Michael Hudson: Why the US has a unique place in the history of imperialism? #Russia #US
What this covers
Prof. Hudson speaks on the nature of US financial dominance, the role of World Bank in developing countries, USA's ability to run a huge balance of payment deficit, changes in Russia after the fall of the Soviet Union, the problems of US economy with post-industrialization, and the role of neoclassical economics in all this. He is President of The Institute for the Study of Long-Term Economic Trends (ISLET), a Wall Street Financial Analyst, Distinguished Research Professor of Economics at the University of Missouri, Kansas City. He is the author of Super-Imperialism: The Economic Strategy of American Empire (Editions 1968, 2003, 2021), ‘and forgive them their debts’ (2018), J is for Junk Economics (2017), Killing the Host (2015), The Bubble and Beyond (2012), Trade, Development and Foreign Debt (1992 & 2009) and of The Myth of Aid (1971), amongst many others.
00:00 Highlight 00:55 Introduction 05:34 World Bank 18:51 US & Europe 21:09 US BOP deficit 32:45 Russia after USSR 50:20 US junk economy
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Hudson argues that the post-WWII US imperial system operates through financial mechanisms rather than military occupation, using institutions like the World Bank and IMF to prevent other countries from achieving food/industrial self-sufficiency while financing US military spending through foreign central bank holdings of Treasury securities—a system now collapsing as countries like Russia, China, and India pursue alternative trade and development models.
- The World Bank was designed to prevent other countries from producing their own food and to ensure they remained dependent on US exports and capital
- When the US went off the gold standard, foreign central banks recycled dollars back into US Treasury securities, effectively funding the US military base system globally
- The US uses financial coercion (debt, sanctions, capital controls) rather than direct occupation to maintain imperial control, which is more efficient and harder to recognize
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When the US went off the gold standard in 1971 under President Nixon, instead of losing imperial power, the US actually created a new form of imperialism because foreign central banks that could no longer buy gold had to recycle their dollar holdings into US Treasury securities, effectively funding the US military spending globally.
“when my President Nixon finally had to close the gold window, where there was no uh more leeway for gold to flow out without threatening uh gold convertibility, everybody thought, "Is America's imperialism going to be over? Is this going to usher uh a new world order, and will Europe and other countries running balance of payment surpluses end up in control?" Well, uh I realized very quickly that uh that wouldn't happen at all, and that uh the what actually enabled America to create a new kind of imperialism was precisely it's going off gold, because once it uh went off gold, all these dollars continued to go to the foreign central banks and European countries, of oil exporters, of uh Third World countries exporting uh raw material, uh and what were these central banks going to do? Now that they couldn't buy gold at that time in the 1970s, central banks uh would only spend their uh money on buying other the bonds of other governments. Well, no other government had many many bonds to issue as the United States because the United States was running a a budget deficit. So, uh it was actually the the worse the American balance of payment deficit grew, the more money it spent abroad militarily, the more money dollars ended up in foreign central banks that recycled them to the United States by buying Treasury securities.”
Every country emerged from WWII nearly debt-free; consumers had little debt (nothing to buy during war), businesses had minimal debt, and most debt was government debt rather than private debt.
“Every country emerged from World War in 1945 almost free of debt. Consumers didn't have very much debt because there was nothing to buy during the war. Businesses didn't have much debt. There was government debt, but not private sector debt.”
France and Germany cashed in US dollars for gold monthly; France received dollars from US military spending in Asia (formerly French colonies) and General de Gaulle would cash them in monthly. Germany cashed in even more gold than France in many months because it had an industrial export surplus.
“Because of Vietnam and Southeast Asia had been French colonies, the banks there were mainly French. And so all the money, the dollars that the Americans were spending in Asia were turned over largely to France to Paris and General de Gaulle would cash them in once a month. Okay, here are the dollars, give us your gold. Germany actually cashed in even more gold than France in many months because it was getting dollars as a result of its uh industrial export surplus.”
