlights 01:55 Who is Yanis 05:34 Financial crisis & recession 20:06 Revolutionary changes 22:04 European Right 30:22 European Left 37:15 Academics and economics.
Should electricity markets be reformed or disbanded? My debate with Michael Liebreich on Cleaning Up
, 01/11/2022
The other day, Michael Liebreich and I had a lively discussion on his CleaningUp podcast provoked by my call “to blow up the electricity markets”. It was fun but, of course, fell short of a comprehensive analysis of the complex issues pertaining to the political economy of electricity generation and distribution. Following our debate, Michael […]
Zombie capitalism is unravelling – THE NEW STATESMAN
, 29/09/2022
This is no sterling crisis. It is a crisis of British capitalism caused by 40 years of underinvestment and deindustrialisation, exacerbated by chronic reliance on speculative bubbles and triggered by Liz Truss’s extravagant kindness to Britain’s wealthy. While all eyes are on the fall of the pound, the real drama revolves around the Bank of England’s […]
Why energy markets should be dismantled, especially during and after the war in Ukraine – On Democracy Now!
, 18/09/2022
We look at how the Ukraine war is contributing to an energy crisis across Europe with Greek politician and economist Yanis Varoufakis. Last week Russia announced it would not resume sending natural gas to Europe via the Nord Stream 1 pipeline, blaming Western sanctions for supposed maintenance delays keeping the gas shut off. Prior to […]
Inflation, socialism’ for corporations & austerity for workers: FORTUNE comments on Yanis Varoufakis’ take
, 18/09/2022
Known for sporting a leather jacket in meetings with foreign dignitaries during his brief stint as Greece’s finance minister in 2015, Yanis Varoufakis has become a bit of a rebel in economic circles. A member of Greece’s Hellenic Parliament and founder of the left-wing European Realistic Disobedience Front, or MeRA25 party, Varoufakis hasn’t historically pulled any […]
Inflation as a Political Power Play Gone Wrong – Project Syndicate op-e
, 30/07/2022
The blame game over surging prices is on. Was it too much central-bank money being pumped out for too long that caused inflation to take off? Was it China, where most physical production had moved before the pandemic locked down the country and disrupted global supply chains? Was it Russia, whose invasion of Ukraine took […]
Should we save capitalism? | Slavoj Žižek, Paul Krugman, Yanis Varoufakis, Shoshana Zuboff, and more – iai video
, 12/06/2022
Leading economists and philosophers discuss in depth the downfall of capitalism and its implications for our social reality. Featuring: Slavoj Žižek, Paul Krugman, Joseph Stiglitz, Shoshana Zuboff, @Yanis Varoufakis, @Mariana Mazzucato , Deirdre McCloskey and Guy Standing. 00:00 | Introduction 00:31 | Paul Krugman 04:07 | Guy Standing 07:01 | Joseph Stiglitz 11:03 | Deirdre […]
Cloudalists: The New Ruling Class & how can we confront its technofeudal order – iai lecture, 10 APR 2022
, 25/04/2022
Capital triumphed over democracy a long time ago. Today, following the Crash of 2008, the deployment of central bank money to refloat Big Finance, and the rise of Big Tech’s platform corporations, a new type of capital has emerged: Cloud capital (a form of command capital living in the ‘Cloud’). Cloud Capital is crushing the […]