Michael Hudson’s interview with RT – May 19 2022.
Peter Scott, RT anchor: Joining us now is Michael Hudson, economist and author of “Super-Imperialism” and the recently-published “Destiny of Civilization”. Welcome to the programme, Michael.
Michael Hudson: It’s good to be back.
PS: Let’s say all these European programmes like the REPOWER Programme come into effect, how do you expect the EU standing to be on the stage after that?
MH: Well, the EU standing will be squeezed economically. It was trying to be a powerhouse in the world economy but in the last month the euro has been declining steadily against the dollar and it’s on the way to one dollar per euro. That’s because it’s having to pay much foreign exchange for energy, for food, for weapons. It’s shrinking in terms of other economies.
PS: Where do you think the EU’s standing will be in relation to powerhouses such as China?
MH: Well, it’s obviously out of the game. Instead of putting its own interests first, it’s really putting the US interests first. It’s acting more like a satellite of the United States than trying to its own destiny. The whole plan of the EU 20 years ago was to get rich by investing in Russia, investing in China and a mutual exchange. And now it’s decided to stop that. The US has absorbed Europe. The war in Ukraine is a war by the US primarily to pull Europe into the US orbit, prevent European transactions with Russia or China. So Western Europe is being left out, while Russia, China and Eurasia are going with the rest of Asia. Europe is simply going to be left behind. It’s losing its export markets, it’s being squeezed and -as you just mentioned- it’s pushed up the retirement age because it’s spending its budget on replenishing American military arms instead of investing in industry as it had been doing since 1945.
PS: You did indeed write that Europe has ceased to be an independent state. You’ve almost mentioned that the United States wanted to sever EU trade ties with Russia and China. How exactly did you get to that conclusion and do you think that this alleged US plan is succeeding?
MH: Well, I simply read the speeches of President Biden and his team. They’ve said that China is America’s number one enemy. If you’re going to call a country your number one existential enemy, you’re not going to be increasing your trade and mutual dependency with it. And it’s already insisted that its allies sanction -meaning boycott- Russian sports not only of oil and agriculture but of titanium, helium and all of the other exports that Russia has been making. Europe jas been following US directions not to have contact with Russia and without contact with Russia it’s not going to have contact with China because China sees that Europe is going to do exactly what it’s been doing to Russia.
PS: Obviously as a result of this current situation, for many years now, Russia and China have been growing closer diplomatically and economically. How do you see a global shift in power evolving over the next 5, 10 years or so?
MH: The current war is dividing the world into two parts. There’s going to be a US dollar area of the US, Europe and its satellites. And there’ll be a multipolarity; there’ll be a group of Russia, China together and basically they will be making their proposal of a different way of organising the world economic affairs to Africa, Latin America and other Asian countries. And other Asian countries, Latin America and the global south will see that it can get a better deal with Russia and China than it can get with the United States.
PS: On the flip side of that coin, one could argue that the existing situation, world order, has only been cemented by this war. You see NATO more aligned than ever, you see Europe more aligned than ever. You see Finland and Sweden on the brink, perhaps, of joining NATO. What would your response to this be, Michael?
MH: This integration of Europe into the United States sphere is like the new Berlin Wall. It’s isolated the US from the whole rest of the world. So instead of a victory for the United States it’s self-isolated itself because US strategists have realised that they’re losing the economic war with China, Russia and the whole group of emerging nations. All they can try to do is hold on to Europe as their one source of income to exploit from Europe what it can no longer get from any other country.
PS: As well as being a war on the ground, this is obviously an economic war. You yourself have noted that Nord Stream 2 (the gas pipeline from Russia to Germany) was one of the first victims of this crisis. To what extent are we now seeing an international conflict for energy resources? We obviously have the EU now weaning itself off Russian energy, the US trying to fill that gap to a certain extent with LNG. Then we have Russia now selling oil to India and China.
MH: The important thing about Russian oil being sold to India is that they’re sold in roubles, they’re no longer in dollars. The entire oil trade is now de-dollarised. It will be in roubles, in Chinese Yuan and in other currencies. But the dollar will be left out. The whole idea of dollar diplomacy, of the dollar’s free ride and monetary imperialism has ended. Everyone thought it would take 10 years for Russia, China and other countries to break away. Yet the United States itself has broken away from the other countries by grabbing the foreign exchange reserves of Afghanistan, Venezuela and now Russia. Nobody is going to trust to transact oil, trade and invest in dollars anymore because the United States can simply grab whatever money they want from countries that don’t agree to turn over their economic surplus to American investors and American traders. The United States has isolated itself. It’s shot itself in the foot.
PS: Talking of currencies, Russia is currently the most sanctioned country in the world but the rouble has recovered to way before pre-war levels. To what extent do you think the sanctions imposed on Russia by western countries have negatively impacted the countries imposing them?
