Michael Hudson

Debt, Land and Money, From Polanyi to the New Economic Archaeology

By Michael Friday, September 4, 2020 Debt Ancient Near East Permalink

Inspiration for The Great Transformation in the postwar monetary breakdown Karl Polanyi’s formative years in the aftermath of World War I were a period of monetary turmoil. The United States became a creditor nation for the first time, and demanded payment of the war debts that Keynes warned were unpayable without wrecking Europe’s financial systems. (Hudson, Super Imperialism, 1972, summarizes this era.) France and Britain subjected Germany to unsustainably high reparations debts, while imposing austerity on their own economies by adhering to the gold standard. Jacques Rueff in France and Bertil Ohlin in the United States argued that Germany could pay any level of reparations in gold – and the Allies could pay their foreign-currency arms debts – by imposing unemployment high enough to make wages low enough to make its ...

Vale David Graeber

By Michael Friday, September 4, 2020 Debt No tags Permalink

I’ve known David Graeber for over 15 years. After I published my third Harvard colloquium on Debt and Economic Renewal in the Ancient Near East, he contacted me to discuss the views of Karl Polanyi, as my group was in many ways the successor group to Polanyi’s at Columbia University (where the colloquium was held). We talked sporadically, and he mentioned he was going to write on the history of debt as an anthropologist. My own view was that people would not be very interested in the idea of debt cancellation in antiquity until the way could be prepared for discussing it in today’s world, which is what most of my own journalistic and academic writing was all ...

How an “Act of God” Pandemic is Destroying the West

By Michael Monday, August 31, 2020 Articles pandemic Permalink

The U.S. is Saving the Financial Sector, not the Economy Before juxtaposing the U.S. and alternative responses to the corona virus’s economic effects, I would like to step back in time to show how the pandemic has revealed a deep underlying problem. We are seeing the consequences of Western societies painting themselves into a debt corner by their creditor-oriented philosophy of law. Neoliberal anti-government (or more accurately, anti-democratic) ideology has centralized social planning and state power in “the market,” meaning specifically the financial market on Wall Street and in other financial centers. At issue is who will lose when employment and business activity are disrupted. Will it be creditors and landlords at the top of the economic scale, or debtors and renters at the bottom? This age-old confrontation over how to deal ...

A Battle Plan So Subtle It Sends You To Sleep

By Michael Friday, July 31, 2020 Articles No tags Permalink

Part 2 of the interview with Ellen Brown: It's a War: So says renowned economist Michael Hudson in the concluding part of our recent interview with him. Hudson makes no bones about the deadly serious game being played by the world’s financial powers and their intention to create a new feudal economic order. Hudson sees the privatization of public assets and institutions, like the Fed’s take-over of the Treasury a hundred years ago, as evidence that our struggle for people-focused public policy is being overwhelmed by debt at the hands of capitalism and greed. But people are rising-up as our guest Rickey Gard Diamond, author of “Screwnomics”, says in her recent article in Ms. Magazine “How Public Banks Make Black Lives Matter”. She talks with us about women and ...

Banking as a Public Utility – with Ellen Brown

By Michael Wednesday, July 22, 2020 Interviews No tags Permalink

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SazlVfAu-DI&feature=youtu.be Killing the Host on 'It's Our Money', July 20, 2020. Ellen Brown: My guest today is Dr. Michael Hudson, who we're delighted to have on our Public Banking Institute Advisory Board, and who really should be advising the Federal Reserve and the Treasury, but BlackRock seems to have gotten the job. Paul Craig Roberts, who is former Assistant Treasury Secretary under Reagan, called Michael Hudson the greatest economist on the planet. He's a Wall Street financial analyst, Professor of Economics at the University of Missouri, Kansas City, and author of over two dozen books, including Killing the Host and one called … and Forgive Them Their Debts, which are both particularly relevant today. So it's great to be speaking with you, Michael. Michael Hudson: It's good to be back, Ellen. Ellen ...

Remarks from the Systematic Crises Triggered the Current Pandemic teleconference

By Michael Monday, June 29, 2020 Articles No tags Permalink

Remarks given at the 1st ASECU Teleconference ‘Systematic Crises Triggered the Current Pandemic & Progressive Way-Outs, May 8, 2020. Well, I think you’re quite right in organizing the conference to point out that today’s pandemic crisis hastens and intensifies the internal contradictions that have been building up. Many of these contradictions are going to be blamed simply on the virus. But there is an underlying problem that the virus is exposing and turning into a crisis. That underlying problem is the debts that have been building up for the last few decades. We are in a situation much like a war. There are winners and there are losers in a war. In this case the winner is the aggressor – the financial sector. Its demands for payment have set the ...

Holding the Bailout Bag

By Michael Thursday, June 4, 2020 Interviews No tags Permalink

A podcast with journalist Paul Jay. The Federal Reserve is directly buying stocks, bonds, junk bonds, mortgages, junk mortgages, all to prop up the value of assets owned by the top 5%. This does not spur much new production or create jobs. Michael Hudson joins Paul Jay on theAnalysis.news podcast Transcript Paul Jay Hi, my name’s Paul Jay, and welcome to theAnalysis.news podcast. Michael Hudson is a distinguished research professor of economics at the University of Missouri, Kansas City, and also a professor at Peking University in Beijing. He’s written or edited over 10 books on international finance, economic history and the history of economic thought. His newest book is J is for Junk Economics and most recently, And Forgive Them Their Debts, which Martin Wolf of the Financial Times cited as a ...

Defining A Tyrant

By Michael Tuesday, May 26, 2020 Interviews No tags Permalink

An interview on Gary Null's Progressive Commentary Hour. We dig into debts during the cov-19 period in light of my book '...and forgive them their debts.' Photo by Lopez Robin on Unsplash

Undermining public finance to drive privatization

By Michael Monday, May 25, 2020 Interviews No tags Permalink

I spoke with James Ostaszewski and Alexander Reed Kelly, members of the Debt & Finance Working Group of the New York City chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America. Topics included governments, debt and my history with democratic socialists. NYC-DSA is working with New York State legislators to enable the creation of public banks throughout New York State and supports the goal of debt cancellation. The conversation took place during the afternoon of Tuesday, May 19th.

Definitions and Debate

By Michael Thursday, May 21, 2020 Articles No tags Permalink

Welcome to the Knowledge Problem Podcast, the objective of this podcast is to engage policy professionals over thought provoking and sometimes sensitive topics. We aim to bring these professionals together in a way that does not feed the tribalistic narratives plaguing society today. It is my hope and the hope of all involved in this endeavor that by allowing these ideas to contend and challenge each other, with mutual respect, everyone who listens will learn something not previously considered. The opinions and views of all guests do not necessarily reflect the views of the Knowledge Problem or of anyone involved in this production. Regan: Hello everyone, thank you for tuning into this episode of the Knowledge Problem Podcast. I'm your host Regan Ferrell on today's episode we explore ...