Dear friends
Today I had the honor and immense pleasure to spend one hour talking to my friend Michael Hudson and I am happy to share this video with you. I have immense respect for Michael, both as an economist and as a friend, and want to clarify this because some trolls have viciously attacked Michael in the comments section and I want to make something abundantly clear: any rude comment addressed to Michael will be sent to trash and its author banned forever. You are totally welcome to disagree with the substance of Michael’s (or my) arguments, but I shall tolerate no ad hominems or snarky comments of any kind.
It is sad that I would have to make such points, but past experience taught me, the hard way, that trolls always pounce on those whose ideas they fear and hate the most.
One more thing: both Michael and myself would REALLY be grateful if somebody could make a transcript of our conversation. If you can help with that, we would both be immensely grateful to you!
That being said, I now leave you to watch the conversation,
Andrei
***
First, here is the YouTube video of our discussion:
and, second, since we never can tell what the woke freaks who run YouTube might decide to do with this video, here is the exact same one on BitChute, just in case…
Always a pleasure to listen to the professor his insights are invaluable!!
I agree that we are watching “Crazy Town.”
Great program. Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan was designed to humiliate China and set up conditions whereby the US recognizes Taiwan as an independent state, an absolute redline for China. Links follow
1) Nancy Pelosi, stay out of Taiwan! By Andre Damon Aug 2, 2022; https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2022/08/02/pers-a02.html
2) Andrei Martyanov; http://smoothiex12.blogspot.com/2022/08/ok-lets-cut-crap.html
Nothing more than a midterm election ploy to sell democrats as being tough on China hoping to bag some votes.
Same as FJB throwing up a section of border wall. All show.
A stunt apparently motivated mainly by Pelosi’s ego. Afterward, today the consequences include China closing Taiwan’s airspace for the next several days as well as the suspension, likely the cancellation of a planned 5 billion dollar factory in California that would have produced Lithium Iron batteries (remember the batteries?) and employed over 10,000 people. And the war is only postponed. Meanwhile Xi is strengthened and so is the position of the PLA within China.
After reading from the site of Andrei Martyanov, I’m not sure I can agree that Xi has been strengthened. As much as I might wish otherwise, I have a feeling that US provocations against China will increase exponentially very quickly. I doubt even two months will pass before the US does something really provocatively, such as having a military exercise with Australia and Japan right off the coast of China, as if to protect Taiwan from China.
https://marketrealist.com/real-estate/why-is-china-buying-us-farmland/
Yeah… tough on China
Whatever the US does to recognize Taiwan will be forgotten in a short time. Remember when the US decided to recognize Hong Kong a couple of years ago during their teenager umbrella protests? Well, I can’t remember what it was and likewise the majority don’t remember or care. Taiwan will be the same.
“humiliate China and set up conditions whereby the US recognizes Taiwan as an independent state”
Taiwan is an independent state for 75 years since their liberation (from Japan 1865-1945), their absurd former position of being the real rulers of China notwithstanding.
Taiwan has its own currency.
Taiwan issues its own passports.
Taiwan government passes its own laws without consulting Beijing,
Taiwan government enters into trade agreements with other nations.
Taiwan is more independent than any country in the EU, or Canada or Mexico.
The “One China” policy of the US and other nations contains the caveat that the people of Taiwan must agree to re-unification.
Sensible, responsible people would advocate for a Crimea type referendum. Unfortunately they are in short supply these days.
75% of Taiwan consistently votes to rejoin china whenever they take polls. From the western perspective, then, a referendum must be avoided
@Matt – it would be great if you can provide your sources.
I recognize that Pew Global Research exists to monitor the effectiveness of US propaganda around the world, but their findings are very different.
https://www.pewresearch.org/global/2020/05/12/in-taiwan-views-of-mainland-china-mostly-negative/
Here are some others:
https://jamestown.org/program/taiwan-opinion-polling-on-unification-with-china/
No. The UN itself has recognized Taiwan as part of China. The US actually wants the contrary of what you claim here; secession of Taiwan from China.
That will not happen.
Another example of China playing GO, and the US/Taiwan, checkers.
Nice shirt Andrei. And very nice conversation. Thanks!
Andrei – The Saker and professor Michael Hudson exchanging views on such complex and interesting matters, Such a pleasure to listen and learn from indeed! I one hundred percent concurr and appreciate.
Terrific program. As many Saker readers are aware, the increasingly reckless and bellicose US foreign policy, coupled with the breakdown of American society, is being driven by the accelerating decline of late-stage American capitalism which has progressed to the point where its very survival is contingent upon endless money printing/debt creation to prop up financial markets and the military. A lasting legacy of Trump’s Presidency is that in 4 short years (2017-2021), he managed to mainstream and normalize fascism in US society. Fascism comes to the fore when capitalism breaks down and used by the ruling elite to protect wealth and property and maintain class relations. Fascism is supported by the financial elite, corporate media and organized religion, such as the Catholic Church. This is what is happening in the US. Expect the worst.
A horse walks into the Oval Office and says to Biden, why the long face?
Excellent observation Paul. That is exactly the role of Fascism
Trump, BoJo, Morrison in Australia, Macron, Duterte, Bolsanaro (& to a lesser extent Modi, re: Kashmir) are all authoritarian populists – the precursor to fascist dictatorship.
See: theauthoritarians.org – a real eye-opener!
The Western world is returning to Nazi Germany 1933.
With the US in technical recession, a spike in interest rates, fuel prices & food prices & an underlying obscene inequality of wealth (47 of the richest own as much as the bottom 60% i.e 198million people in the US) – I think we in the collective West should be bracing for politico-economic collapse over 2023 – 2025.
I’ve said many a time:
– get yourself near a food supply
– harvest your own rainwater &
– generate your own electricity.
You’ve still got time to prepare.
“The Western world is returning to Nazi Germany 1933.”
