And The Weak Suffer What They Must? by Yanis Varoufakis

Book Review by Rory Scothorne | 30 Mar 2016
Book title: And The Weak Suffer What They Must?
Author: Yanis Varoufakis

Last January, Yanis Varoufakis was catapulted from a quiet life as an economics professor into the centre of the eurozone crisis, as finance minister in Greece’s radical government. Five months later he resigned, having failed to win concessions from the European elite that controls Greek debt. This book is a withering critique of that elite and a history of European monetary economics, tracing the roots of Europe’s crisis back to 1944, when the economist John Maynard Keynes proposed a new set of institutions for the war-torn global economy.

Keynes and Varoufakis have obvious similarities beyond economics: towering intellects, eloquent communicators, both thrust into the historical limelight and defeated by forces out of their control. America vetoed Keynes’ proposals, with devastating long-term consequences, particularly the “inane”, “depoliticized” eurozone which stymied Varoufakis’ efforts.

His disdain for the eurozone’s irrationality drips from each page of this book, but it is hard to tell whether the villains are stubborn central bankers and finance ministers, or global capitalism itself. Varoufakis’ analysis suggests that the problem is systemic, but his proposals imply that the right elite, with the right ideas, might “save capitalism from itself.” The social movements, workers’ organisations and parties necessary for radical change only get a walk-on role in an otherwise thrilling set of historical dramatisations. Perhaps Varoufakis, like the Oxford-educated Baron Keynes, is a little too fond of elites to beat them.

Out now, published by Vintage, RRP £16.99