Yanis Varoufakis: From an Economics without Capitalism to Markets without Capitalism | DiEM25

A lecture organised by University of Tübingen economics students, delivered on Monday February 3, 2020, on the theme "From an Economics without Capitalism to Markets without Capitalism".
Mainstream economic models lack some important features of really-existing capitalism, including money, time and space. Its models offer ideological cover for a capitalist system that has usurped competitive, free markets.
The result? Unbearable inequality, climate catastrophe and permanent stagnation. A fork on the road is approaching: It will take us either into deeper stagnation and environmental degradation or to a society with markets but no capitalism. Prof. Yanis Varoufakis talks about the future of our economy and the current state of economics with special regard to pluralism in economics.
Source: timms.uni-tuebingen.de/tp/UT_...
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[Sarat]

As an econ PhD, I just wish we had more professors like Yanis everywhere. After a 1.5 hour lecture, I was just sad it ended! I hope we can all share and contribute to realizing Yanis' dream of a brighter future for all!!

[Sean Davey]

100% I'm not even into economics but this was amazing.

[Zephyr libs]

​@Sean Davey Ideology is like that, when in primordial soup form, we can only feel the frevor it brings at the same time unable to point at what's so special.

[Zephyr libs]

I think this musical documentary "Obey": Temujin Doran (StudioCanoe) taught me economic history in 1.5 hour entertainment (the music will save your from tears)

[András Dudás]

You can translate the subs for your language. :-)

[dunoobyduby]

Awesome! In which field are you working?

[J F]

Having studied economics at Uni, Yanis described my studies perfectly. Neo classical was all we learnt. Thats it. And I remember feeling confused because the theory gave me more questions than it answered.

[Sacha P]

You and me both.

[Fabian Vasquez]

I started off as an Economics major but changed to political science when my Econ classes put me in the same situation as you. While I do not have an econ degree, I still very much consider myself an economist. Yanis has answered so many of my questions and has given me a path forward towards my graduate and doctorate pursuits. So glad I found him.

[J F]

@Fabian Vasquez Yanis certainly is very charismatic figure. He has inspired many.

[grgamerTV]

yanis used to be a profesor for the university of Athens , this is where i am studying economics right know and we are actually using his book there. Here we are learning a lot more than the mainstream neoclassical staff .

[Edward Jones]

That's what I get when I try to study economics. Just big jumps and assumptions at every turn.

[Justin Bell]

Thank you so much for making this available to the general public.

[Sean L.]

I will echo this. As Varoufakis argues in part, we need to begin to have an open and plural discourse.

[András Dudás]

Do you want to translate it to your language, if it's not on the list of subs?

[András Dudás]

HelioPyres Congrats to include Marx into your sentence. Did you read the Capital too?

[Francisco Jerónimo]

@András Dudás I'm ok with translating it to Portuguese but last time I did something similar they could facilitate the text in English so I could work with it. Should I translate the autogenerated subtitles? How do I send the final text back?

[Demba]

"The 1st piece of education, there's no authority " That's very wise. We the students have the right to be told that it's ok to think outside the box or against the mainstream model. Thank you sharing this conference.

[my fish is not happy]

Read Voltaire Demba, its a very nice reading that can open you multiple universes,

[hej där]

This attitude is very common among Swedish students , that is "there's no authority". We are thought to think and read critically. But, this is not always the case of course.

[Peter Wood]

That was an absolutely spectacular lecture. Very cool, Yanis Varoufakis, and thank you to the students who organised this 😁

[Jasmeen Malhotra]

Wouldn't it be amazing to be a first year economics student taught by Yanis? You would just be madly in love with economics for the rest of your life.

[wrarmatei]

That's cute; you're under the impression that's not already true for anyone who's a first year econ student, plus, market fundamentalism is already the world's secular religion. More, more, more...nothing's ever good enough for the ruling classes.

[Emma Bee]

Wanderchris he was teaching in athens? Didn’t know that. For how long and in which uni!?

[Emma Bee]

Wanderchris ok I think I understand in which department. He is great!! Thanks

[Γιάννης Χατζής]

Hi I'm a first year student here in Greece,studying economics in EKPA...the thing is that he hasn't shown up at all even though he is supposed to be a professor.

[Emma Bee]

@Γιάννης Χατζής His duties have been suspended since he is in the parliament now He said that in this video I think

[Fang Fang]

This is the best lecture I HAVE listened from KZbin. thank you for uploading!

[Demetris Gizelis]

Yanis lecture’s main argument is about introducing a pluralistic approach in teaching economics. As it stands now, major universities all over teach students only the orthodox paradigm of neoclassical economics and have abandoned all together the history of economic thought. He says loud and clear, let’s change this agenda and expose students to every school of thought without any prejudice and allow them to judge what is right and what’s wrong. Being myself an economist I know very well how young economists are indoctrinated with mainstream neoliberal nonsense with the disastrous results of adopted policies around the world.

[o d]

What's wrong deserves to be forgotten.

[ciupenhauer]

it definitely sounds like a good fix to economical maximalism. It should at least teach kids to be more critical of the current turbo capitalist norms, and it should at the same time safeguard againsts left wing excesses. To me it sounds sane, practical and very very liberal, in the classical open knowledge sense. The only problem here is that he is 1 man, we need more, and the kids don't know to ask for this

[Reasoner Enlightened]

Most people do not go to school to become researchers or scientists. They go to school to get the tools which would allow them to accumulate Wealth for themselves. (I want to know the stuff that gets me money) Researcher and Scientist must learn to write books, proposals and deliver lectures so that somebody with Wealth would give them the opportunity to study ALL approaches to economics, etc. What is the role of schools in a society ? It must be to make you Wealthier than the others, not to make you a cheap labor source for the Professors, as most commonly is the case.

[Ed H]

@Reasoner Enlightened Yeah that's poison to humanity and very selfish, how many people want to work on anything just to acquire wealth? or they are forced to work? You don't think humans would want to use their habilities for the help of everybody in a world were you basic needs safe, and have some money to spend? what a reasoning...

[Reasoner Enlightened]

@Ed H The engineering task is to make Laws and Legislation resulting in a generous, altruistic, humane, just society made of selfish, petty, greedy, backstabbing, treacherous, vindictive, self-absorbed individuals.