Um, looking at all the current woke nonsense (debauchery, degradation, censorship and cancel culture, normalization of the immoral, etc) combined with the out of control inflation and total lack of manufacturing capability, the Western World is actually returning to a slightly earlier phase of German history – Weimar.
The Nazis were the kneejerk reaction to that.
Beware what comes after the fall.
“Beware what comes after the fall.” As The Saker has said, the fall already occurred on January 6, 2021. People can be imprisoned without trial. The presidential election of 2020 was fraudulent. People can lose their jobs simply on the basis of their beliefs. True statements can be subject to punishment. Family members are being encouraged to testify against one another. A “social credit” regime is gradually be built up.
In Godzone the State propaganda organ, Radio NZ, is now producing a “special” news bulletin for “the children”, called News to Me, to ensure that all those naughty old parents and grandparents do not subvert the narrative by pointing out that MSM News is pure disinformation.
Uncle Davy,
Most people aren’t going to go full on prepper, so my general reccomendation is for people to:
1) plant fruit trees ( even in front yard )
2) start a veggie garden or even just a window box herb garden ( it takes 5 years of trial and error to get it really going )
3) join a like minded church and participate fully in the community
4) Downsize, Downsize, Downsize
5) Home school kids or grandkids
Agree 100% that collapse is inevitable. The warning signs are all around us. I just hope and pray it’s a peaceful collapse and not some night rider style civil war.
Putting this all on Trump is disingenuous. The rise of the fascist empire has been going on for a very long time. oBOMBa’s legacy of bombings, assassinations, invasions, and coup attempts far exceeds those under both Trump and Bush. Clinton unleashed Wall Street, fostered the monopolization of media, and initiated the plan for ge in Iraq.
The fall of the fascist empire will happen much faster, and hopefully from internal collapse instead of a global nuclear firestorm. But I wouldn’t bet on it with suicidal automatons like Blinken, Sullivan, Kagan, etc. driving the ship of state on behalf of their sponsors.
The quintessential American debating style is to pick one word out of a entire answer or comment – and debate that one word.
If you want to argue intelligently, argue the substantive point.
The western leaders who I flagged are/were stages in a process leading to fascist dictatorship.
Did you look up the reference I gave so you could identify the process and then hopefully defend yourself, and your loved ones, against it? I didn’t think so.
In reality, it begins under Reagan and his trickle down program and using the Fed. as the stock market’s piggy bank and has continued under every president ever since. Under old Bush came the looting of the American worker’s pensions, so they could usher in the 401K program which will prove to be nothing but a scam, the NAFTA well you know the rest I’m sure as people rush to vote for the lessor of the two evils or at least that’s the excuse they give.
Don’t bother arguing with the Bernie Bros. They’re still stuck in the Blue Team vs Red Team false dichotomy. They have one eye open and one closed. They know things are horribly wrong but their answer is to have a communist dictatorship that supports Pride Parades. They’re perfectly fine with bombing nations, forced government medical procedures, political prisoners and all the rest of fascism as long as its committed by Team Blue. Don’t waste your time.
Most interesting political/economic conversation I have heard for quite awhile. The question about Davos
/Wef …that is, what of the idea that Russia China Us EU are all run by same technocrats with same goals is a concept I have heard frequently but am highly skeptical of on many grounds. At any rate these 2 are as qualified to ask and take on these questions as anyone I have heard. I am relatively new to Andrei but have listened to good deal of M Hudson.
What a masterclass, I’m sure I have to watch it at least 2 more times so as not to miss anything. I hope this gets scripted.
Thank you Andrei and Michael. This makes so much more clear.
The Euro was adopted on the 16th of December 1995 and introduced to the financial markets as a currency of exchange on the 1st January 1999 . . . . . . enabling the predatory US financial grifters to seize control of Europe . . . . round up the usual suspects.
A few or a lot of you here on Saker must have observed that in the US 5 Eyes & EU domiciles most of the important Bills-Directives are passed/hurried through Congress/Parliaments during/on or around the period of the ’12 Days of Christmas’ where a normal comatose punch drunk public are even more off their guard/face.
Our True-Love truly gave it to us bigly . . . . . right up where the sun doesn’t shine.
I certainly agree with Dr. Hudson’s economic writings and his analysis that the West, due to its financial stranglehold of the one percent, is going down, and the industrial-minded economies of Russia and China, along with their social vision, are going up. I do not think that Putin is at all a part of Davos, etc. Russia, China have real economies, are opponents of the privatized financial tyrants.
I’ve been saying for some time now that the bellicosity and irrational foreign policy actions like Nancy Pelosi’s mean drunk transcontinental pub crawl are all predicated on the panic BRICS’s imminent success has sown on the West’s mentalscape in that they cannot digest the fact that BRICS is real and gathering such unbelievable steam in such short order.
And to know that so many energy resource-rich nations are wanting in so as to not be left behind and at the mercies of a sullen and sadistic US and its funny money.
The coup de grace is the grand opening enticement offered by the organization (and oh how this must have Xi and Putin guffawing,) … Special attention is being brought to prospective BRICS members that their request to join will not be affected if they default on their debts to the West!
How very, very perfect—and the IMF, World Bank, BIS, Wall Street and City of London have to (or at least have so far) to bear this indignity in silence as the world hurls tomatoes and rotten eggs at them in the public square.
Ah revenge, it”s the sweetest dish served cold.
I was hasty in including the IMF and BIS as ‘targets’ in this paradigm shift, perhaps they are, but a guy who knows a lot more than me (see link) believes that they will try to be part of both the Western system at least as long as there is money to be made, but will revert to the BRICS as soon as the West has significant issues. (That is, if the BRICS members desire to do business with them.
