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  • Published: 7 April 2016
  • ISBN: 9781473546684
  • Imprint: Vintage Digital
  • Format: Audio Download
  • Length: 10 hr 21 min
  • Narrators: Yanis Varoufakis, Leighton Pugh
  • RRP: $22.99
Categories:

And the Weak Suffer What They Must?

Europe, Austerity and the Threat to Global Stability




The world-renowned economist and former finance minister of Greece presents the ultimate case against austerity in order to save Europe from collapse

The crisis in Europe is not over, it's getting worse. In this dramatic narrative of Europe’s economic rise and spectacular fall, Yanis Varoufakis, former finance minister of Greece, ‘the emerging rock star of Europe’s anti-austerity uprising’ (Telegraph), shows that the origins of the collapse go far deeper than our leaders are prepared to admit – and that we have done nothing so far to fix them.

In 2008, the universe of Western finance outgrew planet Earth. When Wall Street imploded, a death embrace between insolvent banks and bankrupt states consumed Europe. Half a dozen national economies imploded and several more came close. But the storm is far from over…

From the aftermath of the Second World War to the present, Varoufakis recounts how the eurozone emerged not as route to shared prosperity but as a pyramid scheme of debt with countries such as Greece, Ireland, Portugal and Spain at its bottom. Its woeful design ensured that collapse would be inevitable and catastrophic. But since the hurricane landed Europe’s leaders have chosen a cocktail of more debt and harsh austerity rather than reform, ensuring that the weakest citizens of the weakest nations pay the price for the bankers’ mistakes, while doing nothing to prevent the next collapse. Instead, the principle of the greatest austerity for those suffering the greatest recessions has led to a resurgence of racist extremism. Once more, Europe is a potent threat to global stability.

Drawing on the personal experience of his own negotiations with the eurozone’s financiers and offering concrete policies and alternatives, Varoufakis shows how we concocted this mess and how we can get out of it. And The Weak Suffer What They Must? reminds us of our history in order to save European capitalism from itself.

  • Published: 7 April 2016
  • ISBN: 9781473546684
  • Imprint: Vintage Digital
  • Format: Audio Download
  • Length: 10 hr 21 min
  • Narrators: Yanis Varoufakis, Leighton Pugh
  • RRP: $22.99
Categories:

About the author

Yanis Varoufakis

Yanis Varoufakis is the former finance minister of Greece and the author of a memoir, Adults in the Room, and a history, And the Weak Suffer What They Must?, which reveal and explain the catastrophic mishandling of Europe since the financial crisis. Both were number one bestsellers. His latest bestseller is Talking To My Daughter About the Economy: A Brief History of Capitalism. Born in Athens in 1961, Yanis Varoufakis was for many years a professor of economics in Britain, Australia and the USA before he entered government and is currently Professor of Economics at the University of Athens. Since resigning from Greece's finance ministry he has co-founded an international grassroots movement, DiEM25, campaigning for the revival of democracy in Europe and speaks to audiences of thousands worldwide.

yanisvaroufakis.eu / @yanisvaroufakis

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Praise for And the Weak Suffer What They Must?

The emerging rock star of Europe’s anti-austerity uprising

Telegraph

The most interesting man in the world

Business Insider

A global celebrity

Economist

Few finance ministers have such a talent for economics as Yanis Varoufakis

Joseph Stiglitz, Winner of the Nobel Prize for Economics

The biggest disaster for any of the BBC’s news and current affairs slate would be The Yanis Varoufakis Show on another network

Mark Lawson, Guardian

A brilliant economist

Bloomberg

A very, very clever person, and in the basic argument about what’s been going on in Europe I think he’s right

Martin Wolf

It is important to take note of the ideas that Varoufakis continues to espouse … the essence of [his] agenda was – and remains – largely correct

Mohamed El-Erian

A man of integrity and intellectual honesty … a superb monetary economist whose credentials outshine those who have bewitched European governmental elites… His economic logic was irrefutable

Professor Michael Brenner

If you ever doubt what is at stake in Europe, read Varoufakis’s account

Guardian

Highly readable. It is also important, outlining a perspective on global economics that influences policy thinking in broader circles than the radical left ... deeply instructive

Financial Times

An account of how the forces of capital have prevailed over the common good ... visionary

The Times

A devastating account

Andrew Marr

While this British Conservative minister might not agree with every single position adopted by this Greek radical socialist, I cannot but admire and applaud his courage and passion on behalf of genuinely progressive causes

Michael Gove, Sunday Times

The reason Varoufakis seems to have captured the imaginations of so many is that his words about the European crisis speak universal truths about democracy, capitalism and social policy

Guardian

Like all great story tellers, Varoufakis’ literary flair is not just a function of stylistic prowess. He gets right inside the fears, desires and external constraints of the key players in the complex history of the Eurozone … Reading And The Weak Suffer What They Must? is like reading a gripping thriller. It is a page turner because the plot itself is a relentless sequence of astonishing twists and turns driven by the cunning ingenuity and hubristic folly of its key protagonists … This book is not just illuminating. It is a call to moral awakening and to intelligent, determined and humane political action

Open Democracy

He writes with great panache ... and in a gripping style … One of the things that makes this book enjoyable is that Varoufakis makes much of the role of personalities

TLS

One of my few heroes...his achievements are incredibly important…to save what is worth fighting for in Europe…Yanis tried to do the right thing – to remain within the EU and disturb from within. That is why he was such a threat…wonderfully written, complex, a book which is set to provoke our rage…to make us think, and that’s what we need today. As long as people like Yanis are around, there still is hope

Slavoj Zizek

An absolutely splendid book… What Yanis really shows is that the European project had a democratic deficit from the origin and design… The Thucydides of our time

Jeffrey Sachs

An outstanding economist and political analyst. His remarkable talents are fully on display in his recent study of Europe’s crisis, a most revealing and perceptive analysis of the development of the global economy in the past half century and their grim consequences now threatening Western societies

Noam Chomsky

A scholar, writer, philosopher of clarity, insight, generosity and engaging prose, not to mention integrity and courage

James Galbraith