Posted with Michael Hudson’s permission
https://www.rt.com/shows/renegade-inc/552236-michael-hudson-sanctions-ukraine/
Ross [00:00:29] Welcome to Renegade Inc. Whatever the outcome in Ukraine, one thing is for sure the economic reverberations will be felt by everyone for years to come as the world divides between the West and a rapidly reshaping Eurasia.
Ross [00:00:49] Michael Hudson, always a pleasure to have you on the programme, welcome to Renegade Inc.
Michael Hudson [00:00:53] Thank you for inviting me.
Ross [00:00:55] Michael, sanctions, sanctions, sanctions is all we hear now. We’re sanctioning people. The West sanction people back to the Stone Age. What are the unintended consequences of sanctions?
Michael Hudson [00:01:05] Well, one is to serve very much like a protective tariff on the sanctioned country. For instance, when America made sanctions on European trade with Russia, Lithuania dutifully stopped exporting cheese to Russia. Well, the result is that Russia set up its own cheese’s sector, and now it’s self-sufficient in cheese. If you sanction a country, you force it to become more self-reliant and across the board, from agriculture to dairy products to technology, Russia is forced to become more self-reliant and at the same time to depend much more on trade with China for the things that it is still not self-reliant in. So America is bringing about exactly the opposite of what it intended. It’s hopeless to somehow isolate Russia and then be able to go after China without Russia. And instead, what it’s doing is integrating the Eurasian core, Russia and China, exactly the policy that Henry Kissinger warned against going all the way back to Mackinder a century ago that said, Eurasia is the world island, Russia and China could be the whole world centre. That’s what the fight is all about. Well, American sanctions are driving Russia and China together, and America has gone to China and said, Please don’t support Russia. It most recently, on Monday, March 14, Jake Sullivan came out and told China, we will sanction countries that break our sanctions against Russia. And basically, China said, fine. You know, we’ll just break off all the trade between East and West now and the East, Eurasia is pretty much self-sufficient. The West is not self-sufficient since it began to industrialise, and it’s heavily dependent on Russia for not only oil and gas, but palladium and many raw materials. So the sanctions are ending up driving a wedge between the European countries.
Ross [00:03:31] Don’t people who apply these sanctions think this through? Are they so short-sighted they don’t understand that these sanctions are going to build further capacity within Russia, push Russia further towards China, make that economic alliance concrete and, ultimately, you’re not going to be able to keep the lights on in in Europe? All the while underestimating the fact that from a food security point of view – take the U.K., for instance, a net importer of food – not appreciating the fact that, for instance, Russia/Ukraine, they create twenty five percent, a quarter, of all wheat annually. The estimation this year is one hundred and two million tonnes Russia and Ukraine, wheat. Don’t people realise that there’s going to be a massive knock on effect?
Michael Hudson [00:04:23] Yes, they do realise it. Yes, they’ve thought it all through. I worked with these people for more than 50 years.
Ross [00:04:31] Who are these people?
Michael Hudson [00:04:32] The neocons, basically, the people who are in charge of U.S. foreign policy? Victoria Nuland and her husband, Robert Kagan, the people that President Biden has appointed all around him, from Blinken to Sullivan and right down the line. They are basically urging people around the New American Century. They’re the people who said America can run the whole world and create its own reality. And yes, they know that this is going to cause enormous problems for Germany. They know that not only will it block the energy that Germany and Italy and other countries in Europe need through their oil and gas, but also it’ll block the use of gas for fertiliser, upping their fertiliser production and decreasing their food production. They look at this and they say, How can America gain from all of this? There’s always a way of gaining what something looks to be bad. Well, one way they’ll gain is oil prices are going way up. And that benefits the United States whose foreign policy is based very largely on oil and gas. The oil industry controls most of the world’s oil trade, and that explains a lot of the US diplomacy. This is a fight to lock the world energy trade into control by U.S. companies, excluding not only Iran and Venezuela, but also excluding Russia.
Ross [00:06:16] So as Europe pushes towards more and more green and renewable energy and this for the Americans they must think it’s a dreadful scenario insofar as they can’t sell the oil as Europe becomes or wants to become more self-sufficient. So ultimately, and Britain net zero, whatever that means. But but going down the renewables path, going down the solar path takes America’s dependency or dependency on America out the game, doesn’t it?
Michael Hudson [00:06:49] This is exactly the point that the European public has not realised. While most of the European public wants to prevent global warming and prevent carbon into the atmosphere, U.S. foreign policy is based on increasing, and even accelerating, global warming, accelerating carbon emissions because that’s the oil trade. Suppose that Europe got its way. Suppose if the Greens got what they wanted and Germany and Europe were completely dependent on solar energy panels, on wind energy and to some extent, on nuclear power, perhaps? Well, if they were completely self-sufficient in energy without oil or gas or coal, America would lose the primary lever. It has over the ability to turn off the power and electricity and oil of any country that didn’t follow U.S. diplomatic direction.
Ross [00:07:48] So when we take your analysis here and we think about how the sanctions are going to build capacity, push Russia and China together, when we start to look at sort of piggy in the middle, if you like the EU, when we’re thinking about America, the EU has had a sort of abusive relationship with the Americans for quite some time now, hasn’t it?
Michael Hudson [00:08:06] Well, that’s that’s true in the sense that EU foreign policy has basically been turned over to NATO. So instead of European voters and politicians making their policy, they’ve relinquished European foreign policy to NATO, which is really an arm of the US military. So yes, Europe has had a decent relationship with the United States diplomatically by saying yes, yes, please or yes, thank you by not being independent. Of course, if it were independent, the relationship would not be so friendly and decent.
Ross [00:08:46] So for countries that are net importers of food, need to keep the lights on, need heating and need cheap oil. How does this pan out? What does it look like for the UK? What does it look like for the EU?
Michael Hudson [00:08:59] Well, Vice President, Kamala Harris the other day said to Americans, Yes, life is going to be much more expensive. Our oil prices are going up and squeezing families. But think of the poor Ukrainian babies that we’re saving. So take it on the chin for the Ukrainian babies. So basically the United States is presenting horror stories of the Ukraine and saying, if you don’t willingly suffer now by isolating Russia, then Russia is going to roll over you with tanks just like it rolled over Central Europe after World War Two. I mean, it’s waving the flag of Russian aggression, as if Russia or any country in today’s world has an army that’s able to invade any other industrial nation. All military can do today of any country is bomb and kill other populations and industrial centres. No nation is able to occupy or rollover any industrial country. And the United States keeps trying to promote this mythology that we’re still in the world of 1945. And that world ended really with the Vietnam War when the military draft ended. And no country is able to have a military draft to raise the army with necessary to fight to invade. Russia can’t do it any more than Europe or the United States could do it. So all the United States can do is wave warnings about how awful Russia is and somehow convince Europe to follow the US position. But most of all, it doesn’t really have to. Europe doesn’t really have a voice, and this is what the complaint by Putin and Foreign Secretary Lavrov have been saying. They say that Europe is just following the United States and it doesn’t matter what the European people want or what European politicians want. The United States is so deeply in control that they really don’t have much of a choice.
Ross [00:11:15] When does the consumer start to feel this? When does the European or British consumer start to feel the pinch when these sanctions are enacted? And what does that look like?
