Topic: Globalism

[patentlymn]

As I always say, this international finance stuff is way over my head.

Michael Hudson tries to explain it and has for years. He said he wrote the most recent edition to Super Imperialism  after the Chinese asked him to. He said the title was not his choice. Someone read the newest version into youtube. Several hours long. Maybe I will listen to it some time.

He says that the east (Byzantine? Asia Minor?) used to have debt jubilees.  He also said that merchant debt was distinguished from consumer debt, as best I recall. Having the king's potential soldiers and corvee laborers sold into debt bondage to lenders was bad for the  king and empowered the lenders vs the king. He said older Jewish texts included debt jubilees but later practice included allowing the debtors to sign away that right so guess what happened? 

He said that some of the Greeks and Romans tried debt jubilees but got killed.

He always said why the Lord's prayer was re-written from "And forgive us our debts,
    as we also have forgiven our debtors."

[patentlymn]

Superimperialism book pdf is at
https://gateway.pinata.cloud/ipfs/bafykbzacedibs4toohenrnudw7zzk5zyogqypak6kdh5n3remepofi6bwctce?filename=super-imperialism-the-economic-strategy-of-empire--annas-archive--libgenrs-nf-3355732.pdf

[Libertas]

As I always say, this international finance stuff is way over my head.

Michael Hudson tries to explain it and has for years. He said he wrote the most recent edition to Super Imperialism  after the Chinese asked him to. He said the title was not his choice. Someone read the newest version into youtube. Several hours long. Maybe I will listen to it some time.

He says that the east (Byzantine? Asia Minor?) used to have debt jubilees.  He also said that merchant debt was distinguished from consumer debt, as best I recall. Having the king's potential soldiers and corvee laborers sold into debt bondage to lenders was bad for the  king and empowered the lenders vs the king. He said older Jewish texts included debt jubilees but later practice included allowing the debtors to sign away that right so guess what happened? 

He said that some of the Greeks and Romans tried debt jubilees but got killed.

He always said why the Lord's prayer was re-written from "And forgive us our debts,
    as we also have forgiven our debtors."

In the Biblical version we are talking about the end of a 7 year cycle (shmita)...and I doubt the scale of debts held by a debtor was of such high-risk or high-level that the person owed would collapse into poverty at the time of forgiveness...they did not lend foolishly.

Antiquity was also an agrarian and barter based economy.

Trying forgiveness now on the scale required to save a nation let alone the US is IMO a non-starter.  At best you can negotiate with those holding your IOU's and seek a write-down...but there is zero chance of total forgiveness.

And for consumers...forgiving all their debts would collapse businesses, and if government bails out some guess who just got the burden back?

The forgiveness like the reparations stuff is typically only popular in fringe groups like anarchists, socialist agitators, racists, chronic deadbeats who blame everybody but themselves for their actions...and not saying Hudson is one of those, just saying he as a very steep hill to climb to distance himself from that muck.

[Libertas]

Superimperialism book pdf is at
https://gateway.pinata.cloud/ipfs/bafykbzacedibs4toohenrnudw7zzk5zyogqypak6kdh5n3remepofi6bwctce?filename=super-imperialism-the-economic-strategy-of-empire--annas-archive--libgenrs-nf-3355732.pdf

He talks about the balance of payments a lot, and Nixon taking us off the gold standard is why that didn't matter any more.  And I am concerned that is his zeal for de-dollarization, which would benefit the nations doing it, and would in his words "constrain" US/NATO ability to operate as a benefit to these same nations abandoning these dollars seems to recklessly assume it.  Are you sure the cabal running America right now would constrain military spending?  I think they would throw the citizens aside in a heartbeat to maintain control of their primary forces to control others inside the nation and abroad.  I think his idea is precipitative for total global conflict.

[patentlymn]

As I always say, this international finance stuff is way over my head.

Michael Hudson tries to explain it and has for years. He said he wrote the most recent edition to Super Imperialism  after the Chinese asked him to. He said the title was not his choice. Someone read the newest version into youtube. Several hours long. Maybe I will listen to it some time.

He says that the east (Byzantine? Asia Minor?) used to have debt jubilees.  He also said that merchant debt was distinguished from consumer debt, as best I recall. Having the king's potential soldiers and corvee laborers sold into debt bondage to lenders was bad for the  king and empowered the lenders vs the king. He said older Jewish texts included debt jubilees but later practice included allowing the debtors to sign away that right so guess what happened? 

