The inversion of Classical Economics

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Days of Revolt: How We Got to Junk Economics In this episode of teleSUR's Days of Revolt, Chris Hedges interviews economist Michael Hudson on the history of classical economics and explores Marx's interpretation of capitalism as exploitation -   March 22, 2016 CHRIS HEDGES: Hi, I'm Chris Hedges. Welcome to Days of Revolt. Today in a two-part series we're going to be discussing a great Ponzi scheme that not only defines not only the U.S. but the global economy, how we got there, in the first segment, and secondly, where we're going. And with me to discuss this issue is the economist Michael Hudson, author of Killing the Host: How Financial Parasites and Debt Destroy the Global Economy. A professor of economics who worked for many years on Wall Street, where you ...

Smart Parasites

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An interview with the Extra Environmentalists on the concepts behind Killing the Host. The episode is entitled the Age of Stagnation. Friends may appreciate a new higher quality audio recording, thanks to the Extra Environmentalists, who donated a microphone. They write: The common political conversation about our shared economic future focuses on achieving an escape velocity where the post-war growth boom can return as usual. While years of lackluster economic performance mount, a rapidly growing global economy is still discussed like it is readily just over the horizon. Can the factors creating a slower growth world find open discussion in time to avoid severe social strife? Is the drive for passive income in an age of stagnation placing the global economy in permanent peril and creating a context for ...

Listen Here

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Cross-posted from Paul Craig Roberts, who gives a very kind review of Killing the Host. February 1, 2016 The West Is Traveling The Road To Economic Ruin Paul Craig Roberts Michael Hudson is the best economist in the world. Indeed, I could almost say that he is the only economist in the world. Almost all of the rest are neoliberals, who are not economists but shills for financial interests. If you have not heard of Michael Hudson it merely shows the power of the Matrix. Hudson should have won several Nobel prizes in economics, but he will never get one. Hudson did not intend to be an economist. At the University of Chicago, which had a leading economics faculty, Hudson studied music and cultural history. He went to New York City to work in ...

Rewriting Economic Thought

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The following is a transcript of CounterPunch Radio – Episode 19 (originally aired September 21, 2015). Eric Draitser interviews Michael Hudson. Eric Draitser: Today I have the privilege of introducing Michael Hudson to the program. Doctor Hudson is the author of the new book Killing the Host: How Financial Parasites and Debt Bondage Destroy the Global Economy, available in print on Amazon and an e-version on CounterPunch. Michael Hudson, welcome to CounterPunch Radio. Michael Hudson: It’s good to be here. ED: Thanks so much for coming on. As I mentioned already, the title of your book – Killing the Host: How Financial Parasites and Debt Bondage Destroy the Global Economy – is an apt metaphor. So parasitic finance capital is really what you’re writing about. You explain that it essentially survives by feeding ...

Beyond Leeching

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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?

Killing the Host – the book

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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

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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 ...