Michael Hudson [00:11:25] Well, it depends on how fast the sanctions work. The United States said Well, in another year and a half, we’ll be able to provide Europe with liquefied natural gas. Well, the problem is, first of all, they’re not the ports to handle the liquefied natural gas to go into Europe. Secondly, there are not enough ships and tankers to carry all of this gas to Europe. So unless there are very warm winters, Europe is not going to have a very easy time for the next few years. And that’s only for oil and gas. It’s dependent on raw materials that Russia produces. For instance, palladium is necessary for catalytic converters. Titanium is necessary to make the screws that are especially used on aeroplanes that are strong enough not to buckle and break when winds go up and down and when they’re full. Russia even produces the neon and the crypton that are necessary for making some kind of electronic uses and also for many components that go into computers and information technology. There’s a whole range of exports that Europe is highly dependent on, and the United States has provided Putin with a whole list of these exports, saying, Well, OK, we’re going to fight against Europe buying your oil and gas but you can certainly sell us your heavy oil that we need since we’re not buying it from Venezuela. We certainly need the following list of critical materials that we need, like helium and crypton. These are our pressure points. Please don’t press on them. Well, you can imagine what Putin and his advisers are saying. Thank you for giving us this list of the pressure points that you’re exempting from the trade sanctions. I think if you really want a break in the unilateral, unipolar world, I think we should break now and see whether you really want to get along without trading.
Ross [00:13:51] Michael Hudson, welcome back, second half, Renegade Inc. Wonderful to have you. In that first half we followed the money, if you like. We talked about sanctions and the unintended consequences. I just want to pull back a little further if we can and just talk about the sort of tectonic shifts that are going on in the world. I spoke to somebody from Russia recently and what he said was very straightforward. He said, now what we have to do is begin to learn to live without the West. Do you think that that sentiment is proliferating across Russia now? Is that the mindset?
Michael Hudson [00:14:22] Well, if you read President Putin’s speeches, that’s exactly what’s happening. And Secretary Lavrov has voiced exactly the same feeling. There’s almost a disgust with the West and a feeling from Putin, Lavrov and the other Russian spokesmen, how could we everhave hoped to have an integration with Europe after 1991? Europe really was not on our side at all, and we didn’t realise that Europe is really part of the U.S. diplomatic sphere. It’s like all of Europe is now backing the attack on Russia. The best to do is reorient our economy towards China, Asia and Eurasia and become our own self-sufficient, independent centre
Ross [00:15:15] De-dollarisation and the amassing of plenty of gold by both the Russians and the Chinese. Just talk us through that.
Michael Hudson [00:15:21] Well, Ross, you asked in the first half of this interview how has American sanctions worked against it? I should have mentioned what you just mentioned, the dollar. The United States just grabbed all of Russia’s foreign exchange reserves, just as England a few months ago grabbed all of Venezuela’s gold that was held in the Bank of England when Venezuela tried to spend this gold on buying medical supplies to cope with the COVID virus. So basically, the United States have said, if any foreign country holds its reserves in the United States or accounts in U.S. banks. If a country in the global south tries to pay its foreign debt by holding its reserves in US banks in order to be the paying agent on the interest on its foreign debt. And if that foreign country does something we don’t like, like trade with Russia or permit more labour unionisation or try to become independent in food, we’re just going to do what we did to Venezuela, what we did to Iran when we grabbed its foreign exchange reserves or what we did to Russia. And that means that other countries all of a sudden see what they thought was their flight to security, what they thought was their most secure savings, their holdings in U.S. banks, US treasury bill, all of a sudden, is holding them hostage and is a high risk. Even the Financial Times of London has been writing about this, saying, how can the United States that was getting a free ride off the dollar standard for the last 50 years, ever since 1971, when foreign countries held dollars instead of gold and basically holding dollars means you buy U.S. Treasury bonds to finance the US budget deficit and the balance of payments deficit. How can the United States kill the goose that’s giving it the free ride? Well, the answer is that other countries can only move into gold and there’s an alternative to the dollar because that’s something that all the countries of the world have agreed upon is an asset, not a liability. If you hold any foreign currency, that currency is a liability of a foreign country, and if you hold gold, it’s a pure asset. There’s no country that can cancel it, the Americans can’t cancel Russia’s gold supply that’s held in Russia, although it can grab Russian gold supply if it were to hold it in the New York Federal Reserve Bank or the Bank of England. So other countries are not only moving to gold, Germany is bringing its gold back from New York, the Federal Reserve, in aeroplanes back to Germany, so it’ll have its own gold just in case German politicians would do something the United States didn’t like and the United States would simply grab Germany’s gold. The United States sanctions, and it’s especially it’s grabbing on foreign reserve, has started a war that is dividing the world between the West and Eurasia.
Ross [00:18:40] A technical part to all of this because let’s face it, it is an information war and it’s also an economic war. Is it the FIRE sector that you point out – the financial, insurance and real estate sector. Is it that they want to continue the exorbitant privilege of credit creation, because ultimately, if you think about gold, there’s no counterparty risk. Gold is gold and it has been for millennia. Far from being a barbarous relic, by the way now, people are starting to realise the intrinsic value, especially as crypto falls apart. Can you just talk a little bit about this, the FIRE sector wanting the exorbitant privilege of creating credit?
Michael Hudson [00:19:19] This is really what the new world division and global fracture is all about. You’re right, Ross. If you look at after World War One, the American fight against Soviet communism, was basically a fight of industrial capitalism against the threat of socialism. But after 1991, and especially in the last two decades, America deindustrialised. So the fight is not by industrial capitalism against countries pushing their labour up. It’s a fight of neoliberalism against industrial capitalism or socialism abroad. It’s against industrial capitalism evolving into socialism. It’s a belief that, well, now that America’s be industrialised, how is it going to control the world economy? Well, it’ll control it through a financial means by being the creditor and foreign countries debt payments to America will enable it to make its military payments abroad and finance its trade deficit. But also, America’s purchase of key natural resources will give it natural resources when its purchase of takeover of real estate is going to essentially make the United States the landlord class and monopoly class, that mediaeval Europe had to hold the rest of the population in serfdom. That basically is the American strategy of neoliberalism fighting against countries that reject privatisation and financialization of their economy, and specifically financialization under the control of U.S. banks, U.S. private capital and allied satellite banks and capital from England or France or Germany. This is exactly the fight. Will banking and finance control the world economy or will other countries try to build up their own economies through labour and tangible capital formation?
Ross [00:21:27] Where do you stand on that? And I’m only asking you to predict the future, Michael. How do you think this plays out? Because the way you’ve depicted it is the rent seekers, the neoliberal rent seekers on one hand, and there are value creators on the other. And by the way, those two things don’t sit very well together, as we know. How does that play out?
Michael Hudson [00:21:51] Even though the United States is the largest debtor economy in the world, it’s a creditor vis-a-vis the global south and other countries and it uses its creditor position to take over their natural resources, real estate, oil and gas, mineral rights and public utilities and natural monopolies and that are being privatised in government infrastructure. It’s becoming basically the landlord monopoly class of the entire world. That’s the U.S. strategy, and that’s the key to why the world is fracturing globally. And in the past, the global south countries were unable to fight against this tendency in the 70s and 80s with the Vendome conference on. But now that China and Russia threatened to be a self-sufficient core in Eurasia, this is the great threat to the American dream of becoming a landlord and financier of the world.
Ross [00:22:50] How do you think this pans out?
