Tag Archives: English

Last April, again in The Guardian, David Adler and I called for a particular Green New Deal to be implemented internationally. Now that a new recession is ante portas, we are renewing this call, suggesting that we cannot afford yet another ‘good’ economic crisis to go to waste. Our latest piece in The Guardian follows: Brexit, Trump’s trade wars, the crisis of our democracies, the failure to address climate...

It is with profound regret, and after much reflection, that I am pulling out as a speaker at an interesting and worthy international conference organised by TRT World in Istanbul on 21st October. I do so in protest of the Turkish armed forces’ invasion of Northern Syria. The ongoing invasion is not only an assault on Syria’s Kurdish forces that almost single-handedly, and heroically, defeated ISIS on the ground...

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This morning, in Greece’s Parliament, MeRA25’s parliamentarians are staging an all-out struggle against the ratification of disastrous contracts between the previous (SYRIZA) government and multinational oil companies. The contracts to be ratified give the companies (including Exxon-Mobil and Total) full licence to drill, extract and exploit gas & oil reserves across Greece’s beautiful seas (Ionian, Aegean,...

ATHENS – During his tenure as President of the European Central Bank, Mario Draghi forged a variety of weapons that he deployed to shield the eurozone from menacing deflationary forces. Without them, the euro would have been history. However, the deflationary specter haunting Europe was never truly defeated and is now back with considerable vengeance. In the dying days of his presidency, Draghi is throwing...

[embedded content] Mark Carney, Governor of the Bank of England, recently said that we need a new international currency unit to replace the US dollar. In this BBC World Service program, I was asked what I thought of the idea. For more of a background to my answer click here. (For the whole BBC program, click here.)

[embedded content] The International Monetary Fund’s latest $56 billion loan to Argentina is at risk of failing again. The Argentinian peso has slumped and opposition leader Alberto Fernandez wants to ditch the austerity conditions attached to IMF bailouts that have so far failed to reduce inflation, stabilise the currency or halt recession. The Washington-based multilateral organisation...

ATHENS – Ever since Boris Johnson moved into 10 Downing Street vowing to re-negotiate the United Kingdom’s withdrawal agreement with the European Union, the conventional wisdom among many Brexit opponents has been that the UK’s new prime minister is “doing a Varoufakis” and will be crushed in similar fashion. The BBC’s Katya Adler reported from Brussels that she met with EU officials who spoke of “Varoufakis the...

The liberal order is under threat. Increasing inequality, the rise of far-right nationalism and the climate emergency pose unprecedented challenges. It’s time for some radical thinking. On November 4th Intelligence Squared is bringing to its stage two of the world’s great radicals – Yanis Varoufakis, the former Greek finance minister known for his trademark leather jacket, motorbike and self-described erratic...

[embedded content] MeRA25’s entry into Greece’s Parliament marks the return of anti-austerity, anti-troika, radical europeanism. In this first speech I outlined our campaign to oppose the new parasitic oligarchy that New Democracy will be building on the 4th Bailout deal with the troika that SYRIZA left behind