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Valve Economist Yanis Varoufakis Appointed Finance Minister of Greece

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Re: Valve Economist Yanis Varoufakis Appointed Finance Minister of Greece

#41
post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow, what a futuristic concept, to have a government comprised of scientists! I wonder which forward-thinking Western government will implement this first? http://singularityhub.com/2011/05/17/eight-out-of-chinas-top... ;)

Germany.

Mrs Thatcher had a chemistry degree from Oxford and Jimmy Carter was a US Navy trained nuclear engineer.

Re: Valve Economist Yanis Varoufakis Appointed Finance Minister of Greece

#42
post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Politicians from parties who now get 3-4% of the vote lied years ago (to the Greek public as well as EU bankers), so let's take Greek workers' pensions, crush their unions, slash their social services, and offer no jobs or future to 60% of Greek young people. The bankers may not get their money anyway, since the debt is still increasing, but at least the Greeks* will get what they deserve! *may not apply to the elite…

Out of interest, where do you think the money to pay for pensions, social services and create jobs for young people will come from in Greece in the future? Surely these all have to be set at a level that is actually sustainable by the Greek economy?

If they stop making interest repayments that will free up a lot of Euros.

Additionally, if you don't pay for pensions, social services and create jobs then people don't have any money. If they don't have any money they don't spend. And not spending isn't sustainable for any economy.

Re: Valve Economist Yanis Varoufakis Appointed Finance Minister of Greece

#43

Varoufakis wrote a blog post two years ago on the history of political economic thought on the firm. It also delves into Valve's unique management culture [1]. "There is one last bastion of economic activity that proved remarkably resistant to the triumph of the market: firms, companies and, later, corporations. Think about it: market-societies, or capitalism, are synonymous with firms, companies, corporations. And y…

Valve has hierarchy. A good example is when the AR group was fired. The decision certainly came from someone, since the fired group wasn't notified, they were fired on the spot without prior notification. Therefore the decision was not democratic or made by everyone, but was instead secret and made by some small group or individual.

Re: Valve Economist Yanis Varoufakis Appointed Finance Minister of Greece

#44
post #13
post #10

He started a blog about his experiences at Valve [1], but stopped shortly after starting it. I was a bit disappointed, because the posts were very well written and insightful. I'd guess now he really has no time for it. [1]: http://blogs.valvesoftware.com/economics/

Same for the Linux part of their blogs subdomain. But Varoufakis still blogs at http://yanisvaroufakis.eu/

Yeah, perhaps it's sad but I'm more interested in the synthetic economic systems of a game than the macroeconomics of the world. Somehow the former is more honest (probably because one has all the data).

Re: Valve Economist Yanis Varoufakis Appointed Finance Minister of Greece

#45

It will be interesting to see if they can pare down some of Greece's military expenditures, they have over a hundred thousand in their military, nearly ninety thousand soldiers. Granted the politicians can always point to Turkey as a threat but I would be very curious how the new administration handles this. Side effects of closing some of the nearly 500 military and releasing troops is not having jobs for them.

I do not expect them to decrease military expenditures. Their coalition partners (the far-right "Independent Greeks" that will be "holding" the ministry of defense) will not allow that easily.

Re: Valve Economist Yanis Varoufakis Appointed Finance Minister of Greece

#46
post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Politicians from parties who now get 3-4% of the vote lied years ago (to the Greek public as well as EU bankers), so let's take Greek workers' pensions, crush their unions, slash their social services, and offer no jobs or future to 60% of Greek young people. The bankers may not get their money anyway, since the debt is still increasing, but at least the Greeks* will get what they deserve! *may not apply to the elite…

Out of interest, where do you think the money to pay for pensions, social services and create jobs for young people will come from in Greece in the future? Surely these all have to be set at a level that is actually sustainable by the Greek economy?

Well, I'm a bit of a radical, so I could give a lot of answers to that question. But even in conventional terms, and even after all the economic destruction of austerity, Greece has been running a primary surplus since 2013. At this point they're borrowing just to pay debt.

Re: Valve Economist Yanis Varoufakis Appointed Finance Minister of Greece

#47
post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Politicians from parties who now get 3-4% of the vote lied years ago (to the Greek public as well as EU bankers), so let's take Greek workers' pensions, crush their unions, slash their social services, and offer no jobs or future to 60% of Greek young people. The bankers may not get their money anyway, since the debt is still increasing, but at least the Greeks* will get what they deserve! *may not apply to the elite…

Would be better to take this money from the Greek oligarchs and keep some level of social safety net. But isn't it up to the Greeks to make that happen?

Yup, and I'm rooting for them.

Re: Valve Economist Yanis Varoufakis Appointed Finance Minister of Greece

#48

It will be interesting to see if they can pare down some of Greece's military expenditures, they have over a hundred thousand in their military, nearly ninety thousand soldiers. Granted the politicians can always point to Turkey as a threat but I would be very curious how the new administration handles this. Side effects of closing some of the nearly 500 military and releasing troops is not having jobs for them.

I'd think the first order of business would be to get tax compliance up. It wasn't very high to begin with, but since the new year tax revenue has collapsed completely.

Ref: http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2015/01/the...

Re: Valve Economist Yanis Varoufakis Appointed Finance Minister of Greece

#49
post #43

Varoufakis wrote a blog post two years ago on the history of political economic thought on the firm. It also delves into Valve's unique management culture [1]. "There is one last bastion of economic activity that proved remarkably resistant to the triumph of the market: firms, companies and, later, corporations. Think about it: market-societies, or capitalism, are synonymous with firms, companies, corporations. And y…

Valve has hierarchy. A good example is when the AR group was fired. The decision certainly came from someone, since the fired group wasn't notified, they were fired on the spot without prior notification. Therefore the decision was not democratic or made by everyone, but was instead secret and made by some small group or individual.

^^^ much of the above is not true
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