More at The Real News Too Big to Fail Public Banking Needed to Stop "Cannibalization" of the Economy, March 29, 2013. Michael Hudson: As long as finance is left in private hands, you’re going to have austerity and America ending up looking like Greece and Ireland. PAUL JAY, SENIOR EDITOR, TRNN: Welcome to The Real News Network. I’m Paul Jay in Baltimore. There’s been a debate about what to do about banks that are too big to fail, too big to prosecute, and too big to regulate. The debate goes that the big banks should be broken up, and some people are suggesting that the only real solution is public banking – banks that are big in scale but have public interest mandates and are publicly owned. Now weighing in on this ...
Wall St Burdens the Public Debt
More at The Real News PAUL JAY, SENIOR EDITOR, TRNN: Welcome to The Real News Network. I'm Paul Jay in Baltimore. As the effects of the sequester agreement ripple through the American economy--massive cuts, that is, to social programs, and the military to some extent--one thing is clear: both sides--President Obama and the leadership of the Republican Party--seem to think that public debt is the biggest challenge facing the American economy. Well, our next guest begs to differ. Now joining us in the studio is Michael Hudson. He was a Wall Street financial analyst, is now a distinguished research professor of economics at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. His recent books are The Bubble and Beyond and Finance Capitalism and Its Discontents. Thanks for joining us again. MICHAEL HUDSON, RESEARCH PROF., UMKC: Thank ...
Banking on Student Debt
More at The Real News Student debt is the new growth zone for banking revenues. With no student bankruptcy permitted, this is akin to a low risk revenue stream for the financial industry, now second in size to mortgage debt. Solution to Student Debt is to Get the Banks Out of the Education Business Michael Hudson: Crippling student debt, which is also a drag on the whole economy, developed as governments pushed the burden of higher education costs onto students and pushed them into the arms of the banks - PAUL JAY, SENIOR EDITOR, TRNN: Welcome to The Real News Network. I'm Paul Jay in Baltimore. A recent New York Times editorial about the student debt says this: ...
Government Debt and Deficits Are Not the Problem. Private Debt Is.
There are two quite different perspectives in the set of speeches at this conference. Many on our morning panels – Steve Keen, William Greider, and earlier Yves Smith and Robert Kuttner – have warned about the economy being strapped by debt. The debt we are talking about is private-sector debt. But most officials this afternoon focus on government debt and budget deficits as the problem – especially social spending such as Social Security, not bailouts to the banks and Federal Reserve credit to re-inflate prices for real estate, stocks and bonds. To us this morning, government deficit spending into the economy is the solution. The problem is private debt. And in contrast to Federal Reserve and Treasury bailout policy, we view the problem not as real estate prices too low to ...
Economic Policy Deception
Another in the series of interviews on the Renegade Economists radio show (Australia), a wide ranging analysis of the advantages to wealth that money printing and poor tax policy produce. Topics include land and housing policy, German gold repatriation, Occupy, Bradley Manning, Iran, Obama and Kruegar. Listen here Subscribe to the show (itunes) Transcription 06.03.2013: Karl Fitzgerald (KF): It’s seems that the most exciting things happening around the planet are not happening in a democracy, they’re happening in China. The new Premier there Xi Jinping has a real reformist agenda. Michael Hudson (MH): I think there’s a whole new generation coming in. I think they do things collectively in China, and then I was there a few years ago I was really happy to see how there’s a feeling of, uh, there are people ...