A Book Review by Peter Koenig
The author, Michael Hudson, is President of The Institute for the Study of Long-Term Economic Trends (ISLET), a Wall Street Financial Analyst, Distinguished Research Professor of Economics at the University of Missouri, Kansas City.
Michael’s book, Junk Economics, reads like an economic thriller. It also provides all the answers to: “What I always wanted to know about Economics, but was afraid to ask”. It is a fascinating read, written for ‘experts’ as well as for economic novices. It is a factual account of what so called ‘Propaganda Experts’ want you to believe about economics, and it dismantles the myths. It explains ‘jargons’ that are on purpose coined, so that the average reader has no clue of their real meaning, but they create an illusion that supposedly serves him. When in reality, the invented and fake expressions make the believers into serfs – serfs to the very system they adore and believe it’s freedom. Michael’s book explains, what those economic manipulator ‘experts’ do not want you to understand.
In addition to an A to Z mini-guide with cross-references to a term’s appearance in the text, the entire Index is organized by economic alphabet; from A – for Adam Smith, Asset-Price Inflation and Austerity, all the way to Z – for Zero-Sum Activity; and everything in between. That certainly makes for easy reading.
Junk Economics also includes a small portfolio of some of Michael’s most brilliant and most telling essays, like “Economics as Fraud” – which is mostly what the West is living today; as well as the “Hudson Bubble Model: From Asset-Price Inflation to Debt-Strapped Austerity”- describing how the banksters trick and tease you into buying what you can’t afford, taking a loan, naturally – then you suddenly can no longer afford debt services, the bubble bursts, and the banksters take your equity away. Transfers from the poor to the rich. It’s a classic. It’s the collapse of the 2008 real estate bubble.
A similar model is being applied to Greece – more imposed debt with ever increasing debt services – debt that can never be paid back. So, the infamous troika (IMF, European Central Bank and the unelected European Commission), insist on – and get it – cutting salaries, pensions, the entire social safety net. Plus, everything to be privatized, or sold off in fire sale type auctions, from railways, to airports to islands. That’s HIGH Fraud, by any international legal standards – but neoliberalism, the applied Washington Consensus, with its fascist economy, is above any law. Because we let it get away with it.
Michael also illustrates how the one percent sucks more and more money out of the social system of the 99% – savings, pension funds, social security, imposing austerity to increase debt, which needs to be paid back – you guessed it – to the one percent. Since social services and public utilities are curtailed to the bone by austerity, they become dysfunctional, can no longer survive, they must be privatized. Neoliberal dictate. Michael demonstrates how public assets are being handed to private industry and service providers for rent-seeking exploitation. In the modern jargon, it’s called PPP – Public Private Partnership. The corrupt authorities practically steal Public Property, handing it to Private operators to reap the benefits from decade-long accumulated public capital. This is a crime.
The book incites you to open your eyes to how we are living in a “false” economy, and most of us don’t realize it. The western economy, mainly in the US and Europe, artificially managed and manipulated, jumps from one crisis to the next. At every crisis point, the banksters and other financial lords cash in huge profits at the detriment of the people at large. The entirely manufactured 2008 real estate crisis is the epitome of such usury. And guess what, the culprits go unpunished. Manufacturing a crisis, Michael implies, is easy – it’s done by false propaganda, targeted brainwashing and massive manipulation of public opinion.
Michael is also demystisizing “Orwellian Doublethink and Newspeak” of economic terminologies – as they are spread throughout the media to confuse and mislead. Terms like “rescue” and “bailout” and “reform” used by IMF, World Bank and similar institutions, have nothing to do with what they are actually making you believe. Reality is indebting and stealing assets, from governments, from the public and from households.
Michael helps you understand the economic vocabulary, coined by language con-artists – so you live in an illusion telling you that Wall Street and its globalized cohorts are good for the economy. Vocabularies are made by those who control the economy, to dupe the common citizen into believing that the economy is The Market which is what makes our world tick, and that each individual wants to be part of The Market, that, We, the People, cannot live without The Market – and, of course that globalization is good for You and The Market. Economic vocabulary in our neoliberal western age, is made like Orwellian Doublespeak – making you believe the opposite from what is actually taking place. That gives the financial thugs and banksters head-way to do what they want. By the time you catch up with reality, it’s too late.
In summary and in addition to the informative ‘fun reading’, Junk Economics contains a wealth of historic data on economics, on how interpretation of economic terms and transactions have evolved – or regressed – over time. It exalts with wisdom from Adam Smith to Karl Marx to such Enlightenment writers and philosophers like Voltaire, and explains how money, denominated in western currencies, once the counter-value of labor and production, has become a fraudulent, meaningless casino currency, not worth the paper it’s printed on.