[Tao Wells]

“Imagine that you are representing some (Political) party, (on TV) and your interlocutor (dialogue partner) from an opposite party says something smart which you hadn’t thought of, suddenly you agree. But what you agree with now goes against the grain of your own party, if you admit it you are out, you are finished. This is why you have an inbuilt process of a dialogue of the deaf, in politics.” - Yanis Varoufakis 7:15

[David Ashley]

Totally agree this is a large problem in politics. There is no compromise at all.

[Christian Welsch]

Actually, when you tell your oponent that he or she is right you might surprise him or her, which might help you to quickly counterstrick.

[FO cast]

He is also guilty of this. That’s why he supports all this mass migration at the same time as being fully aware that Greece can’t pay for it. He admitted as much when he was finance minister. He knows it’s not possible but won’t speak against it.

[over9000]

@FO cast They all ignore and are silent about the fact that the most developed countries are responsible for mass migration. Afghanistan is the most recent example. We keep shipping weapons around the world and in countries that certifiably opress their people. As long as the benjamins keep flowing, no politician will ever ask the hard questions. It might damage their reputation/destroy their careers. I am really fed up with the apathy of reason in world politics.

[Daniel Hutchinson]

@over9000 After the economics of Politics, became a dominant feature of the system, the voice of reason, from humans of lesser incomes, became unable to be heard..... The size of the economics has influenced the ability of the majority to influence the conversation of economics in our contemporary social system. Democracy coming from Greece in the form of study of the economics of politics, illustrates how the money dictates the terms that the majority of humans at one time were able to overcome. The concept of populism faces Economics as it attempts to overcome the corruption that Fiat Dollars has enabled.....

[Konstantina Argyriou]

The more I see this the more I am getting convinced that psychology explains consumer behaviour better. Τους δίκασες όλους Γιάνη.

[johan erik theodor clemmesen]

See Amos tversky and Daniel kahneman. Nobel Winner in economics, and psycologists.

[S CH]

yes. Dr. Ramani once wrote that advertisers (aka propagandist) make better psychologists than actual psychologists. they understand us so well they can shape us. thats what the surveillance is actually for. to improve the algorithm and keep us consuming content. attention is currency now

[derBene]

Edward Bernays was the nephew of Sigmund Freud and applied Freud's insights in order to create Public Relations as we know it today. Bernays was in Europe after WW2 and wondered how the subconscious could be used in times of peace. "Edward Bernays and Group Psychology" on YT.

[Tom Ryan]

I mean what is economics but sociology+ money and what's sociology except the phycology of lots of people... Makes sense to me that it's useful

[ChristGang33]

@johan erik theodor clemmesen They explain human behaviour and decision making through their heuristics definitions

[Jen Hinton]

Yanis is absolutely right about the need for pluralism in economics, for better economic theories, and for better economic systems. And it’s great that Rethinking Economics is getting so much attention, as they are doing such important work! Along those lines, I have recently developed an alternative economic theory of business, markets, and profit for social-ecological sustainability. It's called Relationship-to-Profit Theory. I thought people who watch this video might be interested in it.

[Esteban A. Miralles]

Wonderful initiative. Kudos to the students and those who organized this forum!

[Vibhu Vikramaditya]

Thanks professor Yanis Varoufakis, As an economics student who believes in the rational choice theory, You have inspired me to push beyond.

[Shantanu Singh]

Good to see Indians here.

[Orlindo Machengo]

Are u talking about austrian school of economics?

[Vibhu Vikramaditya]

@Orlindo Machengo NAh, I am talking about the neo-classical school, although the both share major things, such as the action axiom and other things, Neo-classical school is like an ostrict which dips its head into the sand to avoid trouble, AUSTRIAN SCHOOL IS MUCH RICHER THAN NEO-CLASSICAL, it uses time, capital, structure of production among other things, which neither neo-classical or keynesians do

[Orlindo Machengo]

@Vibhu Vikramaditya you are mistaken, you should deepen economic theories, austrian and neoclassical (mainstream economic theory) schools are irrelevant in the field of economics. Shumpeterian, developmentalist, Keynesian and heterodox theories are the best.

[Vibhu Vikramaditya]

@Orlindo Machengo That is precisely my approach but I don't think any one field claims superiority over everyone else, I have read keynes himself, and his successors, I don't understand what you mean by developmentalist, but each has their own stronghold over certain areas, the problem that keynes and his successors run into is negation of capital, structure of production, and time, all these are richly developed in classicals like smith, ricardo even marx to an extent , but austrains have developed it the most, the more important point, I want to reconcile and synthesize every stream into one coherent set of logical structure, rigid dualities of right and wrong has no place in our discipline according to me, The neo-classical tools and their paradigms are also powerful in certain areas. I have a strong belief that in the end economics should reign supreme, so words like heterodox and traditional don't make much sense to me. Thus none of us should claim or live in the falacy of the notion that they have the exact version of the economic truth, instead look to search for truth with every possible lens available and then articulate as clearly as one can in either word, or mathematical statement.

[Gabriel Karl]

This type of thought should be taught in every economics department

[Omega Black]

The problem, as with all these corrupt systems, is not that we lack smart (financial) engineers it's that we lack moral ones.

[gxd000]

You should really check out what's going on in Mexico. AMLO is trying to separate economic from political power. The elites, from unscrupulous local businessmen to the international press are trying to derail his plans. Quite a case study.

[Omega Black]

@gxd000 Same thing happened in South Africa under Nelson Mandela in the 90s. He literally sold out the country. The same "privatization" has been happening in the U.S., and the "Great Reset" is about to make it official and global.

[gxd000]

@Omega Black I mean, in Mexico it's quite the opposite, but international media simply writes off anti-privatization measures as "populist". That's why we don't hear it in the rest of the world, but we gotta unite in the correct path.

[Omega Black]

@gxd000 oh, I totally misunderstood. If that's the case it reminds me of the Zapatistas, and yes, we must unite againat the corporate forces of death.

