Yanis Varoufakis: Thoughts for the Post-2008 World

[embedded content] This is an extract from a speech at the ‘Alternative Investment Forum’ on 9th February 2018.

Those who try to understand the Brexit vote in terms of bean counting (or cost-benefit analysis) are missing the point. Yes, there was a strong underlying economic reason for the manner in which the majority adopted Brexit. But it had nothing to do with a calculation of what the result of the referendum would do to people’s hip pocket. Voters did not behave like homo economicus. (This is where the official...

Besides the gross disrespect to those who voted in favour of Brexit (instructing them to go back to the polling stations to deliver what we think is the ‘right’ verdict), the call for a second referendum is fraught with logical incoherence. Any referendum, courtesy of being a binary Yes or No choice, must be clear on what the default is (which will obtain or hold in case the people vote No). Suppose now that,...

The main argument against my Norway Plus proposal is that such an agreement would jeopardise the capacity of the UK government to strike out into the world to bring home a variety of tailor-made trade deals with the US, China etc. At the same time, hard Brexiteers continue with their disingenuous promises of daily millions that will flow to the NHS, money saved from the UK’s contribution to the EU budget. Now,...

Britain used to have wage councils that set the minimum wage per sector. Mrs Thatcher saw to it that they were abolished, together (effectively) with trades unions and council houses – thus yielding the present Precariat-Proletariat whose palpable anger and frustration is evident across the land. There is no doubt that we need to bring back a modernised for of wage councils. Not just in the UK but across Europe!...

Audio of the 2017 CAIT Annual International Theory Lecture November 29th, 2017. Yanis Varoufakis is a Greek economist, academic and politician, who served as the Greek Minister of Finance from January to July 2015. In 2016, Varoufakis co-founded DiEM25 – the Democracy in Europe Movement 2025. It now has almost 40,000 members in 56 countries.

Kostenlos acTVism abonnieren: https://www.youtube.com/user/acTVismMunich?sub_confirmation=1 In diesem Video spricht Yanis Varoufakis, der Gründer von Democracy in Europe Movement 2025 (DiEM25) und ehemalige Finanzminister Griechenlands, über den Begriff des “Schuldgefängnisses” und die ökonomischen Ideen von John Maynard Keynes. Dabei geht Varoufakis auch auf die Doppelmoral der Europäischen Union im Hinblick auf die Durchsetzung wirtschaftlicher Standards bei den Mitgliedsstaaten ein....

Courtesy of opendemocracy.net, here is the transcript of my speech of 29th January at the House of Commons. The theme? How should Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party secure a progressive Brexit consistent with a socialist agenda for the UK but also with DiEM25’s campaign to democratise Europe. The main reason I am here, I believe – I’m going to add back into Chuka’s account a few wrinkles that he omitted out of...

Yanis Varoufakis arguing for a Norway Plus Brexit from the perspective of a committed Corbyn supporter – Audio of address at the UK House of Commons, January 29th, 2018 Delivered in front of an audience of Labour MP and staffers, at the kind invitation of Chuka Umunna MP.

[embedded content] Delivered in front of an audience of Labour MP and staffers, at the kind invitation of Chuka Ummuna MP.