On finance, real estate and the powers of neoliberalism
With Ukraine in collapse, Trump redirects NATO toward fresh proxy wars. Michael Hudson outlines U.S. plans to pressure Russia through the Baltics, Syria, and Venezuela, while Richard Wolff highlights Europe’s subordination and economic decline. Together they warn that Washington’s empire is lashing out globally as China, India, and the BRICS build rising alternatives.
Michael Hudson and Richard Wolff unpack Trump’s Putin meeting, NATO’s failures in Ukraine, and the empire’s decline as BRICS and the Global South rise.
Economist Michael Hudson warns that the U.S. has morphed into a “free lunch economy,” where wealth flows not from production but from unearned rents and financial gains. Wall Street landlords like Blackstone buy up homes, driving rents higher while families face stagnant wages and rising debt. What was once industrial capitalism has become finance capitalism, hollowing out the economy and enriching a rentier elite. The result is growing inequality at home and financial colonialism abroad.
In a sweeping discussion on the decline of U.S. global dominance, economists Michael Hudson and Richard Wolff dissect the dollar’s downward slide, the BRICS challenge, and the blowback from Trump’s tariff-driven policies. From de-dollarization and foreign divestment in U.S. Treasuries to the hollowing out of American industry, they expose how geopolitical overreach, financial speculation, and ineffective military exports are accelerating the empire’s unraveling. With allies bearing the cost and rivals forging new trade systems, this conversation charts the economic and political fault lines shaping a post-dollar world.
While European voters were left in the dark, the EU Commission handed Trump everything he wanted — in exchange for a war Europe can’t win.
In a stunning new trade deal, the European Union caves to U.S. demands, exposing deepening economic subordination and strategic dependence. Economist Michael Hudson and political scientist Glenn Diesen unpack how von der Leyen’s capitulation signals the “Ukraineization” of Europe—sacrificing industrial growth, energy security, and sovereignty to prolong a U.S.-led Cold War. As Trump-style dealmaking takes center stage, Europe faces deindustrialization, rising militarism, and political upheaval. Is this the end of European autonomy—or a wake-up call?