China & Russia Stand Up To the US With New World Reserve Currency (GoldSilver Pros)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fo2DeAPcIEc&list=TLPQMDIwODIwMjJubwk3m7t3AA&index=7
Default is no big deal, Argentina does it all time, reset and go again is their national sport. When the masters of the universe can’t be full spectrum power gods anymore they naturally revert to the lesser money god as a consolation prize. After Argentina screws the screwers the screwers go back in for another round, hope springs eternal. Every self respecting psychopath needs a power God or at least a big money god to worship and be a part of.
I do not think that Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan is motivated by her desire to increase her reelection chances. USA elections are totally fraudulent and therefore she has no need to worry about her reelection chances. Tampering with electronic voting machine software is an art form in California.
35 year San Francisco resident here: Nancy Pelosi has no need to rig voting machines in her district. It is overwhelmingly Democrat and has been for decades. She owns her seat essentially for life.
You’re right about San Francisco, of course. I had meant to refresh to the Democratic Party in general this November. She thought that “standing up to China” would help voters forget about Afghanistan and, more important, the looming obviousness of NATO’s loss in Ukraine.
Pelosi can say, “China is the REAL enemy. And we’ve stood up to it,” and also claim to have drawn a line stopping Russia from walking into Poland and Romania (silly as that is to us realists).
No one is talking about the real reason for Nancy Pelosi’s trip to Formosa: money. Watch what stocks increase in value with the dramatic increase in tension with China and correlate that to the investments of certain establishment politicians. This gives sense to the nonsensical.
But precisely the primaries are going to decide who would be speaker, and it will not be Pelosi if the Republicans have the majority in both the Senate and Congress. Trump and other Republicans had spoken about removing her for obvious reasons. Biden’s half term has not been stellar to say the least. The riots, BLM, Jan 6 persecution, and if too many Americans can’t even raise $400 in an emergency, higher homelessness rate, etc, Dems would need a hefty boost to their chances collectively. They are banking on her outrageous stunt, provoking the dragon.
I agree Anton.
But Hudson did eventually get around to the point when he invoked what the US is expert at doing i.e salami-slicing, i.e. changing the actual conditions on the ground by changing the public’s perceptions.
What Pelosi’s visit is actually about is maintaining the US China-Containment policy via its 1st, 2nd & 3rd Island Chain strategy, see the red lines are strings of military bases: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Island_Chain_Strategy
China on the other hand, is engaged in what is called in the business Sea Denial , understandably its trying to push the US off its East Coast.
Can you imagine the US’s outrage if China’s People’s Liberation Navy sailed up & down 12 miles off the coast of California???
So, the geopolitical reality of the situation is China is seeking to control one corner , the South China Sea of one ocean, the Pacific.
On the other hand, in its 2011 “Pivot to Asia” the US is wanting to command three oceans of the world – the Pacific, Atlantic & Indian oceans.
Pelosi’s provocation was a public relations exercise in salami-slicing.
All of that being said, I still agree with Fred Reed’s take: How Taiwan Will Fall Into Beijing’s Lap, Like an Overripe Mango (July 31, 2021)
Anton: going by the fact that the FBI have now raided Trump’s Mar-A-Lago home unannounced, & took away 15 boxes of documents. Clearly he is seen as a threat to the Dems’ chances at the primaries. Also I think the Repubs would not be complacent about the coming primaries knowing how the last PE was rigged so blatantly. If they did nothing to ensure that electronic voting is sufficiently foolproof, and the mail in ballots too. Otherwise, one has to conclude that the Repubs are largely in it w/the Dems. They all serve the same master(s). If the Repubs are still self-serving or compromised then the USA cannot be salvaged at all given how more egregiously and viciously they are conducting themselves against Americans, eg, Jan 6 protestors, covid mandates, and inhuman(e) treatment of the Afghans and Ukrainians.
Maybe,like in the case of Russia, US wants to make China attack Taiwan and then impose harsh sanctions,among them freezing and then confiscating China’s one trillion in US treasury holdings.Also,she can study how Russia ( China ) is fighting a tough adversary ( fratricide wars ) ,the tactics,the weapons… so the not too distant future big war can be planed and adjusted accordingly.
And China can just stop shipping goods and much needed resources to the US. We are in essence checkmated.
Andrei, it appears that your rest has served you well; you look very good and I was very happy to see it.
Moreover, the talk with Michael Hudson was excellent!
Great interview! Andrei, never saw you before. You have devoted great face-space to your beard. I knew a U.S. Marshal that had a spread like that back in DC in the 90s. You could go to work for them today! Thanks for the Hudson interview, as always, excellent! You’re right, states are breaking away, you mentioned Florida (I’m in New Port Richey 6 months of the year) but pot, of all things, is breaking the Federal chain of control, starting with Colorado leading to Massachusetts. Without a great split. Anyway. Hope you’re well and bring many more of these. You and Andrei Martyanov would be a treasure. Thanks again.
Don’t forget to Stream this on Rumble/Locals and Odysee.
GeoPolitical/CoVID Commentators are getting Banned+Cancelled more frequently.
I’m seeing YouTube becoming a Secondary Destination for the VideoBlogs I usually catch.
I was happy to hit the first YT like on the vid. Great interview, great insights and great analysis. Quality programming like your Pink Floyd interview. Thanks, Andrei!
Ukraine & Taiwan have one single purpose, to thwart all BRI (New Silk Road) & Polar Silk Road… keeping Russia & China bogged down in Foreign adventures & chaos, while simultaneously targeting all the “little” nations involved with either carrots or sticks. The EU just got the “sticks”. The Anglophone (UK-US-Canada-Australia) “strategy” IS Chaos, unpredictability, wars, tension… and hey … it’s working, I’m not hearing anything lately about BRI investments. BRICs is kinda of a nothing burger, so some nations trade in their own currency, they don’t want to change the “system” of banking, the IMF, World Bank, Central Bankers. The US IS in the “business” of crisis making & profits from it. That’s all Taiwan was about… the glorious stock market, Nancy & Company taking a killing b4 ousted in midterms & many will Be retiring & gone… even from the USA. We are got the message that there are “no elections”… it’s a myth, they already know who’s replacing who in Nov.
