Adults in the Room

My Battle with the European and American Deep Establishment

De: Yanis Varoufakis

Narrado por: Leighton Pugh

"Leighton Pugh narrates this work as if it were an unsolved mystery...In a voice of nuanced emotion, Pugh creates muted characters to paint a vivid picture of what the author was up against as he tried to save his country." — AudioFile Magazine

A Number One Sunday Times Bestseller transformed into an illuminating, dynamic audiobook.

What happens when you take on the establishment? In Adults in the Room, renowned economist and former finance minister of Greece Yanis Varoufakis gives the full, blistering account of his momentous clash with the mightiest economic and political forces on earth.

After being swept into power with the leftwing Syriza party, Varoufakis attempts to re-negotiate Greece’s relationship with the EU—and sparks a spectacular battle with global implications. Varoufakis’s new position sends him ricocheting between mass demonstrations in Athens, closed-door negotiations in drab EU and IMF offices, and furtive meetings with power-brokers in Washington, DC. He consults and quarrels with Barack Obama, Emmanuel Macron, Christine Legarde, the economists Larry Summers and Jeffrey Sachs, and others, as he struggles to relieve Greece’s debt crisis without resorting to punishing austerity measures. But, despite the mass support of the Greek people and the simple logic of Varoufakis’s arguments, he succeeds only in provoking the fury of Europe’s elite.

Varoufakis’s unvarnished memoir is an urgent warning that the economic policies once embraced by the EU and the White House have failed—and spawned authoritarianism, populist revolt, and instability throughout the Western world.

Adults in the Room is an extraordinary tale of brinkmanship, hypocrisy, collusion, and betrayal that will shake the global establishment to its foundations.

A must-listen for anyone interested in current events and the delicate web of global economics.

Reseñas de la Crítica

"Leighton Pugh narrates this work as if it were an unsolved mystery...Pugh turns what might have been a dry collection of facts into a morality tale with heroes and villains. In a voice of nuanced emotion, Pugh creates muted characters to paint a vivid picture of what the author was up against as he tried to save his country. " -AudioFile

"Varoufakis has written one of the greatest political memoirs of all time . . . it is the inside story of high politics told by an outsider . . . Varoufakis gives one of the most accurate and detailed descriptions of modern power ever written." —Paul Mason, The Guardian

"A stylish memoir . . . deeply personal and very well written, with an impressive array of literary allusions . . . [Varoufakis] outlines a cogent case against the austerity heaped on Greece." —Kevin Featherstone, Financial Times

"Riveting . . . An extraordinary account of low cunning at the heart of Greece's 2015 financial bailout . . . [Varoufakis is] a motorcycling, leather jacketed former academic and self-styled rebel who took pleasure in winding up the besuited political class . . . An admirably believable depiction of a Greek and European tragedy." —John Kampfner, The Guardian

"One of my few heroes. As long as people like Varoufakis are around, there still is hope." —Slavoj Žižek

"A very, very clever person, and in the basic argument about what's been going on in Europe I think he's right." —Martin Wolf

"An outstanding economist and political analyst." —Noam Chomsky

"The most interesting man in the world." —Business Insider

"The Thucydides of our time." —Jeffrey Sachs

GREEK TRAGEDY

Yanis Varoufakis gives listeners a glimpse of decisions made when a national government is compelled to declare a national debt crisis. To fairly understand "Adults in the Room", one will struggle with Varoufakis long story. His story is about restructuring rather than refinancing the debt owed the E.U. and IMF for a national debt crisis. A distinction between restructuring and refinancing is needed to understand Varoufakis's story. In "restructuring" the terms of repayment are revised on an original debt, while in "refinancing" the debtor's burden is increased.

At best, one concludes, restructuring Greece's debt was a great idea that could have achieved a decent compromise for its lenders. On the other hand, one wonders what the leaders of Greece were doing when the repayment crises first began to show itself. There were undoubtedly some powerful and rich Greek leaders who could have come to the aid of their country in this 21st century "time of need". Great leaders of Greece's past fail to show up even though the general population rejects the E.U.'s and IMF's decision to refinance rather than restructure Greek debt. One is reminded of the heroic defense of Greek citizens in Crete when Nazis invaded their strategically located island. Where were the descendants of the many great Greek heroes of antiquity?

Important piece of recent history

This is one of the best and most honest accounts of both recent history and inner workings of politics and establishment.
A must-listen for everyone interested in politics, especially for Europeans.

An Extraordinary and Very Important Story

A rare outsider's expose of the secret inner workings that dominate western democracies. Highly recommended.

Exceptional economic documentary

Exceptional economic documentary written by a visionary economist who is anchored by humanity and the plight of those that reap the bitter rewards of misguided oligarchs and government officials.

Hearing an insider’s perspective.

It’s not often one can get the insider’s side of what really goes on in the world of politics and economics, fascinating. Competent narration.