Finance Capital and Debt Through the Ages — Karl Fitzgerald interviews Michael Hudson

Transcript of podcast:

Karl: Welcome to the Renegade Economists with your host, Karl Fitzgerald. This week we’re stepping back in time, way back some 10,000 years BC into the world of archaeology, Egyptology and Assyriology. Yes, it’s time for another special with Professor Michael Hudson. That’s right, Michael Hudson back on the show, he’s got a new book called Labor in the Ancient World and I asked him to give us a bit of a précis on the background to his very interesting process. Hang on for another riveting conversation here on 3CR’s Renegade Economists. 

Michael Hudson: It’s a symposium of a group put together at Harvard University of the leading Assyriologists and Egyptologists and Mycenaean Greek specialists as well as archaeologists on how early societies mobilised the labour force, especially for large public building projects such as temples, city walls and other infrastructure.

Fascinating historical account of the development of social labor beginning 10,000 BCE. turns out that the ancient megaliths weren't built by slaves, or magic either. They were originally beer parties.

There's a section at the end on contemporary US politics and oligarchic "democracy."

Closes with the Saint-Simon school of reform.

The Unz Review
Finance Capital and Debt Through the Ages
Karl Fitzgerald interviews Michael Hudson for Renegade Economists