Michael Hudson [00:22:52] Well, the question is whether the United States is if we can control the world, who wants to live in a world like that, let’s blow it up. The question is whether the United States will actually go to war. The only lever that it has left is to drop bombs and to destroy and make the world look like Ukraine. So from the U.S. point of view, Europe’s future and Eurasia’s future is the Ukraine. Look at what we will do to you if you don’t follow our policy. America has just moved al Qaeda very heavily in the Ukraine to sort of repeat in Ukraine and Europe what it was doing in Syria and Libya. And the United States says this is what we can do. What are you going to do about it? Do you really want to fight. But the rest of the world, certainly China and Russia says, Well, we’re ready to fight. So there is no telling what you. And it comes down to personalities. Putin has said, well, do we really want to live in a world without Russia? If the United States is to attack us, we might as well end the world. The United States says, Do we really want to live in a world that we can’t control? If we’re not completely in control, we feel very insecure and we’re going to blow up the world. So you have this countervailing position in a world where all the arms control has been dismantled by the United States in the last few years. The United States has withdrawn from all of the agreements that Russia and China have tried to promote. And Europe is standing by and apparently is willing to be the sacrificial lamb in all of this as Ukraine is being the sacrificial lamb. So the United States and Russia say, let’s fight to the last European. And Russia initially didn’t want that because it was hoping that Europe and Russia would have a mutual gain in trade and investment relationships. But now it doesn’t feel that way. And there may be a proxy war between the United States over the European economy, not necessarily bombing Europe, but trade sanctions, energy sanctions, the kind of disruption that Europe is going to be seeing in the next year is if it loses Russian oil and gas and minerals and also, I think Chinese exports.
Ross [00:25:25] Is there a moment where cooler heads prevail and suddenly the West and other places realise that they’re dependent from a food security point of view, from an energy security point of view that we are dependent? And is there a moment at that point that you can thaw a frozen conflict by saying, actually, if we both meet, we just take a step toward each other, actually, we can do something in a collaborative way? Now I get what you’ve said throughout the rest of the programme, and I give this a percentage possibility of about three percent, but isn’t there a strategy to say, actually, we’ve had all the grandstanding, we’ve had all the brinksmanship, we should now sit around the table and try and work something out?
Michael Hudson [00:26:03] I don’t see any cooler heads in the United States. The surprising thing is that here it’s the right wing channel, the Republican Fox Channel, is the only channel that’s taking the anti-war stand and is saying we shouldn’t be at war in Ukraine. It’s the only channel that’s talking about here is how Russia sees the world. Do we really want to take a one sided perspective or do we want to see the actual dynamics at work? So it was the Republicans and the right wing that is now primarily against the NATO war in the Ukraine. The left wing seems to be all for it, but the left wing of the Democratic Party is in office and I don’t see any cooler heads in the Democratic Party at all. And I’ve known many of these people for many decades, and they are willing to go to war for a death. There are still back in the world of World War Two when the fight was against the Nazis and anti-Semitism. They’re still living in a kind of mythology world, not in the real world. And the thought that the world can come to an end either doesn’t have a reality to them or as Herman Cain said, Well, somebody is going to survive.
Ross [00:27:29] Michael Hudson always a pleasure, a great insight. And, you know, it’s just refreshing to hear. Thank you very much for your time.
Michael Hudson [00:27:38] Well, thank you very much for having me, Ross.
Aljazeera reports Russia to start selling gas to unfriendly countries in Rubles.* Too funny.
*https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/3/23/rouble-firms-past-100-vs-dollar-as-putin-announces-gas-currency-s
EU now is crying for help from USA. They won’t be able to find alternatives for Russian gas. Check from Mr Putin.
if one needs to know who’s the “deep state” in the USA, MH makes it clear. it’s hidden in plain sight
Really interesting interview, thank you for posting. I usually follow the American policy and I deeply agree with last part, with one exception.
FOX had a stand against war with Russia from the beginning, but FOX is just media. Most right wing senators and congressman are totally pro war right now.
This could change if the barbaric behaviour of the western Ukrainians nazis arises to the mass media, although I doubt it I’ll. But right now right wing are left wing are totally together in their pro war madness.
They only people holding them is Pentagon, not because they don’t wish to erase Russia, but because they know that such war will destroy them also and left the world for the Global South .
Imagine what would do Mexico after 1/6 cities of the Us las would be destroyed.
Maybe decide to take their final revenge, and even without it with 1/6 cities destroy the world would be inherit by Brasil, China, India, Mexico, Argentina,Nigeria, South Africa or Indonesia.
Europe and Us would be totally left to the bottom of history.
“FOX had a stand against war with Russia from the beginning, but FOX is just media. Most right wing senators and congressman are totally pro war right now.”
Man do you have it backwards. Firstly, FOX is controlled opposition. I mean hello? Have you checked out who owns FOX? Pretty much the only personality on FOX who still speaks indepentently is Tucker, and the only reason he’s allowed to do that is, without Tucker FOX is bust, just like all the other MSM ficfacs (fiction factories).
Secondly, there is no “republican party”. It’s actually two parties – neocons and “america first”-nationalists. And over 80% of republican voters support the nationalists, not neocons. In other words: Those “right wing senators” you hear rooting for nuclear armageddon represent less than 20% of republican support, and less than 30% of the populace. When looking political energy and grassroots activism, it’s even worse: Totally dominated by the nationalists, not globalists.
Think about that: Wardrums beating on all MSM-channels, mass-censorship political persecution of dissenting opinions all the way up to the top. And still only one-third of the nation is drinking the kool-aid. USA politics and culture isn’t just “volatile”. It’s C4 waiting for a trigger.
So found the ‘Republican Nationalist’ party, put up candidates against the big two and ensure that you win enough seats.
Ally with the 80% of democrats who hate the Washington Democrat warmongers so that they stand too with a ‘representative Democrat party’.
That way, you get rid of 100% of the warmongers and your representatives will then represent the people, not the nutcases.
Won’t work. The dividing line in the US is actually a religious one, and more specifically life. To be a contemporary Democrat, or even an establishment Republican, one has to be at least a tacit atheist and to believe strongly in the efficacy of human sacrifice, strongly enough that they simply will not associate with Neanderthals who believe in God and the sanctity of anything, let alone life.
There are no right-wing politicians in America.
But Michael, don’t they realize the consequences of what they’re doing? “Michael Hudson: Yes, they do realize it. Yes, they’ve thought it all through. I worked with these people for more than 50 years.” Thank you, Michael! Thank you for not joining the manta of: “The US is stupid. They are idiots. They don’t understand warfare, they don’t understand economics, they are sissy, dummies who don’t understand history and didn’t take enough math courses!” Thank you for explaining how The Empire actually works. The plan may be vile. It may be immoral. It may fail. But it is not irrational. They are not stupid. They are not crazy. They are executing a plan. We hope they fail. But pretending the enemy is stupid and incompetent when they are not is not helpful. So, thank you Michael.
I appreciate your comment.
The fact is that the neocons hate Germany as much as Russia, because off what happened to their ancestors. They are like Albanians fighting family feuds going back generations.
They are willing to sacrifice the US financial and industrial economy to get vengeance. that’s what all the Holocaust movies are all about. I’ve met these people and they have such hatred pouring out o them that it has purged me of any such feelings that I ever might have. It’s almost a cathartic experience seeing their foreshortened sense of proportion — like the famous Japanese woodcut of a big tree trunk overshadowing the great city in the background.
> I’ve met these people and they have such hatred pouring out o them that it has purged me of any such feelings that I ever might have
you’re absolutely right about that
> have never heard this anti-Russian or even anti-German race hatred from Israelis, and i worked with them for years
same experience as well
I do, in fact, hail from israel and can attest to the fact that what you say is – for the most part – true. There just isn’t the same anti-Russia or even anti-German feeling there that you see among the vituperative neocons in places like US/Canada. And in Israel, all children study the history of the inquisition, the east European pogroms and the Nazi holocaust in great detail, so in principle, that should translate into even greater hatred towards all things East European and Germanic, yet for some reason they don’t, at least not in the personal dripping hatred manifestation that we see animating the mad neocons (especially the ones whose ancestors hail from the Pale of Ukraine and Poland).
