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Economists’ opinions now
In retrospect, how do economists evaluate what happened in 2015? Here are some examples: Professors Jeff Sachs (Columbia) and James K. Galbraith (Texas): “Thomas Wieser’s claim that Yanis Varoufakis and the Greek government of 2015 cost their economy 200 billion euros is ludicrous. As Wieser knows – because he was one of the architects of […] Read more
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Euroleaks Trailer
On 15th June 2017, nearly two years after Yanis Varoufakis had resigned as Minister of Finance, the Eurogroup published yet another statement on Greece, which shows that nothing has changed. Below we quote it with Varoufakis’ annotations as per his 2017 blog post. Back in August 2015, while sitting gloomily in the Greek Parliament during […] Read more
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The Eurogroup Made Simple
The Eurozone is the largest and most important macro-economy in the world. And yet, this gigantic macro-economy features only one institution that has legal status: the European Central Bank, whose charter specifies what powers the Frankfurt-based institution has in its pursuit of a single objective: price stability. Which leaves the question begging: “What about economic […] Read more
Annotations by Yanis Varoufakis in square brackets. [For a pdf copy click here.] Euro Summit Statement Brussels, 12 July 2015 The Euro Summit stresses the crucial need to rebuild trust with the Greek authorities [i.e. the Greek government must introduce new stringent austerity directed at the weakest Greeks that have already suffered grossly] as a […] Read more
(Repost from Yanis Varoufakis’ blog) On the 5th of July 2015 the people of Greece wrote a stupendous chapter in the annals of the global struggle for democracy. It should be remembered as such, independently of what happened next. For, during these three days that shook Europe, They turned a deaf ear to the local oligarchy’s hysterical […] Read more
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What happened after the last Eurogroup
July 1st, 2015: Varoufakis explains why he advocates to vote NO in the referendum July 5th, 2015: Despite the banks being closed and massive media propaganda for the YES, the NO (Greek “OXI”) unexpectedly wins by over 61%. July 6th, 2015: After learning that Prime Minister Tsipras intends to squander this capital and capitulate, Varoufakis […] Read more
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1 July – Eurogroup Teleconference
Two letters were sent by the Greek Prime Minister Tsipras, one to the institutions and one to Jeroen Dijsselbloem. At the conference call, the two letters and the approaching referendum are being discussed. The institutions and Finance Ministers are declaring the end of negotiations and the end of talks regarding the third programme until after the referendum result is announced.
Jeroen Dijsselbloem Now, let’s see who is on the line. Ireland? Germany? (inaudible greetings) Jeroen Dijsselbloem (01:42): Colleagues, Jeroen here. Are we complete? Anyone still missing? Male: – Jeroen, we are missing Germany. We have sent a message. Jeroen Dijsselbloem: We’ll wait for a few seconds. We picked this time especially for Wolfgang. So…we ll […] Read more
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30 June – Eurogroup Teleconference
As Greece prepared to default to two of its creditors, the Eurogroup assesses the first of two expected letters from the Greek government, concerning amendments to the Insitutions' SLA proposal and the extension of the ESM programme.
Thomas Wieser (00:00): … [inaudible 00:00:00] on the political willingness to agree and to implement. Um, all of this, uh, was focused very largely, uh, around, uh, the question of a new ESM program, uh, which is being applied for. As you said, uh, there is also the issue, uh, of, uh, EFSF, uh, program […] Read more