Friday, June 25, 2010

Michael Hudson on Austerity

http://neweconomicperspectives.blogspot.com/2010/06/europes-fiscal-dystopia-new-austerity.html
Michael Hudson explains how the populaces of Europe and the US are being subject to attacks by a "global predatory class" through demands for austerity, even while this class continues to pillage national (i.e., sovereign) wealth.

He unpacks why austerity will not solve economic contraction.

And, he points out that neoliberal financial capitalism is a poor basterdization of classical laissez-faire (for capitalist committed readers).

An excerpt from the excellent article:

What really is causing the financial and fiscal squeeze, of course, is the fact that that government funding is now needed to compensate the financial sector for what promises to be year after year of losses as loans go bad in economies that are all loaned up and sinking into negative equity.

When politicians let the financial sector run the show, their natural preference is to turn the economy into a grab bag. And they usually come out ahead. That's what the words "foreclosure," "forfeiture" and "liquidate" mean – along with "sound money," "business confidence" and the usual consequences, "debt deflation" and "debt peonage."

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