Ex-Greek FM Varoufakis: 9 lines that made him media darling

Yanis Varoufakis, who also held the post of Greece finance minister until a day ago, is characterized as outspoken, controversial. Since his arrival into the public life, the media has been fascinated with this 54-year-old "accidental economist".

July 10, 2015 / 16:29 IST

Moneycontrol Bureau

The self-styled Marxist Yanis Varoufakis, who also held the post of Greece finance minister until a day ago, announced resignation in his blog saying Minister No More. A unique way to resign, but Varoufakis has been an exception right from the start. Since his arrival into the public life, the media has been fascinated with this 54-year-old "accidental economist" who rode a bike, wore T-shirts in public, quoted lines from poems and frequently rubbed off Greek creditors the wrong way.

Here are top nIne quotes of former Greek FM Yanis Varoufakis that the press is talking about: 1. You do not lend money at high interest rates to the insolvent and you do not introduce austerity into a recession.2. It's pretty simple: the debt is going up and GDP is going down. Have we not learned the lesson of 1929? 3. Europe's made a mess of Greece for the past three years. Those responsible will go down as the biggest idiots in the history of economics. 4. If Greece crashes, a trillion euros will be lost. It's too much money and I don't believe Europe could allow it. What they're doing with Greece has a name: terrorism. What Brussels and the troika want today is for the 'yes' [vote] to win so they could humiliate the Greeks.5. I am being treated as a strange bird because I talk macroeconomics6. A committee built on rotten foundations (referring to Troika)

7. The problem is that once you’re in, it goes just like the Eagles song ‘Hotel California’ — you can check out any time you like, but you can never leave. (On Greece's EU dilemma)

8. Greek democracy today chose to stop going gently into the night. Greek democracy resolved to rage against the dying of the light (quoting poet Dylan Thomas)9. I shall wear the creditors’ loathing with pride (after his resignation)