Adults in the Room: My Battle with Europe’s Deep Establishment by Yanis Varoufakis (review)

Yanis Varoufakis — an articulate, Westerneducated economist and a selfprofessed game theory fan — was appointed minister of finance in the first antiausterity, leftwing SYRIZAled government that came to power in Greece in January 2015, following two emergency bailout agreements (also known as “memoranda”) and nearly six years of sharp tax hikes and deep wage and pension cuts imposed by the lenders (the socalled Troika): the International Monetary Fund (IMF), European Central Bank, and European Union. Even though Varoufakis’s stint lasted a mere 162 days (January – July 2015), his tenure was nothing short of dramatic, associated with intense and often very public sparring with representatives of Greece’s lenders, threats of Grexit, and the imposition of capital controls. Shortly after leaving the post, Varoufakis promised an account of his tumultuous days at the helm of the country’s economy. And he delivered. Although selfserving, as is the case with nearly all memoirs, Adults in the Room is a firsthand account detailing the suspenseful events, the twist and turns, and the roles and behavior of the key players involved in what is arguably the most dramatic chapter in the sovereign debt saga that has engulfed Greece since 2008. The former minister’s chronicle is based on his recollections, notes he kept during official meetings, conversations with various participants, “corroboration of other witnesses,” as well as “audio recordings that [he] made on [his] phone.” Until the crisis hit, political power in Greece alternated between the centerright New Democracy party and the centerleft Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK).