Essays
Listen now to the Communist Manifesto, including the new introduction of the latest Penguin edition
, 24/04/2021
Penguin’s recent edition of the Communist Manifesto is now available on audio here and here. (Meanwhile, here is an extract of my introduction to the Manifesto – as it appeared in The Guardian. For a manifesto to succeed, it must speak to our hearts like a poem while infecting the mind with images and ideas […]
‘The Austerity Doctrine in the Time of Coronavirus’: Crucial Q&A on post-pandemic austerity with Brian Eno & Yanis Varoufakis plus special guests Stephanie Kelton & Naomi Klein
, 16/04/2021
In the 3rd episode of Let’s Talk It Over regulars Brian Eno and Yanis Varoufakis welcomed very special guests Stephanie Kelton and Naomi Klein to discuss The Austerity Doctrine in the Time of Coronavirus. Here are some of the questions tackled in the program: Austerians for years told us that all hell would be unleashed on […]
A Covid-19 counterfactual for Europe – Project Syndicate
, 10/04/2021
Imagine that the coronavirus pandemic, rather than undermining confidence in the European Union, had strengthened it. Imagine that Covid-19 had persuaded EU leaders to overcome years of acrimony and fragmentation. Imagine that it had catalysed the emergence this year of a stronger, more integrated bloc to which the world looked for global leadership. Imagine. It […]
Everything Must Change! DiEM-TV’s lockdown interviews now available as a book
, 05/04/2021
As the pandemic placed capitalism in suspended animation, dividing us between the privileged who could afford to quarantine ourselves and those who risked life and limb keeping the world’s wheels turning, DiEM-TV went into action. Srecko Horvat and I began a series of livestreamed discussions with one aim in mind: to keep alive the hope […]
Draghi’s outrageous deployment of McKinsey, Europe’s predicament, DiEM25’s proposals – La Stampa
, 15/03/2021
Last week, upon hearing that Mario Draghi, as Italy’s new PM, employed McKinsey to advise the government on how to spend the billions of the EU Recovery Fund, I tweeted, in anger and frustration: So predictable, so sad: Mario Draghi hired McKinsey to ‘organise’ Italy’s distribution of the Recovery Fund monies. What next? Get the […]
The Goldilocks Stimulus Myth – Project Syndicate, The Kathmandu Post
, 09/03/2021
Both supporters and critics of US President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion stimulus plan assume that there is a dollar amount that is just right. In fact, no such figure exists: every possible stimulus size is simultaneously too little and too big. ATHENS – US President Joe Biden, facing the great challenge of stimulating his country’s […]
Is the EU Recovery Fund a step toward integration or further fragmentation? Moderated by Kevin Featherstone, organised by the German & the Hellenic Societies at the LSE
, 23/02/2021
Capitalism has become Technofeudalism | UpFront interview on Al Jazeera
, 21/02/2021
A recent Oxfam study found that since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, the world’s richest 10 billionaires have seen a wealth increase of half a trillion dollars – enough to pay for every person on the planet to get a vaccine. In this UpFront special, Marc Lamont Hill discusses with economist and former Greek […]
The Consequences of Capitalism – Guest Lecture at the U of Arizona, 16th February 2021
, 19/02/2021
Invited by Noam Chomsky and Marvin Waterstone, here is an audio of the lecture I delivered to University of Arizona students on ‘The Consequences of Capitalism”
Η ανοσία στη Δημοκρατία ως η ρίζα των αστοχιών της ΕΕ – The New Statesman
, 14/02/2021
Το άρθρο πρωτοδημοσιεύτηκε στον New Statesman την 3η Φεβρουαρίου 2021 και παρουσάζεται εδώ σε μετάφραση της Ασπασίας Φεγγούλη. Προέκυψε από πρόσκληση του αρχισυντάκτη του New Statesman να σχολιάσω το εμβολιαστικό φιάσκο της ΕΕ . Από την άρνηση της πραγματικότητας στην απρόθυμη αποδοχή, από την απρόθυμη αποδοχή στις σημαντικές παρεμβάσεις και από κει στην πανωλεθρία: αυτή […]
The EU’s multiple failures are due to its immunity to democracy – The New Statesman
, 14/02/2021
From denial, to grudging acceptance, to substantial intervention, to debacle: that was the European Union’s trajectory once the storm that nearly consumed Wall Street in 2008 had crossed the Atlantic, starting the euro crisis. Twelve years later, the EU’s reaction to Covid-19’s arrival is following an ominously comparable trajectory. Eurosceptics take aim at the EU’s […]
Speaking of antisemitism… – A personal view as related to my DiEM25 comrades (video + text)
, 14/02/2021
On 4th February 2021, DiEM25’s coordinating collective held a discussion on how progressives can, at once, fight antisemitism and remain highly critical of Israel’s policies. You can watch a video of my speech and read an extended version of these thoughts below. Last week, while discussing competing identities, I argued that it is unacceptable to […]
Trumpism after Trump – NEWSWEEK magazine, interviewed by Basit Mahmood
, 12/02/2021
