Webinar with professor Hudson: financialization is suffocating the economy

Why do we have an economy and politics that push for the financialization of society at the expense of the vast majority?

Michael Hudson showed in our previous webinar how the most wealthy for thousands of years have used debt to conquer property and power; how they have written the rules so that these will benefit themselves, and that they have tried to capture historiography.

Economists’ disregard for debt as an instrument of exploitation even prompted Hudson to undertake his own research about how debt had been handled historically. He found out that:

• Money was invented as a tool for the ruler/government to organize and develop society so important chores were done.
• This was done through double-sided accounting, where credits and liabilities were noted, to know who was owed what.
• Weather, war or anything else could make the debts impossible to pay. Debt relief was then used to save the population from debt slavery and to safeguard an efficient economy.

These conclusions are diametrically opposed to what is taught today:

• That money arose spontaneously to facilitate barter.
• That money is a commodity (e.g. gold).
• That the economy would fail if debts were written off.

This raises questions about the state. What role should the state play in a system based on a correct history of money and debt? What would society look like if we in politics used what the classical economists say about free markets, and how (and by what) value is created?

Come and listen and learn more about how historical myths shape our worldview and today’s politics. Together, we can make the money system democratic and for the benefit of all. Knowledge is power.