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, […]
Essays
Capitalism, Democracy and Europe – Interviewed for the Great Transition Initiative
As harsh austerity and xenophobic nationalism fester in Europe, Yanis Varoufakis discusses his antidote with Tellus Senior Fellow Allen White. What inspired your career trajectory from academic economist to prominent supranational activist? I went into politics because of the financial crisis of 2008. Had financial capitalism not imploded, I would have happily continued my quite […]
Caroline Lucas & Yanis Varoufakis search for what went wrong with democracy – THE BIG ISSUE
The Green Party MP and the MeRA25 leader journey from democracy’s inception through the tumultuous Brexit period and through to the year 2035 There’s chaos on the streets of Westminster as the activists of Extinction Rebellion bring traffic to a standstill to highlight the urgency of action on the climate crisis. If the old democracy […]
With a recession on its way, it is time we demanded an International Green New Deal
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: […]
I just pulled out of a conference in Turkey in protest at the invasion of Northern Syria’s Kurdish region
It is with profound regret, and after much reflection, that I am pulling out as a speaker at an interesting and worthy international conference organised by TRT World in Istanbul on 21st October. I do so in protest of the Turkish armed forces’ invasion of Northern Syria. The ongoing invasion is not only an assault […]
Η μόνη καλή λύση για το Brexit – Κυριακάτικη Real News
Οταν το 1946 οι ευρωπαϊστές ενθουσιάστηκαν ακούγοντας τον Ουίνστον Τσόρτσιλ να μιλά ενθουσιωδώς υπέρ της δημιουργίας των Ηνωμένων Πολιτειών της Ευρώπης, μάλλον δεν πρόσεξαν την επόμενη φράση του με την οποία ξεκαθάριζε ότι η Βρετανία δεν θα έμενε εκτός, καθώς, αναφερόμενος στη χώρα και τον λαό του, είπε: «Εμείς είμαστε με την Ευρώπη αλλά δεν είμαστε της Ευρώπης». Η […]
Time for ECB bonds! (Yes , things are this bad) – Project Syndicate op-ed
ATHENS – During his tenure as President of the European Central Bank, Mario Draghi forged a variety of weapons that he deployed to shield the eurozone from menacing deflationary forces. Without them, the euro would have been history. However, the deflationary specter haunting Europe was never truly defeated and is now back with considerable vengeance. In the […]
Must we replace the dollar with a shared international currency unit? On the BBC World Service’s REAL STORY
Mark Carney, Governor of the Bank of England, recently said that we need a new international currency unit to replace the US dollar. In this BBC World Service program, I was asked what I thought of the idea. For more of a background to my answer click here. (For the whole BBC program, click here.)
Boris is doing a troika, not a Varoufakis – IRISH EXAMINER
ATHENS – Ever since Boris Johnson moved into 10 Downing Street vowing to re-negotiate the United Kingdom’s withdrawal agreement with the European Union, the conventional wisdom among many Brexit opponents has been that the UK’s new prime minister is “doing a Varoufakis” and will be crushed in similar fashion. The BBC’s Katya Adler reported from […]
IQ Squared presents Yanis Varoufakis and Brian Eno on Money, Power and a Call for Radical Change – London, 4th November
The liberal order is under threat. Increasing inequality, the rise of far-right nationalism and the climate emergency pose unprecedented challenges. It’s time for some radical thinking. On November 4th Intelligence Squared is bringing to its stage two of the world’s great radicals – Yanis Varoufakis, the former Greek finance minister known for his trademark leather jacket, motorbike and […]
Jeremy Corbyn’s finest hour? IRISH EXAMINER (Project Syndicate)
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 […]
Lagarde at the ECB – my take in The Guardian
Christine Lagarde was a key member of the infamous troika – Greece’s official creditors – who crushed our people’s resistance to perpetual debt bondage. The other key figure alongside the International Monetary Fund’s then managing director was Mario Draghi, president of the European Central Bank, who played a central role in that drama by engineering the closure of […]
Against extractive practices (social & environmental). Interviewed by Kate Aronoff for DISSENT
“We have to talk to people in a way that combines addressing these [economic] anxieties with the issues of the environment. Unless we manage to do that, we will fail.” Kate Aronoff Summer 2019 Yanis Varoufakis celebrating the anniversary of the Carnation Revolution in Portugal in 2018 (Pedro Ribeiro Simões/Flickr) The last few years have been […]
A tiny incident at Paris airport that speaks volumes about our Europe – the whole story
Small incidents can pack hefty messages. Yesterday afternoon, a tiny drama unfolded at Paris airport, as I was disembarking the airplane that had brought me over from Athens. It speaks volumes about the state of our European Union and the drift toward inane authoritarianism. A French policeman, for no obvious reason, took it to himself […]