[Blake]

i want to push the midwest power industry towards decentralization and hold the monopoly accountable. learning more and more everyday before graduating. needed this talk today. thanks Yanis

[Philip Rahman]

Dr Yanis Varoufakis is a talented thinker in our time. He talks for the rest of us, I wish he was the head of the UN. Please teach us more you are an invaluable asset. Thank you. Australia

[Joseph Ernedal]

I always had the distinct feeling as a Mathematics and Economics college student, that I was really just looking at cute mathematical formulas that were fairly simplistic and then someone made some wild assumptions about how the human brain functions individually and collectively to come to some crazy conclusions. But I just shup up, showed up for my tests, and patted myself on the back for managing to get a degree in a subject that is considered valuable to some degree. Of course in reality, I knew that I was in some pseudoscience mix of philosophy and sociology, but worse since it takes its shit so seriously and the math, simplistic though it is for anyone with a math backround, is just complicated enough to make people look smarter than they are. I gave up trying to understand this feeling or explain it besides concluding that it all is so complicated at some point but that surely a computer will be able to solve everything and factor in unexplained factors eventually. As I got older I realized for sure the human brain assumptions are so wildly off target for the reality of what I was seeing. This guy nails it on the head explaining so clearly why this feeling was happening for me and why it will always be there for anyone with a math backround and some level of critical thinking skills during an economics class, that has their brains functioning even slightly. We might as well be studying the stars and then making economic policy based on that.

[Bruni Schling]

You wouldn’t believe it how many economic (and for that matter political decisions) are based on astrology. The difference between economics and astrology is that the star gazers usually get it right. Trust me, I know this because I am an astrologer albeit I am no expert in so- called mundane astrology (the branch that deals with politics and economics).

[Darius Chong]

I'm also an economics major. I was actually contemplating whether I should study economics, physics or mathematics and I end up choosing economics. I realise the more I study economics, the more cynical I become towards the subject. Sometimes I think I should've went with my first instincts and study applied mathematics instead but it's too late for me to change course now. I had the exact same thought as Yanis with regards to the simple equilibrium model in comparative statics so I went on to search about comparative dynamics. Turns out there's a paper that's written by Paul Samuelson in 1941 about comparative dynamics but it was never introduced to the economics undergraduate curricula in ANY university. Why is this the case? Is it because simple models are easy to understand and convenient to teach? Where's approximation theory, dynamical systems, entropy, complex adaptive system that seems to me more useful and effective mathematical tools (if economist are so determined to model economic phenomena) in studying economic and social systems. Trying to "predict" individual behaviour as we do in constrained optimization is a futile endeavour. It makes more sense to me to focus the mathematics of complexity and dynamical system and apply it to economics at the _aggregate_ level, rather than _individual_ level, to yield more meaningful results. I also wonder why isn't the humanities side of economics being emphasised enough (or at all in some universities like mine). Why isn't the history of economic thought being taught as a core subject in university? Where is the human aspect of economics? Where's the historical, sociological, psychological, political and philosophical aspect of economics? Aren't we studying humans and not atoms and molecules? Why is only math being emphasised, yet emphasised on branches of math that isn't that helpful to economics, and the human aspect is totally being disregarded. This all seems counter productive to the study of economics which is the study of humans' behaviour that aren't quantifiable. So it seems to me that economics undergraduate curricula teaches the wrong (or simplified/unrealistic) mathematics, WAY too little emphasis is placed on the human side of economics and the subjects becoming more ideological rather than seeking the objective truth. That being said I still enjoy the subject, just don't enjoy that false theories being presented as the truth, and I wish to study all the way to PhD to become an academic economist to reform economics.

[Joseph Ernedal]

@Darius Chong I am 33 now, and having changed career paths so, so many times in my life since undergraduate school (I am now actually a farmer!), I want to encourage you to say it is never too late to change course in life, re-evaluate, and do something else if we are feeling frustrated with our subject. Our minds like to cling to the idea society tells us, that once we make choices a-b-c, it logically leads to choice d... what if instead, we actually come to realize that there was no choice in the first place, and every waking moment offers us a new chance to change the course of our lives? It is an incredibly freeing way to live, and surpressing our "logical" minds that comes up with all sorts of excuses in relation to finances or commitments doesn't understand the reality that THERE REALLY IS ONLY ONE LIFE HERE AND WE ALL ARE GOING TO DIE! Which actually leads to an interesting point that is a common thread in taught in economics, that all people are making choices from a point of selfishness/in their own self interests. What happens when I stop myself, notice where my thoughts are going, and conciously use my will to decide to think something different instead? I have changed my life and way of thinking so many times in life that it is very easy to realize how ridiculously simplified the thought that everyone is working in their own self interest is. The world is so incredibly complex and beautiful, so complex that it can never be mapped out or understood in the entirety, and that is the beauty of it all! So when I read your reply and find you frustrated with your major, and especially you working from a point of negativity ("this subject has major issues, and I want to reform it because of that"), I would encourage you to find a subject or idea in life that allows you to work from a place of positivity. It makes life a lot easier and is a lot more enjoyable really, and leads to a lot of joy and happiness to think positive thoughts and work in a field that breeds positivity, instead of working from a negative place and trying to "fix" everything, which of course we know never happens and never will happen. Nice to read your post, I also contemplated being a physics major, but I realize now probably the best decision I could have made wasn't deciding which major would lead to which path I went down in life, but understanding and having the confidence to step outside my own mathematical/logical based mind to realize how beautiful life is and how wonderful it can be to start fresh with something new when our old paths in life feel "stale."

[Darius Chong]

@Joseph Ernedal Well realistically speaking, it's quite difficult for me to change course right now due to various factors... It's not that I don't like economics. You see, economics is about learning how people make choices to maximise their satisfaction given a certain set of constraints. I've read several books about economics and I thought some of these problems that economics is trying to solve is not just interesting but important as well. Economic theories have the ability to impact thousands, if not, millions of lives around the world. Keynesian economics have impacted billions of people all over the world now. So I see economics have a more direct impact on society as opposed to mathematics or physics. What I find frustrating is that the university economics education doesn't actually teaches you what the subject intends to teach you. I'm learning about make believe fairytales (assume this, assume that, consumers are rational, more is always better, no information failure, perfect competition, etc.) rather than truly understanding how the world works or how humans behave. Economics professors nowadays aren't critical thinkers themselves despite having decades of experience along with their PhD. They're being indoctrinated by neoclassical economics ONLY and presenting ONLY one out of the nine school of thoughts in economics to their students. They teach students about these models as if they're fundamental laws of physics and most students seems to just accept them and not think about the implications behind the mathematics. When I listen to people like Yanis Varoufakis and Ha Joon Chang, read books like Poor Economics or Capital by Thomas Piketty, I get a breath of fresh air, I become interested in the subject. I _know_ there's more to economics rather than just dull 19th century mathematics used to solve constrained optimization problems which reflects nothing in real life. I'll just continue reading and learning more about economics outside of classroom to keep myself motivated and stay curious. It just seems to me that there is so much more to economics than what we're being taught in university. I fancy the idea that one day I'll be working on things beyond mainstream economics.

