Yanis Varoufakis

Eleni put an arm around him and said: ‘Come, come, life is ahead of us. Raise your soul now. We have much to do.’ When Yanis Varoufakis was eight years old, his uncle made him a model airplane out of matchsticks and cigarette papers; all he could find in his cell. Yet, to his dismay, his mother Eleni broke open the fragile gift, revealing a hidden message: instructions for fellow dissidents ahead of their forthcoming court martial. It was 1969 and Uncle Panayis was a political prisoner, captured and tortured for resisting the military dictatorship. Dramatic in scope and deep in feeling, Raise Your Soul is an intimate portrait of three generations caught up in the whirlwind of history. It is also a remarkable narrative spanning one hundred years, beginning in post-colonial Egypt in the 1920s, and then tracing Greece’s tumultuous century through Nazi occupation, communist resistance, civil war, Cold War fracture, fascist dictatorship, socialist revival and present-day economic crisis. At its heart are the women whose resilience, defiance and courage inspired the visionary economist most: Eleni, Anna, Trisevgeni, Georgia and Danaë. Through their lives, Varoufakis not only lays bare his own political soul, but confronts the dark forces of authoritarianism that still haunt Europe and beyond, reigniting hope in all of us that we can rise once more.

El capitalismo ha muerto y el sistema que lo reemplaza no es mejor. Las din micas tradicionales del capitalismo ya no gobiernan la econom a. Lo ha matado el propio capital y los cambios tecnol gicos acelerados de las ltimas dos d cadas. sta es la principal conclusi n a la que ha llegado el prestigioso economista Yanis Varoufakis. Los dos pilares en los que se asentaba el capitalismo han sido reemplazados: los mercados, por plataformas digitales que son aut nticos feudos de las big tech; el beneficio, por la pura extracci n de rentas. Varoufakis ha desarrollado su teor a del tecnofeudalismo , seg n la cual los nuevos se ores feudales son los propietarios de lo que llama capital de la nube , y los dem s hemos vuelto a ser siervos, como en el medievo. Sirvi ndose de ejemplos que van desde la mitolog a griega y Mad Men hasta las criptomonedas y los videojuegos, este libro ofrece un an lisis de valor inestimable para entender la confusa realidad socioecon mica actual. Comprender el mundo que nos rodea es el primer paso para poder tomar el control, quiz por primera vez, de nuestro destino colectivo. ENGLISH DESCRIPTION Capitalism is dead--and the system replacing it is no better. The traditional dynamics of capitalism no longer govern the economy. It has been killed by capital itself and by the rapid technological changes of the last two decades. This is the main conclusion reached by renowned economist Yanis Varoufakis. The two pillars on which capitalism rested have been replaced: markets, by digital platforms that function as true fiefdoms of the big tech; and profit, by pure rent extraction. Varoufakis has developed his theory of "techno-feudalism", according to which the new feudal lords are the owners of what he calls "cloud capital", and the rest of us have once again become serfs, as in the Middle Ages. Drawing on examples ranging from Greek mythology and Mad Men to cryptocurrencies and video games, this book offers invaluable analysis for understanding today's confusing socioeconomic reality. Understanding the world around us is the first step toward taking control--perhaps for the very first time--of our collective destiny.

Eleni put an arm around him and said: “Come, come, life is ahead of us. Raise your soul now. We have much to do.” This is a book about how the great forces of history shape us – and how world-famous political activist Yanis Varoufakis was inspired by the resilience and the courage of his family, from his mother Eleni and grandmothers Anna and Trisevgeni, to his partner Danae. It is both an intimate portrait of a political awakening and a dramatic sweep through Greece's history of post-colonial independence, Nazi occupation, communist partisan resistance, Cold War fracture, civil war, fascist dictatorship, socialist revival and tumultuous present-day economic collapse. Raise Your Soul is a powerful tale of resistance and endurance – a beacon of hope for dark times.