Thank you Andrei and Michael. Enjoyed every second of it. This discourse helped make sense of all the disconnected bits and pieces of all the chaos going on in the world. Might be time to move to a new state, because I do think it’s going to get that bad. Good feifdom analogy.
Viktor Orban’s speech on July 23rd at the 31st
Balvanyos Summer Free University and Student Camp, perfectly illustrates the three points Andrei mentioned countries want: soveignerity, the ability to choose their own direction, and adherence to international law. https://miniszterelnok.hu/speech-by-prime-minister-viktor-orban-at-the-31st-balvanyos-summer-free-university-and-student-camp/
Well worth the read. Wish we had a focused president like him; one addressing the current problems we face, not just using bandaids as problems arise. Orban has displayed a lot of grit as he has navigated his way through this Ukraine/Russia proxy war conflict.
I just want to clarify a misunderstanding that i hear a lot these days that lot of esteemed people make. By calling certain factions in West as “The Left”.
Well, this is not left-its liberalism or at best “identitarian left” based on playing identity politics. The left is what use surplus value marxist theory i.e essential question of how proceeds of production is to be distributed between labor and capital. That question is nowhere being asked in West. Therefore lets not please call these identitarians, leftists.
Secondly, at least in USA there is no left and right spectrum-even in National election statistics. Its liberal and conservative.
Thirdly, this identitarian politics is extension of Faucoldian conception of “biopolitic”, that is centring the discourses of politics on the body and biological functions, with essential effect to easily side step the question of division of surplus value.
@Xafer
The terms “left” and “right” appeared during the French Revolution of 1789 when members of the National Assembly divided into supporters of the King to the president’s right, and supporters of the Revolution to his left.
In the US it was used by the democratic party, who sit on the left side of the aisle in Congress, but it has ceased to have any connection with socialism or communism, that it once had in Europe. The US Democratic party now supports neocon colonialism and austerity for its workforce and essentially right wing. Germany has the left wing Die Linke party with Sahra Wagenknecht that has been sidelined, and the UK has “New” Labour that is now right wing after PM Tony Blair took control of policy.
Is Russia asking this question then? “The left is what use surplus value marxist theory i.e essential question of how proceeds of production is to be distributed between labor and capital.” Same political systems no use crying about one.
If you try to see the video, the statement is that leftists in west…..
I am trying to rectify that it is not correct. There is no left right spectrum. The question of what is happening in Russia is really interesting but not relevant here. Stop classifying identitarianism as leftist, in west or east or anywhere.
The fact is everything is measured in comparison to something else, if the spectrum doesn’t exist anywhere then only thing you are showing is prejudice and bias towards the West?
Paul Edward Gottfried – The Strange Death of Marxism_ The European Left in the New Millennium
Maybe this book will help you understand. Available freely here at libgen:
https://libgen.is/search.php?req=Paul+Edward+Gottfried+-+The+Strange+Death+of+Marxism_+The+European+Left+in+the+New+Millennium&lg_topic=libgen&open=0&view=simple&res=25&phrase=1&column=def
Samuel T. Harris also makes the same point in Leviathan and its enemies. And both these guys have been arch philosophers of modern paleo conservative movement.
Saker, YouTube can automatically transcribe your video using the Auto-sync feature. Once transcribed, they encourage creators to edit the transcript, since the wording generated is not always precise.
You talked about crazy leaders and the co-opted left in Europe. I think this is a perfect example of this insanity https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/germany-vows-will-help-taiwan-if-china-attacks-while-russia-blasts-purely-provocative
The only way to change the political system in the USA and the UK is NOT to vote either Republican OR Democrats/.the Conservatives or the Labour Party.
Third parties have to start at the local level where they have sufficient finances to campaign face to face. If you look at how the SNP took over Scotland (they are now the Establishment), it started by electing local councillors.
New Parties need to show capability on a local level before being entrusted with national repsonsibilities.
The reality is there is no way to change the political system in the UK or US given their <electoral process.
The billionaire oligarchs have inserted themselves above political authority i.e. the will of the people.
This was proven comprehensively in 2014:
Testing Theories of American Politics:Elites, Interest Groups, and Average Citizens Martin Gilens & Benjamin Page
https://scholar.princeton.edu/sites/default/files/mgilens/files/gilens_and_page_2014_-testing_theories_of_american_politics.doc.pdf
Agreed – the most powerful statement one can make is NOT voting. Voting implies you consent to be governed by the winner of the election.
Withhold your consent.
Excellent discussion. Thank you.
Yes, send the trolls back to tom clancy books!
The energy consumption and real economy production shift from west to Global South is underlining how the old and tired Bretton Woods system has died out. There has been large scale energy consumpion 150-200% growth in Global South while ~10% shrinking in west since 2006. Energy efficiency explanation is mostly propaganda trying to hide the demise of western production. Working class is largely only group of people realising it. They are muted.
The Saker had a question on popular will and Michael replied There is no vehicle to express the popular will. This challenged is Sweden where a new party will offer to only have this function.
https://knapptryckarna.se
will create on-line referendums on major issues and vote accordingly in parliament. The party has no agenda or program of its own.
It’s useful once again to remember what Chinese observer, Qiao Liang, author of Unrestricted Warfare (1999), in 2015 identified the germ of the US general economic disease in the neoliberal shift from productive to financial investment:
“This financial economy (using money to make money) is much easier than the real (industry-based) economy. Why will it bother with manufacturing industries that have only low value-adding capabilities? Since August 15, 1971, the U.S. has gradually stopped its real economy and moved into a virtual economy. It has become an ‘empty’ economy state. Today’s U.S. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has reached US$18 trillion, but only $5 trillion is from the real economy.”