MH: It’s certainly been very positive for Russia. The first sanctions were imposed on Russian agriculture like cheese from Lithuania. So now Russia produces its own cheese. When you sanction a country, you force that country to be more self-reliant on its own productions. President Putin has already said that now he’s going to be investing in import substitution. If he can’t buy imports from the United States now he’ll set up factories in Russia to produce themselves. There’s no reason Russia cannot do this and be its own industrial power. It doesn’t need the West. But the West still needs Russia. You mentioned Europe doing without Russian oil, and instead getting US liquefied natural gas. But it doesn’t have the ports to import that natural gas. It will have to spend $5 billion to build ports. It will take many years for this. What are Germany and Europe going to do for the next few years? Are they going to let their pipes freeze in their houses? So that their pipes break and flood the houses? Will the factories slow down? Already German fertiliser companies have closed down because they can’t get gas and it’s going to be years before they can get gas. Without fertiliser how are the Germans going to make their agricultural yields sustainable? Well, they won’t be. So Europe is going to increase its food deficit. It’s going to increase its energy deficit. It’s basically committing suicide on behalf of the Americans. I don’t know how long the political system of Europe can go along with leaders who represent America instead of their own national interests.
PS: As inflation and consumer prices keep rising in the US – Joe Biden maintains that it’s all Russia’s fault. Does it look like American taxpayers are buying that story, though?
MH: The press is very one-sided here. I think a lot of people are buying the story because Russia has not been very good on public relations here. The reality is, for instance, that in Ukrainian food exports, Ukraine cannot export its grain because Ukraine itself has mined the Black Sea. If you have mines that are going to block up ships in the Black Sea, that means insurance companies aren’t going to be willing to insure ships carrying the grain. All of this is blamed on Russia but Russia didn’t put the mines there – Ukraine did. But right now there is such a race hatred of Russians, that Americans are indeed buying it all and Russians are being blamed for everything. Such a thing happened when WW1 broke out. I live in Forest Hills in NYC and German families here had to change their name -away from a German name- and pretend to be Swedish or something else. Families like Donald Trump’s family had to pretend to be Swedish not German. There was such an anti-German family. Then you had the Japanese being interned in camps in WW2. So American society is a hate-filled society and the American empire is really an empire of hatred and antagonism. The way they look at the world is ‘Us vs. Them’ and Russia is the new ‘Them’.
PS: The seizing of Russian economic assets – hundreds of billions of dollars – in the West has certainly become a controversial precedent. Moscow has called it theft. What sort of impact has this situation had on the US economy and the dollar itself, as a global reserve currency?
MH: No impact at all on the US economy as such. If Russia loses the $300 billion that was stolen, it will be a great victory for Russia. That’s because what America has said is that no country’s savings in the United States are safe. Any country that denominated its trade in US dollars, any country that invests in the United States, if you don’t have your government follow American dictates, then we can simply grab your money -like we grabbed Russia’s money, Afghanistan’s money, Venezuela’s money. So the act against Russia has been essentially the US destroying foreign faith in the US economy and the safety of the US government. For the last 75 years, the US dollar and US Treasury Bills, loaned to the US government, bonds, have been the safest investment in the world. Now they’re the most risk investment. So what this means is that the American economy has decoupled itself from the Asian economy, from the Latin American and African economies. The Americans have decoupled and yet America is not self-sufficient. It relies on foreign countries, especially China and other Asian countries, for its industrial exports and it relies on Russia for much of its helium, titanium, iridium, palladium… all of these exports which it’s not going to be getting anymore. So America has basically committed trade suicide and economic suicide. Russia seems to have lost the $300 billion but on the other hand it now gets to compensate itself with all of the foreign investments that are in Russia, that it’s picking up, and its position in the world affairs as a trustworthy economy has gone way, way up relative to the United States.
PS: Russia, China and India are among the countries which are now calling for a new, multi-polar world order – without a strong reliance on the US and its allies. Does that seem like a realistic scenario to you?
MH: Well, the crisis is going to come this summer. Now that you have oil and food prices and shipping rates go way up, you’re going to have Latin America, Africa and much of Asia have tremendous balance-of-payment deficit. These balance-of-trade deficits for oil, food and shipping are going to go hand-in-hand with huge foreign debts denominated in dollars for foreign bond holders and foreign banks. Something is going to give. What will probably give is massive debt defaults against American bondholders and against American banks.At this point, Russia, China and their allies can say, “We can create parallel institutions in the world. We can create our International Monetary Fund to give you credit. We can create our own World Bank to promote actual, positive developments and not dependency on the United States exporters. So the US policy has driven other countries into the Eurasian orbit of China, Russia, Iran will be joining, India will be along, Indonesia. All these countries now will have something that they never had before; they have their own critical mass. They can deal with each other and be self-sufficient. They don’t need the dollar anymore. That’s what makes today different from the 1970s when the third world countries and the non-aligned nations tried to create a new international economic order but couldn’t. They didn’t have enough scope in their economies. Now they have enough scope that they don’t need America. You’re going to find the rest of the world rushing away from the dollar area, leaving only Europe as part of the United States economy at great sacrifice of its own living standards.
