Essays
On the causes and nature of Populism’s Surge – interviewed on BBC Radio 4’s The World This Weekend
, 11/12/2023
Discussing the surge of ultra-rightist populism, where I argued it all started with the West’s response to the 2008 crash – just like after 1929. When $35 trillion was printed on behalf of financiers (between 2009 and 2022), while most people were subjected to some variant of austerity, and given the Left’s failure to defend […]
Europe’s 15-Year Slump – Project Syndicate op-ed
, 22/11/2023
The European Union’s supporters celebrate the survival of the euro, the fact that public debt is no longer the threat it was, and, crucially, that their mercantilist business model remains intact. But it has come at a steep price: Europe’s permanent stagnation and continuing fragmentation. ATHENS – Europe is languishing in a long-term economic slump whose origins […]
Questions I am frequently asked on Israel-Palestine
, 19/11/2023
The Israeli-Palestinian Question could not be more complex, urgent and emotionally charged. Those of us who take a position on it have a duty to a full disclosure of the thoughts, assumptions and beliefs that motivate our commentary. To this effect, I collected a number of questions I am frequently asked by friends and critics […]
How should we tax wealth & multinationals globally? Speech at UNDP, New York 14th NOV 2023
, 18/11/2023
Ms Assistant Secretary General of the United Nations, Esteemed colleagues, Ladies and Gentlemen, before I address the question of taxing serious wealth seriously, I you forgive my inability to proceed without an acknowledgement of the human tragedy in the Middle East. As Secretary General Goutières correctly put it, nothing happens in a vacuum, nothing is […]
On Europe’s historic responsibility for the war crimes in the ancient land of Palestine – Al Jazeera
, 18/11/2023
On UpFront, interviewed by Marc Lamont Hill on Europe’s historic responsibility and current role in the Israel-Gaza war.
Discussing Israel’s War Crimes with Katie Halper on USEFUL IDIOTS
, 12/11/2023
In this week’s live chat Yanis Varoufakis joins Katie and Aaron [Jump to 19:25 for the Yanis Varoufakis interview]: “The United States fully endorses Israel’s war crimes,” says Greece’s former finance minister Yanis Varoufakis. “Because that’s what it is. When you switch off the water to two and a half million people, by the Geneva […]
The big idea: has the digital economy killed capitalism? – The Guardian
, 03/11/2023
Enter Amazon and you have exited capitalism. Despite all the buying and the selling that goes on there, you have entered a realm that can’t be thought of as a market, not even a digital one.” When I say this to people, which I frequently do in lectures and debates, they look at me as they […]
Big Tech Cannot Be Regulated – Project Syndicate op-ed
, 01/11/2023
Big Tech is so profoundly different from other industries that it cannot be regulated like the trusts, cartels, or conglomerates of the past. After all, if regulators tried to break up Facebook or TikTok, they would be confronted by enraged users for whom the universal nature of these platforms is the reason they use them. […]
El Pais long interview on my TECHNOFEUDALISM
, 20/10/2023
LONG READ by MIGUEL ÁNGEL GARCÍA VEGA in El Pais on my Technofeudalism. Miguel has interviewed me many times in the past but this time he did so exclusively for my new book TECHNOFEUDALISM: What killed capitalism which will shortly be available in Spanish also. Here is the English language version of Miguel’s piece, based […]
Cory Doctorow reviews my TECHNOFEUDALISM for truthdig
, 16/10/2023
Socialists have been hotly anticipating the end of capitalism since at least 1848, when Marx and Engels published The Communist Manifesto – but the Manifesto also reminds us that capitalism is only too happy to reinvent itself during its crises, coming back in new forms, over and over again. Now, in Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism, Yanis Varoufakis – the “libertarian Marxist” former finance […]
Why I refuse to condemn Hamas or the Israeli settlers but insist that we, Europeans & Americans, are the culprits for the atrocities in Israel-Palestine
, 15/10/2023
When Hamas launched its offensive into Israel, appalled by the butchery and the human toll it would bring on, I tried to pierce through the fog of war, through all the fear and all the loathing, and to focus instead on what could end the endless cycle of inhumanity. What was its root cause? Hamas? […]
Timeline of my tweets and interviews on Israel-Palestine between 7th & 15th October
, 15/10/2023
Ever since Hamas attacked Israel, my tweets and interviews have caused much controversy. In the interests of both those who agree with me and those who disagree with me, I list below every one of those interventions. An honest debate founded on what each one of us has said (as opposed to what various trolls […]
