The Importance of the Primary Surplus

Yanis Varoufakis visits Google to discuss his book “And the Weak Suffer What They Must?”, a critique of the European Union’s austerity policies during the Greek financial crisis of the early 2010’s. In January 2015, Yanis Varoufakis, an economics professor teaching in Austin, Texas, was elected to the Greek parliament with more votes than any other member of parliament. He served as Greece’s Minister of Finance for five months in 2015. In his book, Varoufakis delivers a fresh look at the history of Europe’s debt crisis and America’s central role in it. He presents his case against austerity, proposing concrete policies for Europe that he believes are necessary to address excessive sovereign debt and avert contagion to America, China, and the rest of the world. With passionate, informative, and at times humorous prose, he warns that the implosion of an admittedly imperfect European monetary union should, and can, be avoided at all cost. Varoufakis is the Finance Minister of Greece. A Professor of Economic Theory at the University of Athens and a visiting professor at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs, he is the author of "The Global Minotaur: America", "The True Causes of the Financial Crisis" and "The Future of the World", among others. Originally published in April of 2016.

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