‘What an amazing piece of work this is. Ground-breaking, thought-provoking and highly accessible. Everyone should read it. The dark, scary, exciting song of our age. 100 out of 100’ IRVINE WELSHCapitalism is dead. Welcome to technofeudalism. In his boldest and most far-reaching book, the visionary economist and number-one bestselling author Yanis Varoufakis shows how the owners of big tech became the world's feudal overlords – replacing capitalism with a fundamentally new system that enslaves our minds, defies democracy and rewrite the rules of global power. But as Varoufakis also reveals, technofeudalism contains new opportunities to thwart and overturn it, bringing into focus more clearly than ever the revolution we need to escape our digital prison.‘An epochal, once-in-a-millennium shift . . . this isn't just new technology. This is the world grappling with an entirely new economic system and therefore political power’ Observer‘An urgent demand to seize the means of computation’ CORY DOCTOROWA FINANCIAL TIMES BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR

'The emerging rock-star of Europe's anti-austerity uprising.'Daily Telegraph 'A spirited book.'New YorkerIn this remarkable and provocative book, Yanis Varoufakis, former finance minister of Greece, explodes the myth that financialisation, ineffectual regulation of banks, greed and globalisation were the root causes of both the Eurozone crisis and the global economic crisis. Rather, they are symptoms of a much deeper malaise which can be traced all the way back to the Great Crash of 1929, then on through to the 1970s: the time when a Global Minotaur was born. Today's deepening crisis in Europe is just one of the inevitable symptoms of the weakening Minotaur; of a global system which is now as unsustainable as it is imbalanced. Going beyond this, Varoufakis reveals how we might reintroduce a modicum of reason into what has become a perniciously irrational economic order. An essential account of the socio-economic events and hidden histories that have shaped the world as we now know it.

"Blending intellectual memoir, history, and economic and technological history, Varoufakis creates an intimate atmosphere that is a genuine pleasure to read ... It's hard to read this book and deny its power ... illuminating." - The Washington Post In a revelatory and pathbreaking work, the #1 international bestselling economist opens our eyes to the new power that is reshaping our lives and the world . . . "The Thucydides of our time." --Jeffrey Sachs Big tech has replaced capitalism's twin pillars--markets and profit--with its platforms and rents. With every click and scroll, we labor like serfs to increase its power. Welcome to technofeudalism . . . Perhaps we were too distracted by the pandemic, or the endless financial crises, or the rise of TikTok. But under cover of them all, a new and more exploitative system has been taking hold. Insane sums of money that were supposed to re-float our economies after the crash of 2008 went to big tech instead. With it they funded the construction of their private cloud fiefdoms and privatized the internet. Technofeudalism says Yanis Varoufakis, is the new power that is reshaping our lives and the world, and is the greatest current threat to the liberal individual, to our efforts to avert climate catastrophe--and to democracy itself. It also lies behind the new geopolitical tensions, especially the New Cold War between the United States and China. Drawing on stories from Greek myth and pop culture, from Homer to Mad Men, Varoufakis explains this revolutionary transformation: how it enslaves our minds, how it rewrites the rules of global power, and, ultimately, what it will take overthrow it.

*A GUARDIAN BEST FORTHCOMING BOOK OF 2023*The #1 bestselling economist opens our eyes to the new power that is reshaping our lives and the world. No one noticed when capitalism was ... replaced. Perhaps we were too distracted by the pandemic, or the endless financial crises, or all those cute cats on TikTok. But under cover of them all, a new and more exploitative system has been taking hold: technofeudalism. Drawing on stories from Greek Myth and pop culture, from Homer to Mad Men, world-famous economist Yanis Varoufakis explains this game-changing transformation and how it holds the key to understanding our times. He shows that the key pillars of capitalism - profit and markets - no longer run the show. Instead, with every click and scroll, we cement the dominance of a new monster, cloud capital, birthed by big tech and central banks, which underlies the technofeudal regime. Once we grasp the enormity of this change, the crucial puzzles of our era dissolve: from the elusive green energy revolution to the New Cold War between the USA and China and how the conflict in Ukraine threatens globalisation. It explains why crypto technology is a false promise and social democracy is now impossible. But by equipping us to see this new power for what it is, Technofeudalism answers the burning question: how it might also be replaced, and with what, so that we may recover our autonomy and perhaps even our freedom too.

