Unauthorized Disclosure: Yanis Varoufakis
On this week's "Unauthorized Disclosure," Kevin Gosztola interviews Greek economist and author Yanis Varoufakis about his new book, "Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism."
Yanis argues that "Big Tech has replaced capitalism's twin pillars—markets and profit—with its platforms and [cloud] rents. With every click and scroll, we labor like serfs to increase its power."
Kevin asks Yanis to unpack many of the ideas in his book around technofeudalism, including "cloud capital," "cloud serfs," and "cloudalists." The cloudalists are the elites who have risen as a result of this global economic transformation. Think Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos.
Later in the show, Yanis outlines the impact this economic transformation has had or may have on geopolitics. He discusses China, the only country with cloud capital capable of rivaling the United States, and what the rivalry between China and the U.S. may mean for the Global South.
The interview concludes with Kevin inviting Yanis to share some words of support for his friend WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.