Days of Revolt: How We Got to Junk Economics In this episode of teleSUR's Days of Revolt, Chris Hedges interviews economist Michael Hudson on the history of classical economics and explores Marx's interpretation of capitalism as exploitation - March 22, 2016 CHRIS HEDGES: Hi, I'm Chris Hedges. Welcome to Days of Revolt. Today in a two-part series we're going to be discussing a great Ponzi scheme that not only defines not only the U.S. but the global economy, how we got there, in the first segment, and secondly, where we're going. And with me to discuss this issue is the economist Michael Hudson, author of Killing the Host: How Financial Parasites and Debt Destroy the Global Economy. A professor of economics ...
Smart Parasites
An interview with the Extra Environmentalists on the concepts behind Killing the Host. The episode is entitled the Age of Stagnation. Friends may appreciate a new higher quality audio recording, thanks to the Extra Environmentalists, who donated a microphone. They write: The common political conversation about our shared economic future focuses on achieving an escape velocity where the post-war growth boom can return as usual. While years of lackluster economic performance mount, a rapidly growing global economy is still discussed like it is readily just over the horizon. Can the factors creating a slower growth world find open discussion in time to avoid severe social strife? Is the drive for passive income in an age of stagnation placing the ...
The Commanding Heights
This is Guns and Butter Suppose a country owes money to another nation’s government or official agency. How can creditors collect, unless there’s an international court and an enforcement system? The IMF and the World Bank were part of that enforcement system and now they’re saying: ‘We’re not going to be part of that anymore. We’re only working for the U.S. State Department and Pentagon. If the Pentagon tells the IMF it’s okay that a country doesn’t have to pay Russia or China, then now they don’t have to pay, as far as the IMF is concerned.’ That breaks up the global order that was created after World War II. The world is being split into two halves: the U.S. dollar ...
The Federal Reserve and the Global Fracture
Interview with Antti J. Ronkainen, January 11, 2016, for Revalvaatio (Finland). Edited transcript. The Federal Reserve is the most significant central bank in the world. How does it contribute to the domestic policy of the United States? The Federal Reserve supports the status quo. It would not want to create a crisis before the election. Today it is part of the Democratic Party’s re-election campaign, and its job is to serve Hillary Clinton’s campaign contributors on Wall Street. It is trying to spur recovery by resuming its Bubble Economy subsidy for Wall Street, not by supporting the industrial economy. What the economy needs is a debt writedown, not more debt leveraging such as Quantitative Easing has aimed to promote. But the ...
The Atlanticist Tactic Revisited
Paul Craig Roberts and Michael Hudson Two years ago, Russian officials discussed plans to privatize a group of national enterprises headed by the oil producer Rosneft, the VTB Bank, Aeroflot, and Russian Railways. The stated objective was to streamline management of these companies, and also to induce oligarchs to begin bringing their two decades of capital flight back to invest in the Russia economy. Foreign participation was sought in cases where Western technology transfer and management techniques would be likely to help the economy. However, the Russian economic outlook deteriorated as the United States pushed Western governments to ...
Listen Here
Cross-posted from Paul Craig Roberts, who gives a very kind review of Killing the Host. February 1, 2016 The West Is Traveling The Road To Economic Ruin Paul Craig Roberts Michael Hudson is the best economist in the world. Indeed, I could almost say that he is the only economist in the world. Almost all of the rest are neoliberals, who are not economists but shills for financial interests. If you have not heard of Michael Hudson it merely shows the power of the Matrix. Hudson should have won several Nobel prizes in economics, but he will never get one. Hudson did not intend to be an economist. At the University of Chicago, which had a leading economics faculty, Hudson studied music and cultural ...
The 3 Economic Stories of 2015
JESSICA DESVARIEUX, PRODUCER, TRNN: Welcome to the Real News Network. I’m Jessica Desvarieux in Baltimore. And welcome to this edition of the Hudson Report. Now joining us is MichaelHudson. He’s an economics professor at the University of Missouri Kansas City, and he has a new book out titled Killing the Host. Thank you so much for joining us, Michael. MICHAEL HUDSON: It’s good to be here, Jessica. Since we last talked I’ve also been appointed a professor at Peking University in Beijing. DESVARIEUX: Awesome. Congratulations. So Michael, let’s get right into it and talk about the big stories of 2015, economic stories, I should say. What would you say are thethree most important stories that people should be aware of? HUDSON: Well, the ...
Super Imperialism in 84 seconds
PLAY 3 TIMES: US military budget financed by ... by Renegade Economists on Mixcloud Taken from the Renegade Economists radio interview Financing Our Own Oppression, where discussions on the IMF-Ukraine-Russia showdown are highlighted. Financing Our Own Oppression by Renegade Economists on Mixcloud
The IMF Changes its Rules to Isolate China and Russia
Michael Hudson A nightmare scenario of U.S. geopolitical strategists is coming true: foreign independence from U.S.-centered financial and diplomatic control. China and Russia are investing in neighboring economies on terms that cement Eurasian integration on the basis of financing in their own currencies and favoring their own exports. They also have created the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) as an alternative military alliance to NATO. And the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) threatens to replace the IMF and World Bank tandem in which the United States holds unique veto power. More than just a disparity of voting rights in the IMF and World Bank is at stake. At issue is a philosophy of development. U.S. and other foreign investment in infrastructure (or buyouts ...
IMF forgives Ukraine’s Debt to Russia
UNsplash.com On December 8, the IMF’s Chief Spokesman Gerry Rice sent a note saying: “The IMF's Executive Board met today and agreed to change the current policy on non-toleration of arrears to official creditors. We will provide details on the scope and rationale for this policy change in the next day or so.” Since 1947 when it really started operations, the World Bank has acted as a branch of the U.S. Defense Department, from its first major chairman John J. McCloy through Robert McNamara to Robert Zoellick and neocon Paul Wolfowitz. From the outset, it has promoted U.S. exports – especially farm exports – by steering Third World countries to produce plantation crops rather than feeding their own populations. (They are to ...