The World Bank has always been an arm of the US military, often with its presidency held by former Defense Department or military heads, and was founded with the primary purpose of preventing other countries from producing their own food.
“The World Bank has always been an arm of the US military, and very often its president has been uh the former uh Defense Department head uh or a a military head. Uh the World Bank, upon its founding, had one basic purpose, uh to make sure that other countries did not produce their own food.”
The entire US balance of payments deficit throughout the 1950s, 1960s, and into the 1970s was caused by military spending abroad; the private sector was in balance. This military spending sent dollars abroad that ended up in foreign central banks' hands.
“I did an analysis for Arthur Andersen after I left Chase Manhattan on what really caused the US deficit by doing a statistical analysis. The entire US balance of payments deficit throughout all of the 1950s, all of the 1960s, into the 70s was military spending abroad. The private sector was just exactly in balance. It was the military spending that was sending the dollars abroad”
Saudi Arabia was told by US Treasury officials that if they did not send their oil revenues back to the United States, the US would view it as an act of war and Saudi Arabia would be dead, and they were forbidden from buying American companies while being restricted to financial assets (stocks, bonds, real estate).
“the country had who had the most dollars was Saudi Arabia. Uh and I went to a meeting, uh, at the White House, uh, and met with Treasury officials, and, uh, they told Saudi Arabia, you can, uh, make, uh, make as much money as you want from, uh, exporting your oil at the higher prices, uh, but if you don't send your money back to the United States, we will look at that as an act of war. You will be dead. Uh, and, uh, you can, uh, you you're not allowed to buy any American companies. We can buy other companies, but we don't let other countries do to us what we've done to them. You can buy stocks, you can buy bonds, you can buy real estate, but no major American companies”
The American election process has been privatized to the highest bidder; Republicans and Democrats are the same party with the same Wall Street campaign donors, so no independent political party exists to enforce debt write-down.
“The United States can't because there's really no independent party here. There's the Republicans and Democrats are the same party. They have the same campaign donors on Wall Street and essentially the election process in America has been privatized to the highest bidder. That's all been deemed legal by the Supreme Court”
Hudson wrote his master's dissertation on World Bank missions to countries, which all publicly stated they would promote domestic agriculture and food production, but the World Bank articles of agreement prohibited exactly this by restricting loans only to foreign-currency-earning projects.
“I wrote my master's dissertation on uh the World Bank uh missions to countries and uh all of the missions said uh you'll you you have to uh promote uh domestic uh agriculture, uh domestic uh uh family farming, uh and food production. Uh but the World Bank wrote into its articles of agreement that it couldn't do this.”
The U.S. has privatized healthcare taking 18% of GDP and lacks public healthcare; Americans must pay more of their income for healthcare, increasing debt obligations.
“America doesn't have uh, uh, public health. So, uh, there's uh, you have a privatized healthcare system that takes 18% of the, uh, uh, of the uh, gross domestic product.”
The World Bank funded infrastructure (roads, ports, electricity) primarily as external subsidies to American companies operating in developing countries, so those companies would not have to bear the cost of building their own infrastructure, making American investment more profitable while preventing real development in those countries.
“The projects that the World Bank funded with US dollars and US engineering companies was roads to the export facilities, ports. The the World Bank funded infrastructure electricity... if American company would buy into a country, the World Bank would supply all of the external costs so that the the company itself, the American company, would not have to build roads, would not have to build port facilities. None of this actually helped the third world countries develop at that time, but they did help by the American investment and it was always looked at that. The idea was to make American investment in foreign countries more profitable”
The U.S. economy in the 1930s became heavily indebted due to international finance and war debt; recovery was impossible without massive debt write-down, which did not happen, causing the Great Depression to persist.
“It's a It's a concept that happened in the 1930s when the economy was so heavily indebted as a result of, uh, the international situation in the 1920s, uh, that there's there's really no chance of recovery without a vast right write-off of debt.”
