In this remarkable & provocative book Yanis Varoufakis explodes the myth that financialisation ineffectual regulation of banks greed & globalisation were the causes of the global economic crisis. Rather they are symptoms of a much deeper malaise which can be traced back to the 1970s; the time when a Global Minotaur was born. Just as the Athenians maintained a steady flow of tributes to the Cretan beast so the rest of the world sent incredible amounts of capital to America & Wall Street. Thus the Global Minotaur became the engine that pulled the world economy from the early 1980s to 2008. Todays crisis in Europe the heated debates about austerity versus further fiscal stimuli in the US the clash between Chinas authorities & the Obama administration on exchange rates are the inevitable symptoms of the weakening Minotaur; of a global system which is now as unsustainable as it is imbalanced. Going beyond this Varoufakis lays out the options available to us for reintroducing a modicum of reason into a highly irrational global economic order. An essential account of the socio-economic events & hidden histories that have shaped the world as we now know it.