He’s been described as the George Clooney of the government, a rockstar politician who took on the EU and an “erratic Marxist.” Few politicians can hope – or fear – to achieve the levels of notoriety Yanis Varoufakis did in just six months while serving as finance minister of Greece. A world-renowned economist, Varoufakis now […]
From an imagined hi-tech rebellion to the GameStop incident: Lessons for collective action in the 21st Century – Der Freitag
, 12/02/2021
When in 2008 I heard that Lehman Brothers collapsed, and thousands of its staff were laid off, I allowed myself a fantasy. I imagined that one of the laid off financial engineers, whom for some reason I named Esmeralda, would turn into a dissident. That, incensed with the way she had been discarded by the […]
Η Αλήθεια Μετά τον Τραμπ – από την στήλη μου στο 24 | 7
, 03/02/2021
Οι αντίπαλοι του Ντόναλντ Τραμπ τον αποκαλούν ψεύτη. Το πρόβλημα όμως είναι ότι ο Τραμπ είναι κάτι πολύ χειρότερο από ψεύτης. Ο Νίξον έλεγε ψέματα για να θάψει αλήθειες, το ίδιο κι ο Κλίντον και πολλοί άλλοι. Όχι, το πρόβλημα με τον Τραμπ είναι ότι μέσα σ’ ένα χείμαρρο ψεύδους που έβγαινε από το στόμα του που […]
Did we see yesterday something like ANOTHER NOW’s Crowdshorters in action ? You be the judge!
, 28/01/2021
In my ANOTHER NOW I imagined a new type of resistance movement that uses the tools of finance to bring down capitalism and create a democratic market socialist economy in its stead. I called them CROWDSHORTERS. Yesterday, I received many messages suggesting that the CROWDSHORTERS are emerging for real, with the Reddit group that supported […]
From an Economics without Capitalism to Markets without Capitalism – Tübingen University talk
, 28/01/2021
A lecture organised by University of Tübingen economics students, delivered on Monday February 3, 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, […]
Identity, solidarity and DiEM25
, 25/01/2021
If I were a transgender person and a bunch of Lefties dared lecture me that the exploitation of factory workers by capitalists is more important than my daily struggle tο function as a transgender person, I would tell them to get lost. No one has the right to tell those who are hurt, terrified, exploited […]
Is it sensible to fret about public debt’s rise during the pandemic? A debate with Todd G. Buchholz on Pairagraph
, 23/01/2021
Is public debt a bomb about to explode taking us down? Or is fretting about public debt a tactic for preparing public opinion for a new austerity drive that will cause debt to grow even faster? Read my debate with Todd G. Buchholz organised by pairagraph.com (see here for the original publication) Todd G. Buchholz’s […]
What is at stake is the independence of Ecuador, not of its central bank. This is why the oligarchy is attacking Andrés Arauz- video
, 20/01/2021
It is with considerable amusement that I follow the international oligarchy’s anxiety to prevent Andrés Arauz from winning the presidential election. I say amusement because they have chosen to damage his standing by painting him as a threat to the independence of Ecuador’s central bank – of which Andres was the youngest governor. Let’s get […]
“The EU after Brexit” Keynote followed by a conversation with Norman Lamont – 27th January 2021
, 20/01/2021
In this keynote, organised by the Economics Research Council, I shall discuss, and re-assess, the deeper forces leading to Brexit. Moving beyond the myth of it as the manifestation of some British idiosyncrasy, I shall trace its causes in a fundamental incompatibility between British and Continental capitalism which the financial crisis of 2008 brought to […]
“What New Institutions Do We Need For An International Green New Deal To Be Feasible?” Geneva Lecture Series, video & a review by Marie-Christine Ghreichi
, 30/12/2020
Organised by Prof. Anis H. Bajrektarevic as part of the University of Geneva Lecture Series on ‘Contemporary World of Geo-economics’, I was honoured with an invitation to deliver a long lecture on the pressing need for new international financial institutions to address crushing global imbalances and inequalities. Watch the video and also read a review […]
“Global Trade & Capital Imbalances imperil Global Stability” – Redaction Politics reviews my Holberg 2020 debate with John Bolton
, 30/12/2020
Redaction Politics published a review of my Holberg 2o2o debate with John Bolton on Global Stability. Their review is reproduced below. To watch the debate click here. Yanis Varoufakis lamented economic equality and pushed for global co-operation while John Bolton urged diplomatic confrontation as the pair battled over the question of “global stability” last week. […]
In conversation on the postcapitalist vision in my ANOTHER NOW – JACOBIN interview & DISSENS podcast
, 17/12/2020
State socialism has failed because of its authoritarian excesses, but the idea of socialism still offers the only alternative for a viable future – says Yanis Varoufakis. In 2015, in the midst of the Greek sovereign debt crisis, he became finance minister under Alexis Tsipras until he resigned after the referendum. In the meantime, he has […]