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Capitalism has already ended and the world has entered an era of “techno-feudalism” where big tech companies wield unprecedented power over human behaviour, former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis said.
Speaking to Euronews after his panel at Web Summit Qatar, where he delivered a stark warning about the state of the global economy, Varoufakis said debates about capitalism miss the point.
“Capitalism has already ended and we don’t even know it,” he emphasised.
The growth of stablecoins is quietly reshaping the financial system in risky ways, Varoufakis said.
“(US President) Donald Trump, with the Genius Act, has privatised the American dollar. He has kept the Federal reserve down… and is shifting powers to private companies, essentially with a licence to print dollars,” he said.
Varoufakis warned that this creates a dangerous feedback loop between public debt and private currency.
“This is a recipe for the next 2008,” Varoufakis said, adding that trillions of dollars could migrate into stablecoins in the coming months, increasing systemic risk.
He explained that modern platforms do not produce goods but shape behaviour and simulate markets.
“Anyone who owns that power can direct you… to train you, gain your trust, and infuse desires in you. This is no longer capitalism. Welcome to techno-feudalism,” he said.
Varoufakis further highlighted inequality, saying it is now increasingly driven by ownership of what he calls cloud capital. “The most important question now is who owns the machines that can modify your behaviour,” he explained.
To rebalance economic power, Varoufakis called for democratising central banks.
“Central banks should be democratised. Everyone should have the right that JP Morgan and Bank of America have to have an account with the central ban,” he said. “Money should be a commons, not a privilege.”
While the technology exists to do this, the political resistance is high because such reforms would reduce the influence of both financial institutions and major tech companies, the Greek economist concluded.