Economist Michael Hudson writes on debt, interest, rent extraction, ancient economic history and geopolitics.
HN commenters recommend him on the history of debt and capitalism and cite his Israel essay, though the cited comments mostly link him alongside geopolitical commentators.
This video titled "The Reason Education Sucks" from George Carlin will explain why rent is skyrocketing:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILQepXUhJ98
Here is a quote from that video:
"But there's a reason. There's a reason. There's a reason for this, there's a reason education sucks, and it's the same reason that it will never, ever, ever be fixed. It's never gonna get any better. Don't look for it. Be happy with what you got. Because the owners of this country don't want that. I'm talking about the real owners now, the real owners, the big wealthy business interests that control things and make all the important decisions. Forget the politicians. The politicians are put there to give you the idea that you have freedom of choice. You don't. You have no choice. You have owners. They own you. They own everything. They own all the important land. They own and control the corporations. They've long since bought and paid for the senate, the congress, the state houses, the city halls, they got the judges in their back pockets and they own all the big media companies so they control just about all of the news and information you get to hear. They got you by the balls. They spend billions of dollars every year lobbying, lobbying, to get what they want. Well, we know what they want. They want more for themselves and less for everybody else, but I'll tell you what they don't want: They don't want a population of citizens capable of critical thinking. They don't want well informed,…
> Just because they engaged in debt cancellation doesn't mean they didn't practice usury - quite the opposite, indicates they practiced it quite a bit.
Well that is the whole point! Mesopotamia invented usury, among other long standing contributions, including the Zodiac, and various mod 60 constructs. And that amazing civilization totally collapsed.
Btw, Debt cancellation ("jubiliee") is the cause celebre of the economist I cited in my OP. If you are interested in the topic, Michael Hudson is your man.
https://michael-hudson.com/2018/08/and-forgive-them-their-debts/
> Practically, the anthropological origins of usury prohibitions have very little to do with non-usury markets. Even those groups which you listed practice usury - they simply put those who practice it into secondary (or lower) social groups.
This is a fair point and one never underestimates the hypocrisy of mankind. That said, the point remains that it is interesting that something in the collective memory of the region zeroed in on usury as a "sin".
> The reference to communism attempts isn't a non-sequitor since depending on the particulars of their brand of communism they either want to limit usury to only a national/popular entity or get rid of it entirely.
As CCP has demonstrated, Communism is apparently an extremely plastic concept. /g My objection to your OP was and remains this: removing usury from the political-economy regime does not mean "communism".
> it's worth noting the only surviving…
A very interesting book to to gain a clear understanding: "Killing the Host" by Michael Hudson
http://michael-hudson.com/2015/09/killing-the-host-the-book/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mH8FWrbzxEs
Almost everything Mr. Gatez does is wrong and became a big problem for humanity - Windows, his investments in GMOs and atomic power and US pharma companies that are blackmailing poor countries - with this piece the most important thing he does: justify tax on work as something good. Sure, a few percent of taxes are used for public wealth (good thing!), but the biggest part nowadays is extracted and transformed into profits for rich individuals and companies.
As democratic control of how taxes are used seems to be of no interest for the public, the system that was built for more participation is transformed into a profit-extracting machine for international criminal organizations.
But maybe the robot tax idea can trigger a general discussion about what should be taxed and what not. Please add the book by Mr. Hudson to these discussions.
It's important to not frame this as a US vs Israel thing. Israel is, at best, the last of the Western world's settler colonies, and as such, is serving a purpose, a so-called landed aircraft carrier. [0]
The fact that there is tensions in the government regarding Israel means that the entities that found value in Israel are losing out to those that don't. So-called America-first powers no longer see 1st-tier support of Israel as in the interests of the US.
This will not go well with Zionists, who are still supported by massive backing and financial interests. They will spend a LOT of money to keep Israel the US's "top ally" despite it being no such thing in any meaningful way. Israel is a tool of the Western imperial forces.
The fact that this story is breaking means that Zionism is getting more-and-more toxic to people in power.
[0] https://michael-hudson.com/2023/11/israel-as-a-landed-aircraft-carrier/
Michael Hudson on global economics - https://michael-hudson.com/2022/02/america-defeats-germany-for-the-third-time-in-a-century/
Benjamin Norton on Latin American geopolitics - https://multipolarista.com/
Pepe Escobar has fantastic & entertaining insights on the Eurasia region if you can stomach the occasionally pro-Russian hagiography - his main site (+ other great analysts) is down to DDOS right now - http://thecradle.co/
The difference between these guys and Zeihan, is these guys are actually on the ground (or spent their careers on the ground), whereas Zeihan is a desk jockey that makes pretty charts and ridiculous, baseless extrapolations from them.
I recommend Michael Hudson on the relationship between debt and capitalism. His view is that the danger to the stability of the economy presented by debt is not a feature of capitalism but is very old, but with capitalism comes a nrw unhealthy relationship with debt, where the interests of the creditor are regarded as sacrosanct.
Two links:
His tribute to David Graeber - https://michael-hudson.com/2020/09/vale-david-graeber/
A summary of his book on debt cancellation in bronze-age societies - https://b-ok.global/book/4983733/12aafa?dsource=recommend