PS: Which countries do you think are gaining the most from the ongoing political and economic turmoil?
MH: I don’t know if you can say win. I’d say Russia and China will be the big winners. Russia already is because the American sanctions against Russia have forced Russia to do something that it could have done half a century ago. It’s forced Russia to create its own consumer goods industry, its own industrial take off. Russia can now build its own plants, equipment and factories and hire its own labour to produce what it was buying from Europe before. So it won’t need Europe anymore. Europe has lost the Russian market. Without the Russian market, I don’t see where Europe can grow because the United States won’t let European goods into it. The United States is protectionist. Europe will be squeezed and ultimately it will end up moving into the Russian and Chinese orbits but it will take years of suffering before that occurs.
PS: There’s a lot of talk on Western unity but it’s clear that there’s an economic price for this. Will the pain see countries follow Hungary and Serbia and say, enough is enough, we’re done with this.
MH: Western unity is a one way unity. Western unity is the United States telling other countries, “Do what we tell you to.” If other countries don’t do what America tells it to, they’re treated like the enemy. Like Hungary has been treated as an enemy. There’s talk of how to punish Hungary. The Americans have no idea how to offer something to attract other countries to it. All the United States can do is, “We can bomb you if you don’t do what we say. We have nothing positive to offer you. We have no trade options to offer you. We have no investment to offer you that will not siphon off your income. All we can do is bomb you and threaten you and sanction you and try to hurt you.” That’s the only way the United States and now Europe can relate to the rest of the world. That’s a poisoned relating. It’s a way guaranteed to drive the rest of the world away.
PS: Looking to a time after the war. What do you think the relationship between the US and Russia, or the EU and Russia look like?
MH: Permanently hostile for 20 years until Europe collapses and until the United States goes into a long depression. There is no rapprochement. There will be no settlement because the United States industrial economy can only make military arms. The only thing the United States can offer other countries is bombers and military arms and weaponry. Not anything to raise the living standards. The situation in the United States will be one of increasing hostility towards the rest of the world. The great threat is that it will say, “Well, we’re just going to blow up the world.” The people who are in charge of US policy think that way, they’ve been thinking that way for 20 years. I’ve worked with these people before and they really are willing to blow up the world if they can’t turn the other world into dependencies. That’s a real danger for the rest of the world and it’s forcing it to withdraw from the US orbit. I think it was Henry Kissinger who said that, “To be an enemy of America can be dangerous, but. “To be an enemy of America can be dangerous, but to be a friend is fatal.” Well, the US friend who’s really in danger is Europe. The enemies are going to do OK because they’re at least friends with each other.
—o0o—
“. Russia seems to have lost the $300 billion but on the other hand it now gets to compensate itself with all of the foreign investments that are in Russia,”
Same question again. The figure of $500 billion has been mentioned by Pepe. What is investment in Russia by unfriendly countries really worth?
The 300 billion stolen from Russia becomes what will be known as the “Ukrainian Purchase”. It will be the 300 billion, plus the cost of the war plus RICO style damages. So, in compensation it could be all of Ukraine and then some.
Really hope Michael Hudson 20 years time span to start fixing this nightmare in Europe is exagerated. Unless the experiment in Ucraine is replicated everywhere, Bandera and Hitler statues in all major cities in Europe, turning all political opposition illegal, crude dictatorship, parlamentarian suspension, paramiliatary forces acting freelly, political courts implementation, civil rights abolition.
Yeah would be nice if he was wrong. But I doubt it. Our leadership is extremely divorced from reality. They see sacrificing the general population as standard practice of government. Beyond that they are also not the smartest kids in the room. Success in North America is not linked to accurate vision of the world or solid problem solving skills or deep vision of economy or political affairs. The smart kids have been driven from any real contact with the levers of decision making. Yes men and clown fill positions of power. This won’t change til this train is way off the tracks and laying sideways in the mud.
I sincerely hope I am wrong. But we have only the wrong people in positions of influence.
In another interview, MH said the hybrid war could last as long as 30 years. I think he said it would probably last 30 years.
My opinion is that this “long war” has a slow build-up relative to earlier big wars, but the end will be very slow and without any big March On Berlin or any March On Washington. The end will be fitful, more like desperately squeezing out the last bit of toothpaste because you can’t go buy some. Ten years ago, Alain Soral (French dissident) said the world was “in a pre-war stage” and now we know he was right.
