Paul Buitink talks to former Greek Minister of Finance (2015) and author of several books like ‘Technofeudalism, What Killed Capitalism’ about the risks of modern technofeudalism in which cloud capitalists extract rents from the public and distort public discourse. He says we need to tax big tech to the hilt since privatizing wouldn’t work. Also he proposes how cities should create their own tech alternatives.
The gentlemen also talk about the euro, why Bulgaria shouldn’t join and Greece should exit. The Netherlands should perhaps try to reform it or join a union with other hard currency countries. Yanis would like to federalize the EU but realizes it’s maybe time to dismantle it. Also he laments Europe’s military Keynesianism and thinks it’s not wise to spend all that money on defense. The EU has taken the wrong turn and each path since 2014 when it comes to the war in Ukraine Yanis believes.
I think Yanis is a hypocrite. No military spending is fine as long as all parties play by the rule of law and accept universal human rights. This is not the case. Yanis is addressing the wrong party here.
I guess this answers your question.
No it doesn’t actually. His argument starts at about 29:50 of the video. As far as I can tell, he argues that military Keynesianism (the idea of using military spending to drive economic growth) works in the US because it has a federal government and a unified military-industrial complex that redistributes contracts to stimulate weaker regions. Varoufakis criticizes this model as morally corrosive, saying it requires endless wars to justify continued production and spending. This is not a new criticism, that’s just Truman. Next he says that Europe, lacking a federal structure or unified military-political command structure, cannot even replicate this system in any coherent or democratic way. He sees recent EU defense initiatives as a hollow imitation that is just political theater making the analogy with the “Green Deal”, which was basically abandoned despite big promises. Basically, he says that military Keynesianism, like the Green Deal are both “smoke and mirrors”, that don’t offer neither real growth nor genuine security.
That’s it. That’s the argument. What is hypocritical about that?
Elsewhere in the interview, he makes the argument that the EU should either go towards some kind of democratic federalism (in which case, one could assume that there would exist the framework for controlling the military-industrial complex) or just call it quits, because the current model is just not viable. That’s coherent with his view of military Keynesianism above.
His thinking on Ukraine is pragmatic and calling us on our own hypocrisy. He criticizes Western hypocrisy for arming Ukraine without committing troops and condemns attempts to mimic the U.S. military-industrial model, which he sees as both unethical and structurally impossible for Europe. That’s where his Hitler line comes in, that if Western leaders truly believed Putin was a danger like Hitler, they would actually fully commit, instead of the tragedy we currently have. And that’s a valid argument, right? If we truly believe that Russia is a real and present danger, enough pussyfooting, enough half-measures, go big or go home. Federalize, arm, fight. If not, what the fuck are we doing?
The implication being that military spending in Europe is rising as an economic measure and not as a defensive measure against an openly aggressive military power in the east is completely baseless.
he is correct that dragging our feet on Ukraine has been a tragic, cynical mistake.
however, on the EU, you don’t throw out the baby with the bath water. the EU is the greatest political triumph of the post-WW2 era for peace and solidarity on the continent. continue to reform it. we are more vulnerable separated.
I actually absolutely agree with you. I think Varoufakis is playing the gadfly role here, the kinds of provocative questions he poses are challenges to do better.
Maybe he needs to focus on building his green left movement into something that can win elections against the far right instead of this federalize or die bullshit.
What does he say about Russia’s ‘military Keynesianism’?