But would we really want it? Varoufakis's boundary-breaking new book confounds expectations of what the good society would look like and confronts us with the greatest question: are we able to build a better society, despite our flaws. 'One of my few heroes.

What would a fair and equal society actually look like? The world-renowned economist and bestselling author Yanis Varoufakis presents his radical and subversive answer in a work of speculative fiction that recalls William Morris and William Gibson The year: 2035. At a funeral for Iris, a revolutionary leftist feminist, Yango is approached by Costa, Iris's closest comrade, who urges him to carry out Iris's last wish: plough into her secret diaries to tell their story. "But", Costa insists "leave out anything that might help Big Tech replicate my technologies " That night Yango delves into Iris's diaries. In them he discovers a chronicle of how Costa's revolutionary technologies had unveiled an actually existing, fully democratized, postcapitalist society. Suddenly he understands Costa's obsession with the hackers trying to steal his secrets. So begins Yanis Varoufakis's extraordinary novelistic thought-experiment, where the world-famous economist offers an invigorating and deeply moving vision of an alternative reality. Another Now tells the story of Costa, a brilliant but deeply disillusioned, computer engineer, who creates a revolutionary technology that will allow the user a "glimpse of a life beyond their dreams" but will not enslave them. But an accident during one of its trial runs unveils a cosmic wormhole where Costa meets his DNA double, who is living in a 2025 very different than the one Costa is living in. In this parallel 2025 a global hi-tech uprising, begun in the wake of the collapse of 2008, has birthed a post-capitalist world in which work, money, land, digital networks and politics have been truly democratized. Banks have been eliminated, as well as predatory, data-mining digital monopolies; the gig economy is no more; and the young are free to experiment with different careers and to study "non-lucrative topics, from Sumerian pottery to astrophysics." Intoxicated, Costa travels to England to tell Iris, his old comrade, and her neighbor, Eva, a recovering banker turned neoliberal economics professor, of the parallel universe he has discovered. Costa eventually leads them back to his workshop in America where Iris and Eva meet their own doubles, and confront hard truths about themselves and the daunting political challenge that "the Other Now" presents. But, as their obsession with the Other Now deepens, time begins to run out, as the wormhole begins to deteriorate and hackers begin to unleash new attacks on Costa's technology. The trio have to make a choice: which 2025 do they want to live in? Varoufakis has been claiming for a while that we already live in postcapitalist times. That, since the 2008 crisis, capitalism has been morphing into technofeudalism. Another Now, a riveting work of speculative fiction, shows that there is a realistic, democratic alternative to the technofeudalpostcapitalist dystopia taking shape all around us. It also confronts us with the greatest question: how far are we willing to go to bring it about?

'We need to organise politically to defend the weak, empower the many and prepare the ground for reversing the absurdities of capitalism.' – Yanis Varoufakis 'Capitalism over the past twenty-five years has been an incredible moral good.' – David Brooks The Munk debate on capitalism There is a growing belief that the capitalist system no longer works. Inequality is rampant. The environment is being destroyed for profits. In some western nations, life expectancy is even falling. Political power is wielded by wealthy elites and big business, not the people. But for proponents of capitalism, it is the engine of progress, not just making all of us materially better off, but helping to address everything from women’s rights to political freedoms. We seem to stand at a crossroads: do we need to fix the system as a matter of urgency, or would it be better to hold our nerve?

An international all-star cast of thinkers, artists, and policy makers joins forces for a transparent, united, democratic Europe. A Vision for Europe 2020 features contributions by Kate Aronoff, Noam Chomsky, Naomi Klein, Bill McKibben, Evgeny Morozov, Jerome Roos, Elif Shafak, Slavoj Žižek, Shoshana Zuboff and more. The European Union was an exceptional achievement. It brought together and in peace peoples speaking different languages and submersed in different cultures, proving that it was possible to create a shared framework of human rights across a continent that was not long ago tormented by murderous chauvinism, racism, and barbarity. It could have been the proverbial Beacon on the Hill, showing the world how peace and solidarity may be snatched from the jaws of age-old conflict and bigotry. But things turned out differently. Today, a common bureaucracy and a common currency divide Europeans who were beginning to unite despite their different languages and cultures. A confederacy of myopic politicians, economically naïve officials, and financially incompetent ‘experts’ submit slavishly to the edicts of financial and industrial conglomerates, alienating people and stirring up a dangerous anti-European backlash. Proud peoples are being turned against each other. Nationalism, extremism and racism are being re-awakened. With contributions from some of the world’s foremost thinkers, artists and politicians covering the full spectrum of concerns for the future of the Union, this volume presents realistic and viable alternatives to the mainstream barrage of dreadful prospects—a true vision for Europe.