Peter Koenig is an economist and geopolitical analyst. He is also a former World Bank staff and worked extensively around the world in the fields of environment and water resources. He lectures at universities in the US, Europe and South America. He writes regularly for Global Research, ICH, RT, Sputnik, PressTV, The 4th Media (China), TeleSUR, The Vineyard of The Saker Blog, and other internet sites. He is the author of Implosion – An Economic Thriller about War, Environmental Destruction and Corporate Greed – fiction based on facts and on 30 years of World Bank experience around the globe. He is also a co-author of The World Order and Revolution! – Essays from the Resistance.
Interesting review.
Being a novice in economics, I particularly like the question asked by another novice, the Queen of England, who while on a visit to the London School of Economics asked the great and good of economics present at that time why they didn’t predict the financial crisis that happened in 2008. There were reports at that time that the royal family were not spared by the crisis and the losses, though probably small beer to a pound billionaire, must have rankled a lady famous for her common sense and frugality. Bottom line, it took the learned professors at the LSE six months and two major conferences to come up with a sensible answer. This was reported in the UK papers at that time, if I remember correctly.
So yes, I’ll definitely try to get my hands on the book. Thank you Peter Koenig.
In the 1970’s there was a movie called Scanners, in which certain people, exposed to the minds of certain other people, would suffer sudden catastrophic explosions of the cranium.
Until now I had not thought that possible. Thank you Basil, for setting me straight.
The Queen, who is famous for her common sense and frugality, is the not-so titular head of an Empire built by profits from the opium trade and which remains, to this day, in the business of growing, refining and distributing this and other narcotics to the community in which you live, dearest good Basil.
It so happens H.R.H. is at the head of the bloodiest and most murderous empire that has ever existed.
Basil did you know?
And this oh so frugal Queen, who lives in a palace decorated by billions, loses nothing which won’t be taken back from those of us who must pay not just with material wealth but also with the lives of our loved ones, so please trust me good Basil, we pay handsomely, an immeasurable quantity of lifeforce, for her every itch and pshaw.
First rule of economics: All wars are (central i.e. private) banker wars.
Reality versus deception? A (political) glimpse from the past
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WrKDBFJoo2w
“…All wars are (central i.e. private) banker wars.”
After the Boer wars that straddled the end of the 19th century and the start of the 20th, the British Empire had been subjected to stresses that eventually fractured both the empire’s finances and the public’s perception of the infallibility of the ruling aristocracy. The lack of a large standing continental army also meant the British Empire had to draw heavily upon military manpower from its colonies, so the deaths, maiming and financial strain were spread throughout the empire, so that even the peoples of the colonies could start to perceive the desperation in the reality.
In the run-up to the outbreak of hostilities in August 1914, the rulers of the British Empire were also struggling with the rise of a German scientific and industrial robustness, plus a threatening growth in Germany’s capital ship construction. This included the development of a Berlin-to-Baghdad railway, which gave the German empire a land bridge, impervious to Royal Navy control, for access to not only Eurasian markets, but also to Middle East oil resources, and also posed a possible threat to the British Empire’s lifeline to India: the Suez Canal.
The proposition is that the British Empire deployed their continental balance-of-power machinations to forestall German ambitions, and revive the flagging prospects for the British Empire. In other words, the British elites were scheming for war with Germany, because the British Empire was in desperate financial straits, and wanted to cut down the nearest rival at the knees.
The prosecution of the Great War, and its outcomes, were far more dire than anyone had predicted, and the British Empire, if not already bankrupt before the war, certainly was after it. The war debts were astronomical, and made worse in that Great Britain purchased war material on it’s account with JP Morgan, in New York, for its allies France, Russia, and eventually Italy, as well. And to exacerbate British financial malaise, after the second Russian revolution in 1917, Lenin announced he was reneging on Russia’s war debt.
It is my theory that given the financial implosions of the Boer War and then the Great War, the House of Rothschild had unprecedented influence on the British government via the massive war loans. Ensuing back room discussions about these debts probably had a lot to do with the disposition of former Ottoman lands in the Middle East, with Britain, in particular, being given a mandate over Palestine. The Balfour Declaration of 1917 was probably the first indicator of the Zionist pressures, being applied to the British Empire by the Anglo-Zionist banking cabal, for the creation of the state of Israel.
To what extent the British crown and certain members of the British aristocracy had vested interests in this as well, we may never know.
War was considered by king as imperative,,, proof? See file:///C:/Users/Bill/Documents/Revealed how King George V demanded Britain enter the First World War – Telegraph.htm
Incredible footage!
Watched the whole thing.
The maps showing strategy are great.
If only the USA were still flag-waving for the UN and showing the requisite respect for the unbelievable sacrifices and valor of the Russian people.
Katherine
Well, then you saw other footage than me, Katherine. I saw distasteful, kindergarten-level Orwellian (MI6/CIA/Trotskyite) propaganda, typical for countries entirely run by the Jewish mafia, such as Holland since 1609, Britain since 1694, France since 1800, the pre- and post-Stalin USSR, Germany since 1918 (above all 1933-1945), and especially the “land of the free” since 1913.
