Yanis Varoufakis's Blog, page 88
February 5, 2019
THE ECONOMIST on DiEM25 & the European Spring: “Varoufakis Sans Frontières”
Not a politician? That evening, in an old warehouse in Berlin’s east, Mr Varoufakis takes to the stage before a young, bookish, international audience at the launch of European Spring’s manifesto for May’s elections to the European Parliament. Perched on the edge of his seat, he seems every bit the vote-wrangler. His right hand clasps the microphone, the left one depicts trillions of euros: slicing and restructuring debts, swishing from side to side to illustrate giant German surpluses, fingers flickering to imitate the vicissitudes of lily-livered social democrats.
It is easy to mock Mr Varoufakis. As Greek finance minister, he hectored Eurocrats for their desiccated economic orthodoxies—sometimes reasonably (he correctly pointed out that Greece will never repay all of its debts), sometimes outlandishly (covertly planning a parallel Greek payments system). He was ridiculed for a photo-shoot in Paris Match, a French celebrity magazine, which showed him dining stylishly on his roof-terrace beneath the Acropolis. To many critics, his career is one unending book tour: tomes excoriating the international economic establishment fly off the shelves every time he bashes elites in the media.Mr Varoufakis’s European ambitions do not exactly disprove the stereotype. He is running in the impending Greek parliamentary election and in the European Parliament elections—for Germany. This is provocative in a country where Mr Varoufakis has long been demonised. “If we wanted to reform the Roman empire we would start in Rome, not in southern Egypt,” he argues. At the rally in Berlin he indulges in Utopianism, imagining the first press conference on the Monday morning of a European Spring-led Europe. The proposals to be announced on that glorious day: €2.5trn in green investments from the European Investment Bank (eib) over five years, a guarantee from the European Central Bank that it will prop up the prices of eib bonds in secondary markets and the mutualisation of (good) European debt to lower interest rates.
All of this sends orthodox eyeballs skywards. Yet one does not have to agree with everything the Greek politician says to find some aspects of his efforts welcome. European Spring, the electoral wing of a trans-European political movement called (rather irritatingly) diem25, wants to help Europeanise the European elections. The parliament in Strasbourg is a supra-national body passing supra-national European legislation, but elections to it are fought on national lines by national parties. Europe’s media, trade unions and civic organisations are mostly national. Few political figures are known across borders. In the words of Elly Schlein, a young Italian European Spring candidate: “The eu is a round table where politicians have their backs to each other, facing domestic political concerns instead.” In other words, most of the eu’s debates do not take place at the level where European power is exercised. European Spring thinks that needs to be corrected.
Moreover, it may breathe some life into the old, tribal European politics. Traditional party groups in the European Parliament are moribund. Only last week it was alleged that Elmar Brok, a walrus-like Christian Democrat from Germany, had been charging constituents to visit the parliament and made €18,000 a year from the wheeze. He denies the accusations. You do not have to agree with the European Spring’s proposals—which include a universal citizen’s income, totally open borders and relaxed fiscal policies—to welcome the possible arrival of new, fresh legislators like Ms Schlein in Strasbourg. “If you try to take over an existing political party, you will be taken over by it,” warns Mr Varoufakis. “They are bureaucratic machines wedded to the nation-state with an institutional aversion to ideas.”
European Spring is at best a fringe outfit. Even Mr Varoufakis reckons it is unlikely to win more than a handful of seats, and he is not known for understatement. So its effects on the debate in Strasbourg and Brussels are likely to be limited. But at a time when pro-Europeans seem ever more confined to the technocratic centre of politics, it is welcome to find a transnational party making the case for openness from a different perspective. Europe will only be open in the future if openness has defenders on the right, centre and left of politics. Many on the left—Jeremy Corbyn in Britain, Jean-Luc Mélenchon in France, Sarah Wagenknecht in Germany—are turning towards leftist tribalism, Euroscepticism and anti-immigration politics in an attempt to win over disaffected voters. But European Spring embraces none of those things. Mr Varoufakis stresses that the group has liberal strains, and that he has long dealt with figures outside his own ideological camp (he is in close contact with Norman Lamont, a British Conservative former finance minister). European Spring activists talk about bringing together French and Polish workers to defuse national conflicts between the two, encouraging young European volunteers to help refugees in hostels near the “Jungle” refugee camp in Calais and taking on the Italian government in cities like Naples.
