Yanis Varoufakis On Capitalism Is Dead And Imagining A Fairer and More Equal Society

Filmed in 2022, I was thrilled to be joined by Yanis Varoufakis, globally recognized economist, and former Greek finance minister, famously known as the “rockstar politician who challenged the EU.”
As voters across various countries prepare to make crucial decisions, Varoufakis's perspectives on economic justice and democratic reform provide valuable context and food for thought.
Listen as we dive into:
My fanboy experience watching Yanis during the economic crisis.
Why Yanis refused to play political games.
The crucial role of debt in capitalism and why banks want to keep you indebted.
Comparing feudalism and capitalism.
Yanis’s captivating history lesson on the economic collapse.
How 2008 marked the death of capitalism.
The illusion of money and its diminishing usefulness.
COVID-19's impact on global economic mismanagement.
Who really controls the Federal Reserve?
The challenging future facing younger generations.
The importance of avoiding predictions.
Wise advice from Yanis’s father on true value.
The lack of safe havens in today’s world.
Insights from "Another Now" on a better future system.
The creative freedom of writing a novel.
Why banks don’t belong in a utopian financial system.
The true potential of blockchain beyond Bitcoin.
KZbin: @mogawdatofficial
Instagram: @mo_gawdat
Facebook: @mo.gawdat.official
LinkedIn: /in/mogawdat
Tiktok: @mogawdat
X: @mgawdat
Website: mogawdat.com
Don't forget to subscribe to Slo Mo for new episodes every Saturday. Only with your help can we reach One Billion Happy #onebillionhappy

[@AntjeHass]

The BEST discussion of our times I have been listening to!

[@-zeina-8008]

I'm a big fan, as well! Love hearing from Yanis --> common sense + integrity!!! 🤝🏻✊🏻🙏🏻

[@B_Estes_Undegöetz]

Thanks for bringing on Yanis Varoufakis to discuss his in my opinion rather convincing theories of “Technofeudalism and “Cloudcapitalism”. Every time I hear him discuss his thoughts around these theories I hear an important elaboration, detail or specific illustration from the history of capitalism or socialism that I’ve not heard or thought of before and my useful knowledge is again expanded. Im of the same generation as YV and its our obligation to remedy the disaster neoliberal capitalism has wrought on earth and our society and to teach the children and grandchildren of the power of collective action and labor union activity to make change.

[@markfitzpatrick7186]

One of the best and most hopeful interviews I’ve seen in these dark and terrifying times. Well done - well shared.

[@nancycastelvecchi5261]

He is Professor Emeritus of the current world. What insight you share not only with your wisdom but with your viewpoint changing guests. Thank you. Thank you, Mo.

[@Appleloucious]

One Love! Always forward, never ever backward!! ☀️☀️☀️ 💚💛❤️ 🙏🏿🙏🙏🏼

[@pinksooshy]

Excellent talk! Thank you! Please also invite Gary Stevenson who worked as a trader and saw the system from the inside, and exposes the same things …

[@RichardBergson]

Yanis is always so clear in his explanations and inspires a degree of trust in his view. It's a view that is shared by others such as Steve Keen (at least in principle) and gives me confidence in this analysis. I will definitely read the book as the details in this episode were tantalisingly few! I am hoping that alongside this reorganisation of the way businesses are structured there is also something about UBI and the decoupling of money from the labour market as well as the reduction in consumption generally. Perhaps I am looking beyond he scope of the book for a global approach but maybe not....

[@baymore2016]

Yanis is amazing! He was my economics lecturer at university. Enlightening and inspiring.