He said that some of the Greeks and Romans tried debt jubilees but got killed.

He always said why the Lord's prayer was re-written from "And forgive us our debts,
    as we also have forgiven our debtors."

In the Biblical version we are talking about the end of a 7 year cycle (shmita)...and I doubt the scale of debts held by a debtor was of such high-risk or high-level that the person owed would collapse into poverty at the time of forgiveness...they did not lend foolishly.

Antiquity was also an agrarian and barter based economy.

Trying forgiveness now on the scale required to save a nation let alone the US is IMO a non-starter.  At best you can negotiate with those holding your IOU's and seek a write-down...but there is zero chance of total forgiveness.

And for consumers...forgiving all their debts would collapse businesses, and if government bails out some guess who just got the burden back?

The forgiveness like the reparations stuff is typically only popular in fringe groups like anarchists, socialist agitators, racists, chronic deadbeats who blame everybody but themselves for their actions...and not saying Hudson is one of those, just saying he as a very steep hill to climb to distance himself from that muck.

I don't recall him ever calling for forgiveness of debts in the modern economy. Maybe I forgot. From memory, he describes two types of ancient debts, silver debts and the other kind. Maybe the other kind is agrarian farmer debts.  He said when a new ruler took over they would announce a debt jubilee. He said the agrarian debts were forgiven if there was a drought.

He has said that restructuring the way way taxes are levied would correct many modern US problems but he does not put any hope in that happening. He often says that most modern wealth is not generated through income but through capital gains so taxing income will not do much.

[patentlymn]

Superimperialism book pdf is at
https://gateway.pinata.cloud/ipfs/bafykbzacedibs4toohenrnudw7zzk5zyogqypak6kdh5n3remepofi6bwctce?filename=super-imperialism-the-economic-strategy-of-empire--annas-archive--libgenrs-nf-3355732.pdf

He talks about the balance of payments a lot, and Nixon taking us off the gold standard is why that didn't matter any more.  And I am concerned that is his zeal for de-dollarization, which would benefit the nations doing it, and would in his words "constrain" US/NATO ability to operate as a benefit to these same nations abandoning these dollars seems to recklessly assume it.  Are you sure the cabal running America right now would constrain military spending?  I think they would throw the citizens aside in a heartbeat to maintain control of their primary forces to control others inside the nation and abroad.  I think his idea is precipitative for total global conflict.

I started listening to his book to fall asleep but it was too interesting so it kept me awake.  As I said I do not understand this stuff but according to him, neither do most economists.  He says that most economists analyze the economy as though it is done though barter, as though money and banking does not matter much.    I mentioned before how he flunked his PhD orals on banking because he knew how they really worked.

BTW I took one year of econ long ago. I thought micro was OK. I thought macro was some kinda fantasy.

Here is the current version of Super Imperialism, part 1/6 is 3 hours long. I downloaded it using down load helper with Firefox.

https://youtu.be/vc9kF-TPubo
[FULL AUDIOBOOK] pt.1/6: Super Imperialism by Michael Hudson

At 5:11 he goes into his initial publications. McNamara pressured Arthur Andersen into not publishing his analysis. NYU did. The NY fed reserve said his NYU analysis was unbelievable, but a leaked internal memo said he was correct.

6:50 The US dept of commerce had changed table 5 of it balance of payments report dealing with foreign aid and other such programs. The new table hid the transfer of money from the foreign countries to the US. Hudson called them.

7:10 Some technician told Hudson that they used to report that data but some joker (Hudson) published a report showing we were actually making money off the aid we were sending so we changed the accounting format so no one can embarrass us like that again. The aid helped US exporters, bankers, and bond holders.

8:00 He said that balance of payments is not taught in schools. As though there was equilibrium.
 
At 14 min he describes how his first 1972 edition of the book was embraced as a how to manual in DC and wall st. He was hired as a consultant by many including the Pentagon.

He may be saying that de-dollarization will reduce NATO expenditures. We shall see.
It was so easy for me to write of Hudson as a flake as I trigger on commies and socialists and I thought he was one.   He took some getting used to. The only suggestions he made, that I recall, were changes to the tax code to tax capital gains but he has little belief that will happen.

Here is an entertaining video on his bio.
https://youtu.be/hH9pzzIIEj4
Michael Hudson - Life and Thought 20180507

One disagreement I have with him is his pro govt stance. IMo the US govt is so flakey that is a dumb idea.

