The new Greek finance minister, 53, statistician of the economy and media hyperactive, clashes with his style and his thought. He fights against austerity, but not against the euro. It impresses with its rich background, and his iconoclastic speech, constant and “occasionally Marxist”.
The suit does not always make the man. Shaved, colorful shirts and outspoken, the “décontractitude” Yanis Varoufakis hides a real international credibility on the economy. The new Greek Finance Minister symbolizes as much hope of people asphyxiated by the “odious” austerity – and that of a new impetus to the left of the European left – that fear of creditors of Greek debt – that does not stop to grow – and the financial world – still hates much to ask existential questions about the euro.
This is the electric atmosphere that Yanis Varoufakis, Greek-Australian of 53 years, left in a race against the clock to bring together European, facing a Germany deflected around its European project rethinking the Greek debt. He can count on his mental sport and mastery of his media hyper-activity. Yanis Varoufakis holds (even as a minister) blog, also fed than educational. It uses Twitter as a “véritomètre” of what the media say about him: he tweets, retweet, respond to attacks, and argues his thoughts returning surfers to posts in his blog.
He holds conferences, it offers forums in the press, it is ubiquitous in the Greek televisions and is also involved in the Anglo-Saxon media, CNN (no later than Monday) or on the BBC. Today, Yanis Varoufakis focuses admiration of Greek youth – who for more than half are unemployed – and “Indignant” in speech strength both iconoclasts, educational and constant. It is a war against autérité, but refuses to be extremism tax, and repeats that he is not against Europe or the euro. Nor against the Germans.
From “Mr Catastrophe” to Minister of Finance
Born in 1961, Yanis Varoufakis went to England in the early 1980s, after the end of the dictatorship colonels. He studied mathematics and statistics applied to economics at the University of Essex. He teaches at Cambridge particular. In 1990, the third term of Margaret Thatcher (“It was too much,” he says), he moved to Sydney, Australia, where he teaches a dozen years at the University of Sydney.
Back in Greece – where he teaches at the University of Athens – it’s the first to say that we must assume the bankruptcy of Greece. This earned him the nickname “Mr Catastrophe” (“Dr. Doom” exactly). He became, between 2004 and 2006, “recklessly but quite officially,” councilor George Papandreou, before one of his strongest critics. For Varoufakis, it was he who, deciding to call Europe and the IMF for help in 2009, plunged Greece “in hell”.
His hard anti-austerity discourse bluntly pushed to leave Greece, “the threat,” he said, to go into exile in 2011 in Austin, Texas, where he has taught since 2013. He has instead seduces the Syriza party. Since their merger, the leader of the radical left, Alexis Tsipras today Greek Prime Minister has not been active for a Greek exit from the euro zone. “Exit the Euro would be worse than to stay there, according Varoufakis because the inevitable depreciation of the drachma would result in a massive transfer of power of the poor, whose income and savings will be worth nothing, to more rich, who have put their euros away. “
At this unusual path, adds March 2012 the economist experience … for a giant video games. This is the Valve boss Gabe Newell, who himself hunted. Yanis Varoufakis plays the game and is passionate about his new position, which allows him, on the basis of massive and real data to field test the theories of games, a discipline (eg economics) of finding the best decision taken based on the expectations of the actions of others.
What do think Yanis Varoufakis and what does he want?
Yanis Varoufakis is primarily a neoclassical He accepts the fundamentals of the market economy. But he said the theory – and practice – liberal has flaws. And for him, the best answers to the market economy problems standing in Marxist arguments better than Keynesian thinking. He himself calls “occasional Marxist”.
He has published in January a “modest proposal to solve the crisis in the eurozone,” book prefaced by Michel Rocard. Modest, he said, because the proposal does not involve the puzzle to change EU treaties. His goal: to condemn complacency of Europe as the threat of deflation and reverse the social suffering and the thrust of the underlying nationalism. How? “First off on the right diagnosis. No, the main problem is not the debt. The latter is a symptom. ” For him, Europe must “create a network of solidarity”, “Europeans must unite large parts of European debt, recapitalize troubled banks at a European level and launch a massive investment program.”
Another major publication, reveals the thought of Yanis Varoufakis: “Global Minotaur: The American ogre, European disunity and global chaos.” In this book, Varoufakis condemns the global economic system, organized around the US twin deficits, which cultivates the US imperialism. The United States is like the Minotaur – half-man, this monster half-bull – whose growth is fueled by the surpluses of the rest of the world.
During his European Cross, Yanis Varoufakis adopt, true to himself, a hard line, as he said, “Greece has nothing to lose” and relies on her ” technical approach to the issue, “and” rigorous statistical arguments “for support.
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