[@Mary-Mar]

I find Yanis Varoufakis excellent at explaining how we got to where we are today. Yanis, correctly, compares today's economic and social times to Feudalism-adjacent. Personally, I think we also need to continue to understand how and by whom America was created. The Feudal system was ultimately, undone by the creation of a merchant class. These were the people who refused to work as serfs anymore, and chose to become the explorers and the traders who generated their own money from buying and selling commodities from Asia and the Middle East to the land-owning gentry of Europe. Fast forward and these are the people who chose to move to the New World and start the 13 colonies that become the United States. This Merchant Class rebelled against the British aristocracy and ended up creating the first country to be run by the Merchant Class. The issue is we have lived out what happens when the world superpower is rule by the landed aristocracy that do not work, but govern, and oppress the working class that own nothing. It's revolution and rebellion. But we have not, until now, begun to lived out what happens when the world's leading superpower is ruled by a merchant class whose claim to power is the very stance that they "worked" for it. Despite ultimately, turning everything into a commodity, and turning everyone into commoditized consumers, they wield their story of a meritocracy like a sword against anyone who speaks out against their position of power. So, what will be the ultimate outcome?..I don't have an answer. We are living it out right now. But, I think first and foremost, we have to preserve the practice of Democracy. There is no way we will be able to fix this problem if everyone drops out and stops participating in the election of our leaders. That, in my opinion is essential.

[@emperoremyhriv4968]

Everything is definitely a commodity and has a price.

[@NavM23]

This should be part of the school curriculum ❤❤❤

[@mariettestabel275]

💯

[@tonytube9211]

Fascinating video. The only way forward is good people, not the greedy, cold and angry people.

[@ibuxrs594]

Great conversation. Thank you

[@mariavarelas8041]

Loved your Summary of this fascinating talk Mo........Yanis book is on my list......Thank you

[@JK-tr2mt]

Much appreciated lesson about our screwed up economies since 2008!

[@TrestleTableforTruth]

Wowow. Thank you sooooo much for this conversation 😊❤

[@nim3186]

Wonderful conversation, Thank you Yanis and Mo🙏🏼

[@mariettestabel275]

Thanks Mr.Varoufakis. 🐟

[@Inanimohabeo]

"I wanna start with the reality of our world today." Oh boy, I am up for a ride even though I just came from a Nate Hagens video.

[@martinleepgg]

Enlightened overview of our corrupt financial system, from two honest men. Unfortunately only 1% will get to see this, let alone understand it.

[@richardsagala3186]

Mr Varoufakis is Brillant , just downloaded another now from Audible

[@jk.tal22]

This podcast is pure gold! Thank you.

[@telebiopic]

Amazing. Learnt so much.

[@chromgoog3141]

Am big fan of Yanni. Great leadership. We need him to help transform the global financial and macro economic system. And love the advise to be best version of you at every moment….

[@detectiveofmoneypolitics]

Economic investigator Frank G Melbourne Australia is following this informative content cheers Frank 😊

[@0150Tricia]

Thank you Mo and Yanis!!!!!!

[@Jorn-sy6ho]

8:00 sounds relatable! ❤

[@深度评论]

Chinese Tech giant Huawei is not a stock market-listed company, it is owned by all the employees of Huawei. Ren Zhengfei who is the funder of Huawei has less than 2% of the share of Huawei.

[@ImaginaryTop]

Nah. Technically, employees owns the shares, but they cannot participate in any decision-making process. Saying Huawei employees owns Huawei is like saying I own Boeing simply because I brought 1 share of Boeing from market.

[@adamlee8339]

Fantastic video, hopefully you get to interview him again with his new book Technofeudalism

[@ProgressiveEconomicsSupporter]

Great interview and nice thoughts by Yanis. Now you only also need to incorporate the insights of Modrn Money Theory (MMT). Money does not only depend on the believe in it, but on taxes liabilities to the currency issuer. Therefore FIAT money is potenitally good, not production driven money Instead of further feeding the useless finacial markets, governments must start creating and spending money in the right amount to social, infrastructural and society-related issues. The amount of appliable money MUST thereby depend on tha available ressources and workers. So FIAT money can be really useful, if not abused in neoclassical and neoliberal thought boundaries, like austerity policies

[@ImaginaryTop]

The problem of MMT theory is it focus too much on fiat currency while ignoring international trade. Why would other countries wants your fiat currency when they have no tax liabilities to you? I'm pretty sure no bankers/foreign exchange dealers wants to hold an asset of rapidly depreciating currency. The reasons the person propose MMT theory ignored this part of internal characters of money is that he is an American and USD is also the world reserve currency. If any other countries, like Sri Lanka, try to implement MMT theory, their currency value will plummet to the point that no one wants their currency and their trade will be destroyed (how could you exchange your currency to USD or YEN or RMB when no one wants your currency in the first place?).