[j0e14]

Best economics lecture I've ever heard. Thank you

[Riccardo]

What a great way to start this year of 2021, with the brilliance of Yanis to free our minds from uncritical analysis of the world we live in.

[BC]

W

[Pedro Ghirotti]

It is. But honestly, with the pandemic and all the billionaires organized through the World Economic Forum new fallacy "Stakeholder Capitalism", the fuckers still win and we loose.

[DemonSage]

Great lecture! This is pretty nice because it is a cursory look at meta-economics accessible to the general public.

[Tim Bridge]

The proposed system would end up getting subverted just like all systems. But we are at the end of what we are in now and this is the only decent alternative Ive heard about. Thank you so much Yanis for everything. At least what you propose could get us back onto something that might be workable for a while. Your suggestions for how to collapse the financial markets are jaw dropping (even when you hear them the second or third time).

[jeb bush]

Bravo and compliments on your courage to challenge arrogant neoliberal economics in germany. A remarkable lecture with many insights. The last answer, about the inability of economics to even apprehend so-called “externalities” such as environmental problems, reveals our alienation from the world. We need to challenge the orthodoxy. How about an economics whose first principle is “abundance” instead of “scarcity”? I look forward to youtube posts from your conference in April!

[Vedant]

Need more videos like these. Great work everyone!

[Asta Ghee]

Is it possible that a good thing that has come out of the pandemic and subsequent lockdowns and that is that so many more people (such as me) have now time to listen to lectures like these and inform ourselves about deeper issues that should concern us.

[Panoramic]

Yanis does a great job explaining everything.

[Uncle Jams Army]

This was absolutely brilliant. As an American on the left interested in market socialism/funds socialism its very frustrating that there’s so much energy around socialism and opposing capitalism but it’s overall insanely unsophisticated and incoherent, lots of it is semi ironic Soviet nostalgia, pure moralizing without thought, many anachronistic features in thought and strategy. I’m not a historian but this seems like intellectually a great moment for socialist thought in terms of policy and it’s largely disconnected from the masses and elected politicans on the left. Maybe it’s different elsewhere. We need more of this and less dumb dumb left thoughtless outrage and fundamentalism

[Douglas Soares]

Said everything!!! Congratulations!!! Ridiculous this video !!!

[Be Low Below]

@Fat Potatoe *anarcho-communism - which is a branch of liberalism that necessitates central power to be dissolved into the power of regional and local democracy Join your local food charity drive

[Sorin Ruga]

Tankies are ruining the left

[Uncle Jams Army]

@Fat Potatoe no, libertarianism (in American meaning right libertarianism) is a childish system of legalized feudalism that would also be terrible for growth and stability, and it’s the opposite of everything he’s saying in this video. Unless you mean left libertarianism, which I used to align with but don’t think makes much sense now: you need a centralized state for some pretty fundamental things like environmental protection among others

[The Nerevarine]

Impeccable. You just can't help but stare in awe at this man's intellect, clarity of mind, and passion. An astounding lecture indeed.

[Baz S]

Fantastic and eye-opening talk. Makes you see capitalism and economics in a new light.

[tbonico]

Excelente presentacion, me parece que es totalmente necesario lo que plantea Varoufakis, la economia debe ser enseñada en todas sus corrientes y con su contexto historico, yo creo que nadie podria estar en contra de que te entreguen toda la informacion para luego con ella tomar tus propias decisiones, es lo que deberia ser en todo orden de cosas.

[Jimbob Robob]

Why does the compassionate economic sanity of this man make me cry?

[Far Rider]

Because time yet hasn't come to implement his ideas 💫💡 💫 in the real world 🌍🌐🌍 😕simply won't happen .•°

[kostasb]

​@Far Rider He tried that in Greece as minister of Finance and failed miserably. Even his own radical left party realized that his plans were ridiculous and replaced him. His idea of an economic plan, was to threaten the E.U, that if Greece goes bankrupt, the EU would collapse economically. His plan to "save" the EU was by giving him a blank check with money from the ECB.

[Far Rider]

@kostasb : the way me remember Y.V. story - He tried to blackmail "aLL the rest" with the threat of leaving € . Which is a tactical move in the first place. When negotiations begin or better prior to that the opponents create (!) a mass for the negotiations about which one is willing to debate upon and reduce the absolute content in the course of the negotiations. Rocket-man 🇰🇵 does exactly the same , but there's nobody there that would seriously negotiate on this with him. Except 🇨🇳 who is kinda nanny for dangerous paranoid dictator Kim. Me nOt sure whether an ordinary politician has a comparable comprehension of economix and the financial market these days. Me doubt that emphatically. The narrative created by both sides in retrospective , is highly questionable and debatable (ad nauseum). The way Y.V. sees himself is more like a door opener to a different mode of tinkink 💭 and dealing with the issue of money 💵💸 flying around the virtual 🌐 sphere of global finance market system. Of course none whatsoever liked his proposal's. And the 🇬🇷 political establishment , i'm sure , did some nice offers to leftists on a personal level (💵💵). So Y.V. left the scenery. He himself said the 🇬🇷 demos didn't vote for Syriza party because they wanted left agenda in their country , they voted left for banging those in charge up to this point. Maybe You have somting to add or correct. Me onlY live on hear say. Me wasn't present in any of the green rooms .•°

[Far Rider]

Karl Marx : me like humorous people .•°

[Gregory Wonderwheel]

@kostasb False. He did not "try" anything in Greece because his own Prime Minister who appointed him betrayed him and stabbed him in the back by rolling over in submission to the EU capitalist banks and their austerity demands.

[Boog News Network]

Great lecture! Most people in the US are unaware of what capitalism actually is in terms of what it basically boils down to. I like the ideas in the lecture.

