Adults in the Room

My Battle with the European and American Deep Establishment

By: Yanis Varoufakis

Narrated by: Leighton Pugh

Length: 20 hrs and 14 mins

Publisher's summary

A number one Sunday Times best seller 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 renegotiate Greece's relationship with the EU - and sparks a spectacular battle with global implications. Varoufakis' 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' arguments, he succeeds only in provoking the fury of Europe's elite.

Varoufakis' 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.

©2017 Yanis Varoufakis (P)2017 Macmillan Audio

Critic reviews

"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)

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.

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?

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.

Horrifyingly Excruciating

I was prompted to read this book after listening to an interview by Daniel Denvir on Jacobin's "The Dig" podcast with Varoufakis and Brazilian presidential candidate Fernando Haddad at the New School in New York City. I've already read "And the Weak Suffer What They Must?" but have yet to read his latest title.

This is play-by-play of Varoufakis' six months as Minister of Finance in Greece in 2015, surrounding their third bailout.

Varoufakis' goal as finance minister was to restructure Greece's debt so that it was more sustainable. For reasons which this book does not adequately elucidate, this was not an objective of the troika. Given this scenario, Varoufakis planned on Grexit, but his prime minister, Alexis Tsipras, chickened out on the plan and repeated the failures of the previous administration.

The narrative is excruciating. There are moments of hope repeatedly through the text, chronically dashed. If you're interested in learning about international finance, it is a worthwhile text.

The surprising hero of the book in Bernie Sanders, who repeatedly had Greece's back. Apparently Sanders and Varoufakis recently launched an initiative called the Progressive International as a tonic to the spread of rightwing nationalism.

I'm left wondering what the Venn diagram of Varoufakis, Mark Blyth, Mary Mellor, and Andrew Ross might look like.

In conclusion, it seems we're much closer to World War III than I would have wished. Trump's election is entirely explicable given Greece's story.

Fascinating insights of the inner world of politics

May not add much concretely to one's life...but if one cares to know how the inner world of politics and democracy (or lack of) works...this is a must read. Varoufakis is definitey rare a breath of fresh air. Thanks for writing it

Insightful read

Few people can capture the essence of a story and represent it in a such compelling way as Mr. Varufakis. He is clearly a brilliant person and capturing writer with his heart being in the right place.

Memorable book.

The "deep establishment"

I continued to be on the edge of my seat listening to Varoufakis' heartbreaking account of what happened to the Greek masses during the 2015 financial crisis. I could not help but constantly be reminded of how Germany contributed to both World Wars because the ruling class in Germany wanted to catch up with their Imperial Brethrens and have their "fair share" of the Scramble for the World Resources. They might not have been victorious then but certainly seems like they have been movin' on up and part of the club now. the irony is especially painful since Germany's debt was canceled in 1953. So glad that Varoufakis wrote this book to expose the ugly hierarchy of European powerfuls.

The best listening book ever

This has been the most enjoyable book to listen to ever. The author gives play-by-play chronological account of the Greek radical left government's negotiations with the European troika in 2015 to re-structure the Greek debt. This book "listens" like a thriller or spy novel, it kept me on the edge of my seat. I could not put it down and I listened to the whole thing straight through, till wee hours of the morning. I was extremely disappointed that the book ended. What the book has to say about how the key EU institutions function will blow your mind, including the fact that the all-powerful European Commission [which is part of the troika] is completely and utterly subservient to German interest to which it is both a fig leaf and a door mat. You will be blown away to find out the Europe is run not by democratically elected institutions but by so-called advisory bodies where all the power is held and all members are "graduates" of Goldman Sachs.

The huge downside is that now I am pessimistic about being able to find an audio book that will keep me as captivated as this one. I listened to quite a few audio books and I can tell that chances of that happening are very small. My biases? - I have been extremely interested in the subject of Greek debt as I think it is and will continue to be among the most significant political and economic stories of our time. The fate of Europe and its democracy, and by extension the fate of the entire world, will for generations be shaped by how the Greek crisis will eventually be handled. That said, [and Varoufakis will tell you this himself], the story of the Greeks is by now over as it is indeed just beginning. We now have DEM 25, an all European democratic party that might save and remake Europe forever. Hope this review was helpful. Best, JL

Outstanding and timely

I was expecting to read about the failures of austerity, the naked hypocrisy of European technocrats, and the doomed left populist movement. What I was not expecting was a edge of the seat journalistic thriller. The author manages to build suspense while using extreme detail to fully flesh out the high stakes context in every scene. One memorable passage involves a heated, multi day negotiation over the addition or subtraction of a single word in a document without ever losing the narrative thread.

The narrator was excellent, with strong pacing, impeccable pronunciation, and believable but not over the top accents.