[@ProgressiveEconomicsSupporter]

@ImaginaryTop you are right and wrong. MMT focuses on currency souvereign countries like USA, UK, Japan, Australia and de fact at least Germany and France The point is, those countries could start improve their situation and indirectly benefiting others. Less or basically not souvereign countries do indeed have more trouble and will depend on USD to some extent. But with MMT they need to try to strengthen their own position, enhancing all they can with their own currency in their own country, like paying workers and people for important key sectors like food production, energy production, infrastructure and basic industry. So the need not be dependent on USD alone. There are some ways to partly de-dollarize a country although it is tough. Mainly such nations need to learn that austerity measures and a huge dependence on USD debts by IWF with opening to foreign (temporary) investors will lead to their doom. MMT gives them some alternatives. Few people by now deal with those nations, like great FADHEK KABOUB

[@alexanderh.2604]

Enlightening 💡

[@tracyharrison9536]

Two men with mana. Love from NZ

[@anafernandes225]

A very good conversation about economy 🙆

[@robertjanusz3136]

condolences yanis, you remind me of my dad

[@zantecarroll4448]

yanis varoufakis is the best ❤

[@jarrodf_]

Love it, Yanis. As ever, 'all bad things begin in Greece', as you once sardonically put it. In this case, hopefully it's bad things ending, and something more humane rising from the embers. Efharisto poli, apo Melbourne

[@michaelwhite4323]

Please think about the root issues! It won’t matter how much we focus on ourselves being better if the whole system is a fraud! Therefore, please wrap your brain around immediate and significant change to the system in place! Don’t be afraid or naive to think it can’t be radically changed! We need to change it now!

[@ikkahackinen9008]

Having in mind that the majority of the population on earth is struggling to survive financially, it is not so kind to give them the advice that the best they can do is just invest in themselves. Part of it is true of course, but with not such a big relative significance, considering the current structure of capitalism you are discussing! So this conversation needs a second part in the sense of Mo’s favorite :” What can we do about it and how can we make it happen!” Which combined with the AI future coming and the inevitable change of capitalism actually prompts a whole new series over the topic of how to create a different future altogether! So I hope we can welcome soon the “ How can we make it happen” series! Cheers, Mo!😅

[@flow963]

Is it fair to say what we in the West suffer from is a crisis of values? I too applaud Yanis genius & imagination. We, the people, need a society that enshrines human flourishing and ecological wellbeing as its gold standard.

[@normadenys8089]

Hi I am part of the public & so are my friends fyi we are far from wealthy and we have always known the IMF & many other financial institutions keep countries and people in debt

[@tonym670]

love u 2 Mo

[@bellakrinkle9381]

I wonder what Yanis has to say now, 5 months later! I will look for a recent report out interview of him. Sad days, ahead.

[@AeEa_13_31]

IN 2008 THE LETTING LOOSE OF BANKS WAS THE TRUE REASON OF THE CRASH. NOT THE CONSEQUENCE, BUT THE MOTIVE. REALLY OBVIOUS!

[@papi5377]

Pójdzie wiele z dymem. Bezpowrotnie z dymem. To zemstą Filipa za... 😉

[@nightoftheworld]

2:30 “I had no intention of being a politician, I’m an economist.”

[@Gumardee_coins_and_banknotes]

Capitalism does not get people out of poverty, governments do.

