Anti-capitalists had a miserable year. But so did capitalism. While the defeat of Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour party in the UK this month threatened the radical left’s momentum, particularly in the US, where the presidential primaries loom, capitalism found itself under fire from some unexpected quarters. Billionaires, CEOs, and even the financial press have joined intellectuals […]
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Should liberal capitalism be saved? Martin Wolf & Yanis Varoufakis debating live
Is capitalism past its due date? Can we even imagine a world without it? On 14th November 2019 Martin Wolf and Yanis Varoufakis debated the question ‘Should liberal capitalism be saved?’. Hosted on November 14, 2019 by the Financial Times to celebrate the Wincott Foundation’s 50th Anniversary, this special live event took the place of […]
Reflections on 2019 – my foreword in THE GUARDIAN BEDSIDE 2019
Every year for nearly 70 years, the Guardian has collected the best of its journalism into a book – the BEDSIDE GUARDIAN. This year, Bedside Guardian 2019 is edited by Aditya Chakrabortty with Paul Johnson, deputy editor, alongside Jonathan Freedland, Zoe Williams Emma Graham-Harrison. The editors were kind enough to ask me to write the Foreword. As it reflects my […]
Paul Laverty’s & Ken Loach’s haunting & elegiac film: Why Labour must win this Thursday
There is a fork in the road. A mighty choice is coming. We can have a plan. An imperfect plan maybe. But one for the planet, not the corporations. For the many, not the few. A plan for the ‘we’, not the ‘I’.
DiEM25 2.0 – Prague Address
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 […]
EVERYTHING’S ON THE UP WITH THE TORIES – Brian Eno’s new song for this Thursday’s general election
Everything’s on the UP with the Tories the gap between the richies and the poories the porky pies and fabricated storiesYes – everything’s on the up with the Tories Everything’s up the creek with the Blue Boys They’re selling off the NHS to cowboys They’re cutting back on nurses (but investing it in hearses) the nitwits […]
Labour’s Manifesto is fit for purpose. So, why are the middle classes so hostile to it? THE NEW STATESMAN
What are we to make of a political class that proclaims its ethical commitments but that cannot bring itself to endorse the only concrete actions that would honour them? This general election is unique in ways that transcend Brexit. Over the decades that I have been observing British politics, never before have I witnessed a […]
Is capitalism past its expiry date? Munk Debate (K, Vanden Heuvel & Y. Varoufakis vs A. Brooks & D. Brooks)
The capitalist system is broken. It’s time to try something different. For my 3 minute conclusion of this debate, jump to 1 hour 59 minutes There is a growing belief in western societies that the current capitalist system no longer works for average people. Economic inequality is rampant. Life expectancy is falling. The environment is […]
Labour’s 2019 Manifesto: My assessment on BBC Radio 5, 21 NOV 2019
As an economist, Labour’s 2019 Manifesto strikes me as a sensible, moderate and well-targeted program in view of Britain’s needs and capacities. Independently of what one thinks of Corbyn and McDonnell (Nb. my friendship and comradeship with both is well known), most people agree that: Exceptional investment in the green transition and technologies, possibly of a […]
Why is economics not a force for good and what must we do to make it so? Cambridge 8th NOV 2019
On 8th November, at the invitation of Professor Antara Haldar of Cambridge University, I presented this talk in the context of a fascinating group of academics who gathered in the Cambridge Union’s upstairs seminar room to revive Keynes’ original idea of the Cambridge Circus – a radical circle of economists seeking the kind of economics that […]
Sophisticated Heretic – Interview with the Cambridge Union magazine TCS
Yanis Varoufakis has been adamant that he is not a politician. He might be an economist, though his conversation with Margaret Levi – a Stanford political scientist – at the Cambridge Union last Thursday evening on 7th November 2019 smashed the academic boundary walls of economics in style. His critical principles come from his characteristic […]
My review of Banerjee & Duflo’s (this year’s Nobel winners in economics) latest book – The Observer
REVIEW: Good Economics for Hard Times: Better Answers to Our Biggest Problems, by Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo A recent YouGov survey confirmed that economists are the least trusted professionals in the UK today. Brexit is only the latest contributor to the public’s understandable rejection of a profession that has either failed spectacularly to raise […]
“Should liberal capitalism be saved?”A debate between Martin Wolf & Yanis Varoufakis, Today, London, Wincott Foundation
On November 14, 2019, The Wincott Foundation will host an evening debate at the Financial Times to celebrate its 50th Anniversary. This special event takes the place of the usual annual Harold Wincott Memorial Lecture. The Foundation was set up in honour of Harold Wincott, who was widely regarded as the finest economic journalist of […]
Quantitative Easing: Its rationale, impact and the future of the world economy – Audio of speech delivered at ICA 2019
Hosted by Bahrain Financial Market Association, the two-day conference organized in cooperation with the Central Bank of Bahrain themed “Reshaping Finance in a Changing Economy”. The ICA hosted the Greek former Minister of Finance Professor Yanis Varoufakis at a panel discussion moderated by Dr. Jarmo T. Kotilaine the Chief Planning and Monitoring Officer of Tamkeen. Other […]
“Brexit, for all its ills, has reinvigorated British democracy” – Cambridge Union address, 8 NOV 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, […]