So only 27% of US GDP in 2015 was based of real economy and 77% based on fake virtual economy. That’s the reason why middle class in US truly is wondering why their children now will have grim future especially if trying to get better education and pay debts. Middle class has been destroyed.
It’s easier to make 30 million dollars in real estate business than in real economy factory business.
@Frankie: “So only 27% of US GDP in 2015 was based of real economy and 73% based on fake virtual economy.”
The real economy share of Britain’s GDP might be actually lower than that of United States of America. Value added industrial production had 9,7% share of GDP just before corona virus pandemic and US has relatively bigger share of GDP with mining, agriculture and energy production. It won’t surprise me at all if just around 20% of British GDP is based on real economy.
Comparing energy consumption reveals that UK consumed energy much less than France and just little bit over 50% of Germany’s consumption (population almost 70 million vs 84 million of Germany) . Gail Tverberg has studied and found very strong correlation between energy consumption and GDP PPP. Andrei Martyanov has several times ridiculed whole nominal GDP narrative. I do agree. For instance over 50% of Ireland’s even purchasing power GDP figures is fake (= multinational corporations showing their sale figures in Ireland while nothing to do with Irish economy itself, actually Irish people on average had 5% lower purchasing power than average EU people).
Of course, there is every chance Hugo Chavez might not have been speaking metaphorically at the UN when referring to the stench of sulphur still lingering from the presence of the US and Bush at the podium the previous day
What people don’t realise about Americans is that they are dealing with people who have a very tenuous grip on reality.
Often it’s too simplistic just to dismiss them as liars.
They are not playing with a full deck, they are a few sandwiches short of a picnic.
They are Walter Mittys.
They believe objective reality is whatever they would wish it to be.
Look at the fairy stories that were spun about Private Jessica Lynch in Iraq.
Or the distorted account of history in the Hollywood film U570.
Dealing with Americans is a job for psychiatrists.
paul@:”What people don’t realise about Americans is that they are dealing with people who have a very tenuous grip on reality.”
Until 2014 i was foolishly thinking that European leaders were “more realistic”. Now we are witnessing they are at least as far from reality than their American counterparts. Unlike Americans these European leaders are also unbelievable dogmatic useful idiots. European policy makers have actually gone down faster than Americans.
True.
There’s a massively undiagnosed mental health problem in the US. As Carl Jung predicted all those years ago:
https://paper.li/CarlJungStudies/1364354208?edition_id=185982a0-1201-11ed-9961-fa163e6ccaff
Andrei, thank you on this interview it was very enjoyable and informative!
Palms together, Andre the Saker, this was a wonderful presentation of ideas from both you and Professor Hudson, who I now must identify as ‘futurist’ Michael Hudson.
I recall from a previous interview that Professor Hudson identified Russia as ‘industrialist’ rather than neoliberal. For me, I cannot separate neoliberalism from finance capital and globalism, and their intendant privatization and corruption. I don’t believe there is any way that Russia could have sustained this war, not just militarily, but industrially and economically, if run by a neoliberal government. Perhaps this is because I admire the way Russia has stood up to the neoliberal power of the unipolar hegemony, and I detest the neoliberal imperialism of the West.
I wish I could agree with the idea that the military are realists. The US military has been riddled with people like Lyman Lemnitzer, Leslie Groves, George Marshall and others who seriously overestimated US capabilities and actively planned for serious false flags or nuclear first strike, Which remains the core tenet of US war fighting doctrine.
In addition, many who gravitate towards military careers are Dominionist Christians who believe in the coming Armageddon and wish for it, thinking they’ll be one of the select few to be beamed up to heaven.
Point being, there are a lot of crazy people in the military, too, as well as careerists/opportunists who leave their consciences and better judgment at the door of the politicians, and don’t worry about the consequences. Hence, the provocative naval exercises such as the USS Ronald Reagan that accompanied Nancy Pelosi’s Ego Trip.
Nice that the Saker has lost his horrible American accent and is now speaking civilized English. Kudos. Not so nice to hear that the US can never regain its industrialization again, that means, as many say, that the US couldn’t exist were it not for the “private” central banks around the globe all promoting the US dollar and so maintaining the US dollar’s global reserve status. But how to break the strangle hold the “private” central banks have on the world, almost every single country out there has a “private” central bank, and the US military, while not good enough to take on Russia or China, can definitely take on those countries, especially in South America and Africa, to maintain the “privately” owned central banks there.
I think the US military regardless of who owns what bank will be hesitant to provoke another incursion on a foreign soil. I’ve read from other sources backing up what they talked about that our military is a shambles. Another big problem I see with that is the new mindset of the now aware and resisting countries to US hegemony. Countries are boycotting US sponsored talks and joining new non aligned US groups. Biden’s meeting with heads of state are yielding no results, ie, the gas/oil situation. The US knows the world is shifting away from its power. Look at Pelosi’s trip, it was all posturing because the US military, I hope, knows they cannot take on China in any real world capacity. Is the why behind that truly to garner votes from CA in the upcoming election or is there something more?
“Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Ltd. (CATL), the biggest battery maker for electric vehicles and a supplier of Tesla, among others, is postponing the announcement of a multi-billion investment in North America as the U.S.-Chinese relations further soured with the visit of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan.
CATL was prepared to announce plans for an EV battery manufacturing site in North America, but has now delayed that announcement, sources with knowledge of the developments have told Bloomberg.
After days of speculation, the U.S. House Speaker did visit Taiwan on Tuesday in the highest-level U.S. visit to Taiwan in 25 years. China, which claims Taiwan, slammed the visit, saying that “It has a severe impact on the political foundation of China-U.S. relations, and seriously infringes upon China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. It gravely undermines peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait, and sends a seriously wrong signal to the separatist forces for “Taiwan independence”.
