The Econoclasts

In today’s Venezuela special, Yanis Varoufakis and Wolfgang Munchau expose the reality behind the abduction of Nicolás Maduro and the dawn of a ‘Donroe Doctrine’ that signals the end of international law. As the first days of 2026 unfold, could Trump’s gangster-style intervention actually be emboldening Putin and Xi, and are Greenland and Canada truly the next targets on the list? And in a ‘Putinised’ West where European leaders remain non-entities, is this merely a regime change in Caracas, or a strategic flooding of the zone designed to shatter the transatlantic alliance and usher in a new era of transactional warfare? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this special year-end edition of The Econoclasts, Yanis Varoufakis and Wolfgang Munchau dissect 2025 - a pivotal year and annus horribilis for the European Union in a world reshaped by a G2 power structure, where a resurgent Russia, a technologically dominant China, and a tariff-wielding Trump administration have left Europe and the UK strategically "snookered." From the collapse of international law and the death of the green transition to the rise of Cloud Capital and autonomous AI warfare, Yanis and Wolfgang shatter the comforting myths of the centrist establishment. As capitalism mutates into a predatory digital feudalism, how can we make the distinction between empirical optimism and the necessity of human hope as we enter 2026? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week on a special Q&A edition of The Econoclasts, Yanis Varoufakis and Wolfgang Munchau confront the uncomfortable truths of 2025. From the economic death trap currently paralysing German society, to why nationalist parties like the AfD are sympathetic to Putin, America’s waning interest in NATO, and BRICS’s blockchain-based new world order - Yanis and Wolfgang look back on a year in which global values were rubbished. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, Yanis Varoufakis and Wolfgang Munchau take aim at two prevailing myths: the widespread belief that Greece's recovery is a heartwarming success story—a model for debt-laden nations like Germany and the UK—and the soft centre-left idea that the EU can "go it alone" and challenge the United States politically and economically. Is Greece's success real, or just a financial illusion? And is a meaningful decoupling from a tariff-wielding America possible, or is the dream of a strategically independent Europe dead? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, Yanis Varoufakis and Wolfgang Munchau take aim at two prevailing orthodoxies. Is the explosive AI boom really a bubble, or is the technology itself forcing a non-reversible shift away from capitalism and toward a new age of Techno-Feudalism? Plus, are Trump's orders to sink Venezuelan boats and kill sailors really about a "War on Drugs," or is that just a cynical cover story when what the administration really want from Venezuela is oil? And if the term "war crime" is wrong, should these acts be called something far more chilling: extrajudicial murder?The Econoclasts is the podcast from UnHerd in which Yanis Varoufakis and Wolfgang Munchau each week pick pillars of the economic orthodoxy – so-called ‘settled facts’ – and shatter them. Why? Because, while they don’t always agree politically, they’re united in one conviction: the consensus is rotten and the establishment’s model is failing.If you have a question for Yanis and Wolfgang then now is your chance. Send us your Econoclastic questions and they'll answer them on a future episode of the show. Email your questions to us at [email protected] Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.