Michael Hudson and Dennis Kucinich: The Anatomy of Bank Failures, the Financialized Economy and Collapse

Image by Ross via Flickr

by Michael Hudson
Writer, Dandelion Salad
March 23, 2023

Overview: This was an impromptu conversation precipitated by former Congressman Dennis Kucinich to have a deep dive discussion with a former economic advisor, Michael Hudson, on the shockingly large recent bank collapses. As the former chair of the powerful Government Oversight Subcommittee, Kucinich had a ringside seat in unraveling the bank collapses after the housing bubble burst. He confronted the players in the field with withering questions in Congressional hearings. Now Kucinich wanted important feedback from a banking insider on how this crisis was different than the one in 2008.

Michael Hudson: Why 3 US Banks Collapsed in 1 Week + Why the Banking System is Breaking Up + The Mechanics of a Bond Market and its Impact on the Banking Crisis

Image by Steffi Reichert via Flickr

by Michael Hudson
Writer, Dandelion Salad
March 16, 2023

Geopolitical Economy Report on Mar 14, 2023

Economist Michael Hudson analyzes the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, Silvergate, and Signature Bank, explaining the similarities to the 2008 financial crash.

Inflation, Layoffs, and the $1 Trillion War Budget, by Scott Scheffer

Image by Lynn Friedman via Flickr

Dandelion Salad

by Scott Scheffer
Struggle ★ La Lucha
February 11, 2023

In January, tech companies laid off 97,020 workers, more than double the layoffs in the first month of last year.

Amazon, Microsoft, and Google were responsible for most of the January cuts – 18,000, 10,000, and 12,000, respectively.

Central Banks Are A Symptom, Capitalism Is The Cause, by Pete Dolack

Image by EdFladung via Flickr

by Pete Dolack
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Systemic Disorder, Jan. 5, 2023
January 7, 2023

Wishing for central banks to act in the interest of working people rather than the financial industry is about as fruitful as hoping a starving wolf won’t eat the chicken that was just placed next to it. Pigs will fly, the Amazon will freeze over and Wall Street will give all its money away before a central bank in the capitalist core goes against its raison d’être.

Desperate Central Bankers Grab for More Power by Ellen Brown

Image by Sean Davis via Flickr

by Ellen Brown
Writer, Dandelion Salad
The Web of Debt Blog
September 19, 2019

Conceding that their grip on the economy is slipping, central bankers are proposing a radical economic reset that would shift yet more power from government to themselves.

Central bankers are acknowledging that they are out of ammunition. Mark Carney, the soon-to-be-retiring head of the Bank of England, said in a speech at the annual meeting of central bankers in August in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, “In the longer-term, we need to change the game.” The same point was made by Philipp Hildebrand, former head of the Swiss National Bank, in an August 2019 interview with Bloomberg. “Really there is little if any ammunition left,” he said. “More of the same in terms of monetary policy is unlikely to be an appropriate response if we get into a recession or sharp downturn.”

Trump’s Effective Intimidation of the Powerful Federal Reserve + Big Pharma: Gouges, Casualties, and the Congressional Remedy! by Ralph Nader

Image by killabodhi via Flickr

Dandelion Salad

by Ralph Nader
The Nader Page
August 2, 2019

The Federal Reserve (the Fed) – the United States’ version of a Central Bank – is a strange duck. It is the U.S. government’s most powerful regulatory agency. It, after all, regulates money and interest rates. Yet, its budget comes entirely from the banking industry and relationships with the financial industry. So Congress, which appropriates money for all other federal agencies, has little leverage over the Fed’s operations.

The Coming Savings Meltdown by Michael Hudson

Image by Friends of the Earth International via Flickr

by Michael Hudson
Writer, Dandelion Salad
July 30, 2019

Debts that can’t be paid, won’t be. That point inevitably arrives on the liabilities side of the economy’s balance sheet.

The Bankers’ “Power Revolution”: How the Government Got Shackled by Debt + New Book: Banking on the People by Ellen Brown

Screenshot by Dandelion Salad via Flickr

by Ellen Brown
Writer, Dandelion Salad
The Web of Debt Blog, May 31, 2019
June 2, 2019

This article is excerpted from my new book Banking on the People: Democratizing Money in the Digital Age, available in paperback June 1.

The U.S. federal debt has more than doubled since the 2008 financial crisis, shooting up from $9.4 trillion in mid-2008 to over $22 trillion in April 2019. The debt is never paid off. The government just keeps paying the interest on it, and interest rates are rising.

Why Is the Federal Reserve Paying So Much Interest to Banks? by Ellen Brown

Image by Sean Davis via Flickr

by Ellen Brown
Writer, Dandelion Salad
The Web of Debt Blog
April 4, 2019

“If you invest your tuppence wisely in the bank, safe and sound,
Soon that tuppence safely invested in the bank will compound,

“And you’ll achieve that sense of conquest as your affluence expands
In the hands of the directors who invest as propriety demands.”

— Mary Poppins, 1964