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Blog PostsYanis Varoufakis Reacts to EU Financial Crisis Agreement
By Zed Books at Oct 28, 2011 |
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Greek economist and Zed author Yanis Varoufakis has been active in discussing the current financial crisis, particularly as Greece's economic problems have been in the limelight. He continues his criticisms in the wake of yesterday's agreement between European Union leaders.
Hours before the announcement was made, Varoufakis appeared on Capital Account (a programme that also featured economist and Zed author Steve Keen earlier this week). In the interview, Varoufakis discusses some possible causes and consequences of the debt crisis, and also alleges that European leaders might be 'engineering a recession' in the midst of their agreement.
Click here to watch the video
After the announcement of the European leaders' agreement, Varoufakis posted his reaction on his blog. As a summary, he says the following:
"With the din of the debate on what the new EU anti-Crisis ‘agreement’ means in our ears, and after a long night of anxious observation of our leaders’ deliberations, it is terribly easy to lose sight of the only truth about this new twist in the euro crisis saga: There has been no agreement to speak of."
Varoufakis has discussed this concept in great depth in his Zed title The Global Minotaur: America, the True Origins of the Financial Crisis and the Future of the World Economy. The book is an essential account of the socio-economic events and hidden histories that have shaped the world as we now know it. Varoufakis explodes the myth that financialisation, ineffectual regulation of banks, greed and globalisation were the root causes of the global economic crisis. Rather, they are symptoms of a much deeper malaise which can be traced all the way back to the Great Crash of 1929, then on through to the 1970s: the time when a 'Global Minotaur' was born.
