A Black Agenda Report Transcript of a Guns And Butter Radio Interview by Bonnie Faulkner originally broadcast on KPFA radio. There is a rising sense of alarm in the United States, as tangible effects of the economic crisis of empire are unmistakably apparent at every hand. Ordinary people are burdened by debt as never before, and the soaring prices of fuel and food severely affect many tens of millions, bringing into question even the short term sustainability of American living standards. Our media and political elite only offer modified versions of business and usual. Barack Obama's chief economic advisor, for example, is an open and long-time booster of NAFTA and Wal-Mart as good for poor people. So much for the politics of change. Dr. Michael Hudson on the other hand, ...
America's Free Lunch is Over: How Should the Middle East invest its Rising Trade Surplus?
Published in the June 2008 issue of The Gulf, a weekly business news magazine published in Bahrain, and in Counterpunch Every week Mid Eastern countries acquire more dollars in payment for their oil and other exports, and also for rising U.S. investment in their stock markets and other property. This confronts them with a problem: What can they do with these dollars? Traditionally, exporters have saved their export earnings by building up their assets. But is it still realistic for them to acquire more dollarized assets? Central banks throughout the world presently hold some $2.5 trillion of U.S. Treasury bonds, and another trillion dollars in private-sector U.S. dollar debt. As the dollar’s exchange rate falls, these banks suffer losses when their holdings are denominated in their own currencies. Even more serious, the principal ...
The Game is over: There Won't be a Rebound
An Interview by Mike Whitney with Michael Hudson on the Economy - Counterpunch 1--Fed chairman Bernanke has been on a spree lately, delivering three speeches in the last two weeks. Every chance he gets, he talks tough about the strong dollar and "holding the line" against inflation. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson even said that "intervention" in the currency markets was still an option. Is all of this jawboning just saber rattling to keep the dollar from plummeting, or is there a chance that Bernanke actually will raise rates at the Fed's August meeting? MH: The United States steers its monetary policy almost exclusively with domestic objectives in mind. This means ignoring the balance of payments. From the U.S. vantage point, supporting the dollar’s exchange rate by the traditional method of raising interest ...
