Technofeudalism

What Killed Capitalism

By: Yanis Varoufakis

Narrated by: Yanis Varoufakis

In a revelatory and pathbreaking work, the #1 international bestselling economist opens our eyes to the new power that is reshaping our lives and the world . . .

Big tech has replaced capitalism's twin pillars—markets and profit—with its platforms and rents. With every click and scroll, we labor like serfs to increase its power.

Welcome to technofeudalism . . .

Perhaps we were too distracted by the pandemic, or the endless financial crises, or the rise of TikTok. But under cover of them all, a new and more exploitative system has been taking hold. Insane sums of money that were supposed to re-float our economies after the crash of 2008 went to big tech instead. With it they funded the construction of their private cloud fiefdoms and privatized the internet.

Technofeudalism says Yanis Varoufakis, is the new power that is reshaping our lives and the world, and is the greatest current threat to the liberal individual, to our efforts to avert climate catastrophe—and to democracy itself. It also lies behind the new geopolitical tensions, especially the New Cold War between the United States and China.

Drawing on stories from Greek myth and pop culture, from Homer to Mad Men, Varoufakis explains this revolutionary transformation: how it enslaves our minds, how it rewrites the rules of global power, and, ultimately, what it will take overthrow it.

©2023 Yanis Varoufakis (P)2023 Melville House

Critic reviews

“The Thucydides of our time.”—Jeffrey Sachs

Out with the Old(Capitalism) in with New(…)

Modern-day capitalism has transformed from Profit-seeking to Rent-seeking and turned all of us into free laborers. We need a new market system based on the democratic concept of one-citizen, one-vote, to a one-worker, one-share corporate system without owners and speculators gaining obscene wealth, but all of society.

Overall Pretty Good — 7.5/10

The first 80-90% of the book is pretty solid. The author goes off the deep end of being a super lefty at the end. It’s his book and his opinion, it just took away from the rest of the book, in my opinion. I didn’t expect this to be a call to action for a global techno-socialist/communist world order. It was a pretty hard left (no pun intended), that didn’t seem to connect a ton with the rest of the reading. Overall, good diagnosis of problems and how the cloud/ICT has changed the economic landscape. Whether you’re left, right, or somewhere in between, overall I do think this is a good book. Great contents in addressing the problematic incentives of modern capitalism, especially around the present/future of how technology drives the distribution of wealth in America (and now China). You could probably read the first 5 chapters and get 95% of the information in the book. End chapter on China is good, too.

Original and ambitious

The author offers an original analysis of global macroeconomics in the last several decades and ideas of where things could be heading. It’s very thought provoking and never boring. The author’s enthusiasm and humanity shines through. I’m glad the audiobook is read by the author, Greek accent and all.

Feudal Relationships have returned to our economy with a vengeance.

I am not sure that I agree with Varoufakis’ claim that we are now in a new feudal age where organized capital is becoming purely rent seeking through the technological innovations of social media data mining, and information extraction. He is onto something though, and it is disturbing.

One of the best economics books I’ve ever read

I’m a big fan of Varoufakis and this book was a piercing analysis about our current deranged economic and geopolitical system. The scales will fall from your eyes. Read this. Now.