“China firmly opposes and sternly condemns this, and has made serious démarche and strong protest to the United States,” the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Tuesday.
Following the new low in U.S.-China relations, CATL is now reportedly holding off on the announcement. CATL is headquartered in Fujian, across the Taiwan Strait from the island.”
https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/Chinese-Top-Battery-Maker-Halts-N-American-Plans-After-Pelosi-Visit-To-Taiwan.html
It is great to see you back!
Dr. Hudson has some wonderful insights. It is disappointing when he draws inferences from a misunderstanding of the facts. Thank you for pointing out that SCOTUS’s Dobbs decision did not ban abortion, but rather handed the issue to the states. Yesterday, Kansas voters rejected abortion controls and upheld the Kansas Supreme Court’s 2019 ruling that found a right to abortion in the Kansas Constitution’s “Bill of Rights” (1859), which derives from Jefferson’s 1776 Declaration of Independence:
“All men are possessed of
equal and inalienable natural rights, among which
are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”
One may conclude that the USSC expected this type of outcome as much as it expected some states to restrict abortion.
On Professor Hudson’s interpretation of the USSC’s decision regarding the EPA, the court took a constitution-upholding step against the “Chevron Doctrine”, imposed by an earlier court, that granted broad deference to unelected Executive Branch bureaucrats’ regulation-making, by ruling that the Congress must author statutes on matters of vital importance to the nation; where Congress waffles, it is not the purview of the bureaucracy to substitute its judgment for Congress’s.
Thank you for clarifying these decisions. The good professor called both decisions wrong. Also, the founders, who were mostly slave owners, nevertheless, proclaimed in principle that all men are created equal and thereby all but guaranteed that slavery would ultimately have to be abolished. In fact, the U.S. and Great Brittian were actually the first nations in the world to abolish slavery which had existed for millennia.
gT: “Not so nice to hear that the US can never regain its industrialization again”
US is not alone. Same has happened in Europe and partly in Japan. South Korea at least during last 15 years (2006-2021) has had growing industry. Energy consumption figures (growth +31% from 2006 to 2021)are underlining it too. While population growth was over 10% in USA its energy consumption decreased -3%. In UK the decrese of energy consumption was – 26%. In EU the average decline of energy consumption was – 12% and in Japan – 21%. On the other hand growth was +11% in Russia, +56% in Pakistan, +60% in Iran, +90% in China, +103% in India, +236% in Etiopia, +254% in Vietnam and +870% in Laos.
According Gail Tverberg energy consumpion decline might have been even bigger in west and Japan if following studies of IEA and not generous figures by British Petrolium (BP) mentioned above.
The decision to de-industrialize the ‘collective West’ was made in the 1970’s in the Lima Agreement (1975)
See if you can find it on the UN.org website
Just another indication of how far in advance the Elites plan changes to the global economy i.e. production, distribution & exchange.
Most people are hoi polloi. They want to have somewhere to live, something to eat, know their kids are ok, get to a doctor without going broke, not have to look over their shoulder all the time for danger, have a good time when they want to and do all that with as little stress as possible. And most are decent, they don’t want to hurt others to live happy. That’s the bulk of people. They don’t want to figure out how to rule the world and join the right club to do so. They will tolerate the system they find themself in because they don’t want any personal consequences for kicking it in the balls, which is really all they know how to do, they’re not socioeconomic system brain surgeons. When the hoi polloi feel that things are so bad that giving a little kick is worth the risk, they’ll kick, like when they dump a tractor load of manure on some political whores doorstep. That’s when things change, not necessarily for the better. It’s sensible to understand that it’s every man for himself, in an enlightened self interest sort of way. Dance through the systems to look after yourself and yours, help the guy next to you if you can and if you feel he deserves a hand, listen to everybody and keep your bullshit filter in full working order. Extract what you need from the mess without stepping on anyone’s neck. Of course if you’re a hoi polloi like most folks are, you’re a follower and you just have to endure all the crap until it’s time to join the collective kick. Then somebody ambitious and creative will pick up the pieces and assemble a new, and hopefully better, hoi polloi dollyhouse.
The White House is playing the War of Optics. In this arena, short term gains are all that matters.
Pelosi came and went as she pleased. China did nothing immediately.
That is all that will be reported on. Even though the truth lies elsewhere. And China will/may strike back in a manner that the USA will not like.
The US public has been brainwashed and befuddled for so long. Manipulation is easy. By the time they wake up, new crises will be invented.
Does anybody remember Animal House? Pelosi reminds me of the vain horse—Mollie? Millie? who left the Animal Rebellion where the brave pigs led by Snowball tried to give the animals a better life.
Napoleon, a bigger more aggressive pig wiped out the peaceful rebellion.
Everybody here probably understands who Snowball and Napoleon are in this amazing novel.
Animal Farm.
Animal House is a comedy film about a fraternity on probation at a small eastern U.S. college in the early 1960’s.
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
I hope The Saker can get out more and get a bit of sunshine. He looks very pale, and that cannot be good for health.
My humble suggestion only, as I do not know the gentleman personally. But I think we all wish him well.
One example more to underline the demise of Ukrainian economy: 2006-2021 energy consumption declined staggering 45%.
I don’t think the abuses of capitalism warrant a change to socialism, that is easily abused as well as we have seen and with more terrible consequences. I knw people love to bash Trump but his policies are a great in between the extreme approaches by building back the work class, infrastructure and industrial capacity of this country.
@Michael
Trump is a right wing authoritarian in thrall to Israel, and did nothing to improve the plight of the homeless and impoverished in the US.
In fact the Republican party and the Democratic party are more or less the same with regard to domestic policies, it is just a question of style. Trump is a carnival barker and Biden reads his instructions from Goldman Sachs and Black Rock from the teleprompter in the White House. The Trump Tariffs on imported goods from China just raised the cost of living for US consumers.
