The Destiny of Civilization
Finance Capitalism, Industrial Capitalism or Socialism
Hudson, Michael
Publisher: Islet
Year Published: 2022
Pages: 354pp ISBN: 9783949546075
Resource Type: Book
Cx Number: CX24622
The Destiny of Civilization presents an overview of Michael Hudson's geo-political perspective: analysis which integrates economics, history, politics, archaeology and psychology.
Abstract:
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Publisher's Description:
The Destiny of Civilization is based on a lecture series on finance capitalism and the New Cold War that Michael Hudson presented for the Global University for Sustainability. It presents an overview of Michael's unique geo-political perspective: analysis which integrates economics, history, politics, archaeology and psychology.
Most importantly, Michael applies his macro analysis to explain how the world has arrived at this point of fracture, where a financialized and de-industrialized United States is facing off against the mixed-economies of China and Russia.
He emphasises that There Are Alternatives (TAA) to the neoliberal finance capitalism that prevails in the West, and that civilization is today at a fork in the road:
* one path leading to a neoliberal neo-feudalism dominated by a rentier oligarchy ruling over the indebted many.
* the alternative path is broadly mixed-economy industrial capitalism leading to socialism.
Hudson cuts to the big issues, conveying that "The role of government has been inverted away from one which was to protect society from the rentiers, but now sees rentiers protected and even encouraged by government".
The book's scope takes the reader inside the levers of power, spanning several thousand years:
* the origins of money and credit, debt cancellations, and land tenure in the first cities of Ancient Mesopotamia;
* from Classical Greece to Rome's collapse into a Dark Age of feudalism, and the arresting parallels to today;
* the development arc of Britain and the United States as industrial powers, and why classical thinkers expected they would move towards socialism;
* America's strategic use of financial and creditor power after WWI and again after WWII to structure the world economy in its own interests, orchestrating global economic dominance;
* the alternatives to neoliberal finance capitalism, and the policies needed to restrain this underlying rentier dynamic.
The Destiny of Civilization is a book of hope for humanity.
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