There is a way to make that war shorter, and that’s if the peoples of North America and/or Europe rise up against their overlords. That’s a sort of “black swan event” but it’s a race between internet-enlightened people, and the cunning propagandists. I am a bit optimistic because the main trick is to not let the people know there is even any mass deceptions going on. However, that deception is being swept away, at least in the US which still has freedom of speech. That doesn’t exist in the rest of the “Free World”. Even wearing a St. George ribbon got a young man a prison sentence in Lithuania – and of course the Western press was designed to make those facts go away. But the internet never forgets, and even in Europe, people can get the truth. They just have to care.
As the “pain dial” is turned up, people will start asking questions in the months to come. You already know that, but it’s important to actually plan for a time when masses of people will pay attention.
Well said. I genuinely believe in and practice honesty.
I say what I believe, not what I suspect to be safe or popular.
It’s a potential black swan for sure that a sufficient percentage of the population begins courageously sharing the truth and in so doing exposing the LIE….
Very literally these are times where souls are on trial.
Finem Respice-:)
Take a look at the UK. Apart from the statues, most of your conditions have either been met or are well on the way.
Sanctions don’t work in Russia any more than they have in Iran, Cuba or Venezuela. More than 300 USA corporations operate in China, Many more in India. Of which big names like Boeing, General Dynamics, General Motor, Ford etc., are profiting big time from the labor market there. With that said sanctions won’t work in the BRICS nations. USA and EU sanctions are hurting our own nations, they may have backfired, or that may the Build Back Better plan of the World Economic Forum (WEF). Whatever way we here in the USA go, I’m sure it will bringing down of our nation within less than 10 years for I know that is the plan.
” There is no rapprochement. There will be no settlement because the United States industrial economy can only make military arms.”
” The situation in the United States will be one of increasing hostility towards the rest of the world. The great threat is that it will say, “Well, we’re just going to blow up the world.”The people who are in charge of US policy think that way, they’ve been thinking that way for 20 years.”
Some hold that they have thinking that way since inception.
A useful demystification of – What are the United States of America and how they are facilitated ? – informing that neither “winning” nor “losing” is an option, only transcendence of coercive social relations by social relations based on co-operation of which “The United States of America” are incapable as a function of – What are the United States of America and how are they facilitated ?.
‘Some hold that they have thinking that way since inception.’
They had to succeed first in achieving global dominance, primarily through the transfer (voluntary or otherwise) of imperial power from Britain and other colonial powers into their own hands. For some while after that, they then had to contend with popular appeals of competing ideas (communist, socialist, etc.) that placed some constraints their own impulses. Only when they regarded themselves as the only viable geopolitical option did they feel free to proceed with full exposure and implementation both domestically and abroad.
It remains to be seen whether they were somewhat premature in that most recent judgement. One can only hope, but, if so, their reaction to being shown their mistake is worrisome to say the least.
“They had to succeed first in achieving global dominance…”
They built upon pre-existing coercive social relations/beliefs in political constructs from which they had “emigrated”, and hence they initially required to be fed by “the natives” without reciprocation, the initial coercive social relations being facilitated by the interactions of the ideologies of “the natives” and the coercions through propaganda and practices of the emigrants/immigrants.
They replicated these behaviours in varying presentations to their “allies/opponents” including but not limited to – the treaty of Versailles of 1919 and subsequent, the meeting of the Imperial General Staff in London in March 1943 circa 6 weeks after the “Axis” surrender in the Stalingrad region, negotiating a separate surrender of the German forces including the SS/SD in the Bolzano region on or about 4th April 1945, the bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999 in part to frustrate Austrian/German projects to develop investments and their former spheres of influence throughout “Danubia”, and “convincing” the European Union to engage in acts of suicide through mis-representations of likely outcomes.
These interactions continue with diminishing effect – why some in Russia in 1991 went to buy mirrors in Children’s World, and why the tourists were complicit and are increasingly complicit in their own transcendence.
“Only when they regarded themselves as the only viable geopolitical option did they feel free to proceed with full exposure and implementation both domestically and abroad.”
Like the erstwhile tourists you seek to assign in some degree sole/primary agency to the tourists whom initially visited “The former Soviet Union”: the tourists being “informed” by the illusion that there was neither domestic nor abroad – one of the significances of Mr. Fukuyama’s End of History, the “purpose of Full Spectrum Dominance”, and the multiplicity of opportunities for those who had prepared partly by their purchases from Children’s World.
“It remains to be seen”
Some did not restrict their activities to seeing but enhanced/facilitated seeing by doing, and hence have already seen.
“One can only hope”
Some did not “inform” their activities by hoping as you may have observed from February 2022 if not before.
“their reaction to being shown their mistake is worrisome to say the least.”