I saw the Chinese CCP/CPC standing committee many years ago. 6 engineers by training and 1 economist. How do we hire them? The head of the Russian central bank is apparently a rock star. How do we get her to defect?

[Libertas]

As I always say, this international finance stuff is way over my head.

Michael Hudson tries to explain it and has for years. He said he wrote the most recent edition to Super Imperialism  after the Chinese asked him to. He said the title was not his choice. Someone read the newest version into youtube. Several hours long. Maybe I will listen to it some time.

He says that the east (Byzantine? Asia Minor?) used to have debt jubilees.  He also said that merchant debt was distinguished from consumer debt, as best I recall. Having the king's potential soldiers and corvee laborers sold into debt bondage to lenders was bad for the  king and empowered the lenders vs the king. He said older Jewish texts included debt jubilees but later practice included allowing the debtors to sign away that right so guess what happened? 

He said that some of the Greeks and Romans tried debt jubilees but got killed.

He always said why the Lord's prayer was re-written from "And forgive us our debts,
    as we also have forgiven our debtors."

In the Biblical version we are talking about the end of a 7 year cycle (shmita)...and I doubt the scale of debts held by a debtor was of such high-risk or high-level that the person owed would collapse into poverty at the time of forgiveness...they did not lend foolishly.

Antiquity was also an agrarian and barter based economy.

Trying forgiveness now on the scale required to save a nation let alone the US is IMO a non-starter.  At best you can negotiate with those holding your IOU's and seek a write-down...but there is zero chance of total forgiveness.

And for consumers...forgiving all their debts would collapse businesses, and if government bails out some guess who just got the burden back?

The forgiveness like the reparations stuff is typically only popular in fringe groups like anarchists, socialist agitators, racists, chronic deadbeats who blame everybody but themselves for their actions...and not saying Hudson is one of those, just saying he as a very steep hill to climb to distance himself from that muck.

I don't recall him ever calling for forgiveness of debts in the modern economy. Maybe I forgot. From memory, he describes two types of ancient debts, silver debts and the other kind. Maybe the other kind is agrarian farmer debts.  He said when a new ruler took over they would announce a debt jubilee. He said the agrarian debts were forgiven if there was a drought.

He has said that restructuring the way way taxes are levied would correct many modern US problems but he does not put any hope in that happening. He often says that most modern wealth is not generated through income but through capital gains so taxing income will not do much.

Well, I am not sure why he brings it up then if not to propose it in some sense.  And for wealth generation he must be talking about the elite, not the rest of us...we get more from income than gains.  And he knows taxing gains will get shot down by the elites, even though some caps are in place and there is the inheritance taxes that have especially caused family farms to disappear and corporate farms to increase...and the elites have the means to offshore wealth to protect themselves from adverse tax situations.

[patentlymn]

....
Well, I am not sure why he brings it up then if not to propose it in some sense.  And for wealth generation he must be talking about the elite, not the rest of us...we get more from income than gains.  And he knows taxing gains will get shot down by the elites, even though some caps are in place and there is the inheritance taxes that have especially caused family farms to disappear and corporate farms to increase...and the elites have the means to offshore wealth to protect themselves from adverse tax situations.

I cannot remember everything. He once went into how the capital gains are shielded using loans to escape taxation. He is talking about the elite and the so called 1%.
I recall that most of the elite know how to shield their wealth from inheritance taxes.

[Libertas]

Superimperialism book pdf is at
https://gateway.pinata.cloud/ipfs/bafykbzacedibs4toohenrnudw7zzk5zyogqypak6kdh5n3remepofi6bwctce?filename=super-imperialism-the-economic-strategy-of-empire--annas-archive--libgenrs-nf-3355732.pdf

He talks about the balance of payments a lot, and Nixon taking us off the gold standard is why that didn't matter any more.  And I am concerned that is his zeal for de-dollarization, which would benefit the nations doing it, and would in his words "constrain" US/NATO ability to operate as a benefit to these same nations abandoning these dollars seems to recklessly assume it.  Are you sure the cabal running America right now would constrain military spending?  I think they would throw the citizens aside in a heartbeat to maintain control of their primary forces to control others inside the nation and abroad.  I think his idea is precipitative for total global conflict.