Throughout WWII, the US attempted to ensure England would never be a rival to the American Empire by controlling the balance of payments through Lend-Lease and the British loan of 1946, and by preventing Britain from devaluing the pound sterling until 1949, keeping sterling overvalued to destroy its competitive ability.
“one constant throughout World War II that I've described in Super Imperialism was the attempt to make sure that England would never be a rival for the American Empire. The Americans wanted to absorb the British Empire into the American Empire by making sure that this was done by financial reasons by controlling the balance of payments. It began It began with the Lend-Lease and later the British loan of 1946 that committed Britain to keep the the whole sterling area was not to limit its spending on buying British exports but could buy exports from anywhere and that meant the United States which could out compete with with Britain and also Britain was not permitted to devalue the pound sterling until 1949 and that kept the pound overvalued and if you I know it's hard to discuss very briefly finance but it was a financial manipulation of sterling of sterling to destroy its ability to compete with the United States.”
The US attempted to starve China by blocking grain exports during the 1950s when China underwent revolution under Mao, demonstrating the use of food control as a political weapon, and now the US is preventing Russian grain exports from reaching the global south while only allowing Russian grain to be exported to help Europe and NATO countries.
“in the 1950s when China had its revolution under Mao, America tried to starve China by blocking all grain exports to China. Canada broke the blockade and enabled China fortunately to to obtain that grain elsewhere, but the United States wanted to use that threat against countries and that's now coming to be very beneficial for the American military today... the United States is trying to prevent Russian grain as you've seen in Ukraine from getting to the global south countries only letting Russian grain be exported to help Europe and the United States not to anyone outside of NATO.”
The IMF and World Bank held a meeting in Houston where the IMF directed Russia to: (1) wipe out everybody's savings through hyperinflation, (2) kill 20% of the population, (3) create a shock therapy crisis that would require destroying production and firing everyone, which is something usually requiring atomic bombing of a country to create.
“before there was the wipeout the privatization there was a big meeting in Houston of the IMF and the World Bank and the IMF said first of all you have to wipe out everybody's savings. Second, you have to kill 20% of your population. Third, you have to make a crisis and fire everybody. Not produce anything, just have a shock therapy. And this was something that usually you have to atom bomb a country to create.”
Mikhail Khodorkovsky privatized the Yukos oil company and was going to sell it at huge profit to Standard Oil, which would have resulted in the US buying up all of Russia's oil reserves for almost nothing.
“the Khodorkovsky privatized the Yukos oil company and was going to sell it at a huge profit for himself to Standard Oil. In which case America would have ended up buying all of Russia's oil reserves, maybe for $20, $30. I mean, slight exaggeration, but for for almost nothing.”
Russia was told that it couldn't create its own money because that would be inflationary; instead, all rubles had to be based on dollar equivalents, meaning Russia could only issue currency if it had foreign exchange reserves (dollars), forcing it to sell raw materials and companies to obtain dollars.
“Russia was told don't create your own money. That would be inflationary. You have to base all of your rubles on dollars and only if you have a dollar equivalent can you issue your own rubles. Well, how is Russia going to get the dollars? Now that it was industry was all interrupted, it had to sell its raw materials, sell its companies. It was just a total disaster.”
The US sent election advisors to interfere with Russian elections to push President Yeltsin over the Communist Party, putting billions of dollars of support behind neoliberal groups, effectively turning Russian policy over to Wall Street and the State Department.
“They sent election advisers to interfere to with the Russian elections to push up President Yeltsin. They sent basically Russia's policy was turned over to Wall Street and the State Department to to fund. And the they was basically junk economics.”
Putin stopped the bleeding of Russian asset sales and privatization process, starting to rebuild Russian industry and especially military capacity, which the United States had sought to destroy.
“Mr. Putin, who they thought would be just a supporter. And, of course, Mr. Putin was the person who stopped the bleeding and stopped the privatization process for that... imagine how upset they were when President Putin stopped the bleeding and began to make Russia strong enough, very very slowly rebuilding its industry, and especially rebuilding the military, which the United States had sought to uh, destroy.”
