I’d read reviews of Yanis Varoufakis’s recent book Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism about the new kind of economic power exercised by Big Tech, but I hadn’t yet read it. SMH economics maestro Ross Gittins has written a useful summary of the book’s thesis.
To wit, that the digital revolution has created a new capitalist paradigm, with economic relationships that recall feudalist structures of yore. And by the way, boosted the huge wealth of the founders of Microsoft, Meta, Google, Apple, Amazon, who make up six of the world’s ten richest billionaires.
So, I’m lazily relying on Ross, more than last time – Varoufakis’s analysis sounds cogent to me, based on that short summary, but I may get around to reading it myself.
Yanis taught economics at Sydney University, and was Minister of Finance in the Greek government during the 2008 financial crisis, who resigned over EU-imposed austerity measures.
His 2016 book And The Weak Suffer What They Must is a harsh critique of the European Union’s financial systems and politics, written by a self-confessed ‘erratic Marxist’. He now leads a left-wing pan-European political party, which he founded. An interesting character.
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