De-Dollarizing the American Financial Empire

http://www.unz.com/mhudson/de-dollarizing-the-american-financial-empire/
Date Written:  2019-07-03
Publisher:  The Unz Review
Year Published:  2019
Resource Type:  Article
Cx Number:  CX23725

A long interview with economist Michael Hudson about Trump's plan to lower interest rates.

Abstract: 
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Excerpt:

Michael Hudson: If you’re an investor, you can make more money by dismantling the U.S. economy.... Finance is cosmopolitan, not patriotic. It doesn’t really care where it makes money. Finance goes wherever the rate of return is highest. That’s the dynamic that has been de-industrializing the United States over the past forty years.

Bonnie Faulkner: From what you're saying, it sounds like Donald Trump's policies are leading to doing to the United States what the IMF and World Bank have traditionally done to foreign economies.

Michael Hudson: That's what happens when you devalue. The financial sector will see that interest rates are going down, so the dollar's exchange rate also will decline. Investors will move their money (or will borrow) into euros, gold or Japanese yen or Swiss francs whose exchange rate is expected to rise. So you're offering a financial arbitrage and capital gain for investors who speculate in foreign currencies. You're also hollowing out the economy here, and squeezing real wage levels and living standards.