From January 2004 to December 2006, Varoufakis served as economic adviser to George Papandreou, whose government he was to become an ardent critic of a few years later. The author of several books on game theory, Varoufakis is also a recognised speaker and often appears as guest analyst for news media like the BBC, CNN, Sky News, RT and Bloomberg TV among others. In November 2010, he and Stuart Holland, a former Labour Party MP and economics professor at the University of Coimbra (Portugal), published A Modest Proposal, a set of economic policies aimed at overcoming the euro crisis.[5] In 2013, Version 4.0 of A Modest Proposal appeared with the American economist James K. Galbraith as a third co-author. This version was published in late 2013 in French with a supporting foreword by Michel Rocard, former Prime Minister of France. Since September 2011, Truman Factor features select articles by Varoufakis in English and in Spanish. Varoufakis compares the role of the US economy since the 1970s in relation to the rest of the world with the minotaur.[6]
In 2005/6, Varoufakis travelled extensively with artist Danae Stratou along seven dividing lines around the world (in Palestine, Ethiopia-Eritrea, Kosovo, Belfast, Cyprus, Kashmir and the US-Mexico border). Stratou produced the installation CUT: 7 dividing lines, while Varoufakis wrote texts that then became a political-economic account of these divisions, entitled The Globalising Wall. In 2010 Stratou and Varoufakis founded the project Vital Space.[7]
Beginning in March 2012, Varoufakis became Economist-in-Residence at Valve Corporation. He researched the virtual economy on the Steam digital delivery platform, specifically looking at exchange rates and trade deficits. In June 2012, he began a blog about his research at Valve. In February 2013 his function at Valve was to work on a game for predicting trends in gaming.[9][10][11]
Varoufakis was appointed Finance Minister by Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras in the aftermath of the SYRIZA victory in the January 25 parliamentary election. A self-described 'libertarian Marxist'- "In truth, Karl Marx was responsible for framing my perspective of the world we live in, from my childhood to this day. It is not something that I volunteer to talk about in 'polite society' much these days because the very mention of the M-word switches audiences off." [1]
His next book currently has the working title Reverse Alchemy: Europe on the Road to Disintegration.
Name | Varoufakis, Yanis |
Alternative names | Βαρουφάκης, Γιάνης |
Short description | Greek-Australian economist |
Date of birth | 24 March 1961 |
Place of birth | Athens, Greece |
Date of death | |
Place of death |