Varufakis Yanis

Yanis Varoufakis is a Greek economist.

In 1976 he entered a university in Greece, but two years later moved to the United Kingdom.

At the University of Essex, he first studied physics, and later statistics and economics. After graduating, he entered the University of Birmingham and two years later received a master’s degree in mathematical statistics. He left England after Margaret Thatcher’s third victory in the third consecutive election.

From 1988 to 2000 he lived in Sydney, working at a local university; he obtained Australian citizenship.

In 2000 he returned to Greece to teach at the University of Athens. From 2002 to 2008, he headed the University of Athens doctoral program (UADPhilEcon).

Since January 2013, he has been teaching at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs, a division of the University of Texas at Austin. James K. Galbraith, a professor at the University of Texas who works with him, characterized Varoufakis as follows: “Yanis, in terms of activity and intellect, is the most powerful figure I have encountered in our generation.”

From January 2004 to December 2006, he worked as an economic adviser to Giorgos Papandreou, and several years later became a fierce critic of his government (2009—2011).

Later, Varoufakis became one of many economists of Keynesian, institutionalist, and Marxist orientation included in the economic team of the Coalition of the Radical Left (SYRIZA). The post of finance minister was offered to Yanis after SYRIZA won the snap parliamentary elections in Greece and formed a coalition with the Independent Greeks.

On January 29, 2015, he announced meetings with the finance and economy ministers of the United Kingdom, France, and Italy to revise the terms of European Union loans. He also stated the possibility of supporting sanctions against Russia and denied the possibility of turning to it for financial assistance. Earlier, as a lecturer at the University of Athens, he had voted against awarding V. V. Putin the title of honorary doctor of the university.

In negotiations with creditor representatives, he consistently defended demands for writing off part of the foreign debt and rejecting the anti-social demands of