Coronavirus: The economic crisis – Just how bad will the downturn be and can anything be done to soften the blow? Contributors Stephanie Flanders – head of Bloomberg Economics Yanis Varoufakis – Greek economist, politician, secretary-general of DiEM25 who also served as Greek finance minister during 2015Linda Yueh – economist and author of the book: ‘The Great Economists’ […]
Essays
Monetising misery & the future of capitalism – ABC Radio National, BIG IDEAS program
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 […]
On the lethal interaction between the coronavirus contraction & global capitalism’s never-ending post-2008 crisis – VIDEO
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mm-wpDZkie4&feature=youtu.be
Yanis Varoufakis: “Syriza Was a Bigger Blow to the Left Than Thatcher” – JACOBIN
Former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis told Jacobin why he’s publishing his secret recordings of the critical Eurogroup meetings of 2015 — and why the Left around Europe is struggling to overcome Syriza’s disastrous legacy. Yanis Varoufakis during his speech in Hellenic Parliament. Dimitrios Karvountzis / Pacific Press / LightRocket via Getty INTERVIEW BY George […]
Climate change is capitalism’s Waterloo – IRISH EXAMINER
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 […]
Brexit: A rational choice for the wrong reasons? – Financial News & Project Syndicate
The motives and thinking behind Brexit were even less worthy than those behind US President Richard Nixon’s move in 1971 to ditch the Bretton Woods system. But, as with the “Nixon shock,” there is a singular underlying historical factor that explains Brexit. ATHENS – At pivotal historical moments, rational political ruptures often are brought about […]
Coronavirus has sparked a perfect storm of nationalism and financial speculation – THE GUARDIAN
Nationalism and speculation have seldom had a better opportunity to combine forces as the one riding today on the coattails of Covid-19, known as the coronavirus. When Covid-19 leapfrogged from China to Italy, even ardent Europeanists normally appreciative of open borders joined the deafening calls to end freedom of movement across Europe’s national borders – a […]
Oligarchy & Xenophobia: The only beneficiaries of Greece’s economic ‘recovery’ – The Guardian
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 […]
Yanis Varoufakis and Brian Eno on Money, Power and a Call for Radical Change – video
In November 2019, Intelligence Squared brought to its stage Brian and myself to discuss money, power and the prospects of a form of radical change that makes the world a better place for the many. Quick reminder: Brian and I are amongst the co-founders of DiEM25 – the Democracy in Europe Movement whose campaigns and […]
Euroleaks: Why release? And why now?
During 2015’s first half, as Greece’s finance minister, I participated in thirteen crucial Eurogroup meetings – before the SYRIZA government (disrespecting the referendum result of 5th July) capitulated. The result of that capitulation was my immediate resignation and a permanent austerity program (until… 2060). From the beginning, the first Eurogroup, it was clear that the […]
The EU’s green deal is a colossal exercise in greenwashing – The Guardian
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 […]
Dann wäre morgen die Revolution – KONTEXT Wochenzeitung
Unter Meteorologen braucht es keine Meinungsvielfalt – so lange die etablierten Methoden fundierte Prognosen liefern. In den Wirtschaftswissenschaften, wo die Vorhersagen “allenfalls per Unfall” richtig lägen, sei das anders, meint der Ökonom und DiEM25-Initiator Yanis Varoufakis. Wenn die herrschende Lehrmeinung die Realität nicht mehr treffend beschreiben kann, brauche es alternative Blickwinkel. Der Einladung der studentischen Inititiative “Rethinking […]
From an Economics-without-Capitalism to Markets-without-Capitalism – University of Tübingen (video available)
A lecture organised by University of Tübingen economics students, delivered on Monday 3rd February 2020 on the theme From an Economics-without-Capitalism to Markets-without-Capitalism. Mainstream economic models lack some important features of really-existing capitalism, including money, time and space. Its models offer ideological cover for a capitalist system that has usurped competitive, free markets. The result? […]
Imagining a world without capitalism – Financial News
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 […]