And the weak suffer what they must?
by Yanis Varoufakis · first published 2016
56% recommend44% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Firsthand account of the Greek debt crisis and eurozone negotiations from a former finance minister; readers say it clarified how EU politics and creditor interests shaped Greece's treatment. Useful for economics buffs.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
""The strong do as they can and the weak suffer what they must." --Thucydides The fate of the global economy hangs in the balance, and Europe is doing its utmost to undermine it, to destabilize America, and to spawn new forms of authoritarianism. Europe has dragged the world into hideous morasses twice in the last one hundred years... it can do it again. Yanis Varoufakis, the former Finance Minister of Greece, shows here that the Eurozone is a house of cards destined to fall without a radical change in direction. And, if the European Union falls apart, he argues, the global economy will not be
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> The Global Minotaur: America, Europe and the Future of the Global Economy by Yanis Varoufakis [1] Have you read "And the Weak Suffer What They Must?"? It's fantastic. Really helped shape my view before the EU Referendum here in the UK.
on “YC's Winter Reading List” ↗Yanis Varoufakis "And the Weak Suffer What They Must?: Europe's Crisis and America's Economic Future" Varoufakis fascinates and inspires me in that he studied math and mathematical statistics at a high level and moved into Economics at a high level (he's…
on “Ask HN: What was the best book you read in 2016?” ↗…"Elections cannot be allowed to change economic policy". Three years after the events recounted, this book is still very much relevant, and anyone wanting to understand EU politics ought to read it. -- 2) And the Weak Suffer What They Must? - Yanis Varoufakis (2016) Companion book to the first one, it explained how the Eurozone crisis came to be by recounting its history from the end of the second world war to today. A key book to understand…
on “Ask HN: 2018 Summer Reading List?” ↗…on its shoulders." This statement is ludicrous! There is no prosperity transfer of any kind to poorer states in the EU, and a very clear wealth transfer to the center of the EU. May I suggest you read "And the weak suffer what they must" by Yannis Varoufakis?
on “Companies Shouldn’t Be Accountable Only to Shareholders” ↗Might be worth taking a look at And the Weak Suffer What They Must?. While I still think Varoufakis is a bit too much of a calculated politician, the book is compelling in showing that the treatment imposed on Greece stemmed to an important degree from the creditor state's…
on “Varoufakis to Publish Notorious Eurogroup Recordings from 2015 Meetings” ↗Yanis Varoufakis wrote And the weak suffer what they must to explain the impact of austerity policies on Greece. He was (briefly) the finance minister in one of the Greek governments that had to manage this transfer of debt. Respectfully suggest reading the…
on “IMF admits euro problems and apologises for the immolation of Greece” ↗"And the Weak Suffer What They Must?" by Yanis Varoufakis (former Greek finance minster) has an interesting view on the mess that Greece (and indeed Europe and the rest of the world) is in. I don't think it's without flaws but it is certainly…
on “Goldman Buys $2.8B Worth of Venezuelan Bonds, and an Uproar Begins” ↗…stopped backstopping Europe's Bretton Woods system that kept Europe's currencies stable, making them convertible with US dollars and gold. (I'm not an expect in this area, I just sort-of-recently read "And the Weak Suffer What They Must?" by Yannis Varoufakis, and hopefully I'm remembering it more-or-less correctly.) https://www.amazon.com/Weak-Suffer-What-They-Must/dp/1568585...
on “WTF Happened in 1971? (2019)” ↗…state", as a wit later put it. But yeah, reading Thucydides (also an out-of-sorts Athenian) leaves you with a lingering doubt about the inherent goodness of political regimes - "The strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must."
on “Spartans Were Losers” ↗