We can all probably agree that this has been one of the strangest Julys in memory. From the attempt on Trump’s Life to the Republican National Convention to the bizarre “coup� against Biden in the Democratic Party. With all this, it’s easy to forget some truly momentous events that happened this month. For example, the... Read More

In a highly controversial decision, the Supreme Court on June 28 reversed a 40-year old ruling, reclaiming the Court’s role as interpreter of statutory law as it applies to a massive body of regulations imposed by federal agencies in such areas as the environment, workplace safety, public health and more. The Court’s 6-3 conservative majority... Read More

Last week Texas experienced a cold snap that resulted in serious statewide damage, death, and destruction. The collapse of the state’s energy grid left millions of Texans in the dark and freezing for days at a time. Tragically, at least 30 people died. There are many reasons why Texas became like a Third World country,... Read More

I was very interested to see Senator Bernie Sanders take a group of American diabetics from Detroit to Windsor, Ontario to buy insulin. I used to own a pharmaceutical company in Windsor. In Canada, the life-saving medication insulin, which was invented in Toronto by Drs. Banting and Best, costs a tenth of what it does... Read More

In discussing this week’s Grenfell Tower tragedy in London, the British politician David Lammy has resorted to coruscating language. The inferno, he says, was a case of “corporate manslaughter.� Although he has not been specific about who he is accusing, several entities evidently have a lot of explaining to do. This includes most obviously the... Read More

A couple of readers asked why I did not include in my column, “A Government of Morons,� the violence used against the medical doctor Dao removed from his confirmed seat on a United Flight as a result of airline overbooking. The 69-year old was beat senseless by goons. A few days later United Airlines removed... Read More

Donald Trump wants to rip up the financial rule book and let the bankers go hog-wild. But haven’t we tried that before? Last Friday, the president announced a plan to scrap the rules that were put in place in 2010 to prevent another financial meltdown. Trump wants to return to the ‘good old days’ when... Read More

The man who promised to restore hope and bring change to America, has announced a plan to open five corporate plantations in the United States. On Thursday, President Barack Obama, whose policies have resulted in the greatest number of public sector job losses in US History (Public sector jobs have declined by 718,000 jobs since... Read More

This interview with Profs. Hudson, Bill Black and Randy Wray at UMKC describes how the U.S. Financial sector has become criminalized, and describes how the economy will continue to shrink sharply after the November presidential election. Listen via here KCUR writes:

*This article appeared in the Frankfurter Algemeine Zeitung on December 5, 2011. Book V of Aristotle’s Politics describes the eternal transition of oligarchies making themselves into hereditary aristocracies – which end up being overthrown by tyrants or develop internal rivalries as some families decide to “take the multitude into their camp� and usher in democracy,... Read More

Paper delivered at the Boeckler Foundation meetings, Berlin, October 29, 2011, #D3. Summary Ricardian trade theory was based on the cost of labor at a time when grain and other consumer goods accounted for most subsistence spending. But today’s budgets are dominated by payments to the finance, insurance and real estate (FIRE) sector, and to... Read More

Financial crashes were well understood for a hundred years after they became a normal financial phenomenon in the mid-19th century. Much like the buildup of plaque deposits in human veins and arteries, an accumulation of debt gained momentum exponentially until the economy crashed, wiping out bad debts – along with savings on the other side... Read More

It all seems so long ago! On October 23, 2008, Alan Greenspan choked up a mea culpa for his deregulatory policy as Federal Reserve Chairman. “Those of us who have looked to the self-interest of lending institutions to protect shareholders’ equity, myself included, are in a state of shocked disbelief,� he told the House Committee... Read More

On Tuesday, Barack Obama made the case for easing regulations in an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal. The article, titled "Toward a 21st-Century Regulatory System", was accompanied by a caricature of a scissor-wielding businessman slashing-away at red tape, a symbol that is revered among anti-regulation zealots. In the opening paragraph, the president praises free... Read More

Part One of this discussion was published in the Huffington Post today. You get to see the whole piece here. Michael Hudson talks with . . . Michael Hudson Michael W. Hudson, reporter: First of all, let me apologize for all the confusion that the publication of my book has caused. I’ve lost count of... Read More

October 21, 2010 Interviewer: iTulip’s Eric Janszen (E): Welcome Michael Hudson to iTulip again. Thanks for joining us. Hudson (H): Thank you, Eric. E: So we’ve had discussions in the past about China’s response to America’s escalation of the currency wars. Yesterday they made a bold move, raising their interest rates and also imposing an... Read More

What is the difference between today’s economy and Lehman Brothers just before it collapsed in September 2008? Should Lehman, the economy, Wall Street – or none of the above – be bailed out of bad mortgage debt? How did the Fed and Treasury decide which Wall Street firms to save – and how do they... Read More

Counterpunch Last month the G-20 authorized the International Monetary Fund to increase its loan resources to $1 trillion. It’s not hard to see why. Weakening currencies in the post-Soviet states threaten to raise default rates on foreign-currency mortgages as collapse of the Baltic real estate bubble drags down Swedish banks, while the Hungarian property plunge... Read More

Morgan Stanley in its August 15, 2003, report on the airline industry in the U.S. tersely notes: “If an industry produces negative total returns on capital over its entire history, consolidation is inevitable.� Atlanta attorney Dean Booth believes that consolidation is taking us to two mega-airlines, which means a return to regulation. Morgan Stanley’s report... Read More