[Alec Gastélum Woods]

Me recuerda mucho una frase mítica de méxico, de el General Emiliano Zapata: "La tierra es de quien la trabaja". Muchas gracias por compartir esta conferencia y la sesión de preguntas!

[Aidan McGuinness]

I want to live in a world where this is the kind of economics that people pay attention to

[Rainstorm]

As a student, I hadn't had a lecturer who can trigger my brain to think beyond what I have learnt in class as this man. His students are just so and so fortunate!

[Daniel Platt]

It’s so obvious that we were never taught anything about capitalism in college. Yanis hammers it home like a sledge hammer that all we learned about was marginal utility and fancy arithmetic, which i despised

[Parag Kulkarni]

I came here accidentally n fell in ❤️. Professor is rational. Love from India 🙏

[Random Channel]

The knowledge of this man is beyond belief.

[no_type01]

Wtf have ever talked to a professor befor?;?

[Random Channel]

@no_type01 many many manyyyyyy times beforE

[512pzk]

@Sakis Fotias nice arguments. You don't like logic right?

[Manchester United]

@Sakis Fotias Why is he a clown?

[Salvatore Rinaldo]

Many valuable take-away's from this lecture. Mr Varoufakis is a very enlightened man. I'd never thought of Maxwell's equations as the beginning of capitalism. Amazing.

[Pedro Vitória]

Great lecture, thank you very much for the enlightenment.

[Reasoner Enlightened]

All you have to do is work hard, get rich or die trying, why would you want to care about the rest?

[Pedro Vitória]

@Reasoner Enlightened work hard in a rigged and unfair system is useless. And really I don't want to get rich. I desire a peaceful and fulfilling live. I don't need much things for me to be well. And some times I cannot have a good night sleep knowing that misery, violence and injustice is upon other human beings like me. I feel like they are part of me. We must try to make a better world. Humankind is part of a living planet. The desire to get rich or greed is like a disease. Rich people are like a cancerous tumour in a organism. With a disproportionate size and destroying other living tissues only for his benefit. Taking more resources than they need to function normally. If we cannot build a balanced, fair, sustainable and healthy system, even the rich people will suffer from the disease of the system. It's only a matter of time. Doing good, makes us good.

[Evangelos Mourelatos]

Great lecture. Mr. Varoufakis is one of the FEW persons on the planet who really UNDERSTAND how modern economies work.. The bad thing is that he is not very vocal about the NATURE of modern economies and the people who run the show. The technochratic feudal lords of the 21st century.

[Rudston Cullen]

An absolute masterpiece!

[MethodicalMadness]

Life-changing lecture

[Angel Saldivar]

Damn, this lecture was mind blowing. I'm currently doing the MSc Economics a Imperial University London and which my lectures where more like this

[Rokkidud]

Simply a brilliant lecture.

[Mikaiyl Davis]

Well done, I love his analogy of credit reaching into the future to create value

[Darren Evans]

When Yanis starts speaking of software giants like Facebook and free channels of communication being free because the supplier sees it as a means of manipulation I think of the following phrase: "If something is free, YOU are the product".

[S H]

its quite chilling

[Zephyr libs]

Like when New York Times gave a generation bad health advise. It was free, uncritical readers were the product, sold to big pharma. Then Facebook, Reddit etc came, and people tried figuring out the truth from the lies. But the disbalanced power relations make it an unstoppable binary fire pit of truth and lies. Money printer goes brrrr....

[Vasily Katuma]

When YANISary(ies) start speaking...1000 working positions left Greece for Usa, uk and lately romanias n bulgarias...

[András Dudás]

@Vasily Katuma One thing is for sure, the capital will always search for the cheapest labour. This is called race to the bottom. That is what the world is doing, and the governments can compete, who is able to provide the best conditions for investment. The ultimate best for them is slave labour. Unfortunatelly Yanis is a leftist, and he cares about his country's working conditions, and that example is a dangerous one for the international investors. That is why they crushed syriza. People should not see, that There Could be an Alternative. Only allowed and promoted alternative is far right, which is disaster capitalism with no human rights. For me, I would not blame him, if a 1000 job leaves the country. He is just working to build resistance against the inhumane system, that destroys our planet. But they didn't punish him with that 1000, they just democratically imposed credit line freeze against them, just to ensure, that everybody understands, the democracy is just the blue color of their flag, but nothing more.

[Wandering Existence]

Hi Google!

[Christoph Bärwinkel]

This reminds me strongly of the discussion given by Tomas Sedlacek in an episode of the series „Sternstunde Philosophie“ following the release of the book „Die Ökonomie von Gut und Böse“ in German speaking countries... both lecturers would do a perfect job if they do kind of partner-lectures in any Audimax all around the world

[Toxis]

Thank you Yanis! I've been screaming from all the roofs that economics is most definitely not a science - and the banker oscars they are giving out for some time is not a real Nobel prize, but people kept telling me "shut up, it's 4AM, you're drunk, go home" ;)

[Toxis]

w8, was Yanis predicting/describing gamest0nk @~1:16:00?

[András Dudás]

@Toxis I think absolutely. What he didn't predicted is the reaction of the government to the situation, but let's be honest: it was predictable. When the rigged game is used against the sharks, they suspend the game rules..

[Aaron Mathias]

Bang-On, Tovis mate!

[Klaus Brinck]

In nations with some dignity and tradition, like Greece and France, for example, Economics isn´t taught in the universities, but in separate schools, for the reasons Yannis named. In the scientific community there´s consensus about all that, which is crazy, if you concider to what high extend the opinions of economists are everyday-reality-defining/manipulating.

[Didi]

Very good. Very, very good perspective of a way out of this mess we are in on Earth. Thank you all for your work guys

[freydenker]

most brilliant lecture. worth watching not only once...Big thanks for uploading. And big thanks to the algorithm for recommending it for a third re-watch.. which I am doing right now with pleasure. . : ]

[Thomas Zato]

yep, some of his examples are simply brilliant.

[Tom Yoxon]

This was a really really great talk.

[Id]

11:00 pluralisms necessary involvement in economics 29:00 opportunity cost from concepts of Adam Smith & unintended consequences that are necessary to reach a better public interest 31:18 from economics to capitalism

[Alex Goslar]

Yanis, once again inspiring. Thank you for your thoughts.

