Books
Austerity comes to Australia – OpEd, WHITE PAPER, ABC Radio National
, 22/08/2014
Austerity was never about tackling public debt. It was not even a political campaign to end the ‘culture of entitlement’. In the UK, in the Eurozone, and now in Australia, austerity is, and always was, a thinly disguised campaign of invoking fiscal prudence and public virtues in order to indulge private vices and so as to redistribute entitlements at the expense of the majority.
Greek summer stops posting…
, 01/07/2014
Dear Reader, You may have noticed that my posts have ceased over the past week. Summer is responsible. A wonderful Greek summer, spent mostly on a tiny boat in the Aegean. Back in mid-July, with posts mostly reflecting my total immersion in the writing of my next book, entitled EUROPE UNHINGED: The next phase of the […]
A European New Deal financed by the EIB, with ECB QE-backing, is the optimal policy: Now recommended also by W. Münchau
, 23/06/2014
Faced with deflationary forces in its core, and a lasting depression in the periphery, the Eurozone requires a major investment drive. One of the Modest Proposal’s policy recommendations is that the European Investment Bank (along with the European Investment Fund) embarks upon a massive investment drive (up to 8% of Gross Eurozone Product) without any […]
James K. Galbraith on The Modest Proposal, Europe and Greece
, 22/06/2014
In this Q&A with a Greek journalist, on the occasion of the launch of the Greek translation of the Modest Proposal, James K. Galbraith argues that Italy and Greece can play an important role in changing the terms of the European ‘conversation’, so that rational, minimalist solutions like the Modest Proposal can have a chance […]
The Modest Proposal (in Greek) – presented tonight, in Athens, by Alexis Tsipras, Yanis Varoufakis & George Krimpas
, 17/06/2014
If you happen to be in Athens tonight (Tuesday 17th June), come to the Byzantine Museum (2 V. Sofias Avenue) at 8pm for the launch of the Greek translation of our Modest Proposal for Resolving the Euro Crisis 4.0. It will be presented by Yanis Varoufakis (who will speak to the proposal itself), George Krimpas […]
A proposal for Federal Unemployment Benefits in the €-Zone: By EU Commissioner László Andor
, 16/06/2014
László Andor, European Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion, has recently given a speech (at the Hertie School of Governance, Berlin, 13 June 2014) entitled Social dimension of the Economic and Monetary Union: What lessons to draw from the European elections? It is a good speech, well worth reading carefully, that outlines a proposal for a federal-like Eurozone-wide unemployment […]
Whither Europe? The Modest Camp vs the Federalist Austerians – in Open Democracy
, 11/06/2014
by JAMES GALBRAITH and YANIS VAROUFAKIS Proposals for resolving the Eurozone crisis, and re-designing its architecture, are multiplying – especially as evidence mounts that the crisis is continuing, despite all the official announcements of its end. Our Modest Proposal was the first to have been tabled, along with Breugel’s Blue Bond Proposal, back in 2010. In this review article, J.K. […]
Solitary Subversives: from the WdW Review
, 03/06/2014
Solitary Subversives is about the Power of One in the face of oppression. About how one person’s refusal to succumb to authoritarian lies can make a difference. It begins with an almost forgotten Greek film, that I vividly recall having made an impression upon me along such lines, and then relates two other stories highlighting the […]
Preface to the Finnish edition of the Global Minotaur
, 03/06/2014
Finland, like my homeland, Greece, is a small country at a treacherous geopolitical crossroads that traditionally inspired great anxiety amongst its people, but also instilled into their character considerable resilience. Unlike Greece, from the mid-1990s until fairly recently Finland succeeded in turning itself into a net exporting nation, ostensibly capable of powering its way into […]
Italy, Greece and Europe after the European Parliament elections: An interview with Alessandro Bianchi
, 01/06/2014
How the current policies of the Brussels-Berlin-Frankfurt triangle are based on a propaganda campaign reflecting continuing Crisis Denial and why they constitute an attempt to create a new financial bubble – Why SYRIZA is a pro-European progressive party, in contrast to UKIP and Ms Le Pen’s FN – What should we expect of the new Italian government and why there […]
On Sun News TV (Canada): The Euro Project in the light of the 2014 European Parliament Elections
, 30/05/2014
Faith Goldy interviews Yanis Varoufakis to discuss the future of the European Union based on the historic results of recent European Union elections (Duration: 7 minutes)
A Review of the Global Minotaur (2nd edition) from an Australian perspective; by Paul Tyson
, 22/05/2014
Is there Life After Money? A Summary, with comments, of Yanis Varoufakis’ The Global Minotaur: America, Europe and the future of the world economy, Zed Books By Dr Paul Tyson, Honorary Associate Professor, Department of Theology and Religious Studies, University of Nottingham. [Note that the cover displayed here is of the German edition. Click here for the […]
QE for infrastructure investment could be ECB’s alternative to ‘pushing on a string’ – Tom Bowker, Central Banking Journal
, 19/05/2014
Tom Bowker, of the Central Banking Journal and centralbanking.com, has written about my proposal that the ECB’s Quantitative Easing program should be aimed at purchasing bonds issued by the European Investment Bank/Fund as part of an Investment-led Recovery Program for the Eurozone as a whole.