I thought about this distinction a lot and believe there are reasons for that. For one thing, the majority in israeli nw hail from the Mizrahi, ie, non-Ashkenazi part, and those who came from the Middle east and North Africa simply don’t have “a dog in the fight”, no matter what they are forced to learn in school. For another Israel is smack in the Middle east and is mired in an existential set f issues entirely different from those in North America. And I don’t mean the Palestinians necessarily (though that plays a huge, if well hidden role) but the fast-encroaching takeover by the religious sectors of the country. In Israel the secular [pretend] humanist/socialist traditions of the early founders are in serious – and visible – decline, so they have a serious civilizational battle on their hands that has little to do with Eurasia vs US.
Anyways, there are reasons Bennet, an orthodox Jewish politician, was motivated to try and play mediator. The business/technology segment of Israel was and is hoping to play a role between east and west so they can get the best deal from everywhere. After all, they have a large emigrant population from both Ukraine and Russia, which they are looking to parlay into advantage.
Finally, there’s the usual problem: people in israel know all too well – from numerous historical examples – that when certain elements overplayed their hand politically – there was hell to pay for the entire community. They live in dread of what the neocons may bring in their machinations, once those fail and once more people realize just who those neocons are (hint: no these are not everyone’s favorite punching bag – the Christian zionists. The latter are just useful fools).
Sorry for the tl;dr …..
Thanks Dr. Hudson!
You said above, “I don’t see any cooler heads in the United States,” and in this comment, “They are willing to sacrifice the US financial and industrial economy to get vengeance.”
Do you see any possibility for big banks or wall street interests being able to block or overcome the neocons? Or have they become as coopted as German Industrialists in the destruction of their industry?
The neocons may be willing to sacrifice all US/European interests in the pursuit of their hate, but any chance desperate US FIRE players could save their interests, and thereby prevent a worsening of the global war?? Or are Congress, State, and other levers of power too firmly in neocon control, giving them room to ignore them?
To Rodrigo and Michael Hudson,
Rodrigo states: the Neocons and their Plan… “may be vile… may be immoral… not irrational… not stupid… not crazy.”
Michael Hudson states: “They are willing to sacrifice the US financial and industrial economy to get vengeance.”
I submit, most likely the neocons will be destroyed along with the destruction of the “US financial and industrial economy…”
To Rodrigo: vile, immoral, stupid and crazy are subjective descriptions, so who is to say. BUT one of the basic tenets of all living nature is self-preservation. Anyone whose hatred is so intense as to lead to self destructive behavior is Irrational.
To Michael Hudson: The neocons’ willingness to sacrifice the “US financial and industrial economy…” should bring them in direct conflict with people who have become extremely wealthy and influential by the financial and industrial economy and are not interested in any self destructive vengeance. I am confident they will not just stand around while some irrational people destroy them.
Michael, you have done great work in defining the Monetary Imperialism. It will be great if you were to talk about it in your interviews, so people can understand the type of imperialism they’re living under. France is practicing monetary imperialism in Africa through CFA Franc.
Russia is challenging the Dollar Empire militarily and monetarily. Russia will use rubles in gas deals with “hostile” countries! This is a game changer. Vladimir Putin said the government and central bank have one week to solve how to move these operations into the Russian currency. Looking forward to seeing your article on this Ruble development.
MAX,
…very good point. In fact, it seems Iran is patiently waiting to see if the new move will be working fine in actuality and isn’t just talks – then join.
Oh Michael, you know your cultures extremely well.
You are definitely well informed and an excellent commenter on all things economic.
Keep up the great work.
Dr Hudson, you mentioned neocons and you also stated jews don’t hate like them, when, in fact, many of the neocons are jews: nuland etc, and they do hate, with arrogance and pride mixed in. You can’t reason with them, they are also fanatical, like the nazis. Also blinken has ukrainian blood, his grandfather was born in kiev, and there is nearly no more (irrational) hatred than in the totally crazy ukrainians in Western ukraine. As Saker has said before, many in ukraine are batshit crazy.
Well said Rodrigo. You make a critically important observation. So it is really back to the point that Andrei seems to be making now. This is a really at root a spiritual struggle. The thing about spiritual struggles is that they tend to draw out extremes. The conflict generated by such extremes has a vital consciousness raising function, which often results in a decisive change in the world. It seems to me we are really seeing the emergence into full view of an extreme of intelligently focused evil. The identity of which Michael laid bare, which for all of its fearsome visage can only serve to draw forth its opposite.
The greater the evil the greater its opposite. It is not just the intelligently evil that can plan in advance. If I was to employ Christian terminology I would say that no matter how cunningly the devil plans and no matter how great and seemingly overwhelming his power drive, in the end all he can really do is be “duped” into doing the work of Christ. Sanctions anyone?
Yes finally thank you very much!
These are the most heinous and brutal criminals the world has ever known. Unfortunately they care neither stupid nor incompetent.
I think Mr Hudson remains too focused on a two-party (US) paradigm which is blatantly false. For a very long time, especially with regard to foreign policy, there is ONE party. No one represents the American people.
Second, I think Mr Hudson is too focused on the antiquated (in their psychopathic minds) notion of the “Sovereign Nation State” paradigm. These same criminals could care less about any nation state except for their desire to destroy them economically, socially, culturally, and politically.
They are working for the their New World Order and they tell you that repeatedly. If they are successful, their New World Order will replace national sovereignty with a corporate, techno-surveillance state tyranical world “government” which will exist to subjugate ordinary people, and further the interests-and ONLY those interests-of the City of London-Wall Street-Israeli Cabal. This idea is of a world government by and for central bankers.
Anyone trying to interpret what we are seeing now as the actions of one or more “sovereign nation states” is seriously mislead.
The neocon frauds and traitors have already destroyed the US as a “nation” for all intents and purposes. Economically and culturally. Now they are in the process of finishing the job.
Of course they will fail. ALL empires collapse. News flash: it’s got nothing to do with ideology, type of leader or anything else. All is predicated on perpetual growth, which means expanding into other’s territories: in more modern times it’s more about expanding into “markets,” less to do with military might (though there are, for certain, elements at work here too- a more recent twist has been to hide such physical activities via “humanitarian” means/mechanisms).
ALL wars are about resources. It’s a finite planet (redundant to say such as “planet” self-defines as finite).
Information space (metaverse, entertainment, crypto, finance, education, religious education, law, politics, management) is infinite.
If Russia did not stand in the their way, the AZ banking empire would have succeeded. The empire has steadily built corrupt nations using corrupt politicians and totally destroyed the concept of independent media whilst introducing corrupt world bodies to gain ascendecy for their corrupt means.
There needs to be opposing ideologies from strong forces to overcome evil, for there to be long lasting peace. Again, if Russia lacked any spirit and conscience, the empire would have succeeded.
The Chinese have been prescient enough to stockpile enormous quantities of grains and other comestible materials to protect their citizens from a summer food crisis. Twenty per cent of the world’s population has secured more than half the globe’s maize and other grains (Nikkei Asia, 23 December). And that was two months before Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine, which has made the position over global food supplies even worse. And China’s dominant position in maize will hit sub-Saharan Africa especially hard, while global shortages of rice will hit Southern and East Asian nations.
Coincidence?
Blood Pressure – stabilising
When the Saudis, Turks and other Jihadi recruiters quit feeding fodder to American Terror Camps, the US will need to use European Jihadis.
Greed is the ultimate form of stupidity. The US has it in spades.
“…no country is able to have a military draft to raise the army with necessary to fight to invade. Russia can’t do it any more than Europe or the United States could do it.”
I had to stop reading right there. Russia drafts more than 250,000 young men annually. It has two million reservists and an active force of more than 1 million. Not enough to fight to invade? I beg to differ. Now please compare those numbers with the pitiful effective force the EU could muster at the drop of a hat.