Almost everything the US has done in Ukraine (sanctions, weapons support, strategy) has backfired and created the opposite of intended outcomes because the US never understood the Russian economy, just as Russia in 1991 didn't understand capitalism, creating mutual lack of understanding.
“Almost everything the Americans have done, all of the sanctions have backfired and created the exact opposite of what they had hoped to understand because they never understood the Russian economy. Just as Russia in 1991 and 1990 didn't understand what capitalism uh, was all about. There was a lack of understanding on on both sides.”
The Ukraine war demonstrates to the global south (Latin America, Africa, India, Asia) what the US intends to do to them: if the US can't control a country, it destroys its economy like Libya, Iraq, Syria, and now Ukraine.
“shows the whole rest of the world, the global south uh, from Latin America, Africa, India, Asia. It it shows this is what the United States wants to do to you. It wants to treat the whole world like it's treating Ukraine. That if it can't control you, it will destroy your economy like it did that of Libya, like it did that of Iraq, like it tried to do in Syria.”
The US threatens the global south with isolation and sanctions if they don't trade with the US, but this threat is empty because the US produces nothing except militarily and cannot offer anything countries need.
“the United States response is, "Well, we'll isolate you. We'll do sanctions on you. We won't let you buy American exports anymore. We won't trade with you." And all you can say is, "Thank heavens. We don't need to trade with you. We can trade with each other because there's nothing you're producing anymore." America is not is the industrialized itself. Uh there's nothing it it can do uh except militarily drop the atom bomb.”
India can and should develop its own subsidized industry, agriculture, and tax system without following the junk economics taught in American economic universities, drawing on its planning tradition from the Mahalanobis model.
“India has a very good planning history that it can certainly create subsidized its own industry, its own agriculture, its own tax system without following the junk economics that's taught in American economic universities.”
India is moving in the same direction as the Bretton Woods Washington Consensus, following policies of austerity (FRBM laws capping government spending) and privatization (DIPPAM department for privatization), which are self-destructive.
“the problem however country like India is that it is going in the same direction of the Bretton Woods sort of Washington consensus. I mean, at least since that's definitely true since the 1991. Literally, everything that you said, I mean, things that you spoke about Russia for instance. I mean, there was a law that came up under the finance FRBM financial responsibility and budget management which was like bringing a cap on the amount of money to be spent by government and it's it's like an austerity and you know there is a there is now a department in the Ministry of Finance called as DIPPAM which is basically you know a department for privatization.”
When Yevgeny Primakov was appointed as Prime Minister of Russia, the US told Yeltsin they would view keeping Primakov as unfriendly, so he was replaced (with Chernomyrdin, then Putin), showing US veto power over Russian leadership.
“the States told Yeltsin we would look at it as uh unfriendly if you keep Mr. Primakov there. You know, replace him with somebody else.' So, he was replaced, I think, by Cherno- Cherno- nobody, and then he was replaced finally by Mr. Putin, who they thought would be just a supporter.”
While billionaires' debts are written off in India, farmers' debts of a few hundred thousand rupees create major controversy about economic mismanagement, showing the structural injustice in how different classes are treated by the state.
“while you know lakhs of crores of rupees are you know just written off for billionaires and India has the third largest billionaires in the world but every time there is a sort of couple hundred thousand dollar debt rupees debt write off for literally millions of farmers there is a huge brouhaha about oh this is leading to a you know very bad management of economy and already peasant and farmers they don't know how to run their finances and stuff like that.”
During the 1980s, Russia realized that Stalinist central planning wasn't working because it was too centralized without private innovation or market feedback, and successful economies are mixed economies with both government and private sectors, but Russia lacked an alternative model.
“in the 1980s, there was a malaise felt in Russia. They realized that the Stalinist central planning just didn't work. It was too centralized. Every economy that's successful is a mixed economy. It's both government and private. If you have too privatized an economy, then you end up with Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan and a disaster. But if you have too centralized economy without any private innovation, without any private investment, without any market feedback for what people want, that's going to be destructive, too.”