I started listening to his book to fall asleep but it was too interesting so it kept me awake.  As I said I do not understand this stuff but according to him, neither do most economists.  He says that most economists analyze the economy as though it is done though barter, as though money and banking does not matter much.    I mentioned before how he flunked his PhD orals on banking because he knew how they really worked.

BTW I took one year of econ long ago. I thought micro was OK. I thought macro was some kinda fantasy.

Here is the current version of Super Imperialism, part 1/6 is 3 hours long. I downloaded it using down load helper with Firefox.

https://youtu.be/vc9kF-TPubo
[FULL AUDIOBOOK] pt.1/6: Super Imperialism by Michael Hudson

At 5:11 he goes into his initial publications. McNamara pressured Arthur Andersen into not publishing his analysis. NYU did. The NY fed reserve said his NYU analysis was unbelievable, but a leaked internal memo said he was correct.

6:50 The US dept of commerce had changed table 5 of it balance of payments report dealing with foreign aid and other such programs. The new table hid the transfer of money from the foreign countries to the US. Hudson called them.

7:10 Some technician told Hudson that they used to report that data but some joker (Hudson) published a report showing we were actually making money off the aid we were sending so we changed the accounting format so no one can embarrass us like that again. The aid helped US exporters, bankers, and bond holders.

8:00 He said that balance of payments is not taught in schools. As though there was equilibrium.
 
At 14 min he describes how his first 1972 edition of the book was embraced as a how to manual in DC and wall st. He was hired as a consultant by many including the Pentagon.

He may be saying that de-dollarization will reduce NATO expenditures. We shall see.
It was so easy for me to write of Hudson as a flake as I trigger on commies and socialists and I thought he was one.   He took some getting used to. The only suggestions he made, that I recall, were changes to the tax code to tax capital gains but he has little belief that will happen.

Here is an entertaining video on his bio.
https://youtu.be/hH9pzzIIEj4
Michael Hudson - Life and Thought 20180507

One disagreement I have with him is his pro govt stance. IMo the US govt is so flakey that is a dumb idea.

I saw the Chinese CCP/CPC standing committee many years ago. 6 engineers by training and 1 economist. How do we hire them? The head of the Russian central bank is apparently a rock star. How do we get her to defect?

In my day they taught balance of payments in MacroEcon...but what has happened in the intervening years is a migration from basic finance in banking and business to MIT-whiz kid leveraging, arbitrage and most nefariously high-flying derivative madness.  This I believe is the finance-based economy Hudson is referring to.  Coupled with an abandonment in government of sane budgeting practices and opting only for a simplistic always increasing incremental approach to every line item and a Neo-Keynesian Fed and we are sadly where we are.  We should rid ourselves of the high-risk whiz-kid shenanigans, focus on America-first orientation (especially in reducing our overseas overextensions and foreign aid and outdated membership in NATO and domestic energy production and exploration), adopt zero-based budgeting, abandon foreign schemes like ESG/net zero and UN anything, require balanced budgets, end the Fed and use legislation to put fiscal and monetary sanity back into Treasury operations, simplify taxation to a national use-based tax and end the IRS, pay off our debts and once the debt load is a tenth of what it is now get back to a gold standard.  Could be leaving a few things out but you get the drift...and I bet Hudson would go for it too.  Alas, like he says though...stuff like this is about nearly impossible as possible can get with these band of UniParty puppets and DeepState jackasses.

[Libertas]

....
Well, I am not sure why he brings it up then if not to propose it in some sense.  And for wealth generation he must be talking about the elite, not the rest of us...we get more from income than gains.  And he knows taxing gains will get shot down by the elites, even though some caps are in place and there is the inheritance taxes that have especially caused family farms to disappear and corporate farms to increase...and the elites have the means to offshore wealth to protect themselves from adverse tax situations.

I cannot remember everything. He once went into how the capital gains are shielded using loans to escape taxation. He is talking about the elite and the so called 1%.
I recall that most of the elite know how to shield their wealth from inheritance taxes.

Ya, shelter it or in his example loan it out and collect payments with interest where only the interest is taxable and at a lower rate than gains.

[Libertas]

https://nypost.com/2023/11/25/business/how-bill-gates-quietly-became-the-largest-private-owner-of-us-farmland/

Schwab & the WEF, UN, WHO, NGO's, Soros, Gates, Bezos, Zuckerberg et al are nefarious and need to be fought constantly!!!