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Democratizing Money – a discussion

By Tuesday, January 14, 2020 Articles No tags Permalink

IMMR CoffeeHouse Discussion Forum # 8 Full Transcript (EDITED VERSION) Thurs. Dec. 19, 2019 Michael Hudson on how debt money has pushed the US and European economies to their financial limit. Followed by an open discussion forum. About the speaker: Michael Hudson is an economist and economic historian with a PhD from New York University. Dr. Hudson teaches at the University of Missouri–Kansas City and is associated with the Levy Economics Institute at Bard College. Dr. Hudson's main research focus is on debt, in all its variations and throughout history going as far back as Bronze Age Mesopotamia. Leading questions are how debt comes into being, when and how it creates economic and societal problems, and what measures have been adopted, or can be adopted, in order to deal with ...

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Note to China

By Tuesday, January 14, 2020 Articles No tags Permalink

My book “Super Imperialism” was about how the United States has gained a free lunch by establishing the dollar as international reserve currency by replacing gold. I also showed that the U.S. balance of payments deficit is almost entirely military related to support its 800 bases around the world. Ending the gold-exchange standard in 1971 created a situation in which the excess U.S. dollars thrown of by the U.S. payments deficit end up in foreign central banks. For these central banks, the inflow of surplus dollars poses the problem of what do we do with them. Central banks don't buy stocks and bonds, or control of corporations, because that is risky and also does not directly help their own economy. So central banks buy US Treasury bonds and bills – IOUs ...

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Persian Powerplay

By Thursday, January 9, 2020 Interviews No tags Permalink

Cross-posted from The Saker: Introduction: After posting Michael Hudson’s article “America Escalates its “Democratic” Oil War in the Near East” on the blog, I decided to ask Michael to reply to a few follow-up questions. Michael very kindly agreed. Please see our exchange below. Q1: Trump has been accused of not thinking forward, of not having a long-term strategy regarding the consequences of assassinating General Suleimani. Does the United States in fact have a strategy in the Near East, or is it only ad hoc? Of course American strategists will deny that the recent actions do not reflect a deliberate strategy, because their long-term strategy is so aggressive and exploitative that it would even strike the American public as being immoral and offensive if they came right out and said it. President Trump ...

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America Escalates its “Democratic” Oil War in the Near East

By Tuesday, January 7, 2020 Interviews No tags Permalink

The mainstream media are carefully sidestepping the method behind America’s seeming madness in assassinating Islamic Revolutionary Guard general Qassim Suleimani to start the New Year. The logic behind the assassination was a long-standing application of U.S. global policy, not just a personality quirk of Donald Trump’s impulsive action. His assassination of Iranian military leader Suleimani was indeed a unilateral act of war in violation of international law, but it was a logical step in a long-standing U.S. strategy. It was explicitly authorized by the Senate in the funding bill for the Pentagon that it passed last year. The assassination was intended to escalate America’s presence in Iraq to keep control of the region’s oil reserves, and to back Saudi Arabia’s Wahabi troops (Isis, Al Quaeda in Iraq, Al Nusra and other ...

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Front Running

By Friday, January 3, 2020 Debt, Interviews No tags Permalink

Transcript FRONT RUNNING: 2020 MAX KEISER: Front Running: 2020 with me, Max Keiser, and Stacy Herbert. As we look ahead to all the excitement of the 2020 elections, every episode we dig deep into something new. This time we're going to look at the wealth tax, Stacy. STACY HERBERT: That's right. We're looking at all the economic policies being presented by the Democratic candidates. Many of them are very radical. Bernie Sanders, says, "Billionaires should not exist." And to find out whether or not they should. We have guests with us. Dr. Michael Hudson, and Prof. Steve Keen. Steve, we'll start with you first. PROF STEVE KEEN: Well, I have a very complicated position on this because part of my research is into Minsky, what's called the Financial Instability Hypothesis, that explains ...

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Baltic perspectives with The Saker

By Sunday, October 20, 2019 Interviews Permalink

Cross-posted from The Saker Introduction: I recently spoke to a relative of mine who, due to her constant and voluntary exposure to the legacy of AngloZionist media, sincerely believed that the three Baltic states and Poland had undergone some kind of wonderful and quasi-miraculous economic and cultural renaissance thanks to their resolute break with the putatively horrible Soviet past and their total submission to the Empire since. Listening to her, I figured that this kind of delusion was probably common amongst those who still pay attention and even believe the official propaganda. So I asked Michael Hudson, whom I consider to be the best US economists and who studied the Baltics in great detail, to reply to a few very basic questions, which he very kindly did in ...

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Asset-Price Inflation and Rent Seeking

By Thursday, October 17, 2019 Articles, USA , Permalink

A Total-Returns Profile of Economic Polarization in America Michael Hudson Based on work with Dirk Bezemer, with charts by Howard Reed Polarization in America, 23 September 2019 “More than half of all Americans feel pressure and strain, according to the April 2019 Global Emotions Report published by Gallup. Most (55%) Americans recall feeling stressed much of the day in 2018. That’s more than in all but three countries globally. Nearly half of Americans felt worried (45%) and more than a fifth (22%) felt angry. ‘Even as their economy roared, more Americas were stressed, angry and worried last year than they have been at many points during the last decade,’ Julie Ray, a Gallup editor, wrote in the summary report.” USA Today, April 26, 2019 “For me the relevant issue isn't what I report on the bottom ...

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