Times are tough for Europe’s liberals. Their tunes no longer sound so good in a post-crisis age, and they are struggling to find new ones. They will undoubtedly disagree with much that Mr Varoufakis and his comrades say. But they are at least fellow fighters in an increasingly difficult struggle against the drift to a Europe of closed societies and economies.
This article appeared in the Europe section of the print edition under the headline “Varoufakis Sans Frontières”
Print edition | Europe
Jan 31st 2019
For the site of The Economist, click here.
David Adler explaining our radical vision for a New Bretton Woods on CNN
European Spring & DiEM25 are focused on changing the conversation in Europe – EU Reporter
January 31, 2019
DiEM25’s online art auction: A new way of funding democratic movements and a new relationship between participatory politics and art
To peruse the works, and to meet all the participating artists, click here. Speaking for a moment personally, I am touched and honoured that these artists should see it fit to support DiEM25 and its hard working activists in the run up to the European Parliament elections. This auction demonstrates DiEM25’s remarkable depth and quality, as well as our penchant for a New Politics and a new relationship between Activism and Art.
Δημοπρασία έργων διεθνών καλλιτεχνών υπέρ του DiEM25 και του ΜέΡΑ25
Καλλιτέχνες όπως ο σκηνοθέτης Alfonso Cuaron (του οποίου η ταινία ROMA κέρδισε το Φεστιβάλ Βερολίνου και έχει προταθεί για καμιά δεκαριά Όσκαρ), ο Brian Eno, ο δικοί μας Κώστας Βαρώτσος, Μίλτος Μανέτας, η σπουδαία Hito Steyerl – πατήστε εδώ για να δείτε τα έργα που διατίθενται και ολόκληρο κατάλογο των καλλιτεχνών από όλο τον κόσμο. (Η δημοπρασία αρχίζει στις 5 Φεβρουαρίου 2019)
Είναι πράγματι μια μεγάλη στιγμή. Ποτέ δεν έχουν κινητοποιηθεί τόσοι καλλιτέχνες πανευρωπαϊκά για να στηρίξουν ένα κίνημα που πασχίζει να μετασχηματίσει την Ευρώπη των λίγων και των σκιών στην Ευρώπη των πολλών και του φωτός.
Ανεξάρτητα από το ποσό που θα εισπραχθεί, ακόμα και κανένα έσοδο να μην έχουμε από την δημοπρασία αυτή, η προσφορά τόσων ανθρώπων της Τέχνης στο DiEM25 και στο ΜέΡΑ25 είναι ανεκτίμητη.
Προχωράμε!
https://paddle8.com/auction/diem25
A radical new vision for the World Bank and the IMF – op-ed with David Adler, in The Guardian
The World Bank and the IMF are the last remaining columns of the Bretton Woods edifice under which capitalism experienced its golden age in the 1950s and 1960s. While that system, and the fixed exchange rate regime it relied upon, bit the dust in 1971, the two institutions continued to support global finance along purely Atlanticist lines: with Europe’s establishment choosing the IMF’s managing director and the United States selecting the head of the World Bank.
Kim, a career physician who presented himself as a champion of poverty alleviation, now leaves the fate of the bank’s leadership in the hands of Donald Trump – the global equivalent of a progressive supreme court justice hanging up his robes in the middle of a Republican White House. Adding a touch of the absurd to the drama, it is the US president’s daughter, Ivanka Trump, who is now leading the search committee for Kim’s replacement.
But like every crisis of the Trump era, this sordid affair is an excellent opportunity to mobilize around an entirely new vision for the Bretton Woods institutions – to push for radical reforms that would put the resources of the World Bank and the IMF in the service of the many, rather than lubricating the wheels of global finance in the interest of the very few.