If it wanted to put the US and Europe into a complete tizzy it would simply announce it’s doubling its draft. That would prompt a whole lot of pearl-clutching about whether we should reinstitute ours and whether it should reflect the diversity of the volunteer force. Run to Canada? Not gonna work this time, Yank.
Hudson knows a lot but he really fell down on that one.
You misquoted Hudson.
“as if Russia or any country in today’s world has an army that’s able to invade any other industrial nation”
Historically, failed invasions by great industrial powers demonstrate this as truth. No military power, including and especially the US, has successfully invaded even a non-industral nation (North Korea, Vietnam, Yugoslavia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria).
Hudson does state that no nation these days, including Russia, is able to raise a standing army.
That statement doesn’t sound right to me.
Maybe most modern (or western?) nation-states have so undermined the idea of a draft and universal military service that young people have no commitment to do their duty to protect their country, and they are too soft to do so anyhow.
The military parades, replete with flyovers and high-productions videos, that I have seen (videos) on Red Square certainly do not convey this impression of Russian youth—that they are too “cool” to serve in the military, or that Russia has given up on drafting and training a standing army and training the high-level corps necessary to run such an army—and develop its weaponry.
The fundamental point is being missed here.
Firstly, the gap in military personnel alluded to here is replicated in spades in terms of military technology. The present advantage of maneuverable hypersonic weapons which the US and its vassals have no defence against, coupled with the advantage in electronic warfare capabilities and that manpower advantage means that the RF could roll across Europe and de fang the US in military terms any time it wants to.
The question then arises as to why, in the present context, it has no already done so? Even former Reagan people like Paul Craig Roberts are scratching their heads on that one. Criticising the Russians for being too soft in the face of an obvious war against their right to exist.
Two reasonable answers present: Once an invasion has been concluded the invading party has the problem of what to do next. With all the attendant problems of a drain on its own economy and military in the aftermath. Ask the Yanks.
The other being that of a difference in values.
Which is, in essence, why we are where we are. Differences in interests are straightforward to deal with. Using trade off’s etc. Differences in values are qualitatively a different order of magnitude matter not easily solved without breaking, in this case, the whole house.
Much to think about. Perhaps, through creation of conditions similar to cold war/postwar Europe is at least one of the primary motivation for aggressive policy to Russia and China. One thing Hudson got wrong -renewable, wind and solar wont solve Europes problems because they are by nature intermittent power source. Wind and solar rely on fuel fired plants to “back up” the output. Typically in a year a solar plant needs fossil fuel back up about 50% of the time.Wind needs back up more than 50% of the time.And most of N.Europe is not suitable for large scale solar .Coal or Nuclear can be used but the preference in the industry is gas…so that will be LNG imported from US…..Europe has demonstrated over and over and over that it fully deserves this fate.Russian people should shed no tears for Europe
Did the average European citizen want this?
By the way, I should have noted above that I have never heard this anti-Russian or even anti-German race hatred from Israelis, and i worked with them for years at the Hudson Institute.
This strange neocon hatred seems to be distinctly American, fighting past hurts. I am very pleased that Israeli officials have distanced themselves from celebrating Zelensky and the Azov Battalion.
Speaking of which, look at the humor. Biden tomorrow can’t call Putin “Hitler,” beause that who the Ukies love. I can here Zelensky saying (to Hillary’s gang, et al.) “How can you all him Hitler. That’s not who we’re fighting.”
Maybe Biden should call him emperor Hirohito. Or Geronimo.
Michael: Have you ever been to any of the Kagan/Nuland households for drinks and dinner? I would love to hear to what they have to say about Russians and Ukrainians in private.
It is interesting that the forkery in Ukraine was largely on pause during the Trump years when she was out of office at the State Department.
Also, I have a theory that Biden is happy to let Zelensky twist in the wind since his government co-operated with the Giuliani/Trump investigation into Biden family corruption in Ukraine.
Ha! Ha! Ironically, way back when, my pre-school children had a picture book called “The Value of Truth and Trust”. It was an outstanding example of editorial, and especially artistic, content.
It was a very sly recounting of the US Army wars with Geronimo’s people. It sketched 3 or 4 cycles (I forget) of the US Army attacking Apaches, and Geronimo successfully leading his people to resist and defend. Of treaties . Of “Truth and Trust” repeatedly betrayed. Of yet again another treaty. Concluding with, the final triumph of “Truth and Trust”.
The book ends there, and does not mention that this final triumph was also betrayed.
“The Value of Truth and Trust” depends entirely on who gets to claim when history begins, and when it ends, and who gets to publish books for pre-schoolers.
And even Germonimo can be re-made into a lying icon.
Thanks for this comment Dr. Hudson. Also see my reply above on this very issue of the difference in attitudes between Israelis and jewish American/Canadian neocon types, as I, as one who came from “there”, can further attest to your point (and I know quite a few on both sides). I’d even say that even israelis who have issues with Russia (and many do, including among those who emigrated from there and from Ukraine) at least do try to argue the reasons for their reservations rationally, whether one agrees with those reasons or not.
There’s a writer, Yasha Levin, who now and then commented on these strange distinctions also (and I don’t necessarily agree with him either. Outright agreement des nt seem t be in ur DNA or something).
Regarding the, ahem, ”mindset” of the US neocons constantly having hissy fits, it is 100% indistinguishable from the mindset of the Ukronazis and the old German Nazis. And what’s ailing all of them really badly is this: They have a strong pull towards parasitism which drives them militant. If successful, they actually could live comfortably at the expense of countries and peoples rich in land, labour power, and natural resources. So they set their sights on Russia first and foremost and, to a steadily higher degree, China.
Case in point: Nuland’s great performance at Maidan Square 8 years ago wasn’t primarily boosted by her eatables. She had a like-minded, eagerly receptive audience which ”felt the vibes”. But just like what happened to Nazi Germany’s assault, Russia would not cave in. The parasites were defeated, and now Russia and China are ready to finish them off once and for all. Neocons and Ukronazis have compelling reasons to be mad as hell at the whole world. Everything is crumbling right as we speak, making their pull to parasitism ever more problematic in terms of getting the gravy train going.
If we even have to say something about what passes for the ”political parties” in the US, there is only one question having some vague contradiction of substance: Which power should we hate and try to hurt the most — Russia (Democrats) or China (Republicans) ?
I dont agree with Michael on few things.
US is not planning to sell any oil or gas to Europe. Its uneconomical.
Europe is not going green with solar panels since they dont produce them. Its absurd for collective West to put sanctions when they dont produce/mine anything that would substitute oil&gas. (coal, solar panels, uranium)
What is happening here is on esoteric level. The world is going through heart surgery. Heart is world economic system. Current system and civilization is in the cul-de-sac. But this is all written in cosmic cycles. There is nothing we can do.
what is going to happen is geopolitical division but still not cold war type, new economic system not based no credit,
I foresee maybe 3 separate areas of trade 1) North & South America, Russia + Europe, China+Africa
Quantum Financial system as well
And down the road (soon, few years) we could get some technological surprises in terms of free energy from Ether.
symbols
Z-last letter of English Alphabet. (It is the End)
V-Victory
one more thing and it is important
someone mentioned spiritual struggle.
Yes! it is but I would not use word struggle but more awakening!
and it is not only in East but more so in the West.
