Book: Adults in the Room - Yanis Varoufakis

Very, very interesting book that I wanted to read for quite a while. In 2015 I was 23 years old and did not quite grasp the importance of what was happening, nor had any idea of the economics and politics in the background.

A few months ago I sat down to listen many of the recordings of those Eurogroup meetings that Varoufakis shared, and I also read lots of transcripts. I was amazed and shocked. This book was triggering the same feelings while I read it.

Although I do not expect Varoufakis to share all of his mistakes, he does share some of them, and, of course, other people’s too. All of the interactions between different real-life characters - such as Christine Lagarde, Alexis Tsipras, Yannis Stournaras, Jeroen Dijsselbloem, Wolfgang Schäuble, Mario Draghi - are so revealing. Revealing of a world behind closed doors. A world where decisions are made, decisions that lead to mistakes, mistakes that influence millions of lives, lives that are directed one way or another to their utter ignorance. One would expect more structure, more open discussions, more thought being put in all of these decisions. And one would be wrong, as is evident of the current situation of the world.

When the Covid-19 pandemic hit, every European country was shitting its pants and -of course- only cared about itself. Russia has invaded Ukraine again, Turkey is creating a new war on its eastern borders, inflation has been growing to more than 10% in many European countries. Greece’s assets (train lines, airports, shipyards, power companies, etc) have been sold off for breadcrumbs, tax evasion is still going strong, fascists are now part of the ruling party, nepotism and corruption is as high as ever, police brutality has peaked. And the banks, the country, the people are still bankrupt. And there is still no plan to exit this bankruptcy. Only a plan to keep paying the creditors, by all means possible. Bailoutistan indeed.

I would recommend reading this book, to every European citizen. Even if you hold a grudge against Varoufakis, you dislike him for this reason or that - what he writes he has lived. He may not be writing all sides of the story, and it would be nice to have a similar kind of book from others - say Schäuble - but the truth about the Greek crisis of 2010 is out, not only because of Varoufakis, but also thanks to Merkel, Obama and others. And the truth is now irrefutable, for anyone who wants to learn it.