Trump’s Economics & Politics
On The Rest Is Politics, with Alastair Campbell and Rory Stewart: From the 2008 Crash to the Rise of Populism
, 03/05/2026
A surprisingly agreeable and wholesome discussion with Alastair Campbell and Rory Stewart on their THE REST IS POLITICS podcast. I wish there were more opportunities for political adversaries to engage in discussions such as this one. In this episode we begin by discussing RAISE YOUR SOUL, my latest book on the five women who taught […]
Fascism by the Book
, 27/01/2026
Fascism by the Book Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images Jan 27, 2026 Yanis Varoufakis Anyone who thinks that fascism had been vanquished for good in the mid-20th century should look to Minneapolis and other American cities. In Donald Trump’s America, and perhaps coming to other countries soon, the panoply of fascism’s strategies requires remarkably little […]
Yanis Varoufakis: The Imperial “Board of Peace” & End of the United Nations
, 25/01/2026
I argue that Trump’s ‘Board of Peace’ is an imperialist construct that will undermine and ultimately dissolve the United Nations and the foundations of international law.
“An Abomination”: Yanis Varoufakis on Trump’s “Board of Peace” & Threat to Democratic World Order
, 22/01/2026
I warn that Trump’s pay‑to‑play “Board of Peace” and mercantilist drive — enabled by placid European centrists — are reshaping and threatening the post–World War II democratic order, from plans to reoccupy Gaza to designs on Greenland.
A Trust Fund for Everyone: How to create a Monetary Commons that socialises money and funds a basic dividend without new taxes or debt
, 10/10/2025
At a time Donald Trump, Big Tech and Wall Street deploy stablecoins to privatise the dollar, usurping the decentralising power of blockchain to enrich themselves at everyone else’s expense, here is an alternative use of blockchain that harnesses its decentralising powers to benefit everyone equally – to pay everyone a substantial, non-inflationary, basic dividend – […]
A Trust Fund for Everyone to Defuse the Stablecoin Time Bomb – Project Syndicate
, 12/07/2025
ATHENS – Margaret Thatcher famously quipped that the problem with socialists is that, eventually, they run out of other people’s money. But what happens when bankers run out of other people’s money, as seems likely to happen soon? Either we end up with another calamitous financial meltdown or we innovate to serve the public interest […]
On the sad disconnection between our (Western) campaign to free Palestine from our campaigns to liberate the… West – video
, 11/07/2025
My hopes these days spring not from Europe nor from the United States. Let me be frank on this. I take my hat off to the young people particularly, but not only young people, to Jewish comrades who went out on the street to demonstrate for Palestine, who were beaten up by police, who were […]
The stablecoin time bomb hidden in Trump’s GENIUS act: Prepare for the next financial meltdown – UNHERD, 19 JUNE 2025
, 25/06/2025
Francisco Goya’s etching The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters was an artist’s stern warning of the hideous forces unleashed in the mind when reason lowers its guard. Today, stablecoins are the gruesome forces being released into the global economy as President Trump’s crypto dreams, unchecked by reason, morphed into the GENIUS Act. Stablecoins are the […]
A Chinese New Bretton Woods? – Quancha op-ed
, 08/06/2025
Donald Trump has made it impossible for any sensible person to persevere in the delusion that global business can continue as usual. We should all welcome this, even if we are livid with Trump’s shocking behaviour, decisions and narratives. The global economy will either be rebalanced or it will crash in ways that may make […]
Trump Wants Big Tech to Own the Dollar – Project Syndicate op-ed
, 05/06/2025
The IMF-World Bank Spring meetings are usually placid affairs that participating central bankers wish to forget soon after they are over. Not this Spring. This April the feeling several central bankers brought back home with them was not the usual relief but something far more visceral: dread, terror even. The reason? The spectre of the […]
How Europe’s sheer stupidity combined with its ethical downfall to underwrite Israel’s genocide of Palestinians – Middle East Eye
, 20/05/2025
“A mixture of stupidity and nastiness… The liberal establishment is primarily responsible for the genocide of the Palestinians.” In this episode of UNAPOLOGETIC, Yanis Varoufakis unleashes a fierce critique of Western liberalism, and tells us why he feels that the global system is in crisis. This episode explores the facade of Western moral superiority, the […]
Our New Economic World Order & Europe’s Suicide: In discussion with Glenn Diesen
, 13/05/2025
