July, 2023 | Michael Hudson

NATO Moves to Bait China

By Michael Friday, July 28, 2023 Interviews Geopolitical Economy Hour Permalink

Geopolitical Economy Report, July 28, 2023 NATO failed in Ukraine against Russia. Now it's targeting China By Radhika Desai and Michael Hudson. 93.1K subscribers Political economists Radhika Desai and Michael Hudson are joined by geopolitical analyst Pepe Escobar to discuss how NATO has shifted from its proxy war against Russia in Ukraine to targeting China in the Pacific. RADHIKA DESAI: Hello, everyone, and welcome to the 15th Geopolitical Economy Hour, the fortnightly show on the political and geopolitical economy of our times. I'm Radhika Desai. MICHAEL HUDSON: And I'm Michael Hudson. RADHIKA DESAI: And today we propose to discuss NATO in the aftermath of its recently concluded Vilnius Summit, exploring a variety of questions about how its assault on Russia is faring and the prospects of extending its sphere of operations to what NATO leaders like to call ...

Global Economic History in 2.5 Hours

By Michael Thursday, July 27, 2023 History of the Near East, Interviews No tags Permalink

Demystifying Economics, June 30 2023 Youtube: https://youtu.be/XyybzneS0To (part 1) and https://youtu.be/pSBvXCwUQYQ (part 2) Dr. Michael Hudson is a professor of Economics at the University of Missouri Kansas City, political consultant, commentator, and journalist. His career has focused on the study of debt, both external and internal, with an eye on what happens when the exponentially growing debts of a society outstrip the profits from the real economy. In part 1 (https://youtu.be/XyybzneS0To) of this conversation, we talk about GDP as a false marker of prosperity, the growing influence of the rentier class, fantasies of joining the one percent, and why there’s never going to be another debt jubilee, even if it means the whole system has to fall apart. We continue the conversation about possible solutions in part 2 (https://youtu.be/pSBvXCwUQYQ), we talk about modern monetary ...

The Financial Upsweep

By Michael Tuesday, July 25, 2023 Articles No tags Permalink

A recent presentation to the Global University of Sustainability. Photo by Jason Leung on Unsplash

The Looming War Against China

By Michael Saturday, July 22, 2023 Articles No tags Permalink

Economic Logic has been Replaced by National Security Overrides The July NATO summit in Vilnius had the feeling of a funeral, as if they had just lost a family member – Ukraine. To clear away NATO’s failure to drive Russia out of Ukraine and move NATO right up to the Russian border, its members tried to revive their spirits by mobilizing support for the next great fight – against China, which is now designated as their ultimate strategic enemy. To prepare for this showdown, NATO announced a commitment to extend their military presence all the way to the Pacific. The plan is to carve away China’s military allies and trading partners, above all Russia, starting with the fight in Ukraine. President Biden has said that this war will be global in scope ...

Can the US Re-Industrialize?

By Michael Wednesday, July 19, 2023 Interviews No tags Permalink

Ep. 232 Michael Hudson. Transcript Ep 232 Macro N Cheese - Hudson https://realprogressives.org/podcast_episode/episode-232-is-the-us-a-failed-state-with-michael-hudson/ Michael Hudson [Intro/Music]: America cannot re-industrialize without reversing this whole philosophy of post-industrial society as a class war against labor. You can't have both. You can't have a class war against labor and reindustrialization with the labor unionization that goes with it. Countries who let an oligarchy develop end up pushing their own economies into obsolescence and a kind of dark age. It's policy, and most of all, it's the policy of the Democratic Party's administration here. Geoff Ginter [Intro/Music]: Now, let's see if we can avoid the apocalypse altogether. Here's another episode of Macro N Cheese with your host, Steve Grumbine. Steven Grumbine: All right. This is Steve with Macro N Cheese. Today's guest is none other than Michael ...

Economic Interference in the Global South

By Michael Wednesday, July 12, 2023 Interviews Geopolitical Economy Hour Permalink

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x13cSy8S8To RADHIKA DESAI: Hi, everyone, and welcome to this 13th Geopolitical Economy Hour, the fortnightly show on the political and geopolitical economy of our times. I'm Radhika Desai. MICHAEL HUDSON: And I'm Michael Hudson. RADHIKA DESAI: And today, as last time, we are joined by Anne Pettifor to discuss the urgent issue of our time, the third world debt crisis. And as I said last time, we couldn't find a more authoritative guest for this show. Anne hardly needs any introduction, but I do feel I should remind everyone of what she's done, particularly in relation to the debt and also the fuller range of her contributions. Anne is a prolific writer on issues of debt, finance and development. And she has also been one of the most important activists on the issue of third ...

ZIRP’s only Exit path is a Crash

By Michael Monday, July 10, 2023 Articles No tags Permalink

The United States’ Financial Quandary: ZIRP’s only Exit path is a Crash Abstract Interest-bearing debt grows exponentially, in an upsweep. The non-financial economy of production and consumption grows more slowly as income is diverted to carry the debt overhead. A crash occurs when a large part of the economy cannot pay its scheduled debt service. That point arrived for the U.S. economy in 2008, but was minimized by a bank bailout, followed by a 14-year boom as the Federal Reserve increased bank liquidity by its Zero Interest-Rate Policy (ZIRP). Flooding the capital markets with easy credit quintupled stock prices and engendered the largest bond market boom in U.S. history, but did not revive tangible capital investment, real wages or prosperity for the non-financial economy at large. Reversing the ZIRP in 2022 caused bond ...

Should there really be a Supreme Court?

By Michael Wednesday, July 5, 2023 Articles economic history Permalink

Its role always has been anti-democratic. Vested interests create “checks and balances” primarily to make political systems non-responsive to demands for social reform. Historically, therefore, the checks are politically unbalanced in practice. Instead of producing a happy medium, their effect often has been to check the power of the people to assert their interests at the expense of the more powerful. Real reform requires a revolution – often repeated attempts. The Roman Republic suffered five centuries of fighting to redistribute land and cancel debts, all of which failed as the oligarchy’s “checks” imposed deepening economic dependency and imbalance. The Supreme Court is America’s most distinctive check. Its deepening bias since its takeover by “conservatives” claiming to be “originalist” interpreters of the constitution, has led to the most widespread protests since Franklin Roosevelt ...