Some understood from at least 1969 that that would be the likely reaction of many, but some did not perceive it as worrisome: only for their purposes premature – hence why strategies/tactics of 2014 and lateral strategies/tactics developed ther upon of 2022.
By at least 1969 some understood that in some measure “The Soviet Union” and “The United States of America” were emulative in so far that they were both presentations of coercive social relations, and hence opportunities were not “mistakes” but functions of their interactions and inherent within them.
Thank you for illustrating some of the premises upon which useful foolery has been/is predicated, including the ongoing metamorphosis of “agreemenet incapable” into “co-operation incapable”, including the expanding motivations and perceptions of many, who understand that the coercive social relations self-misrepresented as “The United States of America” pose an existential threat to them, and the perceptions of a more limited sum of some that, if absolutely necessary, would not find atomic warfare unduly worrisome if mutually assured destruction could be assured, since some understand that they are neither exceptional nor immortal.
Time to put away childish things, including, but not limited to, reliance on belief.
Well, the Five Eyes Nations are pretty keen on pushing the narrative “America CAN Win a Nuclear War (with Russia AND China, by logical extension). Two “supporting” commentaries attached – and note the publishers – Wall Street Journal, and The Australian – both well-despised “Official Mouthpieces” of the US War Machine – which is what the US MIC really is – a reincarnation of Hitler’s Wermacht.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-us-show-it-can-win-a-nuclear-war-russia-putin-ukraine-nato-sarmat-missile-testing-warning-11651067733 , also faithfully parroted word-for-word by The Australian.
The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists takes a far different view, as sane minds might hope –
https://thebulletin.org/2022/02/us-defense-to-its-workforce-nuclear-war-can-be-won/
Nevertheless there are people in command positions (US and their vassals) who DO have access to nuclear weapons, and the bottom line is “those who turn the key (s) launch the missiles”. Whilst the legality of the (numerous) chains of command has been discussed in the past, the reality is that the LCC staff are NOT going to demand to speak with The President – they are going to do what they are trained to do, and the order to launch (coming from a sufficiently elevated Officer rank) will be obeyed by the majority.
As for tactical weapons – we have the “generally accepted view” (keenly and enthusiastically peddled by the US) that the Russians would be the first to use such weapons, especially since “Russia is losing in the conflict” (per all Western-leaning media, even usually reasonably impartial Al Jazeera!). The reality is that Russia HAS WON, and just because they don’t follow the US way of war – i.e. bombing everything flat (especially civilian infrastructure), and simply walking away from the destruction, is being carefully presented by the West as a” loss”.
Elsewhere the West is vigorously presenting fantasies such as this –
https://www.nti.org/atomic-pulse/blundering-into-a-nuclear-war-in-ukraine-a-hypothetical-scenario/
So, who’s pushing who? We all know the US has “telegraphed” its intentions so many times in the past, and they are very carefully (and thoroughly) setting the population up to accept that a nuclear exchange will be initiated by Russia (of course no mention of the surrounding of Russia by fully nuclear-capable NATO assets). The facts of the Russian RESPONSE to NATO encirclement are very carefully ignored, but ignored at what cost?
The SMO is but the overture to a far larger conflict, and it seems very likely that the US are at least planning for a nuclear exchange – however even a “limited” exchange might be catastrophic – for all of us.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/limited-tactical-nuclear-weapons-would-be-catastrophic/
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-00794-y
As a useful barometer of the US general mindset – have a brief look at this –
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hG0ROjzgEA0
The Infographics Show is very much aimed at the “average” US person, and the graphical approach is particularly aimed at those who prefer to look at “pretty pictures” rather than read through text (and by extension, have to understand the meaning of such text).
It is enlightening (and rather scary) to read the 5000+ comments, the vast majority pro-USA interventionalism, and all spouting the “Russia Invaded” meme so very carefully cultivated by the Western MSM.
It’s like our leaders in the West are reading Orwell’s ‘1984’ as an instruction manual not a warning.
https://dailysceptic.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/ORWELLSURPRISE300-1024×976.jpg
Bravo. Very thoughtful and unfortunately for mu home country likely to become true.
“United States goes into long depression” ? Bit of an understatement
We have been waiting in 20 years and cant wait any longer. If US wanna blow, then blow. At least we can expect a couple of Sarmats in Yellowstone, US gone, forever. No more “gotta hula lulalulaluuulalu from honolulalu”!
Then there is the bloodsuckers left in City of London……………………………………………………..?
Exactly. The Rothschilds are johnny-come-latelys, the C of L has been pulling the strings for a thousand years.
Let’s hope no Sarmat disturbs the Yellowstone megavolcano. That would apparently be on a par with nuclear winter. Worldwide.
Excellent interview, a case in point, the first thing the Germans did following the Russian special operation in Ukraine was to put the Nord Stream 2 pipeline on hold, something the US had been trying to do for years, including the US Ambassador going over the German government heads and threatening German industrialists with sanctions if they have anything to do with NS2, this should have been intolerable for a state with any self respect.