American families have increasing debt burdens for housing and rent; they must spend more of their income either renting houses or taking mortgages before rents escalate further.
“And so, what that means is that American families have had to pay more and more of their income every decade either to rent the houses they live in or to take out a mortgage to buy a house before the rents go up even further. So, uh you have them going into debt for that.”
CIA engineered the 1954 Guatemala coup precisely because the Guatemalan government wanted to achieve food self-sufficiency through land reform, which threatened United Fruit Company's banana monopoly and broader US strategy of maintaining food dependency.
“One of the first regime changes right after after Iran was the coup d'état that the CIA overthrew in the government in Guatemala, which people wanted to feed themselves and the United Fruit Company said if they feed themselves, then what are we going to where are we going to grow our bananas?”
India has already arranged to conduct trade with Russia in rubles and in each other's currency rather than US dollars, creating a model for how all Eurasian countries can trade with each other for mutual gain without needing the United States.
“India now has already arranged to do your trade with Russia in rubles and each other's currency and uh that can be a model for how Eurasia works. Uh the countries can all deal with each other's currency, mutual trade investment for mutual gain, uh and the world doesn't need the United States anymore.”
Ukraine leadership (including Zelensky) received millions of dollars in payments that were deposited in offshore banking centers (Panama, Delaware), showing they were essentially acting on behalf of the United States.
“the leadership of the right party was given millions and millions of dollars to put in Panama and Delaware and other offshore on clay on shore banking centers. They were essentially acting on behalf of the United States. All of this was published by WikiLeaks and by others to show here is all the money that does Zelensky and his other Ukrainian kleptocrats have taken abroad.”
Europe is now in economic collapse due to losing Russian oil, gas, and raw materials, and losing the Russian market for exports, with no clear alternative for where Germans and French can relocate as unemployment rises.
“Europe now without oil, without Russian gas, without Russian raw materials, and without the Russian market to uh, sell its exports to is uh, in a state of collapse. Where will they move? I hope you have room in India for the Germans and the French to move into when they find unemployment.”
U.S. strategy in Ukraine was to drain Russia's military resources by having Ukrainians killed; every Ukrainian killed represented Russian ammunition spent, the calculation being that attrition would weaken Russia even if Ukraine was destroyed.
“they had thought that this would somehow drain Russia. Every Ukrainian that got shot, at least they used up one Russian bullet. And they said pretty now Russia will have fewer bullets. There won't be any Ukrainians left, but at least Russia won't have as many bullets or missiles or or bombs anymore.”
American neoclassical economics assumes the whole economy works through barter where all production is already complete and then exchanged, with no role for debt or finance, making it completely unable to understand how actual economies operating through credit and debt function.
“the classical economic the economics that was taught in academia especially at the Chicago school assumed that the whole economy works on barter that everything was just sort of an exchange of uh goods and services once they're produced and there there was no debt, no financing at all and working at a bank showed me that the economy was all about finance.”
Hudson's experience in urban elites supporting World Bank hydroelectric projects showed how middle-class urban populations benefited from centralized infrastructure while rural and indigenous populations were displaced.
“Well, they had a reason to do that because power is important for them because these were urban elites and you mentioned in your book how the World Bank was structurally in favor of urbanizing project and that led to a massive sort of unstable immigration to the cities.”
By around 2014, the US recognized that Russia was developing and becoming a viable, successful economy, which posed a threat, and Germany's plan to export industrial goods to Russia in exchange for inexpensive Russian gas would make Germany and Europe more competitive with the US.
“by uh, around 2014, the Americans said, "How are we going to stop uh, Russia from uh, actually developing and becoming a viable, successful uh, economy?" Uh, well, the big threat was Germany in all this because Germany had had its own hopes that when now that there was no longer the Soviet occupation of East Germany, now uh, Germany could export its industrial goods, its uh, consumer goods, its machinery, washing machines, refrigerators to Russia in exchange for getting inexpensive Russian gas. And uh, this was looked at as a threat by the United States because number one, uh, inexpensive Russian gas would help make Germany and Europe more of a competitor with the United States.”
