Adventure stories for economists …
As expected, Syriza have won the Greek elections, taking a near majority and forming a government with a minority right wing populist party, and so far none of my fears have been realized (yay). As expected, Syriza’s “radical” economist Yanis Varoufakis has been selected as finance minister, putting him on a direct collision course with the Troika. Varoufakis seems like an interesting guy, and it will be interesting to see what the burden of his position does to him. He is young, an academic economist until he decided to run for parliament, seems to be quite a handsome chap, and is also a dual citizen of Greece and the Duchy of Edinburgh Australia. So now it appears Australia has two finance ministers, Matthias Corman the actual finance minister of Australia who was born in Belgium and Yanis Varoufakis, the Greek finance minister who was born, somewhat surprisingly, in Greece. Yanis Varoufakis has written a book and is also a private consultant for Valve, the game company responsible for Half-Life and Steam. I wonder if he’s a gamer?
That’s a pretty interesting background and, whatever one might think of his political views, pretty solid qualifications for a finance minister. In sad comparison, Matthias Cormann has been a political apparatchik since the 1990s, has an undergraduate degree in law, and has never written anything as far as I can tell. But in addition to writing a book and some academic articles, Varoufakis also maintains a blog. He’s just like me! And in his latest post he has promised to try and keep blogging while working as a minister, which I suspect makes him the first ever blogger finance minister. This potentially means we are going to get some kind of real-time coverage of how and what the finance minister of Greece is thinking as he negotiates with the EU, IMF and ECB on the tricky issue of Greek debt. He has previously written alternative solutions to the problems of public debt in the EU, which seem to have worked their way into The Economist. His blog is a pretty interesting read, and if he does manage to find time to maintain it while managing his new position I think it will make a fascinating and unique contribution to both the blogosphere and the disciplines of economics and politics.
This also gets me thinking: will there come a day when an active role-player gets into the halls of power, and chooses not to stop gaming? Imagine if they turned up at conferences, and you could role-play with the US president … (I bet there’d be no rules-lawyering at that table! “Why can’t I get +2? It’s in the rules!” “I am the president of the USA, you get whatever bonus I give you!”) Or if they were a regular commenter at an RPG forum, posting in between meetings with heads of state to complain about why Bards are the worst character class. Maybe they could run online role-playing sessions where they run adventures in all the trouble spots they’ve invaded and messed up, until it gets to the point that the electorate start thinking the President is only starting new wars so that he can have new campaign settings. That may seem crazy, but it seems like a better rationale for a war than the gloop we were actually fed before Gulf War 2…
Greece has been suffering difficult economic times, and it seems obvious that something has to be done. Austerity has failed Europe dismally, and the economic pressures it is creating are being released through politics of the worst kind, as extremist right wing parties grow in influence across the continent, perhaps most especially in Greece. The search for a solution is going to be really challenging for Syriza, and it is my hope that they will find a solution that makes Greeks better off, and averts the social catastrophe they seem to be sliding towards. Yanis Varoufakis seems like a man well-placed to take on the job, and it is my hope that he can find success despite the challenges he faces. I also hope he can find the time to blog about it, so we can get some insight into what happens both behind the scenes and behind the man. Good luck, Dr. Varoufakis, and I hope more bloggers in future (and eventually, more gamers) can get to the halls of power.
And remember, if you find Greek debt challenges too tough, you can always come to Australia and help out our government…
Compromise and Conceit 
January 28, 2015 at 7:33 am
Hey, the current Australian government is doing great!
Before the last election, my stated position was it was time to “Crank the handle” and get the Gillard government out. We’d then do the same to Abbott if he was no good and so on ad nauseam.
The reason the current government is doing great is they’re 100% behind my policy. They’re not drifting along an a fugue state that would make the decision whether to kick them out hard, they’re working hard like it’s a baby eating contest with Attila the Hun.
And that’s why we should respect them. Any government can commit to providing good or average leadership and management for the country. Only a truly great government can deliberately drive their car into the wall over and over again in order to provide the Australian electorate a chance to demonstrate out complete lack of patience for this nonsense.
Tony Abbott, I salute you with this knighting sword! Now knee over this block so we can take your head off (figuratively)…
January 28, 2015 at 11:42 pm
Haha! Let’s hope this Greek government manages to avoid the repetitive car crash scenario. I’m sure Tony Abbott will love to be remembered by his conservative brethren as “that conservative PM who was not as good as a radical leftist mob in Greece”….
January 29, 2015 at 7:15 am
Even Bolt has come out against the Sir Philip decision – “I’m all for conservatism, but this decision from 14th century England baffles me.”
January 29, 2015 at 9:50 am
… and he “broke his holidays” to do it. Poor Bolt, my heart bleeds for him. He wanted a leader who is friends with the IPA and denies climate change, i.e. someone completely disconnected from reality. Now he is shocked – shocked I tell you! – that his preferred PM shows appalling judgment, and the party he and his mates drove to the Tea Party right has a lack of alternative talent. Poor Bolt.
If this keeps up Bill Shorten will be able to campaign for the next election on one promise: “I pledge to stay alive until the polls close.” Can the modern ALP manage to keep that promise!?
January 29, 2015 at 12:22 pm
“I pledge to stay alive until the polls close.” Can the modern ALP manage to keep that promise!?
There is a reasonable chance that he can’t. Now that it’s apparent that Tony Abbott believes self immolation is a politically winning move every cannibal in the Labour ranks knows they have a good shot at taking the brass ring of the PM-ship.
Shorten should immediately move into a safe room style lock-down. No opposition minister or backbencher should be allowed into the room with him without being thoroughly searched.
Failure to do so can only lead to Shorten’s body being found in a shallow ditch and the survivor of the Night of Long Knives mournfully blaming Tony Abbott for the Massacre. Followed by Abbott mis-speaking in such a way as to claim responsibility…