I denne let formidlede, præcise og humoristiske bog svarer den verdensberømte økonom Yanis Varoufakis på sin datter, Xenias, tilsyneladende enkle spørgsmål om, hvad økonomi egentlig er for noget. Gennem både personlige historier og referencer til berømte myter – lige fra Frankenstein og Faust til ‘The Matrix’ – forklarer han, hvordan økonomi som begreb voksede frem og har formet både menneskehedens historie og former vores liv i dag. Det er fortællingen om, hvordan byttehandler med frugt og hvede blev til penge og senere til markeder og stater med hære til at beskytte dem og bureaukratier til at styre dem. Men det er også fortællingen om, hvordan uligheden i verden blev til. I vores samfund er økonomi blevet det politiske modersmål, og økonomer betragtes som vismænd, men samtidig tror mange af os, at det handler om så komplekse ideer, at vi ikke kan være med. Her insisterer Yanis Varoufakis på, at hvis de grundlæggende økonomiske ideer ikke kan formidles uden fremmedord til et ungt menneske, så bliver de så abstrakte, at de ikke handler om den verden, vi deler. På én gang varm, intim og tilgængelig inviterer ‘Samtaler med min datter om økonomi’ os alle sammen – unge som gamle – ind i samtalen, så vi kan være med til at vælge, hvilken verden, vi vil have.

'Why is there so much inequality?' Xenia asks her father, the world-famous economist Yanis Varoufakis. Drawing on memories of her childhood and a variety of well-known tales - from Oedipus and Faust to Frankenstein and The Matrix - Varoufakis explains everything you need to know in order to understand why economics is the most important drama of our times. In answering his daughter's deceptively simple questions, Varoufakis disentangles our troubling world with remarkable clarity, while inspiring us to make it a better one.'Utterly accessible, deeply humane and startlingly original - a potent democratic tool at the perfect time' Naomi Klein.

Hvorfor finnes det så mye uliket? I denne lille boken har den verdenskjente økonomen Yanis Varoufakis satt seg fore å gi sin datter et svar på dette tilsynelatende enkle, men akk så komplekse spørsmålet. Ved hjelp av egne opplevelser og berømte myter og fortellinger (fra Kong Oidiopus og Faust, til Frankenstein og Matrix), forklarer han hvordan samfunnsøkonomien fungerer og hvordan den påvirker og former våre liv. På en personlig og privat, men likevel allment tilgjengelig måte, gir boken leseren en innføring i vår tids viktigste dramaer. Den hjelper oss til å forstå den foruroligende verden vi lever i, og inspirerer oss samtidig til å gjøre verden til et bedre sted.

Europe might appear like a continent pulling itself apart. Ten years of economic and political crises have pitted North versus South, East versus West, citizens versus institutions. And yet, these years have also shown a hidden vitality of Europeans acting across borders, with civil society and social movements showing that alternatives to the status quo already exist. This book is at once a narrative of the experience of activism and a manifesto for change. Through analysing the ways in which neoliberalism, nationalism and borders intertwine, Marsili and Milanese – co-founders of European Alternatives – argue that we are in the middle of a great global transformation, by which we have all become citizens of nowhere. Ultimately, they argue that only by organising in a new transnational political party will the citizens of nowhere be able to struggle effectively for the utopian agency to transform the world.

** The Sunday Times #1 Bestseller**'One of the greatest political memoirs of all time' GuardianWhat happens when you take on the European establishment?