[Hectamus]

amazing lecture, thank you so much

[vale cupa]

What a wonderful teacher he is 😀

[Jesse Brol]

Great and very insightful talk, even to me who had zo little interest in economics back in highschool

[Thomas Zato]

💯

[New One]

Wow! Professor Yanis Varoufakis! That was an awesome lecture by you!"👍👏

[Johnny Shollaj]

This a patriot and a compassionate intellectual who is not afraid to speak up. Ευχάριστο Γιάννη, τι να κάνουμε που στην Ελλάδα δεν σε τιμούν.

[Julie Ann Myers]

One of the most impressive human beings living on this planet. 👏👏👏

[BC]

For you, not for the Greek people

[Gallectee]

@BC How was he the issue in any of that conflict? he had a deal with his prime minister Alexis (deterrent plan) and Alexis backed out even though the population spoke (you had a vote) which Alexis still ignored. Alexis ignored a deal he made with Yanis before he became minister of finance, that the public also voted and agreed with, yet Yanis is to blame? You realize the alternative deal was a massive ass blast? he's the only guy in government with some of his team that stood up for your country with the support of the population, but then your prime minister backed out and agreed to the ass blast anyway. It's not Yanis that failed you. This is why he resigned in the end as well, so it wouldn't be him that signed the deal because that's how much he disagreed with how your prime minister behaved.

[gamwpanagia]

An impressive con-artist.

[eylam90]

I love listening to Yanis, even though I disagree with him about many things. He feels like a guy i could ferociously argue with about his ideas for an hour with great intensity and then go to down to a bar for a friendly beer and jokes.

[Wachowski]

lol exactly

[Infinity Stepping Stone]

That's the very definition of civility.

[George Karamanoglou]

He is just good for only that and not as a MP or any other government role...

[_]

@George Karamanoglou Well, as a representative he lacks the political way of agreeing to a lesser evil that could cause the death of people. He doesn't want to sign down a bill that could hurt people. We should have more people like him defending the better way whether or not the people in power would be mad at it, but I agree he may lack the art of making a deal, fundamental in today's politics that aggregate the decision power in singular persons

[Nicola Re]

@_ thats an easy way to get rid of him (too easy if you ask me. you have to try at least as he tries to get rid of him). .Yes, he is certainly good at this and very bad to help rich and corrupted people get richer and more powerfull through some crappy deal. he is probably the only one who knows what those deals are really about. Most politicians will just surrender to the establishment without even know what they surrender. Sorry for my english

[Matthew Whitton]

I don’t recall ever seeing a teacher as talented as Yanis. In any subject. Not one.

[withonor]

As I watched the financial crash of 2008 starting to form, or becoming obvious, in 2005/06, I learned something about economics. Those who study it know the least about. It was obvious, it was common sense, but those with the highest degrees and prestige thought it was impossible. Guess who was right? The greatest depression in world history is going on right now and hardly anybody talks about it.

[S CH]

great talk learned a lot. i love how he deconstructs the absurdity of the mythmatics/mathiness concepts bad economists use. also, the occupy movement increased class consciousness which is the first step in changing the world. these things happen in waves

[Jim Lyon]

@SCH be like water - Regarding "bad economists" it seems to me that such people construct many "wonderful shiny ivory towers of logic" without troubling themselves to even bother to do something as basic as carry out REALITY testing - or consider the consequences to others ! ! !

[Allen Jasson]

People like Yanuflakis, Monbiot, Chris Hedges have the potential to bring on the revolution we all need.

[deadsky]

6:45 economics without capitalism 1:06:30 markets without capitalism 1:12:50 Q&A

[Pecier Decierdo]

I learned a lot from this lecture.

[Emilio Ughetto]

Yanis il nuovo eroe greco dei nostri tempi : bello, coraggioso, onesto e geniale. Minacciato dalla supermafia.

[franky knuckles]

as a german im adoring him, such a bright head in out troubled time, its time for a reset, a big one, not lead by tech and the establishment

[Moe Strausberg]

Yanis speaks the only language I understand. It is hard to explain the patriotism of the Boston Tea Party which boarded ships flying the flag of the East Company and they were the merchants of Boston and Montreal and tea was untaxed and belonged to the East India Company. I don't know what else other than mercantilism they were patriotic about. A magnificent lecture.

[R. Win]

Sorry, Yannis is a sympathetic guy for sure but this is really 100% bladderdibla. No idea what he is talking about. Something about Capitalism and banks being the evil cause of everything in general and by extension of what happened to Greece. No Yannis. Greece was doing just fine with its weak Drachma which perfectly accommodates its relative modest competitive labour force to compete with northern Europe and made tourism relatively attractive. In came the Communists of the EU who imposed the EURO onto the poor greeks and prevented them to simply print their own currency like they used to. The greeks had to resort to lending and made good use of the lower Euro interest rates lending gigantic amounts to fulfill idiotic promises to the people by corrupt national leaders. Soon national bond rates started to rise. Then the Marxist EU again intervened and disrupted the markets by lowering the Greek rates artificially by forcing other countries to take there loans on far too low rates. The Greeks lost their competitive advantage of a weak currency and had to debase their incomes nominally to compete internationally which caused lower tax incomes making the high debts even more unsustainable. Don't blame capitalism. If markets where left alone, Greece would have defaulted and be prosperous at this very moment. The Marxist Euro is the Procrustes bed of Europe. It fits no-one and everybody suffers as a consequence. If we don't abandon the Euro in its current form, the European dream will fall apart...

[VladimirBrtn]

@R. Win You are simply ignorant about the character of the Euro and the EU as a whole. You're using political labels you don't understand. There is nothing "Marxist" about demanding privatisation of public services, imposing limits on public spending, driving member states into a race to the bottom to reduce corporate taxes and wages, deregulating consumer safety standards etc. - all of which the EU has been doing for the last 30 years or so. The EU is a neoliberal project, particularly after Maastricht. It's the opposite of any sort of Marxist or even broadly left-wing economic vision. The Euro in particular has been used as a mechanism to expand and consolidate the dominance of export-based Northern economies, Germany in particular, over structurally weaker countries in the South. The former trapped the latter in a vicious circle of indebtness. It's a perfect illustration of how stronger countries will always seek to exploit the weaker ones, which is a key feature of capitalism. That's why a truly united Europe is not possible on a capitalist basis.