The US and general American elites wanted to ally with Germany after WWII to invade Russia, but Germany was too exhausted at the time; 75 years later, the US decided to back Nazis with swastikas and SS insignias attacking Russia again through Ukraine.
“General Patton and a lot of American generals in 1945. The minute Germany surrendered, America wanted to ally with Germany to have a new invasion of Russia. But uh Germany was too exhausted at that time. Finally, 75 years later, they said, "Okay, now now we're ready to do it all over again." Uh and they tried to back uh uh Nazis with uh the swastikas and the SS insignias uh all over again attacking Russia”
40% of Americans have zero savings and cannot raise $400 in an emergency; with COVID creating repeated emergencies, Americans have no financial resilience.
“the average American uh, family, uh, 40% of Americans don't have any money saved up at all. They They can't raise $400 in an emergency. And with the COVID spreading here, there's one emergency after another.”
Russia lacked knowledge of classical economics and Marx's analysis of finance capitalism; if Russian leadership had read Marx's volumes two and three, they would have understood that finance capital is the final stage of industrial capitalism and would have resisted US-style financialization.
“one of the problems is that Russia is one of the few countries where nobody's read Karl Marx. There's no understanding of classical economics and if they would have read Marx's volumes two and three they'd know that finance capital is is the final stage of industrial capitalism.”
Bank analysts working on Wall Street came from a Marxist tradition because banks preferred them for understanding that the economy fundamentally operates through exploitation, whereas business school economics taught that everyone gets what they deserve and there is no exploitation.
“all of the bank analysts had come out of a Marxist tradition. Uh and that was because they were preferred uh by the banks because they knew that the uh economy was all about exploitation. And if you go to a business school uh and take an economics course, you're taught that everybody gets just what they deserve, and there's no exploitation at all.”
The Defense Department and State Department recognized Hudson's explanation of financial imperialism as more efficient than old European colonialism because it doesn't require occupying a country—you only need to control its economic thinking and make it believe the financial system is natural and reasonable.
“that was what led the Defense Department and the State Department to say that I've explained to them how a new form of imperialism worked that was much more efficient than the old European colonialism, especially because other countries didn't understand that it was financial. You didn't need to occupy a country, you just need to control its minds and how it thought about the economy to imagine that all of this subsidy of the America's free lunch internationally was all perfectly natural and reasonable.”
Russia should have imposed taxes on economic rent and natural resource rent post-privatization; even with stolen assets in kleptocrats' hands, a land value tax would have captured the returns the oligarchs extracted.
“I went over and gave a number of three speeches before the Duma saying that even if you have sold let all of your property be privatized and stolen by the kleptocrats, all you have to do is impose a tax on economic rent, and you will get back what they've taken. You you tax the natural resource rent, tax the land rent, and ownership would mean nothing because you would have taxed it away.”
The U.S. ultimate goal is to prevent China and Russia from developing strong military and industrial capacity because they would compete with U.S. monopolies; without monopoly rent extraction, American imperialism cannot function.
“ultimately we want to destroy China because China is also becoming more competitive than we are. And if other countries produce their own industry, it's like the third world producing its own food. It's It's a competition and America cannot control a monopoly in the industries that other countries develop and without monopoly rent, that's what imperialism is all about in today's world.”
The U.S. and Western Europe are entering chronic economic depression; growth-oriented regions are China and Eurasia (India, Russia, South Asia), which can grow without shrinking.
“the question is you you have America going into a chronic economic depression. You have Western Europe going into a chronic economic depression. If you're India or South America or Africa, where do you think your future prosperity is going to lie? Is it going to lie with trade and investment in country that's going into depression that wants really to take over your economy or is it going to lie with a part of the world that is growing? China and you're you're Eurasian.”