List of war crimes and crimes qualifying as genocide committed by Israel in Gaza between 7th & 14th October 2023
, 15/10/2023
Defenders of Israel’s bombing and invasion of Gaza have challenged me to offer a ‘chapter-and-verse’ list of war crimes that Israel has committed since the Hamas Offensive of 7th October. Here is an indicative, but not exhaustive, list. There is no doubt: Israel is investing in war crimes to effect its recapture and ethnic cleansing […]
The NEW STATESMAN reviews my TECHNOFEUDALISM
, 07/10/2023
Socialists periodically predict the downfall of capitalism, but each decade the coffin remains empty. In his new book, Yanis Varoufakis – the former Greek finance minister, game theorist and “erratic Marxist” – offers a twist on this familiar narrative. Capitalism, he writes, has already died – we just failed to notice. By George Eaton “It […]
UNHERD interviews me on TECHNOFEUDALISM
, 05/10/2023
In his new book, Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism, Yanis Varoufakis, the Leftist economist and former finance minister of Greece, suggests that the capitalist age has already come to an end. He argues that a new global economic and political system has stealthily replaced the old order, with the emerging dominance of tech monopolies like Amazon and Google. He […]
Long interview with Carole Cadwalladr, for the Observer/Guardian, on my Technofeudalism
, 04/10/2023
What could be more delightful than a trip to Greece to meet Yanis Varoufakis, the charismatic leftwing firebrand who tried to stick it to the man, AKA the IMF, EU and entire global financial order? The mental imagery I have before the visit is roughly two parts Zorba the Gr eek to one part an episode of […]
The MONTHLY reviews my TECHNOFEUDALISM
, 28/09/2023
The economist and author’s latest book considers how 21st-century capitalism resembles feudalism, and offers an alternative Yanis Varoufakis – former Greek minister of finance, economics lecturer and prolific writer of books – has often admitted that the left is good at critiquing capitalism but not so good at suggesting alternatives. “When Margaret Thatcher coined ‘Tina’ […]
Christine Lagarde’s Gifts to Populists – Project Syndicate
, 27/09/2023
Since taking over as president of the European Central Bank in late 2019, Christine Lagarde has committed three major errors that play right into the hands of right-wing populists. Now, one can only hope that these parties’ own incompetence will sink them before next year’s European Parliament elections. ATHENS – Christine Lagarde’s three blunders as president […]
Bill Black and Yanis Varoufakis discussing corruption in finance – video
, 14/09/2023
Invited and chaired by Patrick Lovell (director of The Con), in this video Bill Black and I discuss financial corruption in the USA and the EU. Bill Black needs no introduction. As a lawyer he filed over 1700 indictments for financial corruption in the US, from the S&L scandal to this day. He was also the […]
Why can’t the EU power ahead with green subsidies like Biden’s? It isn’t just political procrastination – THE GUARDIAN
, 14/09/2023
Inglorious procrastination is one of the European Union’s standard responses to major crises. This is not merely due to the difficulty of getting twenty-seven Prime Ministers and Presidents to agree. It is also because of their motivated tendency to ask themselves the wrong questions, thus heading slowly but inexorably to self-harming policy solutions. After the […]
What’s behind this summer’s unnaturally huge Greek forest fires – UNHERD
, 31/08/2023
My grandmother had the theory that, as we get older, our mind subconsciously cleanses our memories of a myriad misfortunes, leaving a sanitised version of the past for us to feel nostalgic about. The optimism of remembrance, she called it. Little did she know that her reasonable hypothesis would, one day, become the climate change […]
What is money and who rules the world? | Yanis Varoufakis on Escaped Sapiens #46
, 18/07/2023
On this episode of the podcast I speak with Yanis Varoufakis about the role of banks and politicians. Yanis is an economist, politician, author and Secretary-General of MeRA25. He is perhaps best known for his role as the Greek Minister of Finance during the Greek credit crisis. In our discussion we cover some fairly big […]
How the EU out-trumped Trump, plus what is killing capitalism: My last week’s Diary in The New Statesman
, 18/07/2023
The week started ominously with a French journalist asking me whether the Greeks have turned cold-hearted, alluding to the apparent apathy to the drowning of hundreds of refugees off the coast of the Peloponnese and to the murky role played in this tragedy by our Coastguard. Yes, I replied without a second thought. A population […]