Greece's new finance minister is Yanis Varoufakis. Until very recently he was basically just an academic, albeit one who has become know for being loudly outspoken on Greece's & Europe's economic problems. He has only grudgingly become involved in politics (and Syriza).
I've been following his blog for some years, as he has had many interesting things to say about Europe's problems, and a point of view which is rarely heard on mainstream news. As such I think I've a half-decent understanding his point of view, despite not being an economist myself... but fear that his huge number of blog posts make it difficult for anyone suddenly interested in him to understand why he should be welcomed rather than feared.
Rather than do a poor job at summarising his views, I thought it would be better to point to a handful of his best blog posts. Those that give a good overview & have little economist jargon. I've tried to put them in order, starting with the most helpful first, but you could certainly skip some articles (in part or whole) if they don't (yet) make sense to you:
A bit of background on him, before he achieved "fame" (or at least notoriety!) for speaking about Europe's & Greece's problems, although the main body of the article is about why he was hired for a couple of years by Valve (creators of Steam - the PC's biggest games digital marketplace):
http://blogs.valvesoftware.com/economics/it-all-began-with-a-strange-email/
Why he accepted an offer to join the Syrizas party:
http://yanisvaroufakis.eu/2015/01/09/why-i-am-running-for-a-parliamentary-seat-on-syrizas-ticket/
Two nice short overviews of why he thinks massive loans in exchange for massive austerity in Greece (and other failing European countries) is only hiding the problem, and has in fact been making it worse not better:
http://yanisvaroufakis.eu/2013/11/08/ponzi-austerity-a-definition-and-an-example/
http://yanisvaroufakis.eu/2012/05/31/from-ponzi-growth-to-ponzi-austerity/
He draws parallels between the financial crash of 1929 & that of 2008, and argues whether Germany/Europe should reconsider it's current method of bailing-out Greece:
http://yanisvaroufakis.eu/2012/02/05/is-greece-still-viable-is-europe-my-piece-in-deutsche-welle-de/
A long-ish interview about his (and someone else's) Modest Proposal (to
solve Europe's economic problems), which they've been pushing since 2010, and gives a quite nice (if now slightly out-of-date)
summary of how we got into this mess & what might be done to get us
out:
http://yanisvaroufakis.eu/2012/12/16/taking-stock-of-the-global-and-euro-crisis/
http://yanisvaroufakis.eu/2012/12/16/taking-stock-of-the-global-and-euro-crisis/
A long-ish, but very easy to follow, article on how Europe ended-up in the current situation. You don't NEED to read it, but it would surely help understand almost everything else he has written about Europe's problems. Personally I found it a fascinating glimpse into how & why the world went down the particular path it did:
http://yanisvaroufakis.eu/2014/08/29/why-is-europe-not-coming-together-in-response-to-the-euro-crisis/
A summary of his Modest Proposal (to solve Europe's economic problems), followed by a more-technical check of it's predictions (which you may wish to skip):
http://yanisvaroufakis.eu/2012/11/10/a-world-without-the-global-minotaur-why-is-the-world-economy-failing-to-recover/
A brief explanation of why they recently had to update their Modest Proposal:
http://yanisvaroufakis.eu/2013/07/11/taking-stock-of-the-euro-crisis-a-prelude-to-the-forthcoming-version-4-0-of-the-modest-proposal/
The latest version of their Modest Proposal (to solve Europe's economic problems), that takes account of more recent issues, which is split into 5 fairly short pages:
http://yanisvaroufakis.eu/euro-crisis/modest-proposal/
One journalist's view of their Modest Proposal, which may help put it in context:
UPDATE:
I dare anyone to suggest more Austerity is the answer after reading this short summary of the terrible state of Greece (from a couple of year ago - the situation is surely far worse now) :
http://yanisvaroufakis.eu/2013/03/04/on-the-social-conditions-in-greece-now/
This article is now 3 years old, but it might perhaps still provide some insight into where the Syriza party may take Greece:
http://yanisvaroufakis.eu/2012/02/18/greek-default-does-not-equal-greek-exit/
UPDATE:
The world should listen to Greece’s big idea about debt:
http://qz.com/340448/the-world-should-listen-to-greeces-big-idea-about-debt/
