Debate on current global economic issues with Yanis Varoufakis
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In this Smart Talk video series, Andrew Mazzone interviews new Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis and President of Common Ground NYC Scott Baker and debate current global economic issues. Debate Topic: Current and Global Economic Issues Date: November 09 ,2013 Location: Henry George School of Social Science and Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs, University of Texas,Austin,USA Host: Andrew Mazzone - President of Henry George School of Social Science Guests : Yanis Varoufakis - Economist, Professor of University of Texas at Austin, USA, Professor of University of Athens, Greece Transcript: http://www.henrygeorgeschool.org/uploads/Smart_Talk_Transcript_Interview_Varoufakis_Scott_v02.pdf Yanis Varoufakis is a Greek economist and is the new Finance Minister of Greece after he was elected to the Greek parliament, representing Syriza. He took office in the new government of Alexis Tsipras on January 27, 2015. Scott Baker - President of Common Ground NYC, NY State Coordinator of Public Banking Institute, Opednews Blogger/Senior Editor, Huffington Post Blogger, Author In 1945, America was a dominant power in the world with 50% of the manufacturing capacity of the world. The world was on its back and therefore the U.S. had to step in and switch from its protectionist system it had to more of a globalist free-trade system. New dealers following the 1929 stock market crash realized that by just simply fixing exchange rates, massive capital flows were created leading to instability. Therefore, to fix this there was a need to regulate for capital flows and recycle the surpluses. These surpluses were being recycled by the U.S. mainly between 1950 and 1965 and approximately near 70% of the American profits and surpluses were recycled primarily to Western Europe and Japan. All of these actions performed were known as the Bretton Woods agreement. The Bretton Woods agreement, however, collapsed in 1971 due to the surpluses being converted to deficits. This system collapsed because of the abusement of the exuberance that the U.S. had post World War II, with the thinking that the success of would continue. This abusement lead to the printing of dollars to support the Vietnam War and the Great Society program. It turned out, however, that the costs for supporting these events were underestimated leading to the creation of a deficit. As the deficit grew, the situation reversed as the U.S. was taking into its territory the net export of Europe, Japan, and even China when before the U.S. was exporting more than importing. The productivity was not as it used to be before the Bretton Woods agreement collapse so as a result there was wage deflation and jobs were being lost. The working and middle-class people were being affected the most from this decline in productivity. Henry George School of Social Science has launched Smart Talk, a series of discussions with leading economists around the world moderated by Andrew Mazzone, president of the HGS board of trustees. For transcript of this video, please visit: http://hgsss.org/smart-talk-with-andrew-mazzone-yanis-varoufakis-and-scott-baker/ We invite you to watch the Smart Talk videos of discussions with some of the most talked-about economic and social thinkers of our times, please visit: http://hgsss.org/smart-talk/
Comments
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Cool Music! Like some 80's action series.
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What the hell with that music underneath varoufakis's voice?what is that? Why?
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For those of us who Do know American history, what he said at 3:30 is absolutely false. America went from the depths of a great depression to become a world economic and military power in the span of 12 years, by leaving the gold standard in 1934.
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Cmon... Take away the music. I cant concentrate all that well with music playing the background. Otherwise, good discussion.
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he is a lying hypocrite that constantly contradicts himself!!!! just look at the results of Varoufucknkle's "policies"!!!! Don't fall for his bullshit and delusions of adequacy... he is a slimy, treacherous little bankster stooge and US/IMF/Soros puppet...
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What's with the distracting background music.
I'd appreciate it if anybody could reupload this without the music.
Thanks! -
Could I suggest something gentlemen for you to think?
What if we look at the real role of tools and institutions. For example, banks were formed to supply credit. They are far away from their role today. What if the legislation for the banks demands to go back to their real role? Will be only credit providers and not business entities listed in markets as they are today, running after their share price?
And what if you keep the capital markets to their real role and you only use the capital markets for the industry which is what they were formed for? That immediately will keep away any other product that is coming in as synthetic and creates this “financial monopoly” as you call it?
I believe that if this was permitted to happen, you would immediately have a balance in both the financial markets and the industry if you combine it of course with the LVT tax implementation. -
We currently have the technology for
cheap, environmentally friendly, safe energy:
Molten Salt Thorium Reactors.
http://thoriumenergyalliance.com/ThoriumSite/portal.html
But the energy monopolies won't allow it to be used. -
Enjoyed the debate, shame about the distracting graphics and irritating music though...
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Very good debate indeed.
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Another style thing - can you all see each other on your screens? Can you keep the view of the others in the same eyeline as the cameras filming you? I think it would improve the visuals and keep the speakers more closely engaged. The effect of you all perhaps not being able to see one anothers facial reactions, as well as looking to the side of the cameras -- well, it just has a weird effect..
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Very interesting talk, thank you for doing this. I read Varoufakis' "Global Minotaur" and found it vital to my understanding of our current circumstances. And I think too that this kind of extended debate/discussion format is also indispensable in a world of 30 second soundbites. So congratulations, I look forward to more of these.
I'd like to hear Michael Hudson, Mike Whitney, Dean Baker, Richard Wolff - at the very least.
Thanks!
Silly style note - I don't know if it is intentional, but if it is, I think you can lose the background music, it has an unpleasant effect to my ear. But very minor criticism.
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