Russia's sanctions-driven transformation into agricultural exporter became 'very beneficial for the American military today' because it forced Russia to develop agricultural capacity that now competes with US exports, contrary to the stated goal of sanctions.
“Russia has become the main agricultural exporter since the United States tried to starve it and put sanctions against it. And fortunately the sanctions enabled Russia to actually develop its agriculture and become a major exporter.”
There was an alternative development model for the World Bank proposed by Senator Morris Forgash from Florida that would have supported land reform and agricultural development in the Global South, but the US State Department explicitly fought this proposal on the grounds that land reform anywhere would be considered anti-American policy.
“There was an alternative to the World Bank promoted by Morris Forgash, a senator from Florida for World Bank acceleration and the this was fought by the State Department on the grounds that anywhere that there was a land reform, you would there was a anti-American policy”
The U.S. will not write down debt; only the Global South can save itself by repudiating dollar debt and accepting the loss of creditor relations, while the U.S. has no independent party to force debt write-downs.
“They're not going to write down the debt in America. Uh, the third world countries, the global south, may, uh, just repudiate their dollar debt and say there's no way we can pay and import the food and the oil that we need. We're not going to starve in the dark just to pay the American creditors the debts that the World Bank and the IMF and the bond holders lent us didn't help us develop. They're bad loans and bad loans should be written down... So the third world can save itself. The United States can't because there's really no independent party here.”
Klaus Schwab and the World Economic Forum have stated that world population must drop by 20%, which Hudson interprets as targeting specifically the global south population (non-white population), not the white population.
“Klaus Schwab and the World Economic Foundation says the world population has to drop by 20%. And what they mean is not the white population, they mean uh the the global south population.”
Victoria Nuland gave a speech stating the US had to make it appear Russia was the bad guy, keep goading Russia to react, hurt the Eastern regions, kill more Easterners, and if the US murdered civilians, it was sure Russia would respond, then the US could blame Russia as 'the Russian beast'.
“Victoria Nuland gave a speech. Uh she was still at the State Department under Biden as she was under President Obama. She said, "We we've got to uh make it appear as if Russia is the bad guy. We've got to keep goading Russia to react. We've got to be uh hurting the East. We've got We've got to kill more Easterners. Uh and if we come in and just begin to murder the civilians, we're sure that Russia can do something. And then we'll say, 'Look at the Russian beast. They're going to invade Europe again'”
After the 2014 Ukraine coup, the US/Ukraine government cut off all pension payments to Russian-speaking Eastern provinces, moved military forces there, and constantly shelled civilian apartment buildings to drive the population away, reflecting an ideology that Russian speakers and Slavic population are racially inferior.
“they basically started they cut off all pension payments to the Russian-speaking Eastern provinces. They began moving up the military and constantly shelling civilian apartment buildings there to try to drive the population away and it was basically they were saying the Russian speakers are racially inferior. The Slavic population is racially inferior. We're Europeans and being Europeans we want to kill every other race.”
Capitalism was theoretically expected to develop into socialism, which occurred in Russia (briefly) and China under Mao, and is now happening in India's Eurasian development model, whereas it never happened in America or Europe.
“Capitalism was expected to develop into socialism. That didn't happen in America or Europe. It it it began to happen in India when your five-year plan under Mahalanobis was basically based on volume three of Capital.”
Japan was similarly coerced into purchasing Treasury bonds with its trade surpluses and steered toward poor investments like golf courses and real estate in the US, losing billions as the US prohibited it from acquiring strategically important American companies or assets that would provide actual economic returns.
“Just like with Japan. America told Japan you can buy golf courses and real estate. So Japan bought the land under Rockefeller but then it lost for a billion dollars. It lost the whole billion dollars. It tried to buy luxury golf courses in California. Lost a billion dollars again because the the golf courses regulated what what they could charge.”
Each business cycle since WWII has started from a higher debt level; each recovery is more debt-burdened than the previous, creating structural debt accumulation.