If you look at 2 year of Pandemic, current War phase , and very soon (in the fall) Economic problems what is one single thing that all this produced in very short time (3-5 years)? It produced the illusion of the current civilization of the last 10-12,000 years..we are just going in circles…Get Born, Get Education, Work until you drop dead..and all all over again…. Indians use the word Maya for this illusion
so collectively as civilization have to step up a lot use this time to use this suffering and pain to raise our conscienceness on higher level
but the US ARE selling LNG to europe, uneconomical is for the EU, its massively profitable for the US because its sold for a much higher price than piped natural gas from Russia.
Wow, the whole interview was going perfect until Michael Hudson’s last statement that the rightwing republicans are all the sudden the party of peace. History doesn’t show this to be the case when they were in power. The neocons under the Bush administration wrote the war doctrines, i.e. ‘Wolfowitz Doctrine’, The PNAC American hegemonic think tanks were all were pro-war imperialistic institutions that republicans all had no problem with and embraced with rabid imperialistic fervor. Suddenly a democrat gets in office and uses the exact same war doctrines and republicans are all doves now.
Agree. There is no peace movement n America, none. I was thinking today about finding a peace rally where I could protest and I haven’t seen any news of peace rallies or anti-war protests. My America if old from the 1960s is gone. If Russia or some other country doesn’t take us out – shoot the rabid dog – then we’ll break into civil war and destroy ourselves. But we’re not coming out of this in one piece.
He is wrong on one point that the republicans are against the war. They are just as pro-war as the democrats. And as for FOX News there is only one anti-war voice on the channel and that is Tucker Carlson. Both parties are incompetent, insane, and live in an imaginary world where their actions do not have consequences. So if republicans win the next election or the next presidential election this pro-war anti-Russia policy/hysteria will continue.
OK, OK,. I was expressing my disdain for the Democrats, and hoping to give Republicans a winning election talking point.
next time i’ll edit out my quips.
Re Russian soldiers, my point was that actually being SENT to fight in a foreign country is nor a popular move anywhere. The US anti-war movement was basically a draft-avoidance movement. I don’t have a feeling for what’s happening in Russia, and might have been projecting my US experience.
Takes a good solid man to write that Micheal. A lot of the people on this blog follow things military so that is the soup that they swim in. My view is that this is a USA /Russian war being fought on Ukrainian soil. One of these countries is going to have a resounding victory. It is insane. Just my opinion. I am no geo-politician.
Trading one set of stooges and imbeciles for another – all of whom work for the same interests – is hardly progress.
The US anti-war, anti-draft movement was because the cause was not just.
Bottom line.
https://tradingeconomics.com/russia/currency
Just had to show this graph to some people who claim russian ruble has tumbled to worthless as msm states. They were shocked to see it higher than the yearly average so far. Yes it fell from a crazy spike ie record highs against us dollar. Up 50 % fell 40 % msm forgets to mention the up part. Perspective is everything.
So EU is going to break their own sanctions buy buying Rubles to pay for the Gas. :)
As I see it this is clear indication that once EU artificial structure disintegrates (within a year) Europe as individual countries will just quietly snuggle into Euroasian economic trade area. They did not build nord Stream just to sit empty.
And this is also good for US.
America’s Machiavellian agenda is about enforcing discipline on its vassals in Europe and beyond, so as to more effectively wage its New Cold War.
Thus, in order to prevent the Europeans from moving away from the United States towards greater economic connectivity with Eurasia (i.e. Russia and China), the Americans have deliberately and willfully with malice aforethought provoked the Russians to invade Ukraine–even as the Americans cynically #StandwithUkraine and piously shed crocodile tears for dead Ukrainians.
The Ukraine war has forced Europeans to embrace their American overlord for more “military protection” and also to curtail economic links with Russia (and probably China because of its support of Russia).
Another way that America benefits is that these USA-driven sanctions on Russia will impact food production, supplies, and costs–possibly resulting in mass famine in the Global South.
But, as one of the world’s leading agricultural powers, for example, America (and its allies like Canada and Australia) stand to literally profit from this economic catastrophe:
“Washington and the major powers see the war in Ukraine as a foreign policy “opportunity” to force their client states into line and reorder the world economy in their interests. In the context of wheat, other exporting countries such as the US, Canada and Australia—while they cannot make up the shortfall—stand to benefit from a surge in demand.”
From: War in Ukraine and Russia sanctions threaten food supplies in Middle East and North Africa
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2022/03/10/food-m10.html
That’s not a coincidence.
That is by design.
Furthermore, the idea that the USA is geostrategically “dumb”–which some people on this site and in the supposed Alternative Media are always pushing–is likely a political deception that helps to disguise America’s Machiavellian character.
The United States of America has an in-bred megalomaniacal ambition to rule the world. This is America’s Manifest Destiny, as Joe Biden tacitly admitted recently:
Biden says US must lead ‘new world order’
https://www.rt.com/news/552434-biden-new-world-order/
If the USA has to destabilize large swathes of the global economy and risk nuclear war, the Americans will do so.
America didn’t become the global hegemon because of its bullsh*t values like “freedom and democracy,” but because it is absolutely devious, fanatical, and malevolent.
Never forget that.
Major American victories on the Geo-Political front – March 2022
https://metallicman.com/major-american-victories-on-the-geo-political-front-march-2022/
+1 When a smart person doesn’t seem to achieve his stated objectives, it is likely that the divergent outcome was the plan all along. Nobody wan’t the credit of global famine, officially.
“So as Europe pushes towards more and more green and renewable energy and this for the Americans they must think it’s a dreadful scenario insofar as they can’t sell the oil as Europe becomes or wants to become more self-sufficient. So ultimately, and Britain net zero, whatever that means. But but going down the renewables path, going down the solar path takes America’s dependency or dependency on America out the game, doesn’t it?”
I can’t follow this.
No. Net zero is an utopian idea. You can not make enough green energy in winter months, and EU will need to import fossil fuel to survice. If it doesn’t come from Russia, it will need to come from somewhere else …
Next generation nuclear power would be the answer to these problems but control of fossil fuel energy supplies is currently the mechanism of power globally. Consider that without huge energy production there is no food production, there is no tech there is no manufacturing there is no transportation.. Whoever has monopoly over energy has monopoly on civilization….There are possibilities for truly “green” energy and regional energy independence that would rely on on better nuclear technology.. The LFTR for example.. Developing for commercial use a type of reactor that uses Thorium in a liquid Fluoride salt solution instead solid uranium fuel would provide more than sufficient power if deployed in adequate numbers without the chronic problem of waste storage. Thorium is abundant and widely distributed on every continent. But fossil fuel interests as well as status quo existing nuclear power will not allow its development. It should be no surprise to anyone that the big profit in nuclear power is monopoly control of uranium fuel supply, NOT in selling power.
EU/NATO is history, the runaway train known as ‘Inflation’ will splinter it back into its respective
independent nation states vs Globohomo/Uncle Shlomo knows best Ponzi scheme. Russia/Putin
did Europe/World a favor that was supposed to be accomplished during the second world war.
People will celebrate actual diversity which is being unique, distinct rather than a historic mongrelized
deformed, diseased DNA tribe. Word games, clever tricks, all systems based on Kosher Ponzi ideology
will be erased from history soon.
All wars are bankers wars.
They have always emerged victorious from every bloody world conflict.
Mar, 2022 11:10
HomeRussia & FSU
US Senators want to freeze Russia’s gold reserves – media
Treasury will collaborate with the Senate to lock down Russia’s reserves
US Senators want to freeze Russia’s gold reserves – media
© Getty Images / Andy
US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen will meet this week with a bipartisan group of senators to discuss the possibility of freezing Russia’s $132 billion in gold reserves, the news website Axios reported on Wednesday.
Maine Senator Angus King reportedly has claimed that the legislation could pass the Senate as early as this week. The initiative is meant to deprive Moscow of the opportunity to mitigate the effects of Western sanctions on its economy by monetizing other assets, in an effort to punish the Kremlin for its military action in Ukraine.
