Box0_TOP_ENG
Monetising misery & the future of capitalism – ABC Radio National, BIG IDEAS program
, 20/03/2020
Enormous global corporations and financial institutions are now, some say, more powerful than governments. Rules that once constrained and regulated capitalism have gone. And when their power causes massive destruction, the captains of Big Capital find ways to profit from the destruction. So, is modern capitalism, itself, a threat to capitalism? Or will corporations always […]
The Eurogroup fails Europe once again. Brace for a hideous EU recession
, 17/03/2020
The Eurogroup met yesterday, Monday 16th March, to hammer out its coordinated fiscal response to the massive recession already in progress following the lockdown of much of Europe’s society. The task they faced is enormous: If sales, tourism, services etc. fall by 50% for just one month (which is certain), and then by 25% for […]
Climate change is capitalism’s Waterloo – IRISH EXAMINER
, 11/03/2020
Steven Mnuchin’s snide remark about teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg at this year’s World Economic Forum meeting in Davos outraged liberal commentators. US treasury secretary Mnuchin, responding to Thunberg’s call for an immediate exit from fossil fuel investments, said that she should go to college “to study economics” before “she can come back and explain […]
Oligarchy & Xenophobia: The only beneficiaries of Greece’s economic ‘recovery’ – The Guardian
, 04/03/2020
Spring is already in the air across Greece. Even in the bleakest of times, nature’s renaissance renders hope irrepressible. But this one is proving a cruel spring for a people caught up in a decade-old crisis yielding one ritual humiliation after another. Costas runs a small bookshop in my central Athens neighbourhood. Although jovial by […]
The EU’s green deal is a colossal exercise in greenwashing – The Guardian
, 09/02/2020
Ursula von der Leyen’s signature proposal co-opts the slogans of climate activism, but has none of the substance Emergencies tend to reveal our true priorities. When our house is burning down or the storm waters are flooding in, we hold on to what we value most, and leave the rest behind. A decade ago, the […]
DiEM25 2.0 – Prague Address
, 10/12/2019
On the next phase of Europe’s transnational progressive movement PRAGUE ADDRESS, 22nd November 2019 We come from all over Europe. From across borders, party lines and with different views of the good society. We are united by these differences. Europe will be democratised. Or it will disintegrate. This is not a scare tactic. It is […]
“Brexit, for all its ills, has reinvigorated British democracy” – Cambridge Union address, 8 NOV 2019
, 11/11/2019
Last Friday (8th November 2019), I delivered a Cambridge Union address on (what else?) Brexit. My opening message was: “Instead of moaning about the state of British institutions, rejoice! For all its many ills, Brexit has reinvigorated British democracy.” Unlike most continental European parliaments, the House of Commons remains at the heart of decision making and, […]
With a recession on its way, it is time we demanded an International Green New Deal
, 15/10/2019
Last April, again in The Guardian, David Adler and I called for a particular Green New Deal to be implemented internationally. Now that a new recession is ante portas, we are renewing this call, suggesting that we cannot afford yet another ‘good’ economic crisis to go to waste. Our latest piece in The Guardian follows: […]
The IMF functions like the US-European bankers’ bailiffs – Varoufakis and Rogoff on BBC World Service’s World Business Report
, 28/08/2019
The International Monetary Fund’s latest $56 billion loan to Argentina is at risk of failing again. The Argentinian peso has slumped and opposition leader Alberto Fernandez wants to ditch the austerity conditions attached to IMF bailouts that have so far failed to reduce inflation, stabilise the currency or halt recession. The Washington-based multilateral organisation monitors […]
Jeremy Corbyn’s finest hour? IRISH EXAMINER (Project Syndicate)
, 31/07/2019
Jeremy Corbyn must expose Boris Johnson’s no-deal Brexit as a Trump-deal Brexit and put forward Labour’s plan to end the interminable Brexit ordeal immediately, suggests Yanis Varoufakis Boris Johnson is the first British prime minister in a long time who is free of dilemmas regarding his approach to the European Union. For better or worse, Johnson’s […]
Our Plan for a European Spring | DiEM25
, 07/03/2019
The 2008 global financial crisis — the modern 1929 crash — set off a vicious chain reaction across Europe. By 2010 it had irreparably damaged the foundations of the eurozone, causing the establishment to bend its own rules and commit crimes against logic in order to bail out its banker friends. By 2013 the neoliberal ideology […]
What’s wrong in Europe today and how to fix it tomorrow morning – Berlin speech
, 07/03/2019
Demokratie in Europa is DiEM25’s new political party in Germany. Demokratie in Europa is running in the European Parliament election this coming May as part of our EUROPEAN SPRING that is campaigning across Europe on the basis of our transnational NEW DEAL FOR EUROPE. In this Berlin speech, and in my capacity as a candidate for MEP […]
Launch of Generation-s & European Spring in Paris, 6 DEC 2018
, 14/12/2018
Onwards with DiEM25-Generation-s-EUROPEAN SPRING and our New Deal for Europe
The Progressive International has been launched. Read the Open Call. See the video. Join us!
