Adults in the Room

"After being swept into power with the left-wing Syriza party, Varoufakis attempts to renegotiate Greece's relationship with the EU--and sparks a spectacular battle, with global implications. Varoufakis's new position sends him ricocheting between mass demonstrations in Athens, closed-door negotiations in drab EU and IMF offices, and furtive meetings with power brokers in Washington, D.C. He consults and quarrels with Barack Obama, Emmanuel Macron, Christine Lagarde, the economists Larry Summers and Jeffrey Sachs, and others, as he struggles to resolve Greece's debt crisis without resorting to punishing austerity measures. But despite the mass support of the Greek people and the simple logic of his arguments, Varoufakis succeeds only in provoking the fury of Europe's elite. Varoufakis's unvarnished memoir is an urgent warning that the economic policies once embraced by the EU and the White House have failed--and spawned authoritarianism, populist revolt, and instability throughout the Western world."--Inside book jacket.