The Econoclasts

The UK’s investment trap & the lie behind Western wealth 21.07.2026 40min

In this episode of The Econoclasts, Yanis Varoufakis and Wolfgang Munchau dissect the political delusions stalling Western growth, debunking the idea that state investment alone can revive the UK, exposing Europe’s dangerous tech gap behind America and China, and revealing how flawed economic data hides declining US living standards. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Europe’s populist panic & China’s real free market 14.07.2026 37min

In this episode of The Econoclasts, Yanis Varoufakis and Wolfgang Munchau dissect the establishment’s self-defeating 'lawfare' strategy against rising right-wing populists like Marine Le Pen, and Nigel Farage, while debunking the myth that capitalism is synonymous with free markets by contrasting Western state-protected monopolies like SpaceX with China’s highly competitive, state-guided economic model. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The tragedy of America 250 & the truth about Ukraine 07.07.2026 38min

In this episode of The Econoclasts, Yanis Varoufakis and Wolfgang Munchau analyse the structural decay of American hegemony at its 250-year milestone, while exposing the corporate and political motivations behind the media's distorted Ukraine war narrative used to justify a domestic defence heist funded by ballooning public debt. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The great Brexit myth & Germany’s industrial collapse 30.06.2026 39min

In this episode of The Econoclasts, Yanis Varoufakis and Wolfgang Munchau debunk the popular orthodoxy surrounding Brexit, exposing the phoney statistics used to fabricate a narrative of British macroeconomic self-harm, while dissecting the existential reality of Germany's inevitable structural collapse through its automakers' loss of the critical AI and EV race to China. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The fall of Starmer & Europe's great energy swindle 23.06.2026 36min

In this episode of The Econoclasts, Yanis Varoufakis and Wolfgang Munchau dissect the fallout of Keir Starmer’s resignation to expose a broader Western leadership crisis, before debunking the myth of the free market to reveal the hidden corporate swindle rigging European electricity prices - a systemic failure that is not only driving up consumer bills but starving the continent of the energy capacity needed to compete with the US and China in the AI race. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

NATO’s narrative collapse & Anthropic’s AI shutdown 16.06.2026 37min

In this episode of The Econoclasts, Yanis Varoufakis and Wolfgang Munchau expose the dangerous flaws of a newly hyped Trump-Iran pre-deal, reveal how Europe's aggressive shift toward wasteful defence spending is a delusion built on exaggerated threats, and uncover a widening technological chasm where aggressive US nationalist regulations and a stagnant European mindset are combining to leave the West severely outpaced by China’s productivity-boosting integration of AI and robotics. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Germany’s historic humiliation & Britain's financial trap 09.06.2026 37min

In this episode of The Econoclasts, Yanis Varoufakis and Wolfgang Munchau debunk conventional wisdom by analysing Germany’s shocking UN Security Council voting failure as a symptom of its diplomatic hubris and international unpopularity, while tearing down the illusion of British sovereignty to reveal how the United Kingdom has become a financial vassal completely trapped by its dependence on leveraged American capital. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

AI's job apocalypse & the transhumanist endgame 02.06.2026 34min

In this episode of The Econoclasts, Yanis Varoufakis and Wolfgang Munchau debunk the delusions surrounding artificial intelligence by examining how its recent ability to solve complex mathematical problems signals a massive structural threat to the global labour market, while warning against the transhumanist endgame of 'Techlord' Silicon Valley elites like Elon Musk and Peter Thiel, who view Homo sapiens as mere primitive hardware to be replaced by cyborgs. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Europe’s China trap & capitalism’s AI death knell 26.05.2026 37min

In this episode of The Econoclasts, Yanis Varoufakis and Wolfgang Munchau debunk the mainstream economic orthodoxies surrounding Europe's aggressive tariff strategy against China while simultaneously warning that the rise of AI and Big Tech is not the future of market capitalism but rather its death knell, as centralised platforms trap society in a new era of techno-feudalism. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Trump's secret China truce & Labour's economic chaos 19.05.2026 38min

In this episode of The Econoclasts, Yanis Varoufakis and Wolfgang Munchau debunk the mainstream narratives around Donald Trump’s recent Beijing summit, reveal how the West’s geopolitical delusions disadvantage it in a new cold war with China, and expose the flawed economic strategy of Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham as he attempts to replace a failing Keir Starmer. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The end of Starmer & Trump’s shady Iran scam 12.05.2026 37min

🔗Get your tickets for The Econoclasts Live with Hasan Piker here: http://unherd.com/econoclastsliveIn this episode of The Econoclasts, Yanis Varoufakis and Wolfgang Munchau dissect Keir Starmer’s attempts to maintain power in a declining UK economy alongside the paradoxical surge in US market wealth triggered by Donald Trump’s war with Iran - a conflict that is failing to smoke out Tehran while simultaneously enriching a narrow elite of tech lords and fracking independents at the expense of the global working class. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Trump vs. Merz & how London broke Britain 05.05.2026 39min

