The Econoclasts

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The Econoclasts episodes

March 18 The West’s Iran crisis: Global recession & Russian revenue
In this episode of The Econoclasts, Yanis Varoufakis and Wolfgang Munchau dismantle the narratives surrounding the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, breaking down how the resulting energy shock could trigger a permanent global recession. As the West faces systemic economic damage and a depleted military arsenal, and Russia reaps a massive financial windfall, is the West sleepwalking into a dual defeat in both Iran and Ukraine?
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
36 min
March 11 How Iran exposed the West’s military weakness
🔗 Click the following link to get tickets to 'The Econoclasts LIVE' in London on March 23rd: https://unherd.com/econoclastslive

In this episode of The Econoclasts, Yanis Varoufakis and Wolfgang Munchau strip away the orthodoxies surrounding the ongoing conflict with Iran, and – via analysis of the 1953 CIA coup to the modern-day ‘Syrianisation’ of the Middle East - reveal a strategy-less West paralysed by its own deindustrialisation, dangerously dependent on China, and projecting power externally to mask a profound systemic rot at home.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
34 min
March 07 NATO’s hidden agenda & why Europe will fail Ukraine
In this episode of The Econoclasts, Yanis Varoufakis and Wolfgang Munchau target the orthodoxy of NATO’s post-1991 expansion as well as dismantling the prevailing narrative surrounding the war in Ukraine, including the logistical delusion of a Western victory and the dereliction of duty by European leadership that risks a global escalation.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
37 min
March 02 Trump’s Iran strikes and the new forever war
🔗 Click the following link to get tickets to 'The Econoclasts LIVE: Is Russia really a threat to Europe?' in London on March 23rd: https://unherd.com/econoclastslive

In this episode of The Econoclasts, Yanis Varoufakis and Wolfgang Munchau dissect the geopolitical fallout of the U.S. bombing campaign against Iran, arguing that the strikes signal a definitive shift toward a "permanent war doctrine" and expose how Donald Trump has abandoned his non-interventionist promises to embrace a neocon agenda of regional destabilisation. From the erosion of European sovereignty to the strategic victories handed to China and Russia, Yanis and Wolfgang challenge the "weapons of mass destruction" pretexts of the past and analyse the high economic and human cost of a conflict that seems designed to have no end.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
27 min
February 25 Why Trump will win the tariff war
🔗Go to unherd.com/econoclastslive to get your tickets to Yanis & Wolfgang's upcoming event!

In this episode of The Econoclasts, Yanis Varoufakis and Wolfgang Munchau pull back the curtain to reveal the shifting tectonic plates of the global economy, arguing that the world’s fixation on Donald Trump’s tariffs and Supreme Court rulings is a dangerous distraction from a much more profound transformation – namely a new form of power that allows Big Tech to hold the West to ransom, and an AI revolution that will permanently dismantle the foundations of human agency, private property, and the free market.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
34 min
February 18 Marco Rubio’s new world order & Starmer’s plan to rejoin Europe
In this episode of The Econoclasts, Yanis Varoufakis and Wolfgang Munchau dissect the false orthodoxies surrounding the current state of the transatlantic relationship and the UK’s post-Brexit strategy. Pointing to Marco Rubio’s Munich speech as a signal that America has pivoted its priorities away from its security guarantee with Europe, and highlighting Keir Starmer’s attempt to seek a backdoor return to the EU through regulatory alignment, they paint a stark picture of a West in transition, where old alliances are crumbling and delusional European leaders remain unable to confront the fiscal and military realities of a changing world order.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
38 min
February 11 The Starmer-Mandelson-Epstein scandal & Musk’s merger
In this episode of The Econoclasts, Yanis Varoufakis and Wolfgang Munchau confront the false orthodoxies of finance and power, beginning with a deep dive into the “rigged” valuation of the SpaceX-xAI merger and toxicity of stock buybacks, before clashing over Keir Starmer’s appointment of Peter Mandelson as US Ambassador, Mandelson's links to Jeffrey Epstein, and the resignation of Morgan McSweeney as proof of a clownish and ultimately doomed political strategy.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
37 min
February 04 Why gold and silver crashed & Trump’s Fed Chair pick
Following a historic price crash for gold and silver after President Trump picked Kevin Warsh to lead the Federal Reserve, Yanis Varoufakis and Wolfgang Munchau dismantle the orthodoxies surrounding the slump and connect the dots between Warsh’s Mar-a-Lago family ties, the toxic legacy of Quantitative Easing, and the inevitable shift toward fiscal dominance, exposing why the crash is a symptom of a dying central banking era and a warning of the dollar debasement yet to come.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
34 min
January 28 “This isn’t over”: Trump, Greenland & the Davos delusion
In this week’s Econoclasts, Yanis Varoufakis and Wolfgang Munchau engage in a deconstruction of multiple modern economic and geopolitical myths, from Mark Carney’s Davos speech to the shifting power dynamics between Europe and the United States. Was Carney’s much-lauded call for a new multilateral alliance actually a muddled and hypocritical attempt to revive a global order that has already ruptured? And was Europe’s “victory” over Trump with regard to Greenland actually delusional cheerleading, when the declining continent remains trapped by a deep dependency on American technology, the dollar, and security infrastructure?
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
39 min
January 21 Europe’s fatal Greenland mistake & China’s real power
In the week when President Donald Trump vowed to implement a wave of increasing tariffs on European allies until the United States is allowed to buy Greenland, Yanis Varoufakis and Wolfgang Munchau dissect the terminal decline of European sovereignty and the shifting pillars of the global economy. Is Europe unable to confront Trump due to its total reliance on American technology and defence? And while the U.S. and China embrace disruptive economic models to maintain their dominance, why does the EU choose to preserve a failing status quo rather than pursuing the radical political union necessary for survival?
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
39 min

About The Econoclasts

From the publisher's feed

The Econoclasts is a new podcast from UnHerd hosted by economist Yanis Varoufakis and journalist Wolfgang Munchau. While they don't always agree politically, they are united in one conviction: the…