[@ProgressiveEconomicsSupporter]

FIAT money in itself is not the problem, but the disproportion of who is issuing hiw much (central vs private bank), what it is spend on (decided by whom) and in whose interest it is unequallöy disrtibuted, specifically the non-producrively used money. Looking forward to reading your book 😎

[@CommunistConsensus]

Societies form to allow specialization such that provisioning can be done more efficiently and in greater volumes for all of its members. Healthy and holistic citizens advocate nurturing policies and will not begrudge resource usage with best practices and procedures that see the nurturing done. The assumptions are based on the idea that whatever provisions are produced will be applied to the meeting of basic needs equitably. They are also based on the idea that everyone will have more time to focus on quality of life enhancements, equitably. But, most of all, although often unspoken, it is founded on the idea that the members who do not proclaim themselves political sociopaths with their actions warrant optimal autonomy and not just to simply survive. Consensus seeking strategies are what create the possibility of a society. Anything less creates conflict, even within a psychologically healthy/holistic society. Consensus seeking, within good faith actors, is a foundational principle for establishing and maintaining any healthy society. Democracy is a measure of the quantity of consensus, not its quality. Political sociopath: Someone who is willing to do harm to another for the sake of opportunity, social capital, hierarchy, profit and/or pleasure. Only a reduction in our tolerance of bad faith and political sociopathy will move us forward. All governance will descend into oligarchy, plutocracy and fascism at rates that are determined by the quality and stability of its consensus seeking strategies, the tolerance/intolerance of bad faith actors in its processes, its best practices policies and the quality of the documentation of data that goes into the making of its policy choices.

[@WilliamWallace-sc9cx]

👏👏

[@manikandangovindarajan8930]

The real impact will be our grand children may need $ 1000 for one meal and $ 5 million one month rent $ 9 bn loan to buy a small house $ 100 bn to manage the expense of one family of three for 30 to 40 years

[@FadiAzab]

I think it would be interesting to invite Saifedean Ammous (author of the Bitcoin standard) who would probably agree with Yanis on the problems of the global financial system but would argue that Bitcoin is the solution, not central bank digital currencies.

[@ignacioduran5993]

Yanis is "wise" or sly to propose that "new system" (ownership of the means of production by the workers) without calling it what it actually is by definition: socialism. Too many people still have propaganda induced "allergic" reactions to the term, but this is exactly what another clear headed thinker has been proposing all along: Richard Wolff and Democracy at Work, with their emphasis on the need to create more and more cooperatives, small and large ones, in which the workers own the companies they work at. Again, that is the definition of socialism. The role of the State is a completely different issue in the socialism of the future. In reality, however, if the State is also run truly democratically, is that not also a participant (worker/citizen) run "cooperative"?

[@flow963]

Yanis refers here (~56:15) to “blood on the streets”, “civil war in the US”, etc. During the previous Gilded Age - late 20th century - following the Great War for Incorporation of the Western US, the saying was, “there was blood on the moon”, so extensive was the fighting and volume of blood letting. When the system collapses this time, blood will boil in nuclear disaster and the furnace of climate change.

[@kristoffervl2739]

🙏

[@nightoftheworld]

2:38 *illogical economic austerities* “The most bankrupt European state [Greece] was given the largest loan in the history of humanity. Under conditions of crushing further, the incomes that were already so low as to make it bankrupt. And so it doesn’t take much to realize that this is a violation of basic logic.”

[@papi5377]

Jest gwarantowane, że właśnie USA UK kona [zachód] Czynniki! Czyny Filipa. Ma facet głowę karku. Że też jestem jego córką❤️ Ale narozrabiał.

[@MadsNordholm]

Yanis is a great thinker and a very likable human being. I do however think he is slightly mistaken as far as Bitcoin is concerned. Whilst I totally agree that the crypto markets as a whole are a giant pyramid scheme, I do think that a few projects (such as Bitcoin, Ethereum and a few others) stand out, because they have a more sound economic foundation than any government currency currently in circulation. Furthermore, it’s entirely possible to imagine the idea that Yanis has for the role of central banks as a separate entity owned and controlled by the people but - and this is important - completely separate from the state. For sure, none of the current cryptocurrencies function in exactly this way, but they are paving the way by spearheading the technological innovation required. And why is it important to have a currency not controlled by the state? Because it gives the people of this world a very powerful tool for keeping their elected politicians (a class which will always exist in a global society) honest and true to their mandate.