🔗Get your tickets for The Econoclasts Live with Hasan Piker here: http://unherd.com/econoclastsliveIn this episode of The Econoclasts, Yanis Varoufakis and Wolfgang Munchau debunk the myth of European strategic sovereignty and the lie at the heart of the City of London, exposing how Germany’s failure to innovate within its declining car industry leaves it defenceless against Trump’s revenge tariff assault, while the UK’s ‘finance curse’ has replaced productive industrial investment with a parasitic reliance on property speculation and shareholder payouts. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The dollar's Gulf bail-out & the end of US hegemony 28.04.2026 34min

In this episode of The Econoclasts, Yanis Varoufakis and Wolfgang Munchau debunk the orthodox view that the newly established U.S. dollar swap lines for Gulf states are a charitable bailout for the Middle East, arguing instead that these facilities are a desperate signalling mechanism designed to bail out the American financial system and the petrodollar recycling machine, as the escalating war in Iran threatens to permanently dismantle U.S. economic hegemony. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

China's AI war victory & Europe's desperate Russia reunion 21.04.2026 31min

In this episode of The Econoclasts, Yanis Varoufakis and Wolfgang Munchau pull back the curtain on the fairy tales of Western geopolitical and technological independence, arguing that Europe is sleepwalking into a decade of industrial decline and techno-vassalage because it has allowed its core innovation to be hollowed out by Silicon Valley, while simultaneously failing to acknowledge the reality that its own energy security and economic survival will ultimately force a desperate reconnection with Russia, even as China successfully weaponises Western sanctions and digital isolation to leapfrog a generation ahead in the global AI war. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Trump’s Hormuz backlash & Hungary’s revolution illusion 14.04.2026 33min

In this episode of The Econoclasts, Yanis Varoufakis and Wolfgang Munchau dismantle the orthodoxies surrounding the Iran war and Hungarian election by arguing that Donald Trump’s "blockade of the blockade" in the Strait of Hormuz is less a repeat of the 1956 Suez crisis than a catalyst for a new electro-economy and a non-dollar financial architecture, while simultaneously warning that the landslide victory of Péter Magyar over Viktor Orbán is not the liberal restoration the West is celebrating, but rather the replacement of one right wing leader with a fresh face of the same illiberal nationalism. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Iran’s asymmetric victory & Europe’s looming energy shock 07.04.2026 34min

In this episode of The Econoclasts, Yanis Varoufakis and Wolfgang Munchau dissect the crumbling facade of Western geostrategic and economic orthodoxies, arguing that the United States has already reached a military checkmate against Iran, while simultaneously warning that Europe’s delusion of energy independence and perilous vulnerability to supply shocks will likely collapse into a humiliating, American-mediated return to Russian gas. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Europe’s Iran delusion & Palantir’s road to extinction 31.03.2026 39min

In this episode of The Econoclasts, Yanis Varoufakis and Wolfgang Munchau dismantle the orthodoxies of European leadership and AI-driven warfare, breaking down how the EU’s structural fragmentation make it incapable of filling the global power vacuum, and exposing how corporations like Palantir provide absolution from accountability by replacing human judgment with the clinical, automated efficiency of cloud capital. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Econoclasts LIVE: Iran and the New World Disorder 25.03.2026 56min

Live from a packed Emmanuel Centre, the Econoclasts brought their podcast to London for a sweeping ‘around-the-globe’ deconstruction of the failing orthodoxies shaping our modern world. From the structural drivers of ‘forever wars’ in the Middle East to a sobering analysis of the Ukraine-Russia stalemate and the undeniable rise of Chinese technological supremacy, Yanis Varoufakis and Wolfgang Munchau strip away the myths regarding China’s industrial success and Europe’s own productivity collapse, and debate whether the West’s current trajectory can be reversed or if we are witnessing a permanent shift in the global balance of power. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The West’s Iran crisis: Global recession & Russian revenue 18.03.2026 35min

In this episode of The Econoclasts, Yanis Varoufakis and Wolfgang Munchau dismantle the narratives surrounding the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, breaking down how the resulting energy shock could trigger a permanent global recession. As the West faces systemic economic damage and a depleted military arsenal, and Russia reaps a massive financial windfall, is the West sleepwalking into a dual defeat in both Iran and Ukraine? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How Iran exposed the West’s military weakness 11.03.2026 33min

🔗 Click the following link to get tickets to 'The Econoclasts LIVE' in London on March 23rd: https://unherd.com/econoclastsliveIn this episode of The Econoclasts, Yanis Varoufakis and Wolfgang Munchau strip away the orthodoxies surrounding the ongoing conflict with Iran, and – via analysis of the 1953 CIA coup to the modern-day ‘Syrianisation’ of the Middle East - reveal a strategy-less West paralysed by its own deindustrialisation, dangerously dependent on China, and projecting power externally to mask a profound systemic rot at home. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.