DEMOCRACY NOW
Yanis Varoufakis on lost U.S. credibility in Middle East, from Iran deal to Israel embassy move (part1)
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In the latest economic fallout from President Trump’s decision to pull the United States out of the landmark Iran nuclear agreement, top White House officials said Sunday that the Trump administration is prepared to impose sanctions on European companies that do business with Iran. We get response from former Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varifoufakis, who was the chief negotiator of Greece’s bailout with the European Union and International Monetary Fund. He also discusses the opening of the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem and calls it a “civil rights catastrophe.” His new book is titled “Talking to My Daughter About the Economy: Or, How Capitalism Works—And How It Fails.” Varoufakis served as finance minister in Greece in 2015, before resigning from the Syriza government. He is also co-founder of Democracy in Europe Movement 2025, known as DiEM25.
AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now! I’m Amy Goodman. Our guest for the rest of the hour is Yanis Varoufakis, the economist and author of the new book Talking to My Daughter About the Economy: Or, How Capitalism Works—and How It Fails. But we’re going to start by talking about the latest economic fallout, from President Trump’s announcement that he’s pulling the United States out of the landmark nuclear agreement with Iran. Top White House officials, making the rounds on Sunday morning news programs, said the Trump administration is not only prepared to impose sanctions on Iran, but on European companies that do business there. This is White House National Security Adviser John Bolton on CNN’s State of the Union.
JOHN BOLTON: I think the issue here is what the Europeans are going to do, if they’re going to see that it’s not in their interest to stay in the deal. We’re going to have to watch what the Iranians do. They’d love to stay in the deal. Why shouldn’t they? They got everything they wanted from the Obama administration. But I think the Europeans will see that it’s in their interest, ultimately, to come along with us.
AMY GOODMAN: Last week, European nations scrambled to save the Iran deal, after Trump announced he’ll pull the U.S. out, Trump’s decision upsetting the U.S.’s European allies, casting uncertainty over global oil supplies and raising the risk of conflict in the Middle East. The 2015 agreement worked out by the United States, five other world powers and Iran.
For more, we’re joined here in New York by the former Greek finance minister, Yanis Varoufakis, chief negotiator of Greece’s bailout with the European Union and International Monetary Fund.
It’s great to have you back, Yanis. Talk about the significance of this and what this means—at the same time that the U.S. is saying they will sanction European countries, companies that work with Iran, they are telling the Chinese company that is also believed to have worked with Iran, that the U.S. said they were sanctioning, ZTE, that they are going to save Chinese jobs for that company, and, as President Trump tweeted, “be cool.”
YANIS VAROUFAKIS: What is happening, of course, there many different dimensions. One is the real issue about peace in the Middle East and the detrimental effect of this pulling out of the Iran deal is going to have upon it. But from Trump’s perspective, what he’s doing is he is luxuriating in rubbing the German government’s face in its own helplessness, because, let’s face it, Germany has a large trade surplus with the United States. When you have such a large trade surplus, you’re exposed to the United States and to whatever the U.S. administration wants to do. To be more specific, there are about 4,800 German companies that are doing business in the United States. And their business is—the balance sheet is about $600 billion. That’s a lot of money. The combination of the tax cuts that Trump is giving those German companies and the threat of third-party sanctions, if they do business in Iran, is a fantastic technique by which Trump is effectively taking his revenge upon Angela Merkel and making her look extremely weak within her own Cabinet. So there is this dimension, which, of course, in the grander scheme of things, is insignificant compared to the damage of what he’s doing to America’s and the West’s credibility in the Middle East.
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DEMOCRACY NOW
Yanis Varoufakis on Iran nuclear deal demise, US trade negotiations, Europe’s far right & capitalism (part 2)
In Part 2 of our interview with economist Yanis Varoufakis, the former finance minister in Greece and co-founder of the Democracy in Europe Movement 2025 discusses fallout from the U.S. withdrawal from the Iran deal, U.S. trade negotiations, the rise of right-wing politicians in Europe, the Greek economy and political developments, and Bitcoin. He also discusses his new book, “Talking to My Daughter About the Economy: Or, How Capitalism Works—and How It Fails.”
AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman, as we turn to Part 2 of our discussion with the former finance minister of Greece, Yanis Varoufakis. We turn to the latest economic fallout from President Trump’s announcement that he would pull the U.S. out of the landmark nuclear agreement with Iran, top White House officials making the rounds on Sunday morning news programs saying the Trump administration is not only prepared to impose sanctions on Iran, but on European companies that do business there. This is White House National Security Adviser John Bolton on CNN’s State of the Union.
JOHN BOLTON: I think the issue here is what the Europeans are going to do, if they’re going to see that it’s not in their interest to stay in the deal. We’re going to have to watch what the Iranians do. They’d love to stay in the deal. Why shouldn’t they? They got everything they wanted from the Obama administration. But I think the Europeans will see that it’s in their interest, ultimately, to come along with us.
AMY GOODMAN: So you have this extremely provocative act of the Trump administration pulling the United States out of the Iran nuclear deal, at the same time that the Trump administration has moved the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem—I mean, actually not officially, because it’s not been fully built yet, but the ceremony is happening today in Jerusalem. And you have the Israeli military at the same time in Gaza once again opening fire in the deadliest day of attacks on Palestinians. It’s believed, at least at the count of this broadcast, something like 37 Palestinians have been killed just today, as they engage in nonviolent protest on the border with Israel, bringing the total to well over 80 since March 30th, as these systematic nonviolent protests have been ongoing, leading up to the 70th anniversary of the founding of Israel this week, which Palestinians call the Nakba because of the mass displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians.
We’re joined by, yes, as I said, here in New York, the former Greek finance minister, Yanis Varoufakis, who was the chief negotiator of Greece’s bailout with the European Union and International Monetary Fund. He has a new book out. It’s titled Talking to My Daughter About the Economy: Or, How Capitalism Works—and How It Fails. Yanis Varoufakis served as finance minister in Greece in 2015, before resigning from the Syriza government. He’s also co-founder of DiEM25—that’s Democracy in Europe Movement 2025. It’s a grassroots movement to strengthen democracy throughout Europe.
Welcome back to Democracy Now! I’m glad you stayed with us for this Part 2. But I wanted to—before we talk about your book, in Part 1 of this conversation, you talked about President Trump really going after Angela Merkel, when it came to pulling out of the Iran nuclear deal. How do you see it in that way?
YANIS VAROUFAKIS: Well, Trump has never made any bones about it. He was always targeting the German trade surplus with—vis-à-vis the United States, and also the Chinese one. He has a mercantilist view. But so does the German government, in a sense. So there’s a clash there. And the combination of giving massive tax cuts to German companies and, at the same time—that’s a carrot. And then the stick is that if they continue to do business in Iran, effectively, they will be frozen out. This combination is effectively rubbing Angela Merkel’s nose in her own helplessness to impose the European Union’s policies on Iran, because, effectively, German business turns around to the German government and say, “You cannot protect us from Trump. We’re going to pull out of Iran, and we’re going to do more business in the United States.” So, that is a victory for Trump, but it’s a very short-term victory.
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