Adults in the room
by Yanis Varoufakis · first published 2017
58% recommend33% neutral8% critical
Why HN recommends it
An inside account of the 2015 Greek debt crisis negotiations, written by the finance minister who was there, offering insight into EU institutions and the politics of bailouts.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
"After being swept into power with the left-wing Syriza party, Varoufakis attempts to renegotiate Greece's relationship with the EU--and sparks a spectacular battle, with global implications. Varoufakis's new position sends him ricocheting between mass demonstrations in Athens, closed-door negotiations in drab EU and IMF offices, and furtive meetings with power brokers in Washington, D.C. He consults and quarrels with Barack Obama, Emmanuel Macron, Christine Lagarde, the economists Larry Summers and Jeffrey Sachs, and others, as he struggles to resolve Greece's debt crisis without resorting to
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OT, but for an excellent and gripping inside account of the Greek crisis drama I highly recommend Adults in the Room by Yanis Varoufakis (the academic-turned-finance-minister, until he was booted out half a year later). The crisis was managed irrationally and vengefully, and certainly with an eye on bailing out German…
on “Angela Merkel’s record on environmental policy has been a disaster” ↗1) Adults in the room - Yanis Varoufakis (2017) must read for anyone leaving in, or interested in the politics of the European Union; the book is a political memoir of Varoufakis' fight against the EU institutions during…
on “Ask HN: 2018 Summer Reading List?” ↗I fly a lot - so I listen to a lot of books. A lot of it is just vacuous action to pass the time (Rogue Warrior, Stephen King, etc) But I really appreciated the non-fiction "Adults in the Room" by Yannis Varoufakis. It is one of those books that I probably wouldn't have read in physical book form, but it provides so much insight into the world that we live in today - and why things are such…
on “Ask HN: What are the best audiobooks you've listened to?” ↗…mode, because usually (prime) ministers could be offered cushy European gigs as long as they do what the "elite" wants, but the non-tie-wearing Greeks actually wanted to save their population. The book "Adults in the Room" by Yanis Varoufakis is also an eye opener...
on “Putin's People – a groundbreaking study that follows the money” ↗The book "Adults in the Room" by Yanis Varoufakis is an eye-opening read on the anti-democratic and quite unpleasant elements of the EU.
on “In Europe, the bird will fly by our EU rules” ↗…3/5 Digital Apollo, David A. Mindell, 2,5/5 Le loup dans la bergerie, Jean-Claude Michéa, 5/5 The Tender Carnivore, Paul Shepard, 4/5 Scènes de la vie intellectuelle en France, André Perrin, 4/5 Adults in the Room, Yanis Varoufakis, 5.5/5 (really) Love's Executioner, Irvin Yalom, 5/5 OK, so out of these some are for pure space geeks; some are for political radicals that know French; some are for war and history…
on “Ask HN: Books you read in 2018?” ↗As well as upon Spain.. and Italy is languishing. You should read Yanis Varoufakis' book "Adults in the Room". The Troika (Eurogroup, IMF, ECB) basically bailed out German banks by funneling the money through Greece, the austerity was a side effect of the German finance minister not understanding the difference…
on “‘In my nightmares I'm always in the sea’: a year on from the Greek fires” ↗I highly recommend Yannis Varoufakis' books, especially Adults in the Room. Varoufakis was the Syriza finance minister who resigned when Tsipras caved to Eurogroup pressure to accept another "extend-and-pretend" bailout (as in, extend the debt maturity, pretend that Greece…
on “As Chinese investment pours into the EU, the Europeans are beginning to worry” ↗For anybody trying to understand why the world is the way it is (global politics and who really runs the world), I strongly recommend Yanis Varoufakis "Adults in the Room". It describes the EU and its major players and what really happens behind those closed doors (and it is nothing like what we see in the newspapers.)
on “Greece's Varoufakis to Run in European Election – In Germany” ↗…There are many parts of the EU that are democratically deficit, or anti-democratic, notably the Euro shared currency without shared monetary policy. Edit: s/monetary/fiscal Yanis Varoufakis's book "Adults in the Room" showed just how unpleasant the EU can be for its citizens.
on “They Thought They Were Free: The Germans, 1933-45” ↗Another good source, if you want a necessarily subjective, but I think sincere inside view, is the tell-it-all by famed former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis Adults in the Room: My Battle With Europe’s Deep Establishment. It's a bit technical occasionally, but really riveting and full of drama (unfortunately not fictional).
on “Why Italy Could Be the Epicenter of the Next Financial Crisis” ↗Yanis Varoufakis "Adults in the Room" is a book I enjoyed on the plane, but would probably never read in print format. It describes all the back-room dealing going on during the Greece economic meltdown. It was very insightful to see how…
on “Ash HN: What is your must-read audiobook?” ↗Having just read Adults In The Room: My Battle With Europe's Deep Establishment By Yanis Varoufakis I was interested how this was written up. Varoufakis obviously writes from a non-objective, polarised position, but I would expect he feels…
on “Greece emerges from eurozone bailout programme” ↗I got a different reading of the whole situation in 2015 from the book by Mr. Varoufakis himself, "Adults in the Room". TL;DR: the EU was never going to budge. They knew what he wanted was right, but they couldn't give Greece any political wins. And the Eurocrats were expert in shaping the story in the media, that you…
on “A Euro Tragedy” ↗…from the position of the financing minister. This has repeatedly been confirmed by all parties, both Varoufakis and members of the government. There's a book coming in September from Varoufakis, called "Adults in the Room" and as certain parts have leaked to the press it has sparked a lot of conversation the last weeks where more and more details of what really happened back then come to surface. Varoufakis openly accuses…
on “Big Companies and the Military Are Paying Novelists to Write Sci-Fi for Them” ↗