J Is for Junk Economics: A Guide to Reality in an Age of Deception

J IS FOR JUNK ECONOMICS is an A-to-Z guide that explains how the world economy really works – and who the winners and losers are. The book includes more than 400 concise and acerbic entries, several essays, and a full topic index. Expanding on KILLING THE HOST: HOW FINANCIAL PARASITES AND DEBT DESTROY THE GLOBAL ECONOMY, Prof. Hudson’s new book covers contemporary terms that are misleading or poorly understood as well as many important concepts that have been abandoned – many on purpose – from the long history of political economy. 
Two key concepts are RENT THEORY and DEBT, which explain how Unearned Income and the Financial Sector impoverish governments and populations the world over as power and riches flow upward into the hands of the few. Several additional essays provide background for key points and explore today's uncertain political and economic environment. 
To understand what’s really going on, it's not necessary to re-invent the wheel; the major issues that guide healthy economies were known to the Ancients and were expanded upon by the classical economists of the 18th and 19th centuries, including Adam Smith, David Ricardo, John Stuart Mill, E. Peshine Smith, Simon Patten, Karl Marx, Thorstein Veblen, and others of many political stripes whose aim was to leave the brutal legacy of feudalism behind. Their ideas and principles are brought back into the spotlight here. It is hoped that this book will deconstruct today's “value-free," watered-down and deceptive economics that favor the wealthy, allowing the next generation to create a successful economy with proper checks and balances that will benefit everyone. This is a book you will want to refer to again and again.

Business & Money

HUDSON, MICHAEL

Economics

Islet

Trade, Development and Foreign Debt

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.

Biography & History

The Bubble and Beyond

PROFESSOR MICHAEL HUDSON is one of the foremost critics of contemporary finance capitalism and the worldwide power "the 1%" weilds because of government tax breaks and other favorable legislation. In THE BUBBLE AND BEYOND, he illuminates how the expansive and successful forces of 19th and 20th century industrial capitalism have been subverted by today's predatory finance capitalism, putting the entire world in a financial mess - and what can be done about it. A confusing labyrinth of geo-political issues impacts economic health and growth, and few are studied in the classroom or given space in the press. There is a way out of the labyrinth, however, as Professor Hudson demonstrates across 20 readable topics. PROFESSOR HUDSON'S most controversial claim is that "Debts that can't be paid, won't be," leaving in question whether or not debt non-payment will lead to worldwide foreclosures - including sell-offs of public domain assets by debt-strapped local and national governments. This is already happening locally and globally - exactly what some of the 1% would like - creating a newly-poor feudalistic society with the 1% collecting all the usage "fees." Alternatively, he suggests that the debts be written down in line with the ability to pay, as has been done by corporations via Chapter 11 bankruptcies and reorganizations throughout a more enlightened modern economic history as well as biblical record. In Professor Hudson's bold view, debt write-downs versus privatization and sell-offs of public domain assets are the economic issues that will dominate politics over the next generation. THE BUBBLE AND BEYOND is a compendium and brief history of economic thought and why it matters not only to Americans, but to people all over the world. You will find that you refer to it again and again as a fount of information, much of which has been out of favor for decades and/or suppressed by the financial interests. Professor Hudson provides chapter and verse, names names, and explains the mistakes and outright fraud that have often been committed in the name of political ideology - by both the right and the left. You will encounter all of the heroes and miscreants of economics, industry, and politics from the Bible and Babylon to present day banksters, misguided Fed policy-makers, and captains of the finance/insurance/real estate (FIRE) sector and the military-industrial complex. In one chapter after another, Professor Hudson tells who did what to whom - as well as who wins and who loses. This updated edition makes it plain where money goes versus where it might go - and ought to go. UPDATED EDITION with a NEW INDEX, LIST OF 47 EXHIBITS (illustrations, charts, graphs and models), a BONUS CHAPTER and BONUS SUMMARY, contemporary quotes, and author pull-out quotes.

The Destiny of Civilization: Finance Capitalism, Industrial Capitalism or Socialism

This book is based on the lecture series on finance capitalism Michael Hudson presented for the Global University for Sustainability. The book explains why the U.S. and other Western economies have lost their former momentum: A narrow rentier class has gained control and become the new central planner, using its power to drain income from increasingly indebted and high-cost labor and industry. The American disease of de-industrialization has resulted from the costs of industrial production being inflated by the economic rents extracted by this class under the system of financialized monopoly capitalism that now prevails throughout the West. 
The book explains why the U.S.-China conflict cannot simply be regarded as market competition between two industrial rivals. It is a broader conflict between different political economic systems - not only between capitalism and socialism as such, but between the logic of an industrial economy and that of a financialized rentier economy increasingly dependent on foreign subsidy and exploitation as its own domestic economy shrivels. Professor Hudson endeavors to revive classical political economy in order to reverse the neoclassical counter-revolution.

History

The Collapse of Antiquity

This book traces the role of debt in Antiquity and suggests that it was the longlasting curse of interest-bearing loans being handed out that could not be repaid. It eroded the fabric of society.

Accounting

The Collapse of Antiquity: Greece and Rome as Civilization's Oligarchic Turning Point\nThe Collapse of Antiquity, the sequel to Michael's "...and forgive them their debts, " is the second and latest book in his trilogy on the history of debt. It describes how the dynamics of interest-bearing debt led to the rise of rentier oligarchies in classical Greece and Rome, causing economic polarization, widespread austerity, revolts, wars and ultimately the collapse of Rome into serfdom and feudalism. That collapse bequeathed to subsequent Western civilization a pro-creditor legal philosophy that has led to today's creditor oligarchies.\nIn telling this story, The Collapse of Antiquity reveals the eerie parallels between the collapsing Roman world and today's debt-burdened Western economies. 
Endorsements\nScope 
The Collapse of Antiquity is vast in its sweep, covering: the transmission of interest-bearing debt from the Ancient Near East to the Mediterranean world, but without the "safety valve" of periodic royal Clean Slate debt cancellations to restore economic balance and prevent the emergence of creditor oligarchies; the rise of creditor and landholding oligarchies in classical Greece and Rome; classical antiquity's debt crises and revolts, and the suppression, assassination and ultimately failure of reformers; the role played by greed, money-lust (wealth-addiction) and hubris, as analysed by Socrates, Plato, Aristotle and other ancient writers; Rome's "End Time" collapse into serfdom and pro-creditor oligarchic legacy that continues to shape the West; the transformation of Christianity as it became Rome's state religion, supporting the oligarchy, dropping the revolutionary early Christian calls for debt cancellation and changing the meaning of the Lord's Prayer and "sin," from a focus on the economic sphere to the personal sphere of individual egotism; how pro-creditor ideology distorts recent economic interpretations of antiquity, showing increasing sympathy with Rome's oligarchic policies.

Temples of Enterprise: Creating Economic Order in the Bronze Age Near East

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Books by Islet

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J Is for Junk Economics: A Guide to Reality in an Age of Deception

Trade, Development and Foreign Debt

The Bubble and Beyond

The Destiny of Civilization: Finance Capitalism, Industrial Capitalism or Socialism

The Destiny of Civilization: Finance Capitalism, Industrial Capitalism or Socialism

The Collapse of Antiquity

The Collapse of Antiquity

Temples of Enterprise: Creating Economic Order in the Bronze Age Near East

Temples of Enterprise: Creating Economic Order in the Bronze Age Near East

Trade, Development and Foreign Debt