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Lantern Dude's avatar

Well, to channel Nathan, Wow! Thanks once more Karl. You're a fine Tribune. That was a very rewarding read and like you I am eagerly waiting for Mr Hudson's final trilogy book.

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Richard V's avatar

Apart from your extraordinarily informative material on Russia, you have chosen to amplify the very best commentator on economics, Michael Hudson, and the very best commentator on Middle Eastern affairs, Alastair Crooke--and for that I cannot thank you enough.

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Karl Sanchez's avatar

Thanks for your plaudits. We cannot know it all, so we must rely on others to fill the voids we are unable to for whatever reason. And that's how it is with both Hudson and Crooke--we all stand upon the shoulders of others, and that's part of the dialectic. And if you follow what's written in the comments, you'll see there are those trying their utmost to derail our enquires and condemn the truths discovered. That's becoming more commonplace. As we see, there are many Tribunes, but we're disparate. As Hudson and others show, there's a lot of our genuine past that's been twisted into the opposite of what was to promote oligarch hegemony. Their voices demand amplification, and that's what we as Tribunes must do. Yes, we can continue our own pursuits, but it's imperative we also spread the Gospel.

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Davy Ro's avatar

Brilliant article, the transfer of wealth has gained a pace beyond sustainability since 2008. The Greed of the the top. 001% of or societies. Has only grown, year on year. These parasites who produce nothing but misery. Have power far beyond violence. They've brain washed their nations into fear of them. The most brain washed are the army & police. Without their protection the cycle of deceit can't be broken. As we become poorer, our rulers become more authoritarian. They won't stop until we own nothing but we'll be happy...... Where have I heard that before?

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Karl Sanchez's avatar

As Hudson shows, many previous societies were turned into debt peons but industrialization helped to break those chains. But the ancien regime has retooled and is at it again. And another big battle's brewing. Odd that values are at the core of the conflict, or perhaps not.

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Ed's avatar

Hudson discusses GDP and alludes to GDI (he called it cost). Rent in GDP is a problem.

But bigger problems are the share of GDP that is government, which is mostly as unproductive as counting rents in GDP!

Another is services is too big in GDP!

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Ed's avatar

One more observation about GDP. US GDP has huge amounts of government consumption (F-35's are only useful in war! If they work) in GDP raises the problem that imports deliver consumer goods (aka butter and levi jeans) so that slight/tiny industry base is there to convert to war making!

It's been over 45 years since I took courses in economics and a lot has changed.

MMT to me is a religion! Largely ignoring the accounting balance sheet aspects of money and banking where banks always get into trouble. The Federal Reserve still has over $7.13 trillion bucks in assets, the quality/risk of which are suspect!

The trouble with Harris' DNC sponsored platforms.

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Karl Sanchez's avatar

Michael and I have discussed what genuine GDP consists of, and he gave a sketch in the podcast. Lat year I proposed USA's genuine GDP was just over $15 Trillion, not the$25 Trillion that's cited. He didn't disagree. And we've also talked about why that metric doesn't matter. Underlying growing GDP must be lowering costs of living versus rising wages. If your economy isn't delivering those outcomes, your economy isn't working for the majority. Simon Patten was all about that but was sidelined by Big Money. Today's roots are to be found in the 1800s. The ancein regime lives on although it has a different name. The wide scope is somewhat easy to see; it's the smaller points and specific facts that are harder to exhume, although we know they exist. I hope to get an advance copy of Hudson's final trilogy text mainly because I want to know what he's found that I haven't since I want to tell the same tale in my own way.

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Ed's avatar

Thank You,

There is more to the story than we get from the media.

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dornoch altbinhax's avatar

The problem in every neoliberal western country is who gets to define what is wasteful. Almost every aspect of government has been corrupted into outcomes that cause money to flow into private hands. The SMO has shown how Russia is successfully balancing the factors of production without reverting to a "soviet" style central command economy; briefly the same can be said for China. This is what's driving the west's transnational oligarchy bananas. The intermediate product before complete dissolution is fascism in the combined west/satellite states.

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Sutton's avatar

Many, many thanks sir!!

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Jul's avatar

Typo from the automated transcript: "growing up in Odessa and the programs that were done at that time."

Programs = pogroms

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Walt King's avatar

"I also urge readers to support Dr. Hudson by buying his books even though Amazon gets a large cut..."

Is it not possible to find his books or obtain them elsewhere?

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Lantern Dude's avatar

I buy them through my local book shop. I don't know where they get them. If Amazon publish them - although it says ISLET on the inside - maybe it's from them.

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Walt King's avatar

I mean, I never bought from Amazon, wouldn't give them the time of day. In England there was Waterstones, a chainstore with online presence which would order up something for you. Now though for me it's a matter of going over to Hong Kong and that's a lucky dip, see what's new, but I haven't yet tried to order anything there.

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Karl Sanchez's avatar

Dr. Hudson's a known entity within China having traveled there many times and given a whole series of lectures, so I'd think his books would be found in Hong Kong.

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Karl Sanchez's avatar

I try to buy from Alibris, but even Dr. Hudson links to Amazon. We discussed this issue during the last Patreon meeting. ISLET doesn't have a storefront.

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Eric Janzen's avatar

“Mr. Hudson is a fraud”

-Bitcoin

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Karl Sanchez's avatar

You can get sued for slander for slinging that shit. You're very close to becoming the first person I ban.

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Eric Janzen's avatar

“K: Okay, Michael, this next question may get you going, but our new major Patreon supporter Anthony Dimitri says, can Bitcoin play a role in international settlements? If not, what currency can play the role of the dollar in emerging markets, and maybe I should just say, how about blockchain rather than Bitcoin?

M: It’s completely different. Blockchain, you know where the money is. Bitcoin and any cryptocurrency is like a mutual fund where you put the money in, but unlike mutual funds, you have no idea where the money is put. The whole philosophy behind Bitcoins is if you do peer-to-peer, then you can avoid the banking system, which you don’t like. You can avoid the government security system, which people don’t like. It’ll be peer-to-peer. Well, a peer-to-peer is you to the person who’s running, to Bankman-Fried, for instance. He’s your peer. The money doesn’t get put into a bank or a government security. It’s put into his own personal bank account, and he gives it to his friends and politicians or does whatever he wants, and you have no idea of what’s happening to it. That’s the problem, and if you look at Bitcoin going up and down, that is not a stable measure of value. You can see what happened when Ecuador tried to use Bitcoin, so it’s just not suited. It’s rife for criminal activity, and imagine what happens if you lose the special email address that you have to do. Then you’ve lost all of your national reserves. All that happens is the government building blows up, and Bitcoin gets billions of dollars, so no, it’s not an appropriate investment. “

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Greg Eldefonso's avatar

Why is he recommending,

Noah's Arkives

I hope my words sear your soul.

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