Yanis Varoufakis: The Euro Has Never Been More Problematic [video]
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Re: Yanis Varoufakis: The Euro Has Never Been More Problematic [video]
#2This fellow makes Economics seem understandable. Truly gifted. I wish we there were some way to clone him.
Re: Yanis Varoufakis: The Euro Has Never Been More Problematic [video]
#3All this Germany bashing and his constant condescending remarks remove a tad of his credibility, which is unfortunate when making such audacious claims. Is there anyone here on HN who has further reading advice on these claims (E.g that the € is malice by design)?
Re: Yanis Varoufakis: The Euro Has Never Been More Problematic [video]
#4All this Germany bashing and his constant condescending remarks remove a tad of his credibility, which is unfortunate when making such audacious claims. Is there anyone here on HN who has further reading advice on these claims (E.g that the € is malice by design)?
He’s a pop icon more than an economist these days. He understands his market/base and pitches to them. Framed as an entertainer, he does well.
The Euro’s design balances Germany’s paranoia surrounding inflation with the South’s preference for rebalancing its economies though devaluation. With the benefit of hindsight, a terrific compromise wasn’t found. Obvious fixes, which include a Eurozone FDIC analogue and a European fiscal authority for basic social services like unemployment insurance and housing subsidies, are opposed by pretty much every country’s politicians. (The rich because they don’t want to subsidise the poor, but do want to keep selling to them on credit. The poor because they don’t want to lose their jobs to a unified entity in Brussels.)
Re: Yanis Varoufakis: The Euro Has Never Been More Problematic [video]
#5All this Germany bashing and his constant condescending remarks remove a tad of his credibility, which is unfortunate when making such audacious claims. Is there anyone here on HN who has further reading advice on these claims (E.g that the € is malice by design)?
Well, Germany used the Euro and their influence on the ECB as a strategic weapon to boost their own economy and exports (as opposed to treating the Eurozone as a union).
They also blatantly disregarded EU's and their own rules (e.g. regarding deficits) when it was for their own benefit.
There are people who, while adults, still believe in unicorns, and tooth fairies, and big nation states with huge national industries and interests looking for the good of the union and the common market, and so on. There also are pragmatists who understand politics.
If anything, the problem with Varoofakis, was that he was more of the latter.
Re: Yanis Varoufakis: The Euro Has Never Been More Problematic [video]
#6All this Germany bashing and his constant condescending remarks remove a tad of his credibility, which is unfortunate when making such audacious claims. Is there anyone here on HN who has further reading advice on these claims (E.g that the € is malice by design)?
From a Greek perspective, he's not wrong. Germany forced Greece's hand and made them take out a loans they could not pay rather then let them default on their loans as many bankrupt countries are wont to do.
Now, sure, Germany had the upper hand knowing that While Syriza had passed a referendum to default that they did not have the heart for it and the Germans called their bluff. In retrospect, Greece would have probably been better off than they are now. While different, it's not all that different from the tactics China is taking in South Asia and Africa when they provide loans they know can't be repaid by the counties they lend them to (often secured by natural resources or infrastructure).
Re: Yanis Varoufakis: The Euro Has Never Been More Problematic [video]
#7All this Germany bashing and his constant condescending remarks remove a tad of his credibility, which is unfortunate when making such audacious claims. Is there anyone here on HN who has further reading advice on these claims (E.g that the € is malice by design)?
It´s complicated. To believe that the Euro is malice by design you would need to believe that current Macro Economics - which most economists are happy to agree is deeply flawed - is not only deeply flawed but is deliberately flawed and promulagated by a bunch of people who know it´s flawed and actually do understand the system well enough to do so maliciously.
To which the only response is seriously, have you met these people?!
However, knowing that it is deeply flawed, and knowing why, does reveal a bunch of economists pointing out it wasn´t a great idea before it happened, but not as it happens for quite the right reasons.
It can be observed, there are so many competing economics tribes at the moment, one of them is always bound to be right on something.
The reason it was a bad idea, is that economics doesn´t think very hard if at all about what the implications are of the banking system happily expanding the monetary system for each country at different rates, and it really didn´t think about what the impact of loan securitisation would be on things like inter-bank liquidity flows.
And here we are.
Re: Yanis Varoufakis: The Euro Has Never Been More Problematic [video]
#8All this Germany bashing and his constant condescending remarks remove a tad of his credibility, which is unfortunate when making such audacious claims. Is there anyone here on HN who has further reading advice on these claims (E.g that the € is malice by design)?
>All this Germany bashing and his constant condescending remarks remove a tad of his credibility
I think it’s the exact opposite. He’s speaking from the experience of being in the Eurogroup and negotiating directly with Germany. Anything he has to say on the matter is far more credible than any of the pro-Euro claims made by people who have no skin in the game.
>Is there anyone here on HN who has further reading advice on these claims (E.g that the € is malice by design)?
It’s a bit dated now, but pretty much anything Keynes wrote about trade balances under the Bretton Woods system corroborate what Varoufakis says. He really presents a pretty standard Keynesian perspective on monetary unions, so you won’t have to look far.
Re: Yanis Varoufakis: The Euro Has Never Been More Problematic [video]
#9Why didn't he print some New Drachma when he was Finance Minister of Greece then?
Re: Yanis Varoufakis: The Euro Has Never Been More Problematic [video]
#10All this Germany bashing and his constant condescending remarks remove a tad of his credibility, which is unfortunate when making such audacious claims. Is there anyone here on HN who has further reading advice on these claims (E.g that the € is malice by design)?
From a Greek perspective, he's not wrong. Germany forced Greece's hand and made them take out a loans they could not pay rather then let them default on their loans as many bankrupt countries are wont to do. Now, sure, Germany had the upper hand knowing that While Syriza had passed a referendum to default that they did not have the heart for it and the Germans called their bluff. In retrospect, Greece would have prob…
That’s the same as from the American playbook. Just read “Confessions of an Economic Hitman”.
Why is it ok for America to use these tactics on Latin America yet reprehensible when China does the same? Isn’t this just the pot calling the kettle black?