, 01/12/2018
A global war is being waged against workers, against our environment, against democracy, against decency. A network of right-wing factions is spreading across borders working to erode human rights, silence dissent, and promote intolerance. To defeat this new Nationalist International, we cannot simply go back to the failed status quo. Unfettered globalization promised peace and prosperity. But it delivered financial […]
The euro and Steve Bannon’s Fascist International – Oxford Union address, video & audio 16th November 2018
, 16/11/2018
On 17th October 2018, Valdis Dombrovskis, Vice President of the European Commission, addressed the Oxford Union in support of the motion that “the euro has never been stronger“. Today, Friday 16th November 2018, Steve Bannon is addressing the Oxford Union also. In between, on Wednesday 14th November 2018, I had the opportunity to also address […]
DiEM25’s radical Europeanist political agenda – Interviewed by Jacobin’s David Broder
, 03/11/2018
Last Friday, Yanis Varoufakis was in Italy to promote European Spring, a list of candidates standing across the continent in next May’s European election. The former Greek finance minister visited Rome just days after the European Commission had struck down the Italian government’s budget, sparking further rows over Brussels’ authority to curb member states’ spending. […]
Why Germany neither can nor should pay more to save the eurozone – IFO Munich Seminar, 11 June 2018
, 17/07/2018
“I wanted a Germany that was hegemonic and efficient, not authoritarian and caught up in a European Ponzi scheme. That was in 2013.” Excerpt from the Munich Seminar. This CESifo group Munich seminar took place on June 11, 2018 in Ludwig-Maximilian University, in Munich, in the Grosse Aula of the Ludwig-Maximilian University. The euro crisis has highlighted […]
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 […]
“BREXIT: What must be avoided and what must be done, now!” – Speech at the Royal Society, London, 7 NOV 2017
, 08/11/2017
No venue is better suited for a detoxifying discussion on Brexit than The Royal Society, whose motto (Nullius In Verba – On No One’s Word) ought to be the foundation of all rational debate. I was, thus, moved and deeply honoured by the EEF’s (*) invitation to deliver their annual lecture on Brexit in The Royal Society. […]
Why Europe Needs a New Deal, Not Breakup – op-ed in The Nation, with James K. Galbraith
, 07/10/2017
The American New Deal of Franklin Roosevelt’s first two terms combined the goals of financial stabilization, reconstruction, conservation, and employment—jobs for the jobless; public works; power systems and new industries, especially in the South; soil conservation and reforestation to battle the Dust Bowl; and a potent mix of regulations and insurance to assert public power […]
Mr Draghi, what are you afraid of? Release #TheGreekFiles!
, 19/02/2017
Join the campaign to demand that the ECB publish the legal opinion it commissioned on whether its closure of Greece’s banks in 2015 was… legal. CLICK HERE!
Yanis Varoufakis on BBC: “Western Democracies need a New Deal”
, 14/02/2017
Here Yanis Varoufakis, former Greek Finance Minister, argues that it’s time for a “New Deal” – including a universal basic income.
A New Deal to Save Europe
, 14/02/2017
LONDON – “I don’t care about what it will cost. We took our country back!” This is the proud message heard throughout England since the Brexit referendum last June. And it is a demand that is resonating across the continent. Until recently, any proposal to “save” Europe was regarded sympathetically, albeit with skepticism about its […]