Yanis Varoufakis: Thoughts for the Post-2008 World

In this video the economist and co-founder of DiEM25 Yanis Varoufakis, examines the socio-economic implications of the Coronavirus. This video was originally produced by DiEM25 and republished by acTVism Munich in order to create awareness on this issue. Credit: www.DiEM25.org To read the transcript of this video: https://bit.ly/2IOfe8h DEUTSCH: Aufgrund der begrenzten finanziellen und technischen Ressourcen für den Monat März können wir dieses Projekt nicht in die deutsche Sprache...

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Yanis Varoufakis, DiEM25 co-founder and MeRA25 MP, on the economic and political impact of the coronavirus.

Yanis Varoufakis: “You're tempting me to say that I would like institutions to say the same thing, but I'm not going to say that because I want to be helpful. So, we shall accept this even though we state for the record that this is a two way process. There are two people, two people, two sides and we both must accelerate our effort and our rates of concession.”

Yanis Varoufakis: “I, I, I would like to suggest, uh, a small amendment, uh, that, uh, you will ... Let me just suggest then you'll see exactly what the, where I'm coming from. In the last sentence of the first paragraph where you say, "We therefore, with therefore, not called, we therefore call upon," right? "We therefore call upon the Greek authorities to accelerate their work with institutions with a view to achieve," blah, blah, blah. Uh, we recommend, "We therefore call upon the Greek...

Yanis Varoufakis: “Let me remind you colleagues that even though we have no market access, we haven't had market access for a very long while, and we have no disbursements for eight months now. Our government is continuing to meet all its obligations to international creditors. We will be doing again this tomorrow morning.”

Yanis Varoufakis: “A comment on leaks. It would be good if there were none. But if there are leaks it would be good if they were accurate. I never heard Paul Thomson discuss debt restructuring in Riga and I never heard any one of you hurl abuse at me or personal insults despite what was widely reported in the press. So, please: No leaks. But if you leak, if anybody leaks, they might as well be accurate leaks.”

Yanis Varoufakis: “I understand the view that only major pressure can progress be made and that includes liquidity pressure. But let me also say that too much pressure, too much duress may cause, can cause a breakdown of a negotiation perfectly capable of yielding a successful agreement.”

Yanis Varoufakis: "On the question of liquidity, a colleague mentioned that, suggested or opined that the liquidity problem we have is a natural economic adjustment. Let me beg to differ colleagues. The Greek state lives within its means. Has been doing so for a year now. We have a small but nevertheless positive primary surplus."