[@muteness]

when you study Bitcoin, you will understand why the IMF, BIS, World Bank etc... do what they do .... without Bitcoin, I would have never understood any of it!

[@christopherdobbie]

Gold standard was only ever back by 25%... so the rest was fiat. Also consider energy use against this increase in credit creation banks issue, it correlates near 100%. It will fail when energy can't be gathered to flush out the ills. Simple.

[@PMMagro]

Greece as "an emerging market" is a bit strange. Sure a lot can be learnt from Greece as a warning example. Grecee got independce in an war, an armed uprising to get out of the Ottoman Empire that left Greece independent and in debt upon creation 1831. Her allies had lent money and had opinions what Greece should or should not do to ensure the debt could be repapid to them. Greece should have been allowed to enter the state version of bancruptcy after 2008. Sure Greece should NEVER have been accepted into the EUR but still. What happened was bank loans to Euro-states was declared as never allowed to fail. Helping banks for sure but will they now only give sound and safe loans knowing taxpayers bail them out need be?

[@jaysphilosophy1951]

The saddest part is THERE IS NO PLAN TO FIX THIS.

[@nim3186]

42:56 The 2008 Real Estate crash of bogus loans for over priced properties was the moment I realized there is no such thing as money! TRANSFERABLE ASSETS = PHYSICAL ASSETS = STABILITY……you don’t own anything you are paying for.

[@manikandangovindarajan8930]

The best way to be happy is try to be single if you are not married even if want to get married no children please in this uncertain world find a place preferably underdeveloped country where you can manage with very little money or no money little land small house preferably in two locations in two different state or country where you find unpolluted air and water and grow your own food

[@JessicaCooper-m4i]

As I understand it we operate in the US we are a floating fiat currency .

[@imnotanalien7839]

How would you game the global money system if Britton Woods had not happened. The U.S. just came back after the war, and did nothing? Would the world be in better shape? Every country would have had to take care of themselves.

[@farinshore8900]

Are we talking finance or alchemy ?

[@manikandangovindarajan8930]

It is not no one will suffer much At some point everyone meaning more than 95% will will loose everything they think they OWN (they actually own the liability not the home because the owner of all the properties are some banker or other corporation or some wheathy smart individuals when you mortgage with a bank and reverse mortgage with another banker or somebody again somebody it is merged or clubbed together different people property with different market value and different loan portfolio etc it is a very very complex system no one even with lot of experience cannot make where exactly the real value stands when it crash globally everyone will know and suffer die The scar the memory will be for few years and again the gambling will start few will participate in the beginning and they will make some money and slowly most of the people will be in the gambling and beating when the final round comes most people who has access to finance and eligibility to borrow from the future will be part of the big ponzi scheme when it reaches a point it cannot grow beyond at the same pace when there is no one to accelerate further it will fail who ever got out of the gambling by Gods Grace will be little safe even their value of assets will come down to great extent someone who knows very well it is a gambling and they are lucky can make some good earnings out of the gambling game

[@JoBlakeLisbon]

Fairer and more equal according to who?

[@manikandangovindarajan8930]

tons of currency not money

[@zahedah80]

Money was not always an illusion. At the time of Prophet Muhammad, money was gold, silver, livestock, crops, and trade articles.

[@sabar2453]

Interest based economies will always have evil/unfair outcomes

[@MadsNordholm]

Gold and silver are also an illusion or at the very least an abstraction of value. Don’t believe me? Try eating silver for a month and then let’s talk again

[@DonikaJorgo-l7e]

Oh ne yanis...it's dead in evening after spaghetti eating and morning starts with on again.

[@LuckyLuke369-TeamRH]

Everybody having a bank account at the FED is the definition of CBDC... nice try Yanis

[@papi5377]

Dosłownie.

[@papi5377]

Czas dla kapitalizmu się skończył. Umarł.

[@papi5377]

To Joe koniec na tym.