[atmosx]

> When he went to Germany and tried to force their hands by feigning he might grexit, to his amazement the private response was more or less, how can we help you gtecit?

That's very poor understanding of what he did. What he said was we won't accept any more loans that we can't pay back and requested a sort of new deal for Greece which of course, included a large debt haircut.

He was never pro-Grexit. He was arguing that even throwing Greece out of the common currency was impossible, etc.

I understand that his way of doing things might confuse some people, but if you take the time to read/watch his interview his thinking is crystal clear: He wants to change the EU from within not disintegrate it. In fact he is trying to save the EU from itself (e.g. Brussels) by democratising the processes (e.g. add mics and records to Eurogrops, etc.).

Plus, I the ECB effectively closed the GR banks he had a plan of putting the ECB (Mario Draghi) against the Bundesbank. His own party kept him down stripping on of his only weapon by re-assuring the ECB behind his back that they'll not allowing him to use it. His plan was very clever.

[RobertoG]

"but if you take the time to read/watch his interview his thinking is crystal clear"

And here is, I think, the problem. In general people don't take the time, and that's OK, but then they have not problem in having a strong opinion, that they read in some interested media.

My advice to the people so inclined is: check some of Varoufakis (and others) youtube interviews. Read a little about what is going on.

Check, for instance, how Spain was allowed to spend without consequences above the deficit limits just before the elections.

Check how, in the same way there is a limit to deficits in the treaties, there is a limit in surplus that Germany don't feel it has to respect.

Or just think how it's impossible that everybody is in surplus at the same time.

Or how all integrated monetary areas have deficit and surplus regions and that is OK because they have some way to compensate the unbalances.

[atmosx]

Varoufakis is a kind of special case. I believe his personality combined with his charisma, puts fear in the establishment so they needed to discredit him as much as possible.

For example if you read the picture The Economist paints around him, as opposed to Dijsselbloem (Dutch Minister of Finance) who is technically several orders of magnitude inferior is astonishing.

Varoufakis said that when he went to the US, at the beginning of his tenure, someone (Larry Summers?) told him that he'll be the victim of an organised campaign of character assassination by Brussels. I found this claim a tiny bit far-fetched, but on the other hand, the amount of false claims the established media kept throwing at him is amazing.

I came across ppl who thought Varoufakis as a buffoon like Trump, Boris Johnson, etc. and other political figures who can't put two words together. V is not like that at all, he is a intellectual beast, with a surprising ability to simplify rather complex ideas.

[return0]

You are correct that he is all drama but we need to see more substance. None of his positions were actually original, and his actions are constantly divisive. I m sure he s interesting as a superstar tv person, but, other than his storytelling about the eurogroup meetings, his thought is not that coherent, it changes often and he often attacks strawmen (eg his critique of piketty). It makes him a lively interviewee, but doesnt gain him academic credit.