You should also consider the difference between Industrial capitalism and Financial capitalism as so clearly explained by Dr. Michael Hudson, before you condemn socialism. I would recommend the article written in 1949 by Albert Einstein “Why Socialism” not to be confused with communism.
It is always gratifying and edifying to listen to and read the works of Professor Michael Hudson since he has great theoretical insight due to his knowledge of the works of Marx (Capital, Theories of Surplus Value), and also deep practical knowledge of finance capitalism which he acquired by working at Wall Street.
The Saker mentioned “1000 years” of imperialism.” However, technically, imperialism belongs to the capitalist epoch. In “Imperialism, the Highest Phase of Capitalism,” Lenin defines imperialism as follows:
“ 1) the concentration of production and capital has developed to such a high stage that it has created monopolies which play a decisive role in economic life; (2) the merging of bank capital with industrial capital, and the creation, on the basis of this “finance capital,” of a financial oligarchy; (3) the export of capital as distinguished from the export of commodities acquires exceptional importance; (4) the formation of international monopolist capitalist associations which share the world among themselves and (5) the territorial division of the whole world among the biggest capitalist powers is completed. Imperialism is capitalism at that stage of development at which the dominance of monopolies and finance capital is established; in which the export of capital has acquired pronounced importance; in which the division of the world among the international trusts has begun, in which the division of all territories of the globe among the biggest capitalist powers has been completed.”
The Crusades started in 1095 after the Great Schism of 1057.
The Vatican has been trying to reel back in the (Eastern) Orthodox Church, (and more recently the Protestant Reformation) as it sees itself as [quote] “God’s Church”. In other words, there can be no alternative.
The Vatican is as every bit a geopolitical player as the 1 sq. mile of bankers’ head offices, the City of London & the Pentagon.
Destroy Europe to help it rebuild itself and, why not a new Marshall Plan, a bit like after 1945.
Saker ( Andrei ) a true light in this dark world. You have this gift of being the best education teacher based on the truth, ever existed since Christ:
I pray that our Most high, Heavenly Father preserves a place in paradise with eternal life for you…. God bless you Sir
Another fascinating interview with Mr. Hudson. It shows how fanatical and stupid the establishment is. Mr. Hudson should be on MSM, WSJ and NYT.
But, not sure I agree with him regarding the recent Dobbs decision.
My understanding is that the decision to grant the right to abortion resides in Congress (or individual states), not the Constitution. Namely, that the point of the Constitution is to *limit* the powers of the federal govt, not expand them.
Although I don’t see why there couldn’t be an amendment to the Constitution granting this right.
Taffy
I am in a wait an see mode on the Taiwan thing.
I think there are a whole bunch of cards to be played on both sides of the game.
Two often we think in term of hours and days when we should be thinking of weeks and months.
Sorry folks, but the game is afoot and there is a lot of time still on the clock
comment fully removed
This account is for support, use your account for comment posting … herb
When you watch on Youtube it can generate a transcript for you.
Instructions for getting Youtube transcripts.
https://www.howtogeek.com/793947/how-to-get-the-transcript-of-a-youtube-video/
A very good interview and I agree with Mr. Hudson’s conclusion that the western world is falling into an oligarchy run by the super rich who control the multinational corporations that will control everything.
It was a bit surprising though how wrong he was about the recent Supreme Court decisions. The Saker quickly corrected him that abortion was not banned but the people in each state get to vote on the rules for abortion in their state. For example, in NY a woman can still have an abortion in the third trimester. The other court decision, West Virginia v. EPA, does not say that the federal government cannot make laws about climate change. In fact it states the opposite, that the legislative branch of government (Congress) must pass a law to that effect rather than having bureaucrats in the executive branch make up their own rules and regulations.
Finally, its sad to see that so many commenters did not understand what Mr. Hudson and The Saker were saying. What is happening now in the West is that it is being consumed by an oligarchy trying to maintain colonialism for finance capitalism where the 1% make money by exploiting the 99%. It is not fascism, populism or nationalism that is destroying the West. Both Xi and Putin are very much nationalists and you could also consider Putin a populist at this point. Rather, it is the 1% oligarchy of bankers and the WEF and CEOs and Boards of Directors for huge global companies that are raping the West for their own personal gain. They are not nationalists or for any nation. They are only for their own financial interests. They do not believe in any natural social hierarchy other than the belief that they are better than the 99% regardless of whether the 99% are white, black, Asian, muslim, christian or any other category.
Claiming that the West is falling to fascism is ridiculous. The West is being subjugated and devoured by a small oligarchy. Now, you may get fascism out of this or you may get communism or maybe just an insane tyrant or maybe you get lucky and have a government that rules for the benefit of the people. But right now, the West is controlled by an oligarchy, not fascists.
Brilliant, as usual…
Andrei corrected Michael on the assertion that the SC had banned abortion when they had simply removed an assertion of a right to abortion that wasn’t supported by the constitution. Ironing out a flaw. Abortion isn’t a ‘right’ anywhere else but abortions happen in the same way hip replacements do. One can infer that the federal government cannot re-establish it by fiat and neither can the states because it isn’t in the Constitution. Simple. Responsibility has gone back to the states who cannot establish a right either. If some have introduced a ban that is a matter for that state’s voters and is not a federal matter because as above. All this seems wilfully understood even by great minds like Michael it seems. I admire this excellent balance mechanism between states and federal level from afar.
Anyway, my main point was to ask how Michael got from state v fed on medicine to a concern that the federal government was weakened in its economic or foreign policy by the states having some veto on it. That worries me as aside from not seeing how the government is restricted in its foreign escapades, the things that the states have resisted often look like overreach and so it is actually working fine. The argument somehow launched from the abortion issue that federal government isn’t able to create and carry out policy because the states block it eludes me I’m afraid.
But otherwise a really good conversation. Thankyou.
