Truthdig summarises the interview as: Oxfam reports that just 80 people possess the same quantity of wealth as 3.5 billion others. On RT’s Crosstalk, economist Michael Hudson discusses how this happened with Oxfam official Max Lawson and Richard Wellings at London’s Institute for Economic Affairs. Hudson begins, “According to every economics textbook and all the Nobel prizes for the last 40 years, this can’t be happening. According to the economics textbooks, the wealthy get rich by adding to production. You earn what you make and they’re wealth creators. But in fact what they’re producing isn’t wealth, it’s poverty. And they do this largely because—I think you can think of them as being creditors. They’re creditors to the bottom 99 percent that are debtors and renters. If you look at these wealthiest families, ...
Rentier Machinations
RT news: On Thursday, the Swiss National Bank abolished its policy of keeping the franc artificially weak at a peg of 1.20 to the Euro and fallout from the move ricocheted throughout the markets and around the world. The wild swing in the Swiss currency hit global banks with tens of millions of dollars in losses and triggered the collapse of several brokerage firms. The trading losses occurred within minutes of the SNB’s announcement as the Swiss Franc jumped 30% against the euro almost instantaneously. Erin weighs in. Then, Erin is joined by Michael Hudson, distinguished professor of economics at the University of Missouri in Kansas City. Michael tells us about the connection between volatility in places like Switzerland and Greece and the underlying economic fundamentals. He also gives us his take ...
Playing the Pension Funds
Transcript: JESSICA DESVARIEUX, TRNN PRODUCER: 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 the man behind the report, Michael Hudson. Michael is a distinguished research professor of economics at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. And his newest book, The Bubble and Beyond, has a new edition, with an index and two new chapters. And, of course, he's a regular contributor to The Real News. Thanks for being with us, Michael. MICHAEL HUDSON, PROF. ECONOMICS, UMKC: Thank you very much, Jessica. It's good to be back. DESVARIEUX: So, Michael, today we're going to be talking about the federal budget. What has really stood out to you in that budget? HUDSON: Well, there's something very radical happened that people haven't been talking ...
Big Fish, Little Fish
US 2015 budget anti pension law, January 2, 2015. On the Senate’s last day in session in December, it approved the government’s $1.1 trillion budget for coming fiscal year. Few people realize how radical the new U.S. budget law was. Budget laws are supposed to decide simply what to fund and what to cut. A budget is not supposed to make new law, or to rewrite the law. But that is what happened, and it was radical. Wall Street’s representatives in Congress – the Democratic leadership as well as Republicans – took the opportunity to create an artificial crisis. The press called this “holding the government hostage.” The House – backed by the Senate – said that it would shut the government down at some future date if two basic laws were ...