[R. Win]

@VladimirBrtn For your info : all EU countries suffer form the terrible transfer union that is now a reality. Italians per capita have 3x more private reserves (housing is often mortgage free) then Germans yet the Italian state (and Spanish) is poor and does not show ANY initiative anymore to collect taxes since the north is paying for their social costs (basic income). They never collected taxes since they were used to print money and not borrow .It is a disaster for every country. Only the Euro politburo an Euro Douma and the tens of thousands of bureaucrats are celebrating golden times. It is quite a prison for every one and this cannot last ....It is very very sad...It used to be such a great and wonderful continent in all its diversity...And sorry, the entire construct was driven by extreme Marxist principle of forcing a non elected EU commission body on all EU citizens and a disastrous currency which did not make ANY economic sense, other then the political aspiration of the elites to force Europe into a super state . Untold millions sufferd and will suffer because it is a horrible marxist pipe dream. The north was doing fantastic prior to the Euro (as did the south) , no need to export slightly more against cheaper prices certainly if that means our banks and pension funds where forced by the ECB to take southern bonds at far to high prices. politicians never learn....

[N S]

@R. Win Yanis actually protested in opposition to Greece joining the EU, he explicitly talks about this in several of his talks, he agrees almost entirely with your economic analysis, except one crucial point. You say "Don't blame capitalism. If markets where left alone, Greece would have defaulted and be prosperous at this very moment." Now we could say its all semantics, leftists call bad things "capitalist" and libertarians call bad things "socialist" because they interfere in markets, but we agree on what the bad thing is. Yanis argues that the reason Greece and other nations joined the EU, part of the reason, is precisely because of this economic logic that says "leave markets alone" - join this monetary union, open your markets up, deregulate everything, and there will be prosperity. They tried it, some massive proportion of public assets in Greece have been sold, they embraced austerity and everything you mentioned, and now they have one of worse economic crises of modern times.

[Darius Radu]

F to that student who asked about pluralism in economics :))) Outside of that, I love this guy so much. Such a great yet not pretentious thinker.

[user 28]

Wow. Very insightful. And it is fun to listen to him.

[Michael Roberts]

Once I heard econometrics I knew this would be rough. I have never heard of this guy, but he seems smart and it should be interesting to hear a new perspective.

[Savvas Perisanidis]

Former treasury of Greece. Professor of economics Marxist

[Andrew K]

Massive thanks to the admirable students who organised this and all DIEM25 (our Yanis obviously included)

[IamDruidess]

Commenting for algorithm! But also- I’m a high school drop out and don’t have enough money to get any more formal education. I watch many lectures to improve my understanding of the world. Thank you so much for the upload.

[Bright]

If you continue to seek knowledge you will learn more on your own than in high school, keep it up!

[MDA]

Bravo! Ditto with the previous comment, you will have a more open mind without the precinditioning happening in university

[no_type01]

And how do you make money?

[Unknow0059]

How Do you make money?

[Jake Stoner]

This lecture is SO 🔥!!

[user1 23]

Just great! Thank you sir.

[Understanding the News]

good stuff that helps open up avenues for thinking about possible ways forward

[Khadim]

this guy is so brilliant !!!

[Hansu]

Men with many interesting ideas. I can listen to this guy talk all day long.

[Anant Gaurav]

Yanis always talks about the risk and if you can manage risk you can manage the hazard. Love this. Thanks

[Gregory Wonderwheel]

"Capitalism is private ownership of tradable shares." That's a keeper to take to the bank of intelligence.

[Cathy Elings-Sysel]

Yes! 100%!!

[Kwsths]

Εκπληκτική ομιλία!

[TheJohnnyJason]

What strikes me as funny is the discussion sometimes that a specific system with the politics around it was responsible to reduce poverty and such over the last century - My Opinion on that is that basically it was the technological advancement which enabled the people to do so despite the politics and systems - thus wherever it was less restrictive the more it flourished of course only where the technical know-how and liquidity was. And exploitation of anyone and anything weaker seems like a human nature which will always bite our ass if we cannot find a way how to stop - also independent of politics and systems.

[A K]

Great to have more content on the fact that the end of capitalism is not the end of markets and the plurality of products and services. It’s highly needed to change people’s assumptions!

[Oliver Marson]

That was incredible. Why did I bother going to university ? I should have just watched KZbin videos by yanis

[Alexandre Relvão]

to make new friends?

[DJC]

@Alexandre Relvão you want to pay thousands of dollars...to make new friends?

[Bornto Rebel]

"Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high Where knowledge is free Where the world has not been broken up into fragments By narrow domestic walls Where words come out from the depth of truth Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit Where the mind is led forward by thee Into ever-widening thought and action Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake." By Rabindranath Tagore

[Urjesh Utthasani]

I am bengalee, from the state West Bengal where Tagore was born, how did you know this poem? I am interested how have you come across Tagore?!

[Bornto Rebel]

@Urjesh Utthasani ah I am from Nagaland, India.

[Urjesh Utthasani]

@Bornto Rebel oh I see, have a great day.

[Pamela Joy]

Keep on Yannis, keep on! Thank-you 👍🏻💕

[enfomy]

There definitely needs to be a global consumer strike against current economic and political systems. I wonder if more redundancies of companies could reduce the concentration of large amounts of wealth going into the hands of lone individuals? Though it would need to be a mass unified movement to take out dominate players.

[Junge]

There are other ways to saying let us transfer the wealth into emerging or emerged economics(china etc.)

[enfomy]

@Junge would u be willing to elaborate? Not sure what u mean but I am curious.

[Junge]

@enfomy There are people like Varoufakis, who see the economic as a mathematical model(everything can actually be a mathematically model, there is nothing wrong with it) and he puts some weird and populist axioms as it's fundaments, and then proceed to why everything will be worst in a few years(pretty much every economist has this tendecy). And then there is china who have used the same mechanicms which are vilified or ridiculed by Varoufakis, to make their nation prosperous. There are builder and there are thinkers, China has got both of them right now and we in the west have got stupid people(in germany) who think that increasing rent can be solved by some legislation instead of actually building some new apartments/ or giving new permits.

