Conversation With Former Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis

FEATURING YANIS VAROUFAKIS – On Saturday April 23rd, we hosted the first in our Rising Up Speaker Series, with former Greek Finance Minister, Yanis Varoufakis. Varoufakis is a distinguished economist – he has taught economics at a number of universities around the world including Cambridge University in England, the University of Sydney, the University of Glasgow, Athens University in his home country of Greece, and at my alma mater, University of Texas at Austin.

It was during his time in Austin that I had the chance to interview him on the phone in 2012 about the impending Greek fiscal crisis. And then, in early 2015 Varoufakis was elected to the Greek Parliament with the left-wing Syriza Party. He was the most popular representative, garnering more votes than any other MP. Syriza Party leader and newly named Prime Minister Alexis Tspiras picked Varoufakis to be the new Finance Minister of Greece. Five months later, he resigned and set to work on a new book, which follows from his earlier book The Global Minotaur: America, the True Origins of the Financial Crisis and the Future of the World Economy.

Varoufakis’ new book is called And the Weak Suffer What They Must: Europe’s Crisis and America’s Economic Future. After his event on Saturday, April 23, in Pasadena, California, Sonali sat down with him for a conversation about his experiences and insights.

Highlights of Varoufakis’ talk as part of our Speaker Series are available on our website. If you subscribe to our On Demand Premium Content channel, you can watch the whole talk that he gave on Saturday, unedited. You can also rent or buy the right to stream the video file HERE.

Yanis Varoufakis, economist and former Greek Finance Minister, author of And the Weak Suffer What They Must? Europe Crisis and America’s Economic Future.