As published on Counterpunch. In his Orwellian September 28, 2015 speech to the United Nations, President Obama said that if democracy had existed in Syria, there never would have been a revolt against Assad. By that, he meant ISIL. Where there is democracy, he said, there is no violence or revolution. This was his threat to promote revolution, coups and violence against any country not deemed a “democracy.” In making this hardly-veiled threat, he redefined the word in the vocabulary of international politics. Democracy is the CIA’s overthrow of Mossedegh in Iran to install the Shah. Democracy is the overthrow of Afghanistan’s secular government by the Taliban against Russia. Democracy is the Ukrainian coup behind Yats and Poroshenko. Democracy is Pinochet. It is “our bastards,” as Lyndon Johnson said, with regard to ...
Counterpunch Smash n Grab Economics
My friends at Counterpunch interviewed me on the book that is Killing the Host. Another good interview. Listen here Read the transcript
Beyond Leeching
An interview on Uprising with Sonali Listen by clicking here The Federal Reserve this week is considering raising interest rates above levels that have hovered at zero since 2008. News media are characterizing the debate over whether or not to increase rates, as “Should we be more concerned about the pace of job growth or the threat of inflation?” But the question often left unasked is, “why are most Americans still struggling in this economy?” The bottom lines of corporations are taken to be a measure of economic health. But if the economy is ostensibly designed so that all can benefit, why is it that only a few benefit?
The Sanctity of Debt
[soundcloud url="https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/223685976" params="auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&visual=true" width="100%" height="450" iframe="true" /] Today's interview on the highly regarded This Is Hell! show: Economist Michael Hudson explains how finance became capitalism's driving force and why an increasing amount of American life is being dedicated to sustaining unsustainable debt values, then gives a radical history lesson in debt economics - from ancient Sumer to the University of Chicago - that suggests the only way to end a debt crisis is to end the debt itself. Michael is author of the new book "Killing the Host: How Financial Parasites and Debt Destroy the Global Economy."
Ukraine falters as per plan
With military stalemate in the east of the country and the economy in serious depression, the regime in Kiev has had to face some very hard realities. And its very survival is in doubt. Losing on the battlefield and the economic front, the Kiev regime is turning in on itself. CrossTalking with Mark Sleboda, Michael Hudson and Rodney Shakespeare. Audio version:
Keiser on FIRE
This is a good interview. Enjoy.
Killing the Host – the book
The book can be ordered in paperback or as an ebook: KILLING THE HOST exposes how finance, insurance, and real estate (the FIRE sector) have gained control of the global economy at the expense of industrial capitalism and governments. The FIRE sector is responsible for today’s economic polarization (the 1% vs. the 99%) via favored tax status that inflates real estate prices while deflating the “real” economy of labor and production. The Great 2008 Bailout saved the banks but not the economy, and plunged the U.S., Irish, Latvian and Greek economies into debt deflation and austerity. This book describes how the phenomenon of debt deflation imposes austerity on the U.S. and European economies, siphoning wealth and income upward to the financial sector while impoverishing the middle class. The Table of Contents is as follows: Killing the Host: ...
Reuters’ Public Relations Missif
As published on Counterpunch: This autumn may see anti-austerity coalitions gain power in Portugal, Spain and Italy, while Marine le Pen’s National Front in France presses for outright withdrawal from the eurozone. These countries face a common problem: how to resist the economic devastation that the European Central Bank (ECB), European Council and IMF “troika” has inflicted on Greece and is now intending to do the same to southern Europe. To resist the depression and debt deflation that the troika seeks to deepen, one needs to bear in mind the dynamics that make the IMF un-reformable. Its destructive role in Greece provides an object lesson for how southern Europe must shun its horde of ideologues, as Third World countries learned to avoid it by May 2013, the year that Turkey capped the ...
Book review: Killing the Host
The first of hopefully many book reviews. Thanks to those who have already reviewed it on Amazon, we are off to a good start. Pam Martens from Wall St On Parade writes: The riveting writer, Michael Hudson, has read our collective minds and the simmering anger in our hearts. Millions of American have long suspected that their inability to get financially ahead is an intentional construct of Wall Street’s central planners. Now Hudson, in an elegant but lethal indictment of the system, confirms that your ongoing struggle to make ends meet is not a reflection of your lack of talent or drive but the only possible outcome of having a blood-sucking financial leech affixed to your body, your retirement plan, and your economic future. In his new book, “Killing the Host,” Hudson hones ...