“Well, there've been many business cycles since World War and each cycle has started from a higher level of of debt debt. Each recovery has been more and more debt burdened.”
90% of the American economy is in debt to the wealthiest 10%; as a result, the 10% get richer while the 90% get poorer, even as aggregate GDP grows.
“almost, uh, uh, I'd say 90% of the economy is in debt to the wealthiest 10%. And as a result, the 10% are getting richer and richer and richer. The 90% are getting poorer and poorer and poorer.”
Brazil and some Latin American nations have recently elected 'pink tide' progressive governments that represent hope for breaking from neoliberal Washington consensus, but India and Pakistan remain trapped in neoliberal policies despite evidence of failure.
“you can think of Brazil and with the pink ties some sort of progressive governments in Latin America you know but places like Pakistan not as much for Bangladesh but not definitely not Pakistan and India at the time.”
The asymmetry of the dollar imperialism system is absolute: the US can purchase any foreign assets it chooses, but prohibits other nations from buying strategically important American companies, demonstrating that financial imperialism operates through double standards that would trigger regime change if reversed.
“America basically would do to other countries what if other countries did that to to America there'd be war and a regime change there.”
The governor of Minnesota, Floyd B. Olson, said he hoped capitalism went right to hell, and the whole Midwest was fairly radical in the 1930s, establishing a regional radical tradition.
“The governor of Minnesota, Floyd B. Olson, said that he hoped capitalism went right to hell. So, I most of the people that I knew or visiting at the house after we moved to Chicago in the 1950s were all left-wingers and it was normal for people to read Marx”
Hudson's father belonged to a militant Trotskyist tradition and was arrested under the Smith Act, and Hudson grew up in Minneapolis, the only city where Trotskyists actually controlled the government and had significant influence in the Teamsters Union.
“I grew up I was born in Minneapolis and that was the only city in the world that the Trotskyists actually controlled and they were very influential in the Teamsters Union, the truckers and the whole Midwest was fairly radical in the 1930s.”
Hudson studied Germanic philology, history, and linguistics at University of Chicago, and also studied at Roosevelt University and DePaul in music, but deliberately avoided business school and reading economics books until entering Wall Street work.
“My degree was in Germanic philology and and history and linguistics most of my studies apart from that were at Roosevelt University and DePaul in music. So it never occurred to me to even read an economics book”
Hudson's work as a balance of payments analyst for Chase Manhattan Bank in the 1960s exposed him to actual financial system operations that were not taught in universities, contrasting with business school economics that assumed a barter economy with no debt or financing.
“I was a balance of payments analyst for Chase Manhattan Bank in the 1960s. And uh the balance of payments was something that was not taught in uh the universities because if uh you have an economic theory that says the whole world works on barter, then there isn't any balance of payments deficit, it's all barter. Uh but we could see that it wasn't.”
Hudson published an article in Columbia Journalism Review on World Bank structural impediments to food production, which gained him support from the Catholic Church because their liberation theology supported land reform.
“I published uh an article uh along those lines uh in a periodical, uh the Columbia Journalism Review here, uh and uh the Catholic Church became one of my uh major uh supporters in the years uh leading up to the uh uh publication of Super-Imperialism in 1972 because uh their liberation theology came out in favor of uh land reform.”
Hudson worked at Hudson Institute (Herman Kahn's national security institute) and discovered that the World Bank's dam-building projects were driven by a World Bank engineer with a childhood bed-wetting problem working out psychological issues, not by rational development planning.
“after I wrote Super Imperialism and went to work with, uh, Herman Kahn's, uh, Hudson Institute, a national security institute, was, uh, there was a lot of question, why is the World Bank funding, uh, so many dams? Well, uh, that are really not that cause a huge, uh, relocation of population and, uh, the electricity, uh, to be, uh, mainly for the export sector. Well, it turned out that what I was told was that the engineer who designed and was pushing the World Bank, uh, dam project had a bed-wetting problem when he was a child. And it's like he was working out this bed-wetting problem by putting dams everywhere.”