University

A lecture organised by University of Tübingen economics students, delivered on Monday February 3, 2020, on the theme “From an Economics without Capitalism to Markets without Capitalism”. Mainstream economic models lack some important features of really-existing capitalism, including money, time and space. Its models offer ideological cover for a capitalist system that has usurped competitive, […]

While the catastrophic pandemic is pushing hundreds of millions into economic destitution, our world is being subjected to an escalating climate emergency and a New Cold War between the West and China, not to mention ominous tensions in the Eastern Mediterranean, the Caucasus, Libya etc. In the midst of all this instability, is Global Stability […]

What a year 2020 turned out to be? Besides the catastrophic pandemic that pushed hundreds of millions into economic destitution, 2020 featured the escalation of the climate emergency, the spectre of a New Cold War between the West and China, not to mention ominous tensions in the Eastern Mediterranean. So, while internationally coordinated political action […]

Τι χρονιά κι αυτή! Ένα πραγματικό annus horribils που σημαδεύτηκε από μια καταστροφική πανδημία, από την κλιμακούμενη κλιματική καταστροφή, από το φάσμα ενός Νέου Ψυχρού Πολέμου ΗΠΑ-Κίνας, και βέβαια από τύμπανα πολέμου στο Αιγαίο και την Ανατολική Μεσόγειο. Κι ενώ ποτέ δεν ήταν τόσο απαραίτητη η πολιτική παρέμβαση σε παγκόσμιο επίπεδο, ποτέ δεν ήταν τόσο καταρρακωμένοι οι παγκόσμιοι […]

The good folk at Cambridge Union invited me to deliver a talk over the internet during our lockdown days. I chose to deliver a speech, or text, reciting what I fear might prove an accurate assessment of our BLEAK TWENTIES from the perspective of, say, December 2030. My great hope is that it is proven grossly inaccurate. But my fear is that it won’t…

JPPE: Many economists have their explanations about where inequality comes from, such as financialization, credit, globalization, technology, and bad policy. When thinking about the causes of inequality in the last thirty years, are there specific areas you think we ought to devote our attention to? 

Unter Meteorologen braucht es keine Meinungsvielfalt – so lange die etablierten Methoden fundierte Prognosen liefern. In den Wirtschaftswissenschaften, wo die Vorhersagen “allenfalls per Unfall” richtig lägen, sei das anders, meint der Ökonom und DiEM25-Initiator Yanis Varoufakis. Wenn die herrschende Lehrmeinung die Realität nicht mehr treffend beschreiben kann, brauche es alternative Blickwinkel. 

A lecture organised by University of Tübingen economics students, delivered on Monday 3rd February 2020 on the theme From an Economics-without-Capitalism to Markets-without-Capitalism.

Click here to watch the video of the lecture

On 8th November, at the invitation of Professor Antara Haldar of Cambridge University, I presented this talk in the context of a fascinating group of academics who gathered in the Cambridge Union’s upstairs seminar room to revive Keynes’ original idea of the Cambridge Circus – a radical circle of economists seeking the kind of economics that can be a force for good. Warning: This is a wonkish (technical) presentation.

Yanis Varoufakis has been adamant that he is not a politician. He might be an economist, though his conversation with Margaret Levi – a Stanford political scientist – at the Cambridge Union last Thursday evening on 7th November 2019 smashed the academic boundary walls of economics in style. His critical principles come from his characteristic cool iconoclasm – he has ‘zero respect for economists’ – but this is a radical spirit that guides his beliefs to a mature and deeply felt complexity.