Then they announced a $100 Billion increase in their defence spending including a fleet of US F35 fighters.
Michael Hudson is correct, the US needs its “Rules based order” which is different that those agreed by the United Nations after 1945, these new rules are now interpreted as, the US make the rules the vassals follow our orders, OR ELSE!
Great interview. Thank you for posting.
Although the US may not have succeeded militarily in the Ukraine, it has succeeded in eliminating the EU as a competitor while siphoning off $60 billion of US taxpayer money for the kleptocracy, and selling arms to its NATO “allies”.
Hudson would be the first to tell you that it’s not taxpayer money – it is simply money created on demand and doled out as corporate welfare.
This has been going on for a long time but it really took off after 2008. The results are clear: billionaires tripled their “worth” while the US collapses into a cesspool of failing infrastructure, crime, falling life spans, plummeting education, etc. Every metric is negative – except profits for military/energy/finance/”health” (pharma+insurance).
That $60b was only over a couple of months. Multiply accordingly for ‘a long war’ and the need to replenish hundreds of billions in military hardware shipped to Ukraine for destruction.
Point well taken.
Still it goes on the ledger as part of the annual deficit and accumulating US national debt. A time will come when people will recognize the US dollar is just a scrap of paper.
“ Leaked emails reviewed by The Grayzone reveal possibly criminal plot by pro-Leave elites to sabotage Theresa May’s Brexit deal, infiltrate government, spy on campaign groups, and replace May with Boris Johnson
“Among their key objectives was to strengthen the security relationship between London and Washington, thus supplanting EU authority with more substantial US oversight.”
https://www.sott.net/article/468047-Operation-Surprise-leaked-emails-expose-secret-intelligence-coup-to-install-Boris-Johnson
Well informed.
The Great Depression lasted only a few years after a massive financial crash. The causes were identified by 2 Senators, Glass and Steagall, and FDR acted on their recommendation, with the 1934 banking law, repealed in 1999 by Clinton under impeachment pressure, which led to today after the 2008 bail-out, massive liquidity pumping since especially 2019 it is clear no bail-out whatsoever could function. So loot, and no looting whatsoever can forestall a blowout to make 1929 look like a saloon brawl. With Yeltsin, looting Russia started, Putin stopped it.
The cause of the most recent open lawless vandalism is this impending blowout. Everything Russia and China do demonstrates to the world there is a way out.
So, yes the crystal ball looks cracked, when do they ever function anyway?
Germany and France have recent good economic experience, and will not simply forget.
Both Scott Ritter and Hudson made forecasts, but so far Ritter is honest enough to admit he needed improvement. Hudson is well aware of Glass-Steagall banking separation, FDR’s RFC, national credit formation, all US traditions, however much trampled on. It would be good to inform Europeans of this, as he clearly is targeting a European audience. Or is Hudson ordering Europeans to do something he sees he cannot order the US to do?
Does Hudson look for a European martyr to go flight forward into the Empire’s cannons?
bonbon
You are giving Clinton too much credit…as if his arm needed twisting to enrich those that had been supporting him since his days as Governor of Arkansas, if not well before.
The Great Depression lasted 10 years and only ended with massive industrial production for WWII. This was funded by deficit spending, and by the end of the war debt to GDP was 125%. Current debt to GDP is around 140%, and we are not coming out of a depression but going into one.
Clinton just continued Reagan’s program. In many ways Reagan could be considered a moderate in comparison to those who followed. The vandalism has been goning on since long before Reagan.
The economics of Germany and France (and most all of Europe) are the result of the Marshall Plan, which used funding to capture these ecomomies. Nobody is informing the Europeans (and Americans) of anything other than evil Russian atrocities, which is why both get play on RT and not CNN.
Ritter is good for tactical and historical analysis, not geopolitical forecasting. The kindest way to phrase this is he’s good with the tactical, not the strategic.
Ritter ain’t no patch on Mr Martyanov on any tactical or operational aspects of war. He spent too many years tracking non-existent or redundant weapons for XYZ US Alphabet Agencies. Hell someone even compared him to Pepe Escobar yesterday. I’m expecting someone to compare Biden with Putin next. It’s this kind of hubris, exceptionalism, that’s brought America to its knees, well knee deep in excrement and syringes.
Clinton got the Assange treatment, as did Ritter, and Trump. Short attention-spans, anyone?
Sure Clinton signed what Greenspan campaigned for a decade.
See the result.
The FDR New Deal brought the US by 1936 up to capability – as FDR said, war was already certain.
For every tonne Wehrmacht had in logistics, a GI had 10. Russia understands that today.