That was a remarkable video. Remarkable not only for the rare film footage, but because it was actually produced, in its first iteration, by the US Department of Defense and initially released on Sep18,1947.
Further, the opening section contains quotation plaudits from American war leaders for the massive contribution of the Soviet forces in crushing Nazi Germany.
The script for the documentary, and its tone, couldn’t have been done to better effect if it had been produced by the Soviets. How times have changed.
For a sample of Michael Hudson’s work, and a primer in economics, I recommend:
http://www.counterpunch.org/2017/03/15/how-bankers-became-the-top-exploiters-of-the-economy/
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02987/PX5689635_Lewis-Wh_2987125a.jpg
war letter image
The free market simply isnt free. For example you have a gun held to your head and a demand is made to hand over your wallet. This is an example of a successfull transaction, the robber gets your wallet and you get to keep your life. Was it done with your free will, hell NO you had a gun to your head.
Lets consider buying petrol, another successfull transaction occurs, the company gets your money and you get petrol, was if completed with your free will? Who wants to pay the extortionist prices? i sure dont they are stealing off me, but what options do i have?
OK they literally didn’t hold a gun to my head, but lets look at further up the value chain where millions had guns held th their heads, where countries were bonmbed into the stone age, where ethnic cleansing and campaigns of mass murder were undertaken to get the oil that is sold to you for the extortionate prices that you do not wish to pay, but what choice do you have?
The reality is that the robber who holds a gun to your head and steals your wallet is far more ethical that the people who sell petrol you put into your car.
Are you forced to drive a gasoline guzzler? Forced by whom?
I don’t think selling oil is comparable to gun-robbery. Instead, it is depriving future people of oil because “we” want our pleasures now and “we” don’t care about tomorrow.
Michael Hudson is quite late to the game. Marx exposed what the so called Capitalism was and how it operated long time ago.
For more recent example, Thomas Piketty did the same thing in 2013 with Capital in the Twenty-First Century.
Sounds like you are not familiar with Dr. Hudson for he has analyzed all of Marx’s works including all 3 volumes of Capital – in depth.
He is way ahead of the curve, decades in fact. Read Super Imperialism which was first published in 1972, he predicted exactly how the international financial system would develop after the gold window was closed by Nixon in 71. Reading it now after all these years is truly mind-blowing. He is arguably the most accurate economist of the last 50 years. Dr. Paul Craig Roberts calls him “the best economist alive”
Hudson has analyzed volume 3 of Marx’s Capital at length, where almost no one examines this volume, rather focus on 1 and 2. You will need a long time to digest his prolific writings, talks, and books. After you read his works, you will then, and only then, be qualified to comment.
Hudson is one of the world’s authorities on the history of economic thought. His depth of knowledge about all major economists in history is impressive to say the least. His recent works on debt in ancient Mesopotamia is cutting-edge as well.
Has Dr Hudson written anything on the Soviet financial and banking systems? To my (admittedly limited) knowledge, Ruble generation by the Gosbank ( a state institution) was tied to industrial planning policy. Ideally, the money supply of any State should be sufficient to support economic activity but should not induce exponential devaluation of the currency. The policies of the Gosbank seemed well-suited to these goals.
The MMT theorists, such as Dr Hudson seem to be aware of the inappropriate power granted to the private banking sector through the delegation to them of the power to create arbitrary amounts of credit based money. What is unclear to me is exactly what their proposed solution to this problem is.
Presumably, the solution would involve the nationalization of the current privately owned central banks, the dissolution of the BIS framework as well as the IMF and related globalist institutions. But is this what they are actually proposing? Or is it something else? If so, what exactly?
Hudson has missed important points often enough that I don’t bother to read him any more.
First, he belongs to the ‘Modern Monetary Theory’ camp which sees central banks as bad BECAUSE THEY DON’T GO FAR ENOUGH. MMT wants a total hostile divorce from real economics, not just the separation we have now.
Second, he thinks Russia’s head banker Nabiullina is similar to Yellen, Carney, Draghi, etc. She’s not. Nabiullina understands and uses real economics. Unlike all other central bankers she allows interest rates to work properly, and seems to be moving toward a gold standard.
Polistra, What’s your take on sovereignty if you don’t even control the issuing of money?
His book “killing the host” is still mandatory reading to understand any of this.
No one but laggards like me reads old threads, so I am posting this here.
@Proper Gander in the “super fuse” thread:
“It is the conundrum of modern politics. Vote against these people and you really are bringing ruin on your children. Vote for them, and you really are bringing ruin on someone else’s.”
Voting for the neocons would be tantamount to voting for a nuclear suicide. Nobody who’s sane wants that.
( In the future put off topic comments in MFC thread.MOD)
Watch this video, it explains who really rules.
It’s not just “The Bankers”, it’s those that rule the bankers, i.e. “The Elite”.
A most important interview!
This Dutch banker Ronald Bernard exposes the elite:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRuKmxQSPSw
This is recorded in Dutch and has subtitles and computer voiceover.