Michael Hudson is a highly-regarded economist. He is a Distinguished Research Professor at the University of Missouri, Kansas City, who has advised the U.S., Canadian, Mexican and Latvian governments as well as the United Nations Institute for Training and Research. He is a former Wall Street economist at Chase Manhattan Bank who also helped establish the world’s first sovereign debt fund.
Hudson has frequently described Wall Street as "parasitic". For example, in a 2003 interview, Hudson said:
The problem with parasites is not merely that they siphon off the food and nourishment of their host, crippling its reproductive power, but that they take over the host's brain as well. The parasite tricks the host into thinking that it is feeding itself.
Something like this is happening today as the financial sector is devouring the industrial sector. Finance capital pretends that its growth is that of industrial capital formation. That is why the financial bubble is called "wealth creation," as if it were what progressive economic reformers envisioned a century ago. They condemned rent and monopoly profit, but never dreamed that the financiers would end up devouring landlord and industrialist alike. Emperors of Finance have trumped Barons of Property and Captains of Industry.
More recently, Hudson said:
You can think of the financial sector as being wrapped around the real economy, almost like a parasite, and that's why it's been called parasitic for so long. The financial sector extracts interest from the economy, the property sector extracts economic rent, as do monopolies. Now the key thing about parasites, is that it's not simply that they extract nourishment from the host. The parasite takes over the
host's brain, to make it think it's part of the economy, to make it think
it's part of the host's own body, and, in fact, that's it almost like a child of the host, to be protected. And that's what the financial sector has done today.
You have Obama coming out and saying, "We have to save the banks in order to save the real economy". The fact is, you can't serve both the parasite and the host.
And see this.
On August 10th, Hudson went even further. Specifically, he said:
- The giant financial institutions have already killed their host - the real American economy
- Since they realize that the American economy is dead, they are trying to suck as much blood out of America as possible while the corpse is still warm
- Because the American economy is dead, their plan is to soon jump to another host. They will ship all of their money overseas
I agree, they are shipping their wealth overseas. That's why you had better move your wealth offshore too, before the currency controls are imposed.
ReplyDeleteHey, where did you hear the talk? Got a link?
ReplyDeleteOops! Too late!
ReplyDeleteFollowed the last link but could not listen or view the broadcast on AudioPort.org. Do you have a password to log in and create and account?
ReplyDeleteI saw this on facebook linked from Global Research.. so I jumped on to your blog to link it direct from my fb. You're getting around the net quickly these days... :).
ReplyDeleteSeeing TARP implemented last fall despite overwhelming opposition was an epiphany for me.
ReplyDeleteAt that point it seemed the oligarchy no longer cared about hiding the strings that control their Gov puppets. They were obiviously desperate about saving their wealth and realized the need to act quickly before conditions worsened. And indeed they did with 100's of billions outright and Gov commitments for trillions more.
No doublt the folks I'm referring to have spread their wealth about the world. No doublt they have their dual citizenships, residences, etc.
To my way of thinking they represent the biggest threat to the well being of the majority of Americans. Forget: terriorists, drug lords,muslims,North Korea, Iran, Pakastanian, global warming... etc. These are canards.
The singular real and present danger is that 1% that in their greed aim to enslave us in debt.
Wow, GW, this is so well said that I have nothing to add except "thank you."
ReplyDelete