Bøker av Michael Hudson

The twelve articles collected in this volume describe how the most basic features of Western economic organization - money, markets, land tenure and enterprise - were created in the temples and palaces of the ancient Near East. The perspective on these topics originated in the five international colloquia organized by the Institute for the Study of Long-term Economic Trends (ISLET) with Harvard University's Peabody Museum from 1994 to 2015. When these meetings began, most assyriology, Egyptology and classical studies tended to accept the views of modern economic orthodoxy. Archaic social values were so different from today's views that there was resistance to recognizing the extent to which the Bronze Age economic takeoff, 3500-1200 BC, followed policies radically unlike our own.

This volume addresses the extent to witch accounting activly shaped economic life. The volume traces the aimes and functions of accounting practices from early Uruk down through the Neo-Babylonian period as well as Egyptian practice.

With the eclipse of the New Right, politicians now admit that society is in crisis. Something must be done, but, explain the authors, governments will fail again unless they shake off the economic orthodoxy which is now one of the problems rather than the means to a solution. This book investigates the roots of the problem, both historically and theoretically. Dr Michael Hudson draws on archaeology and history, from Bronze Age Mesopotamia through Rome to Byzantium, to show how a destructive virus crept into the body politic. This led to a breakdown in man's relation to the environment and divided society into a wealthy ruling oligarchy and an impoverished majority. The Welfare State is an attempt to remedy this inequality. However, despite the escalating cost to taxpayers, the Welfare State has failed to stop the widening gap between the rich and the poor. Drawing on medical evidence, Dr George Miller demonstrates that not only have the poorest grown poorer relatively, but their health has suffered disproportionately. Hence people born into the lowest classes still have a greater chance of dying before they can enjoy their pensions. A century ago Henry George, in his world-famous Progress and Poverty, asked why there still was poverty, when the Industrial Revolution had made it possible to make in a day what had taken weeks or months previously. Dr Kris Feder shows how the Georgist paradigm provides an ideal way of tackling the many ills besetting the industrialised and third worlds. Nobel prize-winning economists recommend it as the way forward for Russia. Dr Feder clears away misrepresentations of George's thesis and explains how it would not only lead to a fairer distribution of wealth, but would also simplify the tax system.

In this survey of international economic thought, Michael Hudson rewrites the history of trade, development and debt theorizing. He shows that mainstream free-trade surveys are censorial in excluding the protectionist logic that has guided the trade policy of Europe and the United States, especially by leaving out discussion of the transfer problem and payment of international debts. He points out that most economists throughout history have focused as much on war financing as on trade and development. Free-trade ideology and IMF-style financial austerity under today's rules, rather than benefiting all parties and maximizing welfare, leave "client" nations severely indebted. By excluding dynamics that used to be central to trade theory such as emigration and technology transfer, today's global production and financial policies tend to concentrate economic and political power in the hands of dominant nations. Prof. Michael Hudson (Economics Department, University of Missouri, Kansas City) is a frequent contributor to The Financial Times, Counterpunch, and Global Research.

"Hope and Change" or "Make America Great Again," these are just some of the recent promises political candidates have campaigned on to get elected. The temptation to put our trust in politicians and political parties is great. After all, there have been some great men and women who have run for office and done good things. Yet, even so, we have an expectation that one day someone will come along who can really fix things. Election after election, we keep waiting for that day to arrive.But what if that day has already come? What if that candidate has already come on the scene? What if someone ran for the highest office and was able to keep his campaign promises? Would you vote for that person? What would that campaign look like? Turns out, it would look a lot like the Gospel of Mark.The Campaign: Good News for a Partisan World looks at the Gospel of Mark like a political campaign. Mark comes complete with everything you need for a high-stakes contest. It has a reform candidate, primaries, slogans, campaign rallies in different towns, grassroots support, campaign promises, a party platform, opposition from the establishment, debates, false accusations, bribes, election eve sabotage, an assassination, and of course, a vote. Read this book and decide for yourself if The Campaign is really good news for a partisan world!

This new and updated edition of Michael Hudson's classic political economy text explores how and why the US came to achieve world economic hegemony. Originally published as the sequel to Hudson's bestselling Super Imperialism, Global Fracture explores American economic strategy during a key period in world history. *BR**BR*In 1973, many of the world's most indebted countries sought to free themselves of trade dependency and the debt trap by creating a New International Economic Order (NIEO). This aimed to improve the terms of trade for raw materials and build up agicultural and industrial self-sufficiency. *BR**BR*Global Fracture shows how the US undermined this progressive initiative and instead pushed for financial dominance over the rest of the world. Today, the NIEO is a forgotten interlude, its optimism replaced by the financial austerity imposed by the IMF and the World Bank.*BR**BR*Exploring how America achieved its economic aims, and tracing the implications this has had through subsequent decades, Michael Hudson covers various topics including trade embargoes, changing US attitudes to foreign aid, the rise of protectionism, government regulation of international investments, the impact on specific industries including the oil industry, the implications of the new economic order and the future of war.

This book describes the genesis of America's political and financial domination. *BR**BR*Michael Hudson's study of US financial diplomacy explores the faults built into the core of the World Bank and the IMF at their inception which, he argues, were intended to preserve the US's financial hegemony. Difficult to detect at the time, these problems have since become explicit as the failure of the international economic system has become obvious; the IMF and World Bank were set up to give aid to developing countries, but instead many of the world's poorest countries have been plunged into insurmountable debt crises. *BR**BR*Hudson's critique of the destructive course of the international economic system provides important insights into the real motivations at the heart of these institutions - and the increasing tide of opposition that they face around the world.