In Mr. Krugman’s reading, private debts need not be written down or the tax system made more efficient. It is to be better subsidized – mainly with easier bank credit and more government spending. So I am afraid that his book might as well have been subtitled “How the Economy can Borrow its Way Out of Debt.” That is what budget deficits do: they add to the debt overhead.
Learning from the Eurocrisis
Transcript Headlines around the world greeted the election results in Greece and France as a rejection of austerity programs by the electors of those countries. Well, what can Americans learn from the results of these elections and from the crisis in the eurozone? Now joining us to talk about all of this is Michael Hudson. Michael is a former Wall Street financial analyst, and he's a distinguished research professor of economics at the University of Missouri–Kansas City. He has a new book coming out soon called The Bubble and Beyond. Thanks for joining us, Michael. MICHAEL HUDSON, RESEARCH PROFESSOR, UMKC: Thank you, Paul. PAUL JAY, SENIOR EDITOR, TRNN:: So what should Americans take away from the European elections? HUDSON: The same thing is happening in Europe that's happening here. Left-wing parties, socialist parties, labor parties ...
Firing Alan Greenspan
During the interview for the documentary Real Estate 4 Ransom, Prof Michael Hudson discussed Greenspan's reputation in his formative days on Wall St, revealing a controversial 1966 incident. Transcript Why are real wages falling? MH: They’ve (wages) been going down because essentially the economy shifted radically throughout the world, starting in 1979, when Margaret Thatcher was elected Prime Minister of England and Ronald Reagan was elected President of here (The USA) … claiming to defend capital. The Reagan Bush Administration in its 12 years, quadrupled American debt by slashing taxes on the upper brackets while sharply increasing taxes on labour. They increased it largely by having Alan Greenspan create the Greenspan Commission to look at social security and pushing the myth that social security had to be funded out of pre savings, so American ...
