MeRA25

Whether or not you agree with his politics, there’s no denying that Greece’s one-time Finance Minister, Yanis Varoufakis, offers a lot of food for thought to British businesses. The economist, politician, author and dedicated European reformer addressed our KPMG Executive Exchanges dinner in Leeds in late September. Theresa May, Brexit, Angela Merkel, deflation, the northern powerhouse, idle liquidity and Michel Barnier were all given the Varoufakis treatment in a thought-provoking analysis of the world as he sees it.

Chris Hearld, North Regional Chair

Over the past week, the world’s media have been proclaiming the successful completion of the Greek financial rescue programmemounted in 2010 by the European Union and the International Monetary Fund. Headlines celebrated the end of Greece’s bailout, even the termination of austerity.

Βγήκαμε από τα Μνημόνια; Επειδή στην Ελλάδα ο διάλογος έχει καταργηθεί προ πολλού, ας ξεκινήσουμε την συζήτηση του τί σημαίνει Μνημόνιο: Δεν σημαίνει δεσμεύσεις προς τις Βρυξέλλες. Όλες οι χώρες-μέλη της ΕΕ τελούν υπό δεσμεύσεις. Και η Γερμανία ακόμα. Όχι, Μνημόνιο σημαίνει κάτι άλλο πέραν των δεσμεύσεων π.χ. του “Συμφώνου Σταθερότητας”. Μνημόνιο σημαίνει διασύνδεση διευκολύνσεων που μας κάνουν οι δανειστές για να τους αποπληρώνουμε με υφεσιακά και άλλα μέτρα λιτότητας υπό την επιτήρηση και τας διαταγάς της τρόικας ΕΚΤ-ΕΕ-ΔΝΤ – π.χ.

The official version reads as follows: Europe is on the road to recovery, the consequences of Brexit are under control, Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Emmanuel Macron would now create the new foundations on which Europe will establish a stronger alliance. Even the Greek debt crisis, it is said, was over after the decision of the Eurogroup last week! Unfortunately, a closer look reveals a deep gap between propaganda and reality.

ATHENS – Europe’s establishment is luxuriating in two recent announcements that would have been momentous even if they were only partly accurate: The end of Greece’s debt crisis, and a Franco-German accord to redesign the eurozone. Unfortunately, both reports offer fresh proof of the European Union establishment’s remarkable talent for never missing an opportunity to miss an opportunity.

Italian daily Il Fatto Quotidiano interviewed me (see here) regarding the latest developments in Italy, Europe and Greece. The original Q&A (in English) follows:

Greece is about to exit from the notorious memorandum, the austerity plan signed with the troika. Public finance has improved at a high price for the population as we all know.

Corriere Della Sera, the Italian daily, published today an interview that I gave to Aldo Cazzullo. For the published version (in Italian of course), you can visit the paper’s site here. However, the published text is a heavily reduced version of the exchange between Mr Cazzullo and myself. For those interested in the full exchange, see below. (Nb. the exchange took place in English)

Much of the world was introduced to Yanis Varoufakis in early 2015, when, as Greece’s bold new finance minister (he rode a Yamaha to work and tabloids touted his sex appeal), he led negotiations with the European Union, the European Central Bank, and the International Monetary Fund to restructure the country’s crushing load of government debt. To many, he was a leftist hero standing up to the heartless eurocrats in Brussels. But then the eurocrats won.

The idea of a unified Europe didn’t always elicit the current mixture of exasperation, boredom, and rage, in politicians and ordinary people alike. In fact, there was a time when the European Union seemed like a great initiative, especially on a continent ravaged first by two hot wars, then broken in half by a cold one. A permanent peace between neighboring nations founded on a common market and sealed with freedom of movement for all might have required bureaucratic impositions, but it also functioned as an insurance policy.