Global Minotaur

America, the True Origins of the Financial Crisis and the future of the World Economy

Yanis Varoufakis

In this remarkable and provocative book, Yanis Varoufakis explodes the myth that financialization, ineffectual regulation of banks, greed and globalization were the root causes of the global economic crisis. Rather, they are symptoms of a much deeper malaise which can be traced all the way back to the Great Crash of 1929, then on through to the 1970s: the time when a ‘Global Minotaur’ was born. Just as the Athenians maintained a steady flow of tributes to the Cretan beast, so the ‘rest of the world’ began sending incredible amounts of capital to America and Wall Street. Thus, the Global Minotaur became the ‘engine’ that pulled the world economy from the early 1980s to 2008.

Today’s crisis in Europe, the heated debates about austerity versus further fiscal stimuli in the US, the clash between China’s authorities and the Obama administration on exchange rates are the inevitable symptoms of the weakening Minotaur; of a global ‘system’ which is now as unsustainable as it is imbalanced. Going beyond this, Varoufakis lays out the options available to us for reintroducing a modicum of reason into a highly irrational global economic order.
 

Contents

Introduction

Labratories of the future

The Global Plan

The Global Minotaur

The Beast’s Handmaidens

Crash

The Handmaidens Strike Back

The Minotaur’s Global Legacy: The Dimming Sun, the Wounded Tigers, a Flighty Europa and an Anxious Dragon

A Future without the Minotaur?

About the Author

After teaching in various British Universities, Yanis Varoufakis spent twelve years teaching at the University of Sydney (Australia) before returning to Athens where he directs the University of Athens’ Political Economy Division. His earlier books include Modern Political Economics: Making sense of the post-2008 world (with J. Halevi and N. Theocarakis) and Game Theory: A critical text (with S. Hargreaves-Heap). Recently, he has emerged as an active participant in the debates over the Global, European and Greek Crises as well as a co-founder of www.vitalspace.org