How should the ECB enact Quantitative Easing? A proposal
, 19/05/2014
The ECB has no alternative to enacting some form of Quantitative Easing (QE) in order to prevent deflationary expectations from setting in fully. Core inflation has already reached a level that, even according to Mr Draghi’s own pronouncements on 24th April, should have already triggered off QE. (See also Wolfgang Munchau’s well argued case here.) However, […]
‘European Progressive Policy Initiative’ endorses the Modest Proposal’s four main policies
, 01/05/2014
A group of noted international economists (including Joseph Stiglitz, Peter Bofinger and Stefanie Griffith-Jones), known as the European Progressive Policy Initiative (EPPI), has issued a policy paper that endorses the main planks of our Modest Proposal for Resolving the Euro Crisis 4.0. EPPI was assembled in 2013 by Europe’s social democratic alliance in the European […]
James Galbraith on Piketty’s Capital in 21st Century – video/interview
, 26/04/2014
See also James Galbraith’s splendid review of T. Piketty’s ‘Capital’ here.
Vicious Disequilibrium, in the Los Angeles Review of Books
, 09/04/2014
Are we witnessing a new global balance? Or a new incongruity pregnant with the crisis’ next phase?
Das Kapital for the Twenty-First Century? A review of T. Piketty’s new book by James K. Galbraith
, 03/04/2014
Thomas Piketty has a new book out: Capital in the Twenty-First Century. It is an ambitious volume that sets out to explain the sources of inequality and social tensions in the context of his own anatomy of… Das Kapital. As this book is receiving a great deal of attention, a proper review is in order. Thankfully, James K. Galbraith […]
Bengt-Ake Lundvall: "The Portuguese Manifesto could become a trigger for change"
, 27/03/2014
Bengt-Ake Lundvall is a co-signatory of the petition by 74 of us in favour of an immediate restructuring of Portugal’s public debt. Here are his reasons for signing the petition. (And, for readers who missed them, here are the reasons I gave for signing the same petition.)
Think Big, Think Bold
, 25/03/2014
Why the Left in Britain and in the Eurozone must aim for a radical Pan-European Green New Deal The Centre for Labour and Social Studies (CLASS) kindly invited me to draft a possible Manifesto for the European Left, in view of the May 2014 European Parliament election. Here is the final document I produced entitled […]
Why I signed the petition for a Portuguese debt restructure
, 21/03/2014
Jorge Rodrigues, of Portuguese daily Expresso, asked me to explain why it is that I signed the petition of 74 economists calling for an immediate debt restructuring of Portugal’s public debt, how this ‘call’ squares up with our Modest Proposal and what type of debt restructuring I had in mind. Click here for the interview as […]
Interviewed by L’Express
, 07/03/2014
The Express published an interview I gave to Benjamin Masse-Stamberger a week ago. interview The Lasted one hour, over Skype, and Its Version of published nicely captures what Benjamin and I Discussed. The gist of it Will not surprise regular readers: The Greek 'bailout' was a sinister exercise in banking Transferring Losses from the books [...]Austerity as a destabilising assault on the New Deal institutions: A joint presentation by J.K. Galbraith & Y. Varoufakis (video)
, 27/02/2014
A debate involving James K. Galbraith, Yanis Varoufakis and Jeff Sommers (in the role of moderator) took place on 24th February at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee in the context of the George Kennan Distinguished Lecture Series. An amateurish recording is available here. For ease of ‘navigation’, a list of topics (with their location on […]
Don't Try This at Home! Greek Austerity
, 26/02/2014
by JEFFREY SOMMERS and YANIS VAROUFAKIS This is an op-ed published in initially in the Wisconsin-Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, on 22nd February 2014, and then in CounterPunch, on 26th February 2014. You can read the text here by clicking…