Such a progressive vision would bring the Bretton Woods system much closer to the lofty intentions of its framers. “Prosperity, like peace, is indivisible,” said US treasury secretary Henry Morgenthau in his inaugural speech to the Bretton Woods conference, which gave birth to the World Bank (then the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development) and to the IMF. “We cannot afford to have it scattered here or there among the fortunate or enjoy it at the expense of others.”
The original Bretton Woods plan was for exchange rates to be fixed, with the IMF helping heavily indebted countries restructure their debt and a stabilization fund curbing capital flight. Meanwhile, the World Bank would offer development finance and an international commodity stabilization corporation would “bring about the orderly marketing of staple commodities at prices fair to the producer and consumer alike”. Finally, the whole system would be dollar-denominated, with the greenback being the only currency exchangeable for gold at a fixed rate.
John Maynard Keynes, the chief British negotiator at Bretton Woods, was worried that the new system could only rely on the dollar as long as America had a trade surplus. The moment the United States became a deficit country, the system would collapse. So, Keynes suggested that instead of building the new world order on the dollar, all major economies would subscribe to a multilateral International Clearing Union (ICU). While keeping their own currencies, and central banks, countries would agree to denominate all international payments in a common accounting unit, which Keynes named the bancor, and to clear all international payments through the ICU.
Once set up, the ICU would tax persistent surpluses and deficits symmetrically so as to balance out capital flows, volatility, global aggregate demand and productivity. Had it been instituted, the ICU would have worked alongside the World Bank to keep the global economy in balance and build shared prosperity worldwide.
But Keynes’s ICU was rejected. The United States was unwilling to replace the dollar as the anchor of the new monetary system. And so the IMF was downgraded to a bailout fund, the World Bank was limited to lending from its own reserves (contributed by stressed member states) and, crucially, any possibility of the IMF leveraging the World Bank’s investments (like a central bank might have done) was jettisoned.
Following large US trade deficits, then president Richard Nixon announced on 15 August 1971 the effective end of the Bretton Woods system – just as Keynes had predicted.
Immediately, the private banks, which the Bretton Woods system had been keeping under a lid, sprang up and the world was taken over by financialisation.
Rather than supporting governments and prosperity, the World Bank and the IMF led the so-called Washington consensus: an orchestrated campaign of mass privatization, austerity and financial deregulation. “There are virtually no limits on what can be privatized”, wrote Mary Shirley, the chief of the public sector management and private sector development division, in 1992.
Jim Yong Kim was once a fierce critic of the Washington consensus. In his book Dying for Growth, published in 2000, Kim railed against the World Bank’s free marketeering, the costs of which “have been borne by the poor, the infirm and the vulnerable in poor countries that accepted the experts’ designs”.
Yet as president, Kim turbo-charged the bank’s commitment to private profits against the public interest. “Maximizing finance for development” (MFD), the strategy he adopted in 2015, transformed the World Bank from a direct investor in developing countries to a mere facilitator of private finance. The bank’s core activity would not be lending to governments, but to “de-risk projects, sectors and entire countries”, in effect socializing the risks on behalf of the private investors and privatizing any gains.
From this perspective, it makes perfect sense that Mr Kim’s resigned early to take up a post at … a private equity firm.
His decision must, however, be our cue to review the role of the World Bank and the IMF today, and perhaps to revisit Keynes’ prescient idea circa 1944.
The world today needs, as much as it did in 1944, a massive international investment program. Back then, humanity needed reconstruction after a lethal world war. Today, the planet is crying out for a green transition that will cost at least $8tn annually.
Where will the money come from? Surely not from the stressed budgets of our states.
Here’s an idea: build a new Bretton Woods and fund the International Green New Deal by simply mobilizing idle savings via a linkup between the revamped World Bank and the new IMF.