“Russia’s massive gold supply is one of the few remaining assets that Putin can use to keep his country’s economy from falling even further. By sanctioning these reserves, we will further isolate Russia from the world’s economy and increase the difficulty of Putin’s increasingly-costly military campaign,” King explained.
A portion of the senate has actually become irrelevant, but still needs to be inflated rather than deflated.
So this is just another feel good inflationary move thinking they can control Russia just one more, or w/this crowd, last way (with” Russia’s massive gold supply is one of the few remaining assets that Putin can use to keep his country’s economy from falling even further. By sanctioning these reserves, we will further isolate Russia from the world’s economy and increase the difficulty of Putin’s increasingly-costly military campaign,”) to stall the coming deflationary reality.
B/c in reality, the U.S. doesn’t have control of any of Russia’s gold supply.
The US is currently running the universes largest Psychological Operations Pyramid (PSYOP) .
Motto: Rumors that Kherson adopts ruble !
I think the sanctions from hell are going to work like the brilliant decision of the greedy Countryman who wanted more golden eggs from his precious goose.
https://www.read.gov/aesop/091.html
I have noticed that European proxy networks are now censoring topics in addition to sources. A hitherto unmolested show performed a feature on commodities prices being affected by the situation in Ukraine and was immediately rendered unavailable. The show is generally considered “pro-Ukrainian” so this is noticeable. No censorship via U.S. networks.
There’s something off about this peice. Sorry I can’t put my finger on it but there’s something. I Love prof Hudson work. Very interesting. Just something off. Maybe just me.
A little side note. Notice Russia and Ukraine are not the top leading headlines at filthy drudge. Not tbat they’re of a y substance but inte resting change after weeks. Russia victory must be close so the coverage must end. That’s what I’m thinking.
I quite liked this piece, I liked it even more when the comments section went pro-Israel, like it wasn’t mainly Israelis who burnt those Russians alive in Odessa. Interesting.
I wasn’t complaining. And haven’t yet read all the new comments this morning. I’ll really think something is off if accurate there’s a bunch of pro isreal comments. May even make me feel sick. No if will becuase I know for sure it’s those so called chosen ones who are the trouble makers in the world.
I think you may be mistaking comments that point out Israeli attitudes and positions for “pro-Israel”. May be you are mixing absence of all-out condemnations for pro positions?
Like it or not, israel is a player on this stage and pointing out a likely schism between the extreme neocon flank in the US (which has now captured this administration just as it captured the previous Bush one) and the more pragmatic Israeli positions (after all – they – the Israelis want Israel to survive no matter what else happens in the world) is also an opening for Russia to effectively neuter Neocon dominance in the future.
I happen t believe that israel will suffer its own retribution in the future, as it implodes from internal conflicts. Alas, none of that will help palestinians in the near-term but then, neither does anything else.
BTW, in israel they do have a saying about the Anglo neocons, which goes something like “with friends like this…”. They likely figured something out, that’s all. Doesn’t make them “good guys” or even ‘smart guys”, or anything of the sort. they just play their own selfish cards.
I am one of those who believes, based on all I know, that in the end, only a final decline of the American Empire – israel’s one and. really ONLY protector – will help change facts n the ground over there. A precipitous American decline and loss of power is the one thing that terrifies Israelis. After all, they know that there ain’t much love for them in Eurasia, only coold calculations of risk/benefit…….
Thank you Michael for gifting us your well-grounded perspective of what the Russian-Ukrainian conflict is all about: a meticulous bi-partisan policy to maintain US multi-dimensional hegemony. It is not only economic and military but it also extends to the ideological level to control the narrative and the high moral ground. And it works if one looks at the political environment in the US where both tweedledee-tweedledum parties “fight each other” for identical political programmes and outdo each other in their subservience to the foreign power in charge.
And there resides the crux of the problem: the national consensus. There is no alternative, no room for discussion, an ideological cul-de-sac. The parties, if there were such things ever, with clear-cut distinct policies (I know there was some socialism imported from Europe early last century which was snipped in the bud by the FBI), have been brought together in thought and action by infiltration and highjacked from within. A society where effective dissent is not allowed is doomed as a society, but still useful as a tool for the financial elite to use its resources for an ulterior end: the protector of the privileges of the “chosen tribe” and the “promised land”.
There is an uncanny parallel to what happened one hundred years ago in Russia when the different parties formed after the fall of the Tsar (Kadets, Mensheviks, Bolsheviks and Social Revolutionaries) were all infiltrated by Jews who applied the well-known aphorism (don’t put all eggs in one basket) to perfection.
Come on Michael, I like you but these days Paul Craig Roberts blows the lid off of Russian idiotic banking mess.
Oh and f them too for following the who wef Covid nonsense with vaxpasses. Terrorized their own people who were much against it
Read this and ask yourself why didn’t “smart” Russia do this?
Maybe it’s part of the plan to usher in the great reset nonsense
https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2022/03/23/washington-is-driving-the-world-to-nuclear-war/
Michael Hudson’s economic views are known and respected, but in this interview he seems to accept that Russia is aggressive (destruction of Ukraine, which is hyped by the West but needs to be seen later when the real vision of damage to civilian infrastructure is seen, probably very low). He speaks of the USSR sweeping over Europe after WW2, when the USSR really won the war and was given the ruined remnants of eastern Europe to deal with while the USA aided the Western parts to recover. The USA changed from fighting Nazism to fighting communism. We see how well it fought Nazism by looking at Ukraine today!! Russia is NOT expansionist, wants reasonable rules for international cooperation and security of each nation, and Michael has noted this of course. The USA has only selfish greed as motivation.
In other news: In Pakistan today – “no confidence vote” against Prime Minister Imran Khan. One week after his gas and wheat delivery contract with Russia. Those who believe in coincidences …
“The biggest drop in living standards since the 1950s”
This is the main topic in today in british newspapers.
Oh, boy. I told you, that you can’t simply win with Russia in tightening belt around your belly game. :>))))
Bunch of fools.
Lots of words to say WW3 has started. Or call it the Third German war. Or the Mackinder Islanders vs the Mackinder Heartlanders. It is like a amalgation of 1914 and 1939. The first war was a trade war, the second war was an oil war, this third now is about the Anglo Empire keeping its hegemony. Maybe its the Dollar war. Too early to tell. But it will be fought until one side is dead. This will NOT end soon; it is just the start of the beginning. Like Spain 1936. The ignorant Western public has no clue what is happening. What a civilizatory collapse. 300+ years of Western cultural and societal evolution out the window.
I would be so interested to hear Michael Hudson’s professional views on the impact of Russia’s accepting only rubles in respect of payment for their hydrocarbon exports to “unfriendly” nations.
Loss of petrodollar, leading to ??50%?? US inflation surge in one year, followed by stabilization at new steady state. World famine outside US in countries not part of China/Russia bloc. Dr. Hudson?
Brilliant…thank goodness for such programmes… of course who will watch as rt is banned in EU.
There is a schism re supplying weapons (whether working or duds)to Ukraine…some will some won’t….some saying tbey are running out of stock…is there a chance that conditions will arise in circumstances political and financial that EU and UK will realise that they are gonna bankrupt themselves supporting the Ukraine…coping with refugee costs….but especially because they believe in a free Ukraine , the costs of rebuilding infrastructure and getting the economy going in the most corrupt country in Europe? Could they make further aid conditional….complete rebuilding and control of Ukraine statehood politics and economy no more nationalism…..or could cost so much EU populations wake up and tell their masters to drop Ukraine like a hot brick and leave it to its own chosen destruction of self determination and say get on with it?