The hitherto US-centric economic model has exhausted itself, and Trump’s government is pushing to restructure the international economic architecture to maintain US hegemony. China is the main rival in this new reality, while the Europeans are becoming an impoverished appendage to the US. The Europeans could chart a more favourable path forward, except that they […]
UNHERD’s Freddie Sayers interviews Y. Varoufakis & W. Munchau on Europe’s prospects in the era of Trump
, 11/05/2025
UnHerd’s Freddie Sayers interviews renowned economist and former Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis and Eurointelligence founder Wolfgang Münchau as they dissect the escalating trade war between Europe and the United States. With the US recently striking a so-called trade deal with the UK, and news of India signing a comprehensive agreement with the UK, tensions […]
Discussing Trump’s Economic Masterplan with David Marr, on ABC Late Night Live
, 16/04/2025
Economist Yanis Varoufakis says we shouldn’t underestimate Trump – he has a plan to shock the global economy, force foreign countries to buy crypto-currency in return for a deal on tariffs, and ultimately pay down debt and keep the US dollar at the centre of the global financial system. But it’s a high risk strategy […]
NEOLIBERALISM IS DEAD. SAY HELLO TO TECHLORDISM – Project Syndicate op-ed & video
, 15/04/2025
Neoliberalism was neither new nor particularly liberal when it prevailed 50 years ago. Its great advantage was its sharp deviation from classical liberalism. Even though it paid tribute to liberal thinkers, neoliberalism shared neither their method nor their concept of the market. Today, we are on the cusp of another, equally profound, ideological innovation. Unlike […]
On the political economics and the history behind Donald Trump’s tariff war – Politics JOE
, 09/04/2025
In this interview with Oli Dugmore, for Politics JOE, I had a chance to lay out – in around 30 minutes – the political economics and economic history behind Donald Trump’s tariff war. As I said to Oli, those of us who oppose Trump have a duty to understand what his team are up to […]
Forget shares, bonds and tariffs. Here is what you should really worry about
, 09/04/2025
While waiting for the EU’s response to the Trump Shock (don’t hold your breath for evidence of intelligent life from Brussels…), those of you who really want to worry about something big, turn your attentions to perhaps the largest threat for the status quo – greater than tariffs, equities, bond prices etc. What is that? […]
How will Europe, Britain & China react to the Trump shock: On TIMES Radio & Unherd’s Undercurrents
, 03/04/2025
In this interview, I argue that how Trump’s Shock pans out will largely depend on whether Europe and China will act in concert or turn against one another. As for the UK, Trump has given Brexit a major boost. And here is another interview with Emily Jeshinsky of Unherd’s Undercurrents on the same subject: Trump’s […]
Will the Trump Shock prove as momentous as the Nixon Shock? UNHERD op-ed & on BBC tv
, 03/04/2025
“My philosophy, Mr President, is that all foreigners are out to screw us and it’s our job to screw them first.” With these words, the US Treasury Secretary convinced the President to deliver a colossal shock to the global economy. In the words of one of the President’s men, the objective was to trigger “a […]
Crypto’s role in Trump’s economic masterplan (with special emphasis on stablecoins) – UNHERD
, 19/03/2025
After dismissing Bitcoin as a scam during his first White House stint, Trump warmed to cryptocurrencies during his re-election campaign. To complete his conversion, on the 6th of March the 47th President signed an executive order to set up a “Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and a US Digital Asset Stockpile”. The United States government sensibly stockpiles […]
Stand with South Africa against Trump’s wrath – Globe&Mail op-ed
, 18/03/2025
When the powerful punish the principled, we glimpse the unmasked face of empire. Donald Trump’s vindictive executive order denying aid to South Africa — punishment for its support of Palestine and pursuit of land reform — offers precisely such a moment of clarity. The contours of our new global struggle are now etched with brutal […]
Trump’s tariff chaos explained – TIMES RADIO
, 09/03/2025
“He wants to reduce the value of the dollar… in order to make American exports more competitive and imports into the United States more expensive. At the same time he wants to maintain the hegemony of the dollar.” Yanis Varoufakis explains the secret behind Trump’s tariff strategy, and his new obsession with cryptocurrency. This interview […]
Trump, Europe’s Collapse & Why Liberals Keep Losing – interviewed by Rania Khalek
, 25/02/2025
Trump’s return isn’t just chaos, it’s a calculated strategy. While liberals dismiss him, Trump understands raw economic power in a way centrists fail to grasp. What is his master plan, and how could it backfire? Meanwhile, Musk & other billionaires are the new ruling class. As capitalism dies, we enter technofeudalism, where corporate overlords control […]