He's an interesting guy no doubt, but accounts tell us he was just doing his job. When he went to Germany and tried to force their hands by feigning he might grexit, to his amazement the private response was more or less, how can we help you gtecit? Despite appearances, he did not want grexit and was a ploy to get better terms, but the ecb had already discounted Greece.
> When he went to Germany and tried to force their hands by feigning he might grexit, to his amazement the private response was more or less, how can we help you gtecit?
That's very poor understanding of what he did. What he said was we won't accept any more loans that we can't pay back and requested a sort of new deal for Greece which of course, included a large debt haircut.
He was never pro-Grexit. He was arguing that even throwing Greece out of the common currency was impossible, etc.
I understand that his way of doing things might confuse some people, but if you take the time to read/watch his interview his thinking is crystal clear: He wants to change the EU from within not disintegrate it. In fact he is trying to save the EU from itself (e.g. Brussels) by democratising the processes (e.g. add mics and records to Eurogrops, etc.).
Plus, I the ECB effectively closed the GR banks he had a plan of putting the ECB (Mario Draghi) against the Bundesbank. His own party kept him down stripping on of his only weapon by re-assuring the ECB behind his back that they'll not allowing him to use it. His plan was very clever.
He had a plan (allegedly it was a Plan B) for the exit of the Euro if Brussels (actually Berlin) continue with the craziness. The Greek primer minister decided not to continue with the plan and he resigned as finance minister.
The primer minister could be accused of cowardice, but we have to understand that Greece was threaded with the shut down of its financial system in what, in the opinion of a lot of people, was an illegal movement by the ECB (1). It was a really difficult decision.
> When he went to Germany and tried to force their hands by feigning he might grexit, to his amazement the private response was more or less, how can we help you gtecit? Despite appearances, he did not want grexit and was a ploy to get better terms..
That's sort of my problem with him though. I don't think of him as either a hero, or a jerk, or a guy doing his job, but simply an idiot. He was trying to bluff with a hand that everyone knew was empty, and of course it didn't work.
As a Greek I consider him a jerk. He enforced capital controls due to his incompetence and his ideological approach to financing. Furthermore, he's a pathological liar. While in many occasions he had admitted the faults of the Greek economy he never took specific actions in correcting them.
If it wasn't for the group of clowns that constitute the current government and gave him the keys to the economy, nobody would give a flying fuck about what he says. He's a second rate economist at best.
> While in many occasions he had admitted the faults of the Greek economy he never took specific actions in correcting them.
By doing what, exactly? The country was bankrupt. In such a situation, the only sensible thing to do is default. Instead, Greece will be a 3rd world country with almost no public assets, and mass unemployment for decades.
Regaining competitiveness through decades of internal devaluation is, to me, far less preferable than default. What Greece was given was like Versailles on steroids.
Greece had stopped getting any bailout funds way before Varoufakis or the current Government were in power. The IMF had already said that the program had failed.
Morally it's on those who give out loans to make sure that they can be repaid. It's wrong that Greece took these huge loans as well, but also it's wrong to suggest that they have to pay them back. Everyone has the option to default when they are unable to pay and this was clearly the situation for Greece (and probably Spain and Italy, maybe even UK soon enough).
Varoufakis fought to find solutions that would allow Greece to actually be able to repay their debt. When that proved to be impossible, he refused to sit by and lend his name to a deal he didn't believe was in Greece or Europe's best interests.
He's not a hero to this one Greek of the "working class". All he managed to do during his tenure was set in montion a series of events that would greatly worsen the financial condition of Greece.
mc32|8 years ago
At least he tried, for sure.
atmosx|8 years ago
That's very poor understanding of what he did. What he said was we won't accept any more loans that we can't pay back and requested a sort of new deal for Greece which of course, included a large debt haircut.
He was never pro-Grexit. He was arguing that even throwing Greece out of the common currency was impossible, etc.
I understand that his way of doing things might confuse some people, but if you take the time to read/watch his interview his thinking is crystal clear: He wants to change the EU from within not disintegrate it. In fact he is trying to save the EU from itself (e.g. Brussels) by democratising the processes (e.g. add mics and records to Eurogrops, etc.).
Plus, I the ECB effectively closed the GR banks he had a plan of putting the ECB (Mario Draghi) against the Bundesbank. His own party kept him down stripping on of his only weapon by re-assuring the ECB behind his back that they'll not allowing him to use it. His plan was very clever.
RobertoG|8 years ago
He had a plan (allegedly it was a Plan B) for the exit of the Euro if Brussels (actually Berlin) continue with the craziness. The Greek primer minister decided not to continue with the plan and he resigned as finance minister.
The primer minister could be accused of cowardice, but we have to understand that Greece was threaded with the shut down of its financial system in what, in the opinion of a lot of people, was an illegal movement by the ECB (1). It was a really difficult decision.
(1) https://diem25.org/thegreekfiles/
Analemma_|8 years ago
That's sort of my problem with him though. I don't think of him as either a hero, or a jerk, or a guy doing his job, but simply an idiot. He was trying to bluff with a hand that everyone knew was empty, and of course it didn't work.
elorant|8 years ago
If it wasn't for the group of clowns that constitute the current government and gave him the keys to the economy, nobody would give a flying fuck about what he says. He's a second rate economist at best.
krona|8 years ago
By doing what, exactly? The country was bankrupt. In such a situation, the only sensible thing to do is default. Instead, Greece will be a 3rd world country with almost no public assets, and mass unemployment for decades.
Regaining competitiveness through decades of internal devaluation is, to me, far less preferable than default. What Greece was given was like Versailles on steroids.
And to make it worse, it's going to happen again, and again. I'd say we're due another club-med crisis any moment now. http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-02-26/european-debt-bomb-...
atmosx|8 years ago
antman|8 years ago
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