Lambert Strether posed these links at Naked Capitalism. The VoxEU article was posted here at MNE when it came out. It is cited here if you missed it. The operative post is the Twitter thread that Scott Fullwiler tweeted in response to it.
Modern money theory and its implementation and challenges: The case of Japan VoxEU. Thread in response by Fullwiler.Naked Capitalism
See also at Naked Capitalism today.
Michael Hudson exceeded himself on this one. Here is the conclusion.
The American promise is that the victory of neoliberalism is the End of History, offering prosperity to the entire world. But beneath the rhetoric of free choice and free markets is the reality of corruption, subversion, coercion, debt peonage and neofeudalism. The reality is the creation and subsidy of polarized economies bifurcated between a privileged rentierclass and its clients, eir debtors and renters. America is to be permitted to monopolize trade in oil and food grains, and high-technology rent-yielding monopolies, living off its dependent customers. Unlike medieval serfdom, people subject to this End of History scenario can choose to live wherever they want. But wherever they live, they must take on a lifetime of debt to obtain access to a home of their own, and rely on U.S.-sponsored control of their basic needs, money and credit by adhering to U.S. financial planning of their economies. This dystopian scenario confirms Rosa Luxemburg’s recognition that the ultimate choice facing nations in today’s world is between socialism and barbarism.Michael Hudson: U.S. Economic Warfare and Likely Foreign Defenses
It's like a game of monopoly, as you start to win you are able to buy more and more property, and then you get richer and can buy more property until you own almost everything.
ReplyDeleteAnd so the Western rich, after making their fortune from 500 years of the slave trade, have the money to buy up the world, plus, Western banks can create money out of thin air, so the elite can borrow the money to buy up the world. When the profits pour in, the bankers can be paid off and the elite get to own everything.
So, the elite can get to own all the fertile ground in Africa, and all of Africa's resources so the Africans own nothing. And this can happen around the world too in other countries. They call it property rights
They call it capitalism, and in a way it is, but something has gone wrong. The Western populations are told this is capitalism, and that the West is run by very clever people. There is even a myth, a lie, that white Europeans and Americans are particularly clever due to their genes. So, many Western conservatives believe (but not all - The American Conservative, Unz Review) that the West deserves to own the World because its capitalism is fair.
The Western elites gave up on manufacturing and technology, even though this is what gives us our high standard of living, and went for owning all the World’s resources instead. It's easier doing rent extraction rather than starting companies and designing products.
The West has kept its technological lead in IT and the military, though, because the profits are exceptional, and also, because they know how important these industries are for dominating the World.
But China is leaping ahead as its system is, rightly or wrongly, superior. The Chinese government is investing, while Western companies prefer stock buy-backs and investing in assets.
And so the West is out to destroy China and grab its companies and resources. And if they were to be successful, which they won't, the West would say they are just opening China's companies up to market forces, alowing them to operate in the competitive market. Then the Western elite would go in and buy the lot, and reduce the Chinese people to servitude.
And so China can't open itself to democracy, or allow its media to be entirely free, because again, the Western ruling elite would get to control its media and influence China’s elections because they have so much money and power.
But do we have a democracy, anyway, as we can't vote the elite out of power? After a hundred years or so, we in Britain might get a moderate socialist government in after all, but expect to be wrecked by financial capitalism. They have already insured Labour won't have a big enough majority to be effective.