[enfomy]

@Junge I didn’t get that take at all. I actually think he was saying that economics can’t merely be understood mathematically. He made numerous arguments against trying to predict outcomes relying solely on maths or so it seemed to me. I don’t know that much about his populist approach to say much. It seems like he is saying to not take any singular economic theory as the right one. I don’t know enough about the Chinese economy to say if it is truly efficient or not. The common criticisms against it are political, like they have massive pollution, the population has little autonomy, they are overpopulated with a disparate gender ratio, child labor, etc. China does mix economic systems which is part of what the lecture is promoting. However, it is in a totalitarian way, and the ends don’t justify the means. China’s outcomes don’t appear much better than the rest of the world, tho they (like every other country) will put up a front that everything is the best or very good. I don’t know enough to opine on Germany’s rent condition. There is a global issue with the predatory use of debt and rent tho. What approach are u using to make ur conclusions, since I assume it isn’t the populists approach?

[Junge]

​@enfomy Yes you are right that he is saying not a single theory can fit it all, basically they all hit a wall. But my understanding is that these theories are usually built in retrograde, and have actually little to no implication on the policies we usually have. And secondly my understanding is that the policies/legislation should be made by the government to improve the living condition/well being of their citizens in the sustainable way(especially not going to much in red to provide services that can't be afforded, ie Venezuela, greece). These things are usually not discussed well in these types of lectures, and even if, they are usually blame game types of argument, arguing like who is at fault, but not solutions are discussed( which Yaroufakis said: they either push the blame to the unions or the monopolies, I actually agree with him here). Whole thing put together, yes the system is not stable against all the possibilities, but it's the best system I know, and people who want to build with it are able to build with it quite well(china). One thing about china, you have to distinguish between the economical system and the their institution, even though it can be hard to decouple it. Like if American does something bad, it doesn't imply that capitalism is bad, even though American's have capitalism as their economical system. If the institution were "equal", I really think that the capitalistic/free market approach is the best we have, especially because in any other system the decision are still to be made but just by the legislators, which is usually associated with a whole lot a waste and inefficiency.

[adior8ot0s]

More people need to see this.

[Svetlozar Argirov]

Inspiring as always.

[Priyésh]

Very interesting. But one error: AC current wasn't from General Electric but invented by Nikola Tesla and marketed through the company Westinghouse because General Electric actually was Edison's company, which wanted to use DC current. General Electric (Today also known as GE) initially was founded as Edison General Electric Company.

[GhostOnTheHalfShell]

Helmut Creutz discusses issues of the monetary system in particular that of interest to manage the supply. He pointed out that the nature of Bractaeten currency used in some german cities in the 13th and 14th centuries overcame the issues of hoarding money. In effect it was a system of demurrage on currency, the effect was hoarders would lose 25% of their holdings once or twice a year if they had it on hand. Similarly Wörgl provided a stamp script in the midst of recession to promote commerce.

[Factopedia]

Yanis Varoufakis is just a BOSS in the way he explain things in a way that makes sense and provide solutions to his thoughts .

[Domenico]

Very smart. People don't realize that we can change the world in a day if we want

[John Silver]

Brilliant. Simply brilliant. I'm only sad I wasted 3 years studying Economics.

[Jineshwar Nariani]

Oh why so ? Just curious cuz I’m in last year of high school and I’m planning to take an economics related undergrad ..

[John Silver]

@Jineshwar Nariani ‘08 killed Economics and Finance replaced it. Economics tried to imitate Physics by having laws and it failed badly. In the real world, the models that economics teaches you are useless because society is always changing and adapting, humans are not like atoms, they learn, meaning you always need new models to explain past behaviour. Economics was a hot and respected subject before ‘08, mostly glorified by people that knew nothing about it and I was fooled. While I was studying it I was also trying to apply it to the markets, and Lord behold they didn’t behave at all as the Economics said they should. It’s all bullshit. Get a STEM degree that has some real world usage and don’t waste your time with Economics.

[Testing]

Every company is tryna beat the competition but what capitalism can’t allow is a company beating the competition and becoming a monopoly. This system is doomed at its core. Also, for real monopolies competition law is a joke eventhough preventing monopolies was the main reason they had it in the first place😔🤦🏽‍♂️

[Rafael Rodrigues]

"[...]And my job is to implant dangerous ideas into the minds of the young." - nailed it

[Katianna]

Socratic

[Klaus Brinck]

@Katianna Thanks, I just wanted to comment the same, you were faster... ;-) At least, this was the accusation of the state against Socrates, that led to a fake-trial, and his death...

[Katianna]

@Klaus Brinck yep exactly

[Leonardo Ortega]

What a great lecture. I would have loved to hear Varoufakis’ opinion on Nicholas Georgescu’s writings, the founder of Ecological Economy nearly a century ago. Georgescu simply called for considering the physical law of thermodynamics when doing economical analysis, demonstrating, as Yanis Varoufakis pointed up too, the irrationality and absurdity of mainstream economics theory in its vocation for vane speculation that is totally dissociated from physical reality, thus damaging people, the natural environment, etc.

[Edward Smith]

In a society without remote shareholders, wouldn't the workers who hold shares in the company they work for be more at risk than a worker who would otherwise have no ownership in the company if it was failing and at risk of going bust?

[Mukesh Adenwala]

I have one more question: Does economics solve only economic problem or it also significantly contributes to solving problems of society, politics and of power too? Reforming economics is indeed necessary, especially in the present times. Neoliberal policies have brought humanity to the brink of extinction because of environmental crisis. Economic inequality in wealth and incomes are increasing. Despite high rates of economic growth in various countries, 50% of humanity continue to live for under $ 5.50 per day. But if capitalism also spawns atomic bombs and journey to moon and beyond, can one nation ever afford to pursue egalitarian economic policies? Suppose one country chooses not to abandon capitalist system and ends up producing atomic bomb, would it not threaten the rest of the world?

[Mukesh Adenwala]

@Far Rider Unfortunately such hopes falls in the category of idealism. Across history, because something is the only viable and sane alternative to follow, does not make it a widely followed path. As Arthur Koestler rightly said: Mankind's collective behaviour across history is more like the performance of a "Sleepwalker". We go to the brink before correcting our path, if at all. And there is no reason to assume that we will correct our path in time. If this was not true we would not have climate crisis or even the problem of obesity. Though we have Christ, Buddha and Gandhi as ideals, behaviour of most of us most of the times follow Machiavelli and Hitler rather than in line with our