It is my hope that Europe never gets it hands back on Ukraine again .Let the costs be borne by Russia, Ukraine, China and its supporters. Yet the benefits will only accrue to them as well.
Western Europe already had their chance and blew it. They turned the industrial heartland of the USSR into the steppes of five hundred years ago, fit for farmer , herders and …pillagers .
Michael – a great and thought-provoking article – many thanks.
But why the cheese fixation? It is the only product mentioned by you and Pepe Escobar as the great example of Russian self-sufficiency. From a safe distance, like the USA, it may look great (on paper) but those who actually have to suffer this yellow-grey rubbery mess – well, bring back the Lithuanian or Latvian any rime. (And if anyone actually knows of a make of cheese sold in Moscow region that you would actually choose to eat a second time then please, please, PLEASE correct me!)
But this does illustrate perfectly the double-edged sword of the sanction – on the one hand sanctions stimulate local production but on the other they act as protectionist and therefore remove foreign competition and the incentive to quality.
Quality is still a massive problem in Russia – maybe the best missiles in the world but I have never bought one. I did buy a Lada but never will again.
One thing I wish you had addressed in your article is the imminent release of the new financial system – the new “Bretton Woods” backed by China Russia etc. Is this the dollar-killer? Will this collapse the dollar by removing enough critical mass by splitting off enough Eurasian trading that the dollar cannot sustain the interest on accrued debt?
And if it looked like being an existential threat to the dollar would the reaction be war on the grounds that the USA do not need a world where they are not in control?
I most sincerely hope you are wrong in your final conclusions of the world being almost inevitably headed towards nuclear war although it is difficult to find fault with the reasoning.
Thank you for the warning.
Postovani sokole i svi vi iz celoga sveta sto imate vid sokola
Pogled sa sela iz Srbije
Umrla je Medlin Olbrajt, u cvetu starosti od 85. god. Moguce da nisu nasli sedam novih srca,kao za neke,pa da zivi 100. godina. Posle otimanja kosova i metohije od Srba,postala je vlasnik telekomunikacija na tom prostoru i obogatila se.Bog dusi da joj sudi. Slicno je sa ugljom radio general Vesli Klark. Da ne duzim
Porodica Bajden voli da posluje sa Ukrainom . Cujem da se i tamo se pojavljuje trziste novih srca za metuzaleme.
Srbi, a verovatno i Iracani, uvode dan zalosti.
jebo joj pas mater
“While most of the European public wants to prevent global warming and prevent carbon into the atmosphere”
Well that is where the stupidity starts. No Hudson, it’s not Europe but Western Europe. More specifically the European Union including the NATO military alliance that is the main problem.
First belief in global warming and that we (Humankind) are creating the heat and the second is preventing carbon into the atmosphere is the second. Carbon dioxide is not a pollutant, how many times must that be repeated?
So it is essentially most of the Western Europe public that the is the problem, full of sanctimonious virtue signalers who have a superiority complex. Everyone else but them Western Europe are the sacrificial lambs
Well, if in the real and hot war USA is fighting against Russia till the last Ukrainian, in the economic war there is able to fight till the last European….
The only person on Fox who is anti-war with Russia is Tucker Carlson. All other Fox personalities are vehemently in favor of a war with Russia over Ukraine, and there is a continuous line of war mongering Generals and Colonels promoting war with Russia. The drum beat for war is deafening.,
Has there ever been a war that Fox News didn’t like?
AIPAC does not believe Nazis exist in Ukraine, beyond a trivial LARP population as in US. But lynching is considered heinous, beyond the pale, in US–it’s alright to bomb and shoot people, see that every day on TV, but lynching triggers America’s self-image and is really out of bounds. Gets remarked on (remark-able).
So if you want to call attention to injustice, do a “just the facts, ma’am” grey-rock writeup on the neo-Nazi lynchings; preventing civilians from escaping; and the size and temporal depth of the Nazi movement in Ukraine; turn it into a shareable PDF, with pictures; and then get it to the attention of AIPAC and the ADL. Make it simply true, without ‘snarl words’–something they can’t ignore. Then get out of the way, and let them do their thing. The documentation will have to be bulletproof, such that Deniers will not be able to spin it away. AIPAC + ADL are driven by protecting ‘our’ weak, so their hearts are in the right place. Show how it’s in their best interests to dismantle cowardly genocides of Russian Jews, Jews, and Russians.
AIPAC actually believes Zelensky when he says There are no Nazis in Ukraine. A Jewish president would /obviously/ never allow such; so it must be true.
It’s great to hear Dr. Hudson, thank you for bringing his to us.
Who is this, “…we feel very insecure and we’re going to blow up the world.“?
Who would take out all of humanity if they don’t get to control all of humanity?
It’s all written down.
Anybody can read about it.
But… no one can talk about it.
Who is it?!
Who is running the United States of America?
These preternally insecure people who hate the nations so much!?
This is a good interview and Hudson has a lot of good things to say, particularly about debt finance in general.
However, Hudson still buys into the climate change fraud, and that diminishes the potency of his arguments. Particularly given that this war is really a globalist vs. nationalist proxy war and it is the globalists who are pushing the climate change fraud as well.
The “cooler heads” in the U.S. are the America First people, like Patrick Howley or Andrew Torba, who unequivocally despise the entire political-media class, including the numerous Israel First grifters among the fake “MAGA” resistance. Michael Hudson should know about them, he’s certainly been around long enough. He seems surprised that the “right wing” is anti-war, but America First has always been anti-war when it’s war for bankers, Europeans, Jews, Neocons, which all are effectively the same thing. America First instinctively sympathizes with Russia because they are as despised by Zio-con Inc. as Russia is. And who can not see that Russia is going essentially “survivalist”, something that patriot Americans have been doing for decades? Furthermore, America First needs no further convincing that this is a spiritual battle in which their adversery is, quite simply, Satanic. America First is rootin’ for Putin, albeit cautiously, because although it appears Putin is kicking Globohomo in its lamprey teeth, they know that the trickery and treachery of these devils knows no limits, and well, who knows for sure? Anyway, all patriots, all noble people the world over have come to pretty much the same conclusion: The West is run by parasites whose evil is as boundless as their stupidity.
Fox news is owned by rabid Zionist racist Murdock and for that matter; all Western Media is owned by a handful of the same sort. M. Hudson is one of the few economists that have spoken truth. But I see them (good Americans) hedging their bets.
Did you ever wonder why both your “illustrious”‘ parties always vote war? Among many things; they are all controlled by the same people. You threaten Russia and threaten China constantly for years, and you can’t even attack Iran, as you so which.
Your numerous ” arm- chair generals “tell you that Russia is slowing down is losing, but what will they come up with next, when they face thousands thousands of missiles pointed directly at them. Phase 2.
Sanctions: well Russia has not really begun to reciprocate, even though today they said buy our oil in rubbles. Take in mind the rest of countries that the west stole from.
Iran, Syria, China, Afghanistan, Venezuela and the list is endless. In Syria they continue to steal oil, and support their funded terrorists.
That will end as all things evil has to end. So see Europe decline from a racist Zion imperialism mind set/habit, to their rightfull place, as phiphery to the vast expanse of the rest of this world.
America think that they can direct traffic in Europe, and we will somehow gain from it. But even before that America was in dire straights, with homelessness, drug addiction, crime, lack of any social cohesion, and so much more, to numerous to mention.
I live in Canada, which is fast becoming USA, and we will sink just like the evil above that rules. Yes, the only reason I am here is my wish to look after ” domestic” responsibilities, and I will go to Greener pastures, where the evil can never and will not penetrate.