Ukrainian Financial Forum 2017 – Yanis Varoufakis keynote speech

Keynotes panel


Global finances and the world economy: #EU after the potential #Brexit, U.S.A. and China

Yanis Varoufakis, former Finance Minister of Greece pointed out that both the #Eurozone and global economy require deeper reforms than currently are underway. He stressed that the modern world is full of uncertainty that cannot be explained.

Nobody has an answer for the question: what happened to inflation and cheap money? Varoufakis divides the postwar period into three phases:


1) a period of growth characterized by surplus capital in the #US,


2) financial deregulation that began in the 1970s after the US lost its status as a surplus country,


3) the period since the 2008 crisis.

He describes the current period as “unbalanced equilibrium.” The


world has returned to surplus economies, but capital flows do not change.

He explains, “Previously, capital was used to create new companies and jobs, but today companies buy back their own shares, which results in a lack of investment.”

In addition to worldwide underinvestment, except for #China, #Varoufakis highlights other global issues such as rising public and private debt, and increasing poverty. He emphasizes that at first glance, the world is in a state of recovery, but in reality, it is in a slow-burning crisis. In his view, the global financial architecture needs to be recalibrated, as it was in 1944.

#UkrFinForum