Overview: The Bubble and Beyond by Michael Hudson
11 views
Skip to first unread message
Tom Christoffel, AICP, FeRSA (gmail)
Aug 11, 2012, 1:05:14 AM8/11/12
to RCD News Google Group
The Road from Industrial Capitalism to Finance Capitalism and Debt Peonage
Essays on Fictitious Capital, Debt Deflation and the Global Crisis by Michael Hudson
Preface
Summary and Analytic Table of Contents
Introduction: Today’s Financial Crisis and Economic Theory
I. Fictitious Capital and Economic Fictions
1. Two Traditions of Financial Doctrine
2. The Magic of Compound Interest: Mathematics at the Root of the Crisis
3. How Ricardo’s Value Theory Ignored the Role of Debt
4. The Industrialization of Finance and the Financialization of Industry
5. The Use and Abuse of Mathematical Economics
6. The Financial Character of Today’s Crisis
II. From Inflated Debts to Debt Deflation
7. Property is Worth Whatever a Bank Will Lend Against It
8. The Real Estate Bubble at the Core of Today’s Debt-leveraged Economy
9. Junk-Bonding Industry
10. Privatizing Social Security to Rescue Wall Street
11. Saving, Asset-Price Inflation, and Debt Deflation
12. Saving our Way into Debt Peonage
III: The Global Crisis
13. Trade and Payments in a Financialized Economy
14. U.S. Quantitative Easing fractures the Global Economy
15. America’s Monetary Imperialism: Dollar Debt Reserves without Constraint
16. The Dollar Glut Finances America’s Military Build-up
17. De-dollarizing the Global Economy
18. Incorporating the Rentier Sectors into a Financial Model
IV: The Need for a Clean Slate
19. From Democracy to Oligarchy: National Economies at the Crossroads
20. Scenarios for Recovery
This summary of my economic theory traces how industrial capitalism has turned into finance capitalism. The finance, insurance and real estate (FIRE) sector has emerged to create “balance sheet wealth” not by new tangible investment and employment, but financially in the form of debt leveraging and rent-extraction. This rentier overhead is overpowering the economy’s ability to produce a large enough surplus to carry its debts. As in a radioactive decay process, we are passing through a short-lived and unstable phase of “casino capitalism,” which now threatens to settle into leaden austerity and debt deflation.
This situation confronts society with a choice either to write down debts to a level that can be paid (or indeed, to write them off altogether with a Clean Slate), or to permit creditors to foreclose, concentrating property in their own hands (including whatever assets are in the public domain to be privatized) and imposing a combination of financial and fiscal austerity on the population. This scenario will produce a shrinking debt-ridden and tax-ridden economy.
Continue here ... http://michael-hudson.com/2012/08/overview-the-bubble-and-beyond/
Note: I have purchased and received the book. It is not inexpensive, but I highly recommend it. Tom Christoffel
Essays on Fictitious Capital, Debt Deflation and the Global Crisis by Michael Hudson
Preface
Summary and Analytic Table of Contents
Introduction: Today’s Financial Crisis and Economic Theory
I. Fictitious Capital and Economic Fictions
1. Two Traditions of Financial Doctrine
2. The Magic of Compound Interest: Mathematics at the Root of the Crisis
3. How Ricardo’s Value Theory Ignored the Role of Debt
4. The Industrialization of Finance and the Financialization of Industry
5. The Use and Abuse of Mathematical Economics
6. The Financial Character of Today’s Crisis
II. From Inflated Debts to Debt Deflation
7. Property is Worth Whatever a Bank Will Lend Against It
8. The Real Estate Bubble at the Core of Today’s Debt-leveraged Economy
9. Junk-Bonding Industry
10. Privatizing Social Security to Rescue Wall Street
11. Saving, Asset-Price Inflation, and Debt Deflation
12. Saving our Way into Debt Peonage
III: The Global Crisis
13. Trade and Payments in a Financialized Economy
14. U.S. Quantitative Easing fractures the Global Economy
15. America’s Monetary Imperialism: Dollar Debt Reserves without Constraint
16. The Dollar Glut Finances America’s Military Build-up
17. De-dollarizing the Global Economy
18. Incorporating the Rentier Sectors into a Financial Model
IV: The Need for a Clean Slate
19. From Democracy to Oligarchy: National Economies at the Crossroads
20. Scenarios for Recovery
This summary of my economic theory traces how industrial capitalism has turned into finance capitalism. The finance, insurance and real estate (FIRE) sector has emerged to create “balance sheet wealth” not by new tangible investment and employment, but financially in the form of debt leveraging and rent-extraction. This rentier overhead is overpowering the economy’s ability to produce a large enough surplus to carry its debts. As in a radioactive decay process, we are passing through a short-lived and unstable phase of “casino capitalism,” which now threatens to settle into leaden austerity and debt deflation.
This situation confronts society with a choice either to write down debts to a level that can be paid (or indeed, to write them off altogether with a Clean Slate), or to permit creditors to foreclose, concentrating property in their own hands (including whatever assets are in the public domain to be privatized) and imposing a combination of financial and fiscal austerity on the population. This scenario will produce a shrinking debt-ridden and tax-ridden economy.
Continue here ... http://michael-hudson.com/2012/08/overview-the-bubble-and-beyond/
Note: I have purchased and received the book. It is not inexpensive, but I highly recommend it. Tom Christoffel
--
Posted By Blogger to Regional Communities-Greater Communities: "Community Motive"→"Think local planet, act regionally." at 8/11/2012 12:59:00 AM
Tom Christoffel, AICP, FeRSA
Editor, Regional/Greater Community Development News
Regional Intelligence - Regional Communities, LLC
Box 1444 * Front Royal, Virginia, USA (VA 22630)
"Acknowledge boundaries. Work across them.
Think local planet, act regionally."
In this way, the Community Motive which is responsible
for perpetuation of humanity, works at any scale.
Web: http://communitymotive.net
Email: Tom.Chr...@gmail.com
Web: http://communitymotive.net
Email: Tom.Chr...@gmail.com
Reply all
Reply to author
Forward
0 new messages