The Collapse of Antiquity | Michael Hudson

The Arc of Time: Pro-Creditor History

By Michael Thursday, May 25, 2023 Articles, Interviews Ancient Near East, The Collapse of Antiquity Permalink

“Origins of debt: Michael Hudson reveals how financial oligarchies in Greece & Rome shaped our world,” Ben Norton, Geopolitical Economy Report, May 25, 2023. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hqe3IQQo_t4 BEN NORTON: Hi, everyone. I'm Ben Norton of Geopolitical Economy Report, and today I have the great pleasure of speaking with a friend of the show, the economist Michael Hudson, and I'm very excited to be discussing his newest book, The Collapse of Antiquity: Greece and Rome as Civilization's Oligarchic Turning Point. This book is an absolute tour de force. It's an incredible work, not only of economic history, but simply, I would say, anthropology and economic archaeology. I think it really shows that many people know Michael Hudson for his work on economics and finance, but I would say that a book like this shows that he's ...

Pepe Escobar’s review of The Collapse of Antiquity

By Michael Monday, May 15, 2023 Articles The Collapse of Antiquity Permalink

Pepe Escobar: “US Empire of Debt Headed for Collapse,” Sputnik International, May 15, 2023. Prof. Michael Hudson’s new book, "The Collapse of Antiquity: Greece and Rome as Civilization’s Oligarchic Turning Point” is a seminal event in this Year of Living Dangerously when, to paraphrase Gramsci, the old geopolitical and geoeconomic order is dying and the new one is being born at breakneck speed. Prof. Hudson’s main thesis is absolutely devastating: he sets out to prove that economic/financial practices in Ancient Greece and Rome – the pillars of Western Civilization – set the stage for what is happening today right in front of our eyes: an empire reduced to a rentier economy, collapsing from within. And that brings us to the common denominator in every single Western financial system: it’s all about debt, inevitably ...

Democratic Liberty Versus Oligarchic Liberty

By Michael Friday, April 28, 2023 Interviews Ancient Near East, The Collapse of Antiquity Permalink

https://theanalysis.news/part-2-debt-and-the-collapse-of-antiquity-michael-hudson/?cmid=67292843-46e5-42f5-a070-0682d9ef6d57 Colin Bruce Anthes Welcome back to theAnalysis for part two of our conversation with Dr. Michael Hudson on The Collapse of Antiquity. Michael Hudson I think the character of early Christianity is what is in the Lord’s Prayer. “Forgive them their debts as we forgive the debtors.” Christianity, especially Roman Christianity, made a travesty of this. They used the word sins. “Forgive us our sins as we forget the sins of the debtors.” What they meant was every kind of sin except economic. Colin Bruce Anthes A reminder, if you haven’t done so already, to like, subscribe, and ring that bell for notifications so you don’t miss our material. I want to do a little bit of name-dropping here. It’s a surprisingly fun book to read because of how culturally rich it is and how many of these references ...

Balancing Individualism with Egalitarianism

By Michael Tuesday, April 25, 2023 Interviews The Collapse of Antiquity Permalink

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CmazxjNHVs4 TheAnalysis discussion April 21 2023, Debt and the Collapse of Antiquity – Michael Hudson, By Colin Bruce Anthes Colin Bruce Anthes Welcome to theAnalysis. I’m Colin Bruce Anthes. In a minute, we’ll be taking a first look at Michael Hudson’s new book, The Collapse of Antiquity. Michael Hudson When the emperors cancelled the debts, it was largely cancelling the debts of the wealthy. Sort of like the recent bank bailouts of Silicon Valley Bank and the banks in the United States. The wealthy don’t have to pay the debts, but if you’re not wealthy, you do have to pay the debts. That’s the basic Roman principle, and that is what America calls democracy. Colin Bruce Anthes Dr. Michael Hudson has long brought historical clarity to political economy. In his books like J Is for Junk Economicsand Killing the Host, he showed how neoclassical ...

The Collapse of Antiquity – release

By Michael Wednesday, March 22, 2023 Books The Collapse of Antiquity Permalink

The Collapse of Antiquity: Greece and Rome as Civilization’s Oligarchic Turning Point Available on Amazon or Digital (ebook) via CounterPunch. The Collapse of Antiquity, the sequel to Michael Hudson’s “...and forgive them their debts,” is the latest in his trilogy on the history of debt. It describes how the dynamics of interest-bearing debt led to the rise of rentier oligarchies in classical Greece and Rome. This caused economic polarization, widespread austerity, revolts, wars and ultimately the collapse of Rome into serfdom and feudalism. That collapse bequeathed to the subsequent Western civilization a pro-creditor legal philosophy that has led to today’s creditor oligarchies. In telling this story, The Collapse of Antiquity reveals the eerie parallels between the collapsing Roman world and today’s debt-burdened Western economies. Endorsements “In this monumental work, Michael Hudson overturns what most of ...