debt
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Michael Hudson: A roadmap to escape the west’s stranglehold
The geoeconomic pathway away from the neoliberal order is fraught with peril, but the rewards in establishing an alternative system are as promising as they are urgent Continue reading
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‘The Canary in the Coal Mine’: Sri Lanka’s Crisis is a Chronicle Foretold
Sri Lanka’s acute economic crisis and sovereign debt default, along with its people’s uprising in 2022, has drawn attention across the world. It is described as the ‘canary in the coal mine’, that is, a harbinger of the likely future for other global south countries. Eric Toussaint, spokesperson for the Committee for the Abolition of… Continue reading
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Michael Hudson: The End of Western Civilization – Why It Lacks Resilience, and What Will Take Its Place
The greatest challenge facing societies has always been how to conduct trade and credit without letting merchants and creditors make money by exploiting their customers and debtors. All antiquity recognized that the drive to acquire money is addictive and indeed tends to be exploitative and hence socially injurious. The moral values of most societies opposed… Continue reading
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Capitalism’s fallen angels
In several previous posts, I have highlighted what are called ‘zombie’ companies (companies whose regular profits do not even cover the cost of servicing their outstanding debts) and so must, to paraphrase former BoE governor Mark Carney, depend on the kindness of their creditors”. An OECD study found that such zombies take up a frighteningly large part of the economy.… Continue reading
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Indian Farmers on the Frontline Against Global Capitalism
In a short video on the empirediaries.com YouTube channel, a protesting farmer camped near Delhi says that during lockdown and times of crisis farmers are treated like “gods”, but when they ask for their rights, they are smeared and labelled as “terrorists”. Continue reading
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ASSA 2021 – part one: the mainstream dilemma
The annual conference of the American Economic Association (ASSA 2021) was unusual this year, for obvious reasons. Instead of 13,000 academic and professional economists descending on an American city to present and discuss hundreds of submitted papers over a few days, because of the COVID-19 pandemic, ASSA 2021 was virtual. Despite that, there were a host of… Continue reading
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The IMF smokescreen
In its latest World Economic Outlook report, the IMF again tackled the issue of climate change, global warming and what to do about it. As it did last year, the IMF recognised that climate change was a burning issue for humanity and the planet. But this time it claimed that there were policy options that… Continue reading
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Lockdown Catastrophe: The Need for Resilient Food Systems Agroecology
There is no doubt that, contingent on World Bank aid to be given to poorer countries in the wake of coronavirus lockdowns, agrifood conglomerates will aim to further expand their influence. Continue reading
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Coronavirus: Drop the debt
As coronavirus gets a foothold in every country, governments in the global south are facing an appalling choice: pay for emergency healthcare, or pay off international debts. Continue reading
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97% Owned (Money Documentary) | History Documentary | Reel Truth History
When money drives almost all activity on the planet, it’s essential that we understand it. Yet simple questions often get overlooked – questions like: Where does money come from? Who creates it? Who decides how it gets used? And what does that mean for the millions of ordinary people who suffer when money and finance… Continue reading
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Dossier 16: Resource sovereignty—the Agenda for Africa’s exit from the state of plunder
In May 2011, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) published a Working Paper by Burcu Aydin called ‘Ghana: Will It Be Gifted Or Will It Be Cursed?’ (WP/11/104). Oil had just been discovered off the shore of Ghana. This anticipated a bounty of revenue for the country. Aydin asks whether Ghana will face the ‘resource curse’.… Continue reading
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Michael Hudson: “Moral Hazard” vs Mutual Aid – How the Bronze Age Saved itself from debt serfdom
The Naked Capitalism discussion of John Siman’s review of my new book “and forgive them their debts”: Lending, Foreclosure and Redemption from Bronze Age Finance to the Jubilee Years quickly slipped into a discourse about modern economies and whether it was moral to cancel the debts of people who are in arrears, when some people… Continue reading
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Everything You Thought You Knew About Western Civilization Is Wrong: A Review of Michael Hudson’s new book And Forgive Them Their Debts
To say that Michael Hudson’s new book And Forgive Them Their Debts: Lending, Foreclosure, and Redemption from Bronze Age Finance to the Jubilee Year (ISLET 2018) is profound is an understatement on the order of saying that the Mariana Trench is deep. Continue reading
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Maria's 'Other' Victims: Puerto Rican Bondholders By Eoin Higgins
President Donald Trump, in what appeared to be an uncharacteristic display of empathy, said that the island’s $72 billion debt would have to be forgiven. Though the president’s statement was quickly walked back by administration officials, the idea of forgiving Puerto Rico’s debt is gaining political strength. In response to that push for debt forgiveness,… Continue reading
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Before Maria, forcing Puerto Rico to pay its debt was odious. Now, it’s pure cruelty
To expect Puerto Rico to rebuild from this unnatural disaster while at the same time bailing out Wall Street financiers is to condemn its residents to a permanent state of crushing hardship and impoverishment. Continue reading
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Reasons To Be Uncheerful By S. Artesian
The truth is that the debt represents the compressed whole of capitalism. More specifically, Greece’s public debt cannot be separated from its membership in the EU, from its adherence to the monetary union, from its condition of capitalism within the larger network of capitalism, all the PhDs, political economists, Marxist economists, in the world to… Continue reading
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The Shorty Long of It By S. Artesian
No sooner does the Syriza government reverse its “policy” regarding the extension of and compliance with the 2012 agreement and its so-called reforms, than our eternalists take hope from the very bleakness of the situation. Syriza has “bought time.” To do what, exactly? Continue reading
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The Cat in the Box: Quantum Social Democracy and the Uncertainty Principle By S. Artesian
I have to wonder what’s “wholly correct” about the approach of the “The Left Platform” if it provides an indication to Tsirpas that he should by-pass parliament and simply impose the reform package, because that “would possibly have split Syriza in a big way”? Unless it is to keep Syriza in power. Continue reading
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Yani and the Hand Jive By S. Artesian
Before and upon assuming government, Syriza explicitly recognized that none of the “reforms” required by the Troika could or would allow Greece to repay the debt. Liquidation sales are never designed to repay the face value of the debt. Prior to taking power, Syriza correctly identified the Greek economy as insolvent with the privatization program… Continue reading
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24 hours late, and € 240 billion short
A day late and more than a dollar short, Yanis Varoufakis submitted a “program” of reforms to the Eurozone finance ministers (Eurogroup) regarding the Greek government’s development and implementation of tax policies, public finance management, revenue administration, public spending, social security reform, public administration and corruption, instalment schemes, labor market reforms, product market reforms, better… Continue reading
The New Dark Age 