7 things you should know about Yanis Varoufakis

Breaking: Greek finance minister Varoufakis resigns

Yanis Varoufakis became one of the most influential European politicians overnight a few months ago. He raised an enormous interest when he became Greek Finance Minister because of his unusual style and his anti-austerity message.

Varoufakis is loved by some and hated by others. But do we know who he is? Where he comes from? Here you have some interesting facts about his life.

Who is Yanis Varoufakis?

Born: March 24, 1961 (age 54)

Yanis Varoufakis is a Greek-Australian economist. He is the current Finance Minister of Greece. In the January 2015 general election, he was elected to the Greek parliament, representing SYRIZA.

Read more:

• Yanis Varoufakis: A Speech of Hope for Greece
• Varoufakis: We couldn't accept "seriously recessionary" proposal

1. What was his role in Valve corporation, a videogame company?

Valve is a company that developed well-known video games like Half Life or Counter-Strike. Varoufakis was hired in 2011 to create a virtual currency for Steam, an online video games distribution platform.

Varoufakis says he was hired by Valve "to forge narratives and empirical knowledge that transcend the border separating the 'real' from the digital economies, and bring together lessons from the political economy of our gamers' economies and from studying Valve's very special (and fascinating) internal management structure."

This is the letter that Valve’s boss sent to Varoufakis when he offered him the job:

“I have been following your blog for a while… Here at my company we were discussing an issue of linking economies in two virtual environments (creating a shared currency), and wrestling with some of the thornier problems of balance of payments, when it occurred to me “this is Germany and Greece”, a thought that wouldn’t have occurred to me without having followed your blog. Rather than continuing to run an emulator of you in my head, I thought I’d check to see if we couldn’t get the real you interested in what we are doing.”

Read more:

• Varoufakis: A New Deal for Greece – a Project Syndicate Op-Ed
• Greek Crisis: A Greek Tragedy Hub

2. What was the relationship between Varoufakis and Papandreou?

From January 2004 to December 2006, Varoufakis served as economic adviser to George Papandreou, of whose government he was to become an ardent critic a few years later.

Read more:

• Yanis Varoufakis at the Eurogroup: Greece's Proposals to End the Crisis
• Greek FinMin Varoufakis will ask Eurogroup for bailout extension of few weeks

3. Is Varoufakis still updating his own blog?

Varoufakis was a very active publisher on social media networks and on his own blog. When he became Finance Minister he was advised to close down his blog. Nevertheless he still publishes some of his opinions on his blog and that has been FXStreet republishing for many years now.

Read more:

• Yanis Varoufakis Reports on FXStreet
• Varoufakis featured on FXStreet years before becoming Greek FinMin

4. What is Varoufakis’ salary?

Yanis Varoufakis earned $100.000 per year as a visitor professor at Lyndon B Johnson School of Public Affairs in 2014, according to data released by TexasTribute.org.

Unfortunately, there’s no public information about his current salary as a Finance Minister of Greece.

Read more:

• Varoufakis: On the social conditions in Greece, now
• Varoufakis says there is no more room for further concessions

Source: TexasTribute.org

5. Is Varoufakis married?

Varoufakis is married to Danae Stratou
Believe it or not, Google shows a special card with biographic information about his wife. 



Paris Match published a controversial interview and photo-reportage about Varoufakis and his wife in March. Varoufakis regretted the aesthetics of the interview, while some of his colleagues criticized not only the aesthetics but the content and the luxury life they showed. 




There has been speculations that Danae Stratou was the inspiration behind Pulp’s greatest hit “Common People”.



Read more:

• What we’re reading: Bloomberg’s terminal dominance; Virtu’s HFT business; S&P CEO’s; Varoufakis and Pulp
• Yanis Varoufakis in conversation with John Nash Jnr on Ideal Money
• Greece Economic Indicators

6. What did Yanis Varoufakis look like when he was younger?

Varoufakis in October 1993 (aged 32) in Australian Television (ABC) about the Greek Elections.

7. Did Yanis Varoufakis write books?

Varoufakis is the author of several books on game theory, but not only:

• Europe after the Minotaur: Greece and the Future of the Global Economy. 
• Economic Indeterminacy: A personal encounter with the economists' most peculiar nemesis.
• The Global Minotaur: America, the True Origins of the Financial Crisis and the Future of the World Economy. 
• Modern Political Economics: Making sense of the post-2008 world.
• Game Theory: A critical text. 
• Foundations of Economics: A beginner's companion.
• Game Theory: A critical introduction.
• Rational Conflict. 
• Conflict in Economics. 

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