
Debt and Power in the Digital Age

- DateThursday, 19 November 2026 (17:30 - 19:00) (UK)
- LocationMain Lecture Theatre (G03), Alan Walters Building, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham, B15 2SB
In light of the race for technological supremacy, and with AI intensifying that contest, Yanis Varoufakis will tackle one of the defining economic paradoxes of our age: how the countries that dominate the global economy have the largest global debt.
By highlighting how this connects with digital power and geopolitical rivalry, Yanis will call out how and where control of data and cloud infrastructure is concentrating economic power and the implications of this for economic prosperity, and any prospect of peace and stability, if the current economic system is not challenged.
Speaker Biography
Yanis Varoufakis
Professor of Economic Theory (Athens) and former Greek Finance Minister
Yanis Varoufakis is a globally renowned economist and author who came to prominence during the Greek debt crisis when he was called upon to serve as Greece's Finance Minister. Since then, he has become one of the world's most recognisable and provocative voices on debt, economic power and global stability. He is Professor of Economic Theory at the University of Athens and a University of Birmingham alumnus, having completed his MSc in Mathematical Statistics here in 1982.
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