Dumping the British Gold Standard in 1934, cancelling the Gold Conference, poking the London Schoool of Economics in the eye, and telling Churchill on a screaming save-me panic trip – 1 condition : no more colonies, is the US way.
One way or another a major eye-poking is coming your way, either from Russia, the US, or China, perhaps a triple whammy. Suck it up!
bonbon
Don’t know how you can equate Clinton and Assange…they seem diametrically opposed…and did Clinton ever serve time in jail for truth telling or for lying? No, he is a millionaire livin’ the American Dream while Assange rots in prison.
Otherwise, mainly on point.
And now Elon Musk is getting the same treatment – #Elongate – for buying Twitter.
Musk is out for blood, he tweets.
Clinton folded and look at the financial disaster cascade to today. The Deep guys got what they wanted – massive bailouts.
Trump also was given the Stormy treatment, Russiagate, a massive pile on – the Deep got what they wanted – Biden, and look at the disaster.
Before Assange, Binney, Kiriaku, Ellsberg all got the treatment.
“I don’t know how long the political system of Europe can go along with leaders who represent America instead of their own national interests”.
A natural and obvious question to anyone who is awake. Fortunately, Paul Craig Roberts answered it 7 years ago. The more important follow-up question is why most European leaders have not been prosecuted for high treason.
‘My Ph.D. dissertation chairman, who became a high Pentagon official assigned to wind down the Vietnam war, in answer to my question about how Washington gets Europeans to always do what Washington wants replied: “Money, we give them money.” “Foreign aid?” I asked. “No, we give the European political leaders bagfuls of money. They are for sale. We bought them. They report to us.” Perhaps this explains Tony Blair’s $50 million fortune one year out of office’.
– Paul Craig Roberts https://www.globalresearch.ca/americas-conquest-of-western-europe-is-europe-doomed-by-vassalage-to-washington/5538471
Washington wants replied: “Money, we give them money.” “Foreign aid?” I asked. “No, we give the European political leaders bagfuls of money. They are for sale. We bought them. They report to us.”
What happens when the US goes broke and can no longer afford to give them bagfuls of money?
Of course, there’s the other side of the equation – blackmail. Once the politicos have accepted the first bagful, the US (erhmm, I think behind the US it is actually the elites of the City of London, who are pulling the strings and using the US as a front, but anyway…) then entice them into paedophilia, drugs, money laundering, fraud, murder and whatever else they can put on them in order to broaden and deepen their control. After that there is no way out. Hence the illogical self-destructive behaviour of European politicos that has been becoming over more the norm over the last few years.
@BM: “What happens when the US goes broke and can no longer afford to give them [European politicians] bagfuls of money?”
Eurocats are cheap to feed. Compare British PM T.Bliar $100M versus POTU$a WC.Clinton $50,000M.
Prof. Hudson,
What can you say about the current economic crisis in Sri Lanka? Has it come too soon? Can the reordering of the world system offer any opportunities to Sri Lanka for a recovery, or has the violence against protesters destroyed the basis for that?
It seems quite contradictory in many ways. A long history of extreme corruption has enabled the effects of covid-19 restrictions to push it over the edge (true of much of the world, unfortunately, to some degree or other) In theory it ought to be China that would be uniquely placed to offer a way out, but the strategically stupid violence against protesters – apparently by Rajapaksa “supporters” – would appear to have made that rather difficult now. That is rather convenient for the US. Coincidence? I wonder whether the Rajapaksa “supporters” were not in fact egged on by US agents, effectivel as a false flag.
Mr. Hudson states: “All they [US strategists] can try to do is hold on to Europe as their one source of income to exploit from Europe what it can no longer get from any other country.”
This brings to mind an article I came across this morning:
====================================================================
JPMorgan Targets More of Germany’s Mittelstand Economic Engine (May 20, 2022)
“FRANKFURT (Reuters) – JPMorgan Chase & Co plans to make further inroads in Germany by targeting more of the medium-sized firms that form the backbone of Europe’s largest economy, executives at the U.S. bank said . . .”
“‘JPMorgan is the right bank for the internationalization of a German company because JPMorgan itself has a good footprint in Germany,’ WEPA said in written response to Reuters.”
https://money.usnews.com/investing/news/articles/2022-05-20/jpmorgan-targets-more-of-germanys-mittelstand-economic-engine
====================================================================
“Footprint” — that’s a nice way to put it! These people are masters of rhetoric.
The psychopaths in America are still of the belief that gunboat diplomacy remains their best way to resurrect their fortunes , no, their preferred weapon, well this and sanctions, that’s it, Plan A, and they’re sticking with it for better or worse.
What this means is that theft of another country’s resources, like wheat & oil in Syria is nothing out of the norm, with Europe complicit in America’s genocidal aspirations.
