Tag Archives: Post-MinFin missives

Reposted from Kings College website Former Greek Finance Minister & Rolls Royce Chairman join King’s College Posted on 19/05/2016 Yanis Varoufakis, Greece’s former Finance Minister and Sir Simon Robertson, former Chairman of Rolls Royce are both joining King’s as distinguished Visiting Professors within the Department of Political Economy. Starting from 1 August they will both give public lectures , departmental seminars and student facing workshops as part of their activity at...

Sir, One often hears that people on the left of the political spectrum tend to be more intelligent, more articulate, better read and generally more fun to be with. Every so often, one sees a study in some psychology journal, trying to prove this hypothesis in a scientific manner. Virtually all these studies are deeply flawed as they invariably fail to account for immeasurable and innumerable variables. And then one comes across the article “Out of office” on the front page...

In October 2015, I had the opportunity to debate, in Munich, Professor Hans Werner Sinn on the European Monetary Union and, more broadly, Europe’s economy . On 30 August 2016, at the Alpbach European Forum, I debated Professor Sinn’s successor as President of IFO, Professor Clemens Fuest. [Click here, or the image above, for video of the two keynotes and the debate.] This Alpbach Keynote Debate was organised along the lines of the following proposition/question “The market economy is the...

A few weeks ago, Stefan Aust, Die Welt’s editor and formerly the heart and soul of Der Spiegel, paid me a visit at our Aegina house. We spoke for a good two hours on Europe, Germany, Greece and, of course, DiEM25. It was a serious, pleasant and at times passionate discussion. On 14th August the article-interview was published. For Die Welt’s site click here. (For the interview, as published, in pdf form click: Part 1 & Part 2) Alternatively… “Merkel hat keinen Plan” Von Stefan Aust...

The FT’s silly season Q&A edition had some questions for several of us. Here are my answers: How are you spending the summer? Like every summer: accumulating sensations that, when the depths of winter arrive, will allow me to, still, feel that — in Albert Camus’ wonderful words — “within me there lay an invincible summer”. Who would be your ideal travel companion (real or fictional, dead or alive)? Danae, my partner, for her astonishing capacity to belong in strange places. And the...

Athens daily Kathimerini published a letter signed by 23 ‘US-educated Greeks’ sent to the University of Texas’ President denouncing James K. Galbraith (a long-standing professor there) for having helped me design a “monetary cum military coup d’etat”.  At least that was their description of my Plan X – a preliminary contingency plan to counter the European Central Bank’s Plan Z with which Greece is being threatened continually since 2012 – see the Financial Times report here. Once more,...

You have read about the most recent IMF confession over its immolation of Greece. The question is: Does it signal a change in policies? Do not hold your breath! Recent history is pointing to a repetition of the crime-against-logic first committed in 2012 – an IMF tactic of confessing to the sin in order to repeat it with impunity! Back in June 2015, Olivier Blanchard, the then IMF Chief Economist, wrote an article that seemed reasonable: both sides (the troika and Athens) must make...

TIME FOR RESIGNATIONS AT THE IMF, THE ECB & THE COMMISSION TIME FOR AN APOLOGY TO THE PEOPLE OF GREECE TIME  FOR A POLICY U-TURN, BEGINNING WITH IMMEDIATE DEBT RELIEF, THE END OF AUSTERITY & THE CESSATION OF FIRE SALES TIME FOR THE RESTORATION OF GREEK DEMOCRACY This week began with a debate in Greek Parliament called by the Official Opposition (the troika’s main, but not only, domestic cheerleaders) for the purposes of, eventually, indicting me for daring to counter the...

As Malcolm Turnbull prepares to return to Canberra to take the reins of government again, ABC Radio National has compiled eight pieces of advice on how he should approach his next term. The advice comes from: Ian Thorpe, Ursula Yovich, Yanis Varoufakis, Bill Crews, Toni Powell, Guy Warren, Karl Kruszelnicki and Inga Simpson IMAGE: IAN THORPE. (ABC RN/JEREMY STORY CARTER) Ian Thorpe has won Olympic gold five times. Recently he’s beenmentoring Australia’s swimmers in the lead-up to the...

In April 2015 I was vilified for refusing to bow to the troika’s demands for a ridiculously high 3.5% primary surplus and for countering the creditors’ failed ‘program’ with a growth plan dubbed A New Deal for Greece. Not only was I vilified by the troika but I had to deal with a Governor of the Bank of Greece who was fully in cahoots with the troika, backing the creditors rejection of my New Deal proposals and even claiming that my insistence on A New Deal cost Greece 85 billion euros!...