The IMF can become the issuer of a digital currency unit in which all international payments are denominated, countries can retain their currencies (that will float freely against the IMF’s unit), and a wealth fund can be built by depositing in it currency units in proportion to every country’s trade deficits and surpluses.
Meanwhile, backed by the IMF’s capacity to issue the world currency unit, the World Bank can crowd idle savings from across the world into green investments, reclaiming its soul after decades of investing in environmental destruction and human displacement.
Kim’s departure makes one thing clear: the World Bank is on the brink. New development banks are growing in size and in scope, filling the space that the World Bank has long since abandoned.
Now is the time to mobilize – to push a new crop of progressive leaders to start thinking internationally, taking their enthusiasm for the Green New Deal to the global level.
If we do not act quickly – demanding a radical change of direction – the World Bank will likely fade into irrelevance. Or worse: it will become a plaything for the Trump family and its associates, making the world into their great golf course.
David Adler is a writer and a member of DiEM25’s Coordinating Collective. Yanis Varoufakis is the co-founder of DiEM25. He is also the former finance minister of Greece
https://www.theguardian.com/commentis...
Jeremy Corbyn’s necessary next step: A Speech of Hope for Britain – The Independent
May’s two colossal errors combined to allow a gloating European Commission to dictate to her a withdrawal agreement that, independently of whether one is pro-Leave or pro-Remain, resembles the kind of treaty imposed upon a nation defeated at war. Unsurprisingly, Brexit has turned into a process tearing Britain apart while revealing its constitutional inadequacies.
The next few weeks are depressingly predictable.
The prime minister will continue to run down the clock putting all the pressure on Remainers, both Tory and Labour, to avert a no-deal Brexit by accepting hers. That was the point of backing the Brady amendment on Tuesday: to take Brexit revocation off the table, gain two weeks during which to pretend to negotiate with a European Commission that does not have the mandate to negotiate and then take a version of the same withdrawal agreement, possibly with some pointless addenda, to parliament.
If her blackmail fails again, she will apply for an extension of Article 50 until 1 July to start the same war of attrition anew.
It is imperative that May is prevented from following this path. Those who can stop her and fail to do so will not be forgiven by at least one generation of Britons. Which brings me to my friend and comrade Jeremy Corbyn and his team. Labour’s leadership understands that, with weeks to go before the cliff’s edge, Niccolò Machiavelli’s counsel (see below) applies just as much to them too.
“Irresolute princes, to avoid present dangers, generally follow the neutral path, and are generally ruined” Niccolò Machiavelli, The Prince
Until now it was right and proper for Labour to avoid distracting a Tory government while it was making a mess of things. Jeremy Corbyn’s critics were wrong to chastise him for delaying to call a vote of no confidence or for not backing a second referendum. Labour just did not have the numbers to win such votes.
However, the time has come for Jeremy Corbyn to give a Speech of Hope for Britain, one that contains a clear vision of a country that heals itself after two years of wanton destruction by a short-sighted, clueless prime minister thinking solely of the unity of her divided government and party.
Jeremy’s speech must build hope upon a foundation of realism, stating clearly what the Labour leader would do if he were to move into No 10 tomorrow morning. In such a speech I would like to hear him announce that, in view of the current damaging impasse, only a people’s debate can turn a disaster into an opportunity for national renewal. This debate should be modelled on the Irish citizens’ assembly that produced a remarkable convergence of public opinion on the nation’s abortion legislation before a referendum could be held profitably.
The UK assembly’s remit would extend beyond Brexit to engulf the British Constitution (eg the creation of one or more English parliaments, the reform of the electoral system) that Brexit proved to be in serious need of revision. Once the assembly has formulated the options to be put to a referendum by 2021 (including an application to re-join the EU, a hard Brexit, Norway Plus etc), voters will have at least another year to debate them.