@Ataraxian
A case in point with regard to states vs federal government, is the issue of legislation concerning the minimum wage. The federally mandated minimum wage has been stuck at $7.25 per hour since the George W. Bush Presidency from 2001 to 2009 despite significant increases in the cost of living. President Obama ignored the problem, but many state governors increased it. Governor Andrew Cuomo raised the New York State minimum wage to $15 per hour in 2021.
Most interesting.
I can not understand how we try to understand what is going on, without taking into account that Western governments are commited to agenda 2030 which says that we will own nothing and we will be happy, and that this agenda presupposes the destruction of existing economy, and that this is in fact what they are doing.
Regarding Taiwan, a simple way to describe what the Americans are doing is this:
America is using Taiwan as a stick to poke and provoke China.
This is similar to how America is using Ukraine as a stick to poke and provoke Russia.
The USA has certain fundamental stratagems that it will deploy again and again.
Recognize them, and all the American lies that are utilized to justify these stratagems unravel.
There’s a new study out that tries to take account if what would happen to the oceans after a nuclear war. If mass extinction of human and animal life by nuclear winter and nuclear famine would not be enough, there would be a little ice age to follow after the big war. The new sea ice would persist for some time.
Links follow with some excerpts.
Nuclear War Would Force Earth Into ‘Little Ice Age,’ Study Shows
ByAlex Millson
July 7, 2022, 5:00 AM PDT
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-07-07/what-would-happen-in-nuclear-war-global-little-ice-age-simulations-show
“A fresh study on the global impact of a nuclear war has concluded that any conflict would plunge the world into darkness, cause temperatures to plummet and wipe out much of the world’s sea life.
Researchers at Louisiana State University ran multiple computer simulations to assess the impact of global and regional nuclear conflicts on the world’s oceans. They found that in all scenarios, firestorms would release soot and smoke into the upper atmosphere, blocking out the sun and forcing temperatures to fall by an average 13 degrees Fahrenheit in the first month.
That, in turn, would cause ocean temperatures to fall and sea ice to expand by more than six million square miles, blocking major ports including China’s Tianjin, Copenhagen and St. Petersburg. Researchers said changes to Arctic sea ice would likely last thousands of years, describing the event as a “nuclear little ice age.”
The study comes after the specter of nuclear war was raised following Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warning in April that there was a “serious” risk of nuclear war.
Lead author, assistant professor Cheryl Harrison, said: “It doesn’t matter who is bombing whom. It can be India and Pakistan or NATO and Russia. Once the smoke is released into the upper atmosphere it spreads globally and affects everyone.”
The simulations examined what would happen to the Earth if the US and Russia dropped 4,400 100-kiloton bombs on cities and industrial areas, and, separately, if 500 of the same-sized weapons were detonated in an India-Pakistan conflict.
In the largest scenario, ocean recovery would likely take decades at the surface, and hundreds of years at depth.”
=========
Study is here:
AGU Advances: A New Ocean State After Nuclear War
AGU ADVANCESJuly 11, 2022
If nuclear arsenals were used accidentally or intentionally, they would produce dire consequences for all life on Earth. The study simulated climate impacts of nuclear wars in a global Earth system model, focusing on marine impacts. The study simulated a US-Russia war and several India-Pakistan wars. In all scenarios, firestorms from nuclear war would deliver soot to the upper atmosphere, blocking out the sun and causing global cooling. Impacts of the nuclear cooling event include expansion of sea ice into populated coastal areas and decimation of ocean marine life.
https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2021AV000610
1/3 of CA is Chinese?
and that’s within the first minute.
bogdan, I am English, and have been invited to California, but didn’t go. I think Californian and English Cultures are very similar, particularly with regards to music…
I think Michael Hudson, who was born in 1939, said that deliberately. 1/3 of California has adopted some of the policies of the Chinese Communist Party
California was doing much better in 1969
“Jimmy Page and Robert Plant wrote this song, drawing inspiration from Joni Mitchell, specifically her song “California.”
” Robert Plant – Going To California (Live)
977,270 views 24 Apr 2017″
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6sTIk4ldCQ
He has got better with age too.
Tony
Those powers NOT directly given to the Federal Government are reserved for the states and the people. Abortion is a stupid form of birth control. If a state and its people wish to be stupid, then the act itself will be limiting. Having brain dead Biden and his psychopaths Fauci and Birx dictate a kill shot to cull the population has to be resisted just like central control of abortion. If a state mandates a kill shot, again the people will either die or rise up against the state government.
Good to see The Saker, looking and speaking so well. I remember him from nearly 10 years ago, doing the occasional podcast, and very occasionally posting a photo of himself, wife and kids.
Sometimes, its good to take 6 months off, particularly when its a high pressure job.
Thank You for your blog.
Good Man,
Tony
Nuclear War has been the only option for several months now. All of our conventional are being blown up by Russia so the only option is Nuclear. This has been obvious for a few months. Russia fires missiles faster than we can make them so all that is left are Nuclear Weapons, this on the 77th anniversary of Hiroshima. The Wolfowitz Doctrine demands American control of Eurasia, but that is impossible so all that is left is to blow up the Planet because we can’t win a War against China. I learned all of this from Halford Mackinder and Alfred McCoy. Playing Risk during the ‘60s helped as well. It’s game over and President Putin won’t sit around and let that happen. He will “Strike first and strike hard.”
Saker-Hudson the most, the best dialogue and learning experience I’ve had in memory, and I have had a lot of learning experiences.
Thank you so much for sharing your knowledgde and wisdom.
Saker recalling your review of my Russia book.
Abrazos en solidaridad,
Ron Ridenour
Excellent video, however I do wish someone would explain why the EU is willing to commit
economic suicide just to support the U$ in it’s childishness. If it has been discussed, I have
missed it.
I guess I’m a little late — here’s my transcript
http://www.proudprimate.com/resources/Sakr-Hudson.pdf
nice to see your face for a change.