{Above all, the new system would reflect Keynes’s view that global stability is undermined by capitalism’s innate tendency to drive a wedge between surplus and deficit economies.}



This is where Varoufakis has got it wrong.



It's not Capitalism that is at fault, but the manner in which it is deployed. Unless, of course, he’d like to go back to bartering, which capitalism replaced a great many centuries ago. And what is faulty about the present version of Capitalism is its lack of International Control.



The Panama Papers scandal is still evolving, but the latest estimate is that there is as much as 12 trillion dollars in assets that have fled Russia, China and various other countries. All of which is, of course, someone’s untaxed assets beyond local tax authorities.



The amount is massive and simply shows how nonexistent are the control mechanisms necessary to assure “parentage” of the illicit funds. Fix that problem of parentage and regardless of where the money is in the world, it can be taxed and perhaps even repatriated.



More importantly, however, is the problem of thievery. The funds in question were not earned “honestly”. Particularly those resulting from, for instance, the Putin Mob’s illicit capture of Mineral Assets (petroleum, gas, etc.) that belonged to the Russian people.



Most of whom presently are undergoing major hardship and deprivation due to a recession in Russia. Those illicit funds could go a long way towards rebuilding Russia’s market-economy dynamic.



So, yes, something should be done, but no, nothing will likely be done. This problem has been festering since the early 1990s, when both the Iron and Bamboo Curtains came crashing down and a class of crooks inveigled those in power to participate in the wholesale purloining of state assets that were either bought on the cheap or simply stolen outright.



The people responsible should go to jail rather than enjoy their summers at mansions in St. Tropez on the seaside …