To allow for this celebration of democracy, prime minister Corbyn would conclude the Article 50 process on 29 March with a withdrawal agreement foreshadowing a three-year steady-as-she-goes transition period and replacing May’s backstop with a permanent customs union for Northern Ireland. In essence, a Labour government accepts the possibility of customs’ checks across the Irish Sea in the interest of preserving the Good Friday Agreement, and without pre-empting the findings of the citizen’s assembly that will decide the final UK-EU arrangements.
Jeremy Corbyn’s Speech of Hope must, of course, end with forward guidance on what he will do from the opposition benches in the next decisive weeks.
I would like to hear him say that he will not support any short-term extension of Article 50 that merely allows May more rope to hang herself and the country. And that he will support any amendment that prevents Britain crashing out – or back into the EU – without that utterly crucial democratic agent of a people’s debate and an honest referendum on the available options within the next two years.
Yanis Varoufakis, a former Greek finance minister, co-founder of DiEM25 and its Greek political party, MeRA25
January 30, 2019
January 29, 2019
“Politics means leadership, not only giving people what they want. You have to convince them to get out of our national box” – EURACTIV
In the interview, Varoufakis lashed out against leftist parties in Europe, saying that their lack of unity cannot bring tangible electoral results and, therefore, changes in the continent.
“There is no real European Left anymore. There are people like Gregor Gysi [President of the European Left], then there’s Alexis Tsipras, who imposes the most ridiculous austerity policies on his people, or Podemos in Spain, who have no policy for Europe at all.”
“The left parties have such different fractions in them that issuing a party manifesto becomes a carte blanche, it’s not coherent. This way you’re not going to draw voters from the right or from progressive parties. You shrink,” Varoufakis said.
Asked if he considered joining the leftist GUE/NGL political group in the next EU Parliament, Varoufakis said ideally his movement would join none of them.
“We’d like to collaborate with different groups on different issues. What the bureaucratic processes in terms of the right to speak etc. may force us into is another thing. But I don’t think this is the time to discuss this. We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.”
EU lawmakers from the GUE-NGL, the Greens and the EU social democrats (S&D) have formed the so-called Progressive Caucus, an informal group, which aims to build bridges among the three political families and in the long run, form a “progressive” front.
But the European left remains widely fragmented, as seen in the case of the leader of La France Insoumise, Jean-Luc Mélenchon.
Asked about this move, Varoufakis said it was “just big talk”.
“They’re not really approaching each other. The elections are in May but they don’t work together. They have no common programme, the discourse on Progressive Caucus doesn’t affect their electoral campaigns. It’s irrelevant.”
Why run in Germany?
Asked why he decided to run in Germany, he replied, “If you want to change the Roman Empire, you start in Rome”.
“Germany is the economic heart of Europe, the engine that pulls it, whether we like it or not. But also because public opinion in Germany, until recently at least, was much closer to Europeanism than in France for example,” he said.
He added that the French elites had always looked at the EU as an opportunity to project French power globally whereas Germany really wanted to integrate into the European project.
“That’s why it is the best place to work on democracy in Europe.”
Συζήτηση εφ’ όλης της ύλης στον δρόμο για τις εκλογές – απόψε στις 7μμ στο Ξενοδοχείο Τιτάνια, Αθήνα
Το ΜέΡΑ25 είναι η φωνή όλων όσων αντιστέκονται στην μονιμοποίηση της κρίσης και της αναξιοπρέπειας. Έλα να μας ακούσεις. Έλα να σε ακούσουμε. Θα είμαστε εκεί, μέλη της Πολιτικής Γραμματείας, η οργάνωση ΜέΡΑ25 Α’ Αθήνας, φίλοι, μέλη και κριτικά ιστάμενοι.
Θα συζητήσουμε για την οικονομία, την πολιτική και όλα όσα σε απασχολούν για την κοινωνία και την πορεία της χώρας και της Ευρώπης καθώς πορευόμαστε στο δρόμο προς τις εθνικές εκλογές και τις ευρωεκλογές.
Για τους ανθρώπους. Όχι τα αξιώματα.
Τρίτη 29 Ιανουαρίου, 7μμ, στο ξενοδοχείο Titania.
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