We can see that no matter by how much they increase their ‘Defence’ budget they’ve already reached the pinnacle of the Law of Diminishing Returns. The materials required (sourced) to build their weapons of mass destruction have risen exponentially and it’s difficult to see how these Defence companies, with their overpaid executives, their padding of politicians pensions/nest eggs and their engineers/technicians producing inferior products to that of Russia can be sustained.
Gone are the days when Cecil Rhodes and his Rothschild banking friends could turn up in your backyard and shoot you in the face if you didn’t accept land confiscation; even worse than that, land you’ve owned for generations, you now have to work on for 10% of the former income derived. Believe it or not, in 2022 the mindsets of the Industrialists of the late 19th and early 20th centuries still prevail.
A century of piracy and genocide has reached its watershed moment – The best laid schemes of mice and men gang aft agley.
Mr. Hudson: “Then you had the Japanese being interned in camps in WW2. ”
Yes, and you also had persecution and internment of Italian-Americans. There is a little-known report published by the U.S. Department of Justice titled “A Review of the Restrictions on Persons of Italian Ancestry During World War II.” It states:
============================================================================
“(1) The freedom of more than 600,000 Italian-born immigrants in the United States and their families was restricted during World War II by Government measures that branded them “enemy aliens” and included carrying identification cards, travel restrictions, and seizure of personal property.
(2) During World War II more than 10,000 Italian Americans on the West Coast were forced to leave their homes and prohibited from entering coastal zones. More than 50,000 were subjected to curfews.
(3) During World War II thousands of Italian American immigrants were arrested, and hundreds were interned in military camps.”
Source: http://www.pub22.net/usg/reports/dept-of-justice-report-italian-americans-world-war-ii.pdf
============================================================================
This report was published in November of 2001. It took the government nearly 50 years to tell American citizens what happened. When the well-being of ordinary people is the issue, they take their time.
I don’t know if you’ve seen this yet, but you should add the following as an update (it’s a part of the interview that wasn’t aired but is now available): https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2022/05/michael-hudson-on-the-ongoing-economic-war.html#comment-3727374
Hudson is very probably correct in his 20 year forecast. But dont forget that America will kick and scream for those 20 years–thru economic depression and domestic fracturing/low intensity civil war etc–and will still be the world’s global military beheamoth. We are very very likely to see major force on force direct war between US and China at some point. I.e. you cannot hold Hudson’s view and also think that such development will occur “peacefully.”
What different way of organizing world economic affairs? When?
The interviewer gives Hudson multiple opportunities to be more specific, but it all basically boils down to the next few decades will be like the last few decades.
In other words, nobody knows. Are ordinary people in Africa, Asia, and Latin America going to start migrating to China instead of the US? Are elites going to get protection from Beijing instead of DC? Is the dollar price of commodities going to increase dramatically?
At some point, of course, because no empire lasts forever. But “US strategists” have been remarkably effective at realizing their objectives (the objectives of the ruling class) for 6+ decades now of dollar emission. What does the CCP offer to the world that is more trustworthy, more just, more free, more dignified, etc?
I would be interested to know what is the fate of the City of London?
It is heavily invested in the pound and dollar and handles a lot of money in offshore accounts.
I presume countries like Canada and Australia which are rich in commodities might do rather well but might need to change their foreign policy a little
” I don’t know how long the political system of Europe can go along with leaders who represent America instead of their own national interests.”
First off, it’s the international Zionists manipulating the world into perpetual war.
There is no such thing as America and never has been. Formed by immigrants from all over the world, and atomized into a psyop called “individuality”, there really is no country here at all. just a bunch of strangers stabbing each other in the back. this violent clown show is nothing more than 330 million pieces of tossed salad, many perpetually warring each other for an endless variety of reasons. There is no shared reality, culture, beliefs or ideas. everything is reduced down to money and the plastic life. The truth is, such a lost country like the us, has no business even fielding a military because it’s people stand for nothing but chaos, ruthless capitolism (((billionaires))), alienation and the stench you smell by having to interact with any of these violent scum. Brainwashed fools who have run up tens of trillions of dollars in debt (so they could slaughter everyone everywhere), and allowed the creation of the 2 quadrillion dollar derivitives market that is the largest ponzi scam in world history, and that’s saying a lot given humans have been in perpetual war for thousands of years. It’s all over but hasn’t made the zionist papers yet. They’ll keep us in the dark while they flee (with our nuclear secrets) to their island hideouts like new zealand. If you think the US is some sort of a unified country, its not.
I think one of the biggest dangers to U.S. citizens is the WHO medical dictatorship that congress is going to vote on just in time for the midterm elections. If it passes we’re screwed in yet another way. Then there’ll be another fake pandemic (monkey pox?) with mandatory vaccines for all and they will enforce it. I guess this is happening in many countries. I’ll try and find a link to explain better but I’m sure most here are aware of it.