Adults in the Room
My Battle with Europe's Deep Establishment
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Adults in the Room
Narrated by:
Leighton Pugh
Buy Now for £12.38
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Narrated by:
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Leighton Pugh
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By:
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Yanis Varoufakis
In Adults in the Room, Yanis Varoufakis exposes the shocking reality of how power is wielded behind the scenes at the EU - and argues that only radical reform can save it from collapse.
Yanis Varoufakis became globally famous when was elected finance minister of Greece with a specific mandate to say no to the EU: to reject the forced loans and crushing austerity forced upon his country by the Eurozone.
The negotiations that ensued became one of the most spectacular and controversial battles in economic history. But no one actually knows what went on because Eurogroup discussions are held in secret. In this no-holds-barred account, Varoufakis reveals all: an extraordinary tale of brinkmanship and backstabbing that will shake the economic establishment to its foundations.
The future of the EU now hangs in the balance. As Varoufakis argues, the only way it can survive is if the truth is known, ushering in a new era of radical transparency and accountability in Brussels. Adults in the Room is an urgent wake-up call to renew European democracy before it is too late.
©2017 Yanis Varoufakis (P)2017 Random House Audiobooks
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The story it tells is a scary one of how the powers of the troika brought both Greece and him down, by slowly and insidiously turning his own colleagues against him. There is nothing of self pity in his tale of how he remains charged with high treason in Greece; Varoufakis proudly makes a convincing case of how his analysis of the situation and push for debt restructuring and tax reform was the correct, and probably only, course of action that had any hope of rescuing Greece from perpetual debt bondage. In this we see that he was supported not just by Norman Lamont and Emmanuel Macron, but that even Wolfgang Schäuble and Christine Lagarde knew his analysis was ultimately correct.
As a reluctant remainer I dread the days ahead as the British Government tries to negotiate our Brexit with Europe's "Deep Establishment" as they are clearly the slippery and dangerous cabal that Varoufakis potrays in this excellent and important book.
The most interesting political memoir I have read
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Whatever one's views of this period of European or Greek history, the book is a important window into the workings of Europe's and the world's political and financial institutions at the highest level.
Did Varoufakis really secretly record private conversations with the leaders of these institutions? The IMF's Christine LaGarde, Germany's Finance Minister and others? It seems he did, which in itself shows two things - how much of a wildcard he was as a Finance Minister; it also shows his early understanding and intuition of who he was dealing with, and that without a clear account and record of those dealings, he might very well be hung out to dry. He was, and this book is his riposte.
At times it reads like a tome of self-justification, at other times like a romantic novel, as Varoufakis indulges us with his innermost emotions and feelings, and at times poetic descriptions of the Athens night.
But yes, you also hear German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schauble, early in the book, plainly state that Greece elections don't matter. Later Varoufakis and himself manage to have a heart to heart, reproduced verbatim, where the German admits that Greece shouldn't stay in the euro, that Europe's structures are terribly inadequate.
Watching this all unfold, at that time, from Ireland, one could see that there was no budge from "The Institutions". One could also see that politically, "The Institutions" wanted to do everything to ensure that no other approach or model was allowed in dealing with the banking and debt crisis. Heaven forfend that other governments might follow Syrizia lead.
Varoufakis confirms all this in detail - no quarter was given - even his proposal to crackdown on Greek's tax avoiders, through a digital and algorithmic analysis of money flows from Greece cross checked with Greek Bank accounts and tax returns, these were suspiciously filleted from the final capitulation "deal."
While in Ireland, media like RTE and The Irish Times became dependent on the advertising revenue from property developers, in Greece developers went one further, and owned the media themselves! Varofakis describes how developers secured money from their friends in the banks, and then politically opposed any change which threatened their ill-gotten gains through the sempiternally unprofitable papers and media organs which they owned.
Varoufakis shows up the inadequacy of the "Troika"s financial modelling - at one point he asks to look in their computer models. He ups the VAT rate from 23 to 223% - and guess what? Such a change causes no wider economic impact - simply because the economic model is such that huge hikes in VAT and Tax cause no reduction in spending - or as he describes the economic term: 'price elasticity' is absent from the Troika models.
The book is also about relationships - the optimism and hope there at the start, the rupture, silences and personal attacks at the end. Varofakis highlights the personal costs for those involved during the episode.
The book ends with a plug for his new pan-European political movement Diem25 - Democracy In Europe Movement 2025.
Surprisingly, from his experiences with the EU, Varoufakis remains a committed Europeanist. During Brexit, he campaigned, in Britain, against leaving. His view is that if the EU doesn't reform, it will disintegrate back in to dangerous conflicting nationalisms and neo-fascism. The new movement, initially an internet based platform, seeks to mobilise a diversity of views to democratise Europe, ultimately seeking to contest elections, and create a European Constituent Assembly which would meet to draft a new, democratic European constitution.
One a personal note, I spent a number of months in Athens in the second half of 2017. During my time there I came across very few people who had anything positive to say how about Mr Varofakis. it seems that his brinkmanship was not appreciated by people in his own country. A commonly shared view, perhaps not entirely fair, was that he was willing to tank the entire country's banking system and economy in order to win his broader economic argument.
varofakis settles scores
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Insightful
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The grexit scenario was worse than brexit however the people of the UK must take steps now to insulate themselves from a highly likely brexit no-deal situation.
Enjoyed. Opened my eyes to likey Brexit outcomes.
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The deep rooted evil
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