[9] After being released in 1950, Georgios Varoufakis completed his university studies in metallurgy and chemical engineering[7] and found employment as the personal assistant to the director of Halyvourgiki; Greece's biggest steel producer.

[6] She shifted away from her conservative background in 1950, after meeting fellow chemistry student Georgios Varoufakis, who was, at the time, allied to United Democratic Left (EDA).

Varoufakis, during his time in Sydney, had his own slot on a local television show during which he critiqued John Howard's conservative government.

[9][15] In 2000, a combination of "nostalgia and abhorrence of the conservative turn of the land Down Under", led Varoufakis to return to Greece where he was appointed as an associate professor of economic theory at the University of Athens.

[15] From January 2004 to December 2006, Varoufakis served as economic advisor to George Papandreou, of whose government he was to become an ardent critic a few years later.

He researched the virtual economy of the Steam digital delivery platform, specifically focusing on exchange rates and trade deficits.

[17] From January 2013 he taught at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin as a visiting professor.

The party promised to renegotiate Greece's debt and significantly curtail the austerity measures which had led to the longest recession in post-war global history.

On 4 February 2015, the ECB lifted the waiver affecting marketable debt instruments issued or fully guaranteed by Greece that until then allowed Greek banks to benefit from cheap liquidity.

As a result of this decision, Greek banks, already strained by the run on deposits, had to depend on Emergency Liquidity Assistance (ELA), which is, however, significantly more expensive than regular ECB financing.

Varoufakis's view on Greece's public debt, and the 2010 crisis which began as a result of the Greek government's inability to fund it, was that EU bailouts were attempts to take on the largest loan in history on condition of austerity measures that would shrink the incomes from which old, un-serviceable loans and new bailout debts would have to be repaid.

Thus, the troika of lenders did not agree to let the new Greek government change the previous terms of the agreement or to a debt restructuring.

[29] After many weeks of negotiations during which the Greek government, often against Varoufakis's advice, made many concessions to the troika of Greece's lenders, no agreement was in sight.

Moreover, the differences in economic ideology- in particular the ideological opposition to losing money- will have contributed to the lack of progress towards a mutually-agreeable solution.

It included a fiscal proposal, a reform agenda, and a funding formula that Varoufakis, his government, and several other ministers of finance sitting in the Eurogroup, considered to be non-viable.

It was left to Luis de Guindos to turn down Varoufakis's plea for an extension by pointing out that calling a referendum was scarcely a confidence building measure precisely because the gap between the Greek and the Troika's position was bridgeable.

His explanation, published later by Harry Lambert, New Statesman, 13 July 2015, was this: "I'm not going to betray my own view, that I honed back in 2010, that this country must stop extending and pretending, we must stop taking on new loans pretending that we've solved the problem, when we haven't; when we have made our debt even less sustainable on condition of further austerity that even further shrinks the economy; and shifts the burden further onto the have nots, creating a humanitarian crisis.

"[33] In a 16 July teleconference with private investors that was later made public, Varoufakis described a five-month clandestine project he ran as finance minister involving hacking into Greece's independent tax service's computers.

On 20 August, the prime minister himself resigned and called a snap election due to the loss of support from rebelling Syriza MPs.

[37] A month later, the national election was held and despite a low voter turnout, Tsipras and his Syriza Party won just over 35 percent of the vote.

[40] Galbraith, referring to Varoufakis's expertise in game theory, has said that he knows as much about this subject "as anyone on the planet", and that "[he] will be thinking more than a few steps ahead" in any interactions with the troika.

[40] Two weeks later, Varoufakis wrote an op-ed in The New York Times saying that using game theory would be "pure folly" and that he wanted to "shun any temptation to treat this pivotal moment as an experiment in strategizing and, instead, to present honestly the facts concerning Greece's social economy".

[41] In September 2015, Varoufakis appeared on the British topical debate show, Question Time, and was praised for his performance by Mark Lawson in The Guardian, who wrote: "several of the sentences he spoke in a second language were more impressive than most that his fellow panellists managed in their native tongue.

[45] Varoufakis attended an event in London hosted by The Guardian on 23 October 2015, where he spoke about the UK's upcoming European Union membership referendum.

[63] In December 2019, along with 42 other leading cultural figures, he signed a letter endorsing the Labour Party under Corbyn's leadership in the 2019 general election.

The letter stated that "Labour's election manifesto under Jeremy Corbyn's leadership offers a transformative plan that prioritises the needs of people and the planet over private profit and the vested interests of a few.

For the war to end, he proposed that the opposing sides should come to an agreement, that will include the withdrawal of the Russian troops to their pre-February 24 bases, a commitment from the U.S. that Ukraine will not enter NATO, mutual guarantees of Ukraine's independence and neutrality, a Good Friday-like agreement for the Donbas area, and the issue of Russia's annexation of Crimea to be discussed in the next 50 years, as there is no way that this can be resolved peacefully at this stage.

"[68] On 10 March 2023, Varoufakis was dining with DiEM25 associates in central Athens when a group of individuals entered the restaurant, approached him, and accused him of siding with the troika, selling out on austerity bailouts.

[76][77] The German State issued a Betätigungsverbot (ban on activities) against Yanis Varoufakis, Ghassan Abu-Sitta (who was arrested upon entering Germany), and Salman Abu Sitta.

[89] Varoufakis reported a total income of €970,000 for the period 2016–2018, a substantial property portfolio, and other assets in his ownership; he paid more than €440,000 in taxes.