Michael Hudson Quotes - Page 4

Quotes about:

• Deflation means a slowdown of income growth. Markets shrink, new capital investment and employment also taper off, so wages decline. That is what's happening as deliberate policy in Europe and the United States. Falling or stagnant prices are simply the result of having less income to spend.

  Michael Hudson

  Fall, Mean, Europe

  Source: www.counterpunch.org

  8 Copy quote

• As you have to pay more interest and amortization on what you owe, you're left with less and less money to buy goods and services - unless you borrow even more and go further into debt.

  Michael Hudson

  Debt, Pay, Interest

  Source: www.counterpunch.org

  4 Copy quote

• Basically, unless you're willing to write down debts and save the economy, you're going to have deflation and a steady drain in purchasing power - that is, shrinking markets.

  Michael Hudson

  Writing, Shrinking, Debt

  Source: www.counterpunch.org

  4 Copy quote

• Inflation usually helps the economy at large, but not the 1% if wages rise. So the 1% says that it is terrible.

  Michael Hudson

  Wages, Helping, Economy

  Source: www.counterpunch.org

  4 Copy quote

• If the economy is growing, people want to employ more workers. If you hire more labor, wages go up.

  Michael Hudson

  People, Wages, Growing

  Source: www.counterpunch.org

  4 Copy quote

• Now, suppose that a homeowner puts down only 3% of their own money or 3.5% for the FHA. That means if prices go down by only 3%, the house will be in negative equity and it would pay the homeowner just to walk away and say, "The house now is worth less than the mortgage I owe. I think I'm just going to move out and buy a cheaper house." So it's very risky when you have only a 3% or 3.5% equity for the loan. The bank really isn't left with much cushion as collateral.

  Michael Hudson

  Moving, Mean, Thinking

  Source: www.counterpunch.org

  4 Copy quote

• The real estate interests and banks are in a kind of symbiosis. They're the largest-growing part of the economy. This is the sector that backs the political campaigns of senators, presidents and congressmen, and they use this leverage to make sure that their people dominate the Federal Reserve, Treasury and the federal housing agencies.

  Michael Hudson

  Real, Agency, People

  Source: www.counterpunch.org

  4 Copy quote

• If bankers can push the loans and make more profits for the bank, they get paid higher bonuses. They often also get stock options. If the bank goes under, they get to keep all of these salaries and options - and the government will bail out the bank. These guys will take their money and run, which is pretty much what they're doing now.

  Michael Hudson

  Running, Government, Guy

  Source: www.counterpunch.org

  4 Copy quote

• Just like a house is worth whatever a bank's going to lend against it, an education is worth whatever the bank is going to lend the student to pay the university. So the availability of government-guaranteed student loans has vastly inflated the cost of education, just like it's inflated the cost of housing.

  Michael Hudson

  Government, Availability, House

  Source: www.counterpunch.org

  4 Copy quote

• In housing you have jingle mail and you can walk away and leave the bank holding the bag. In the case of student loans, the debt follows you through life, and the banks or government will turn it over to collection agencies that are not very nice people and can do all sorts of harassing things to you. It's becoming a nightmare.

  Michael Hudson

  Nice, Agency, Government

  Source: www.counterpunch.org

  4 Copy quote

• Education is something that should not be organized on a for-profit basis, because in that case its purpose is not really to provide an education. It's not to teach students how to get better work, but how to provide banks with a free giveaway opportunity from the government, by making junk loans that are defaulted on. The effect may be to wreck the futures of the graduates that fall for the false promises that are being made.

  Michael Hudson

  Fall, Opportunity, Government

  Source: www.counterpunch.org

  4 Copy quote

• That's the problem with the financial sector. Banks and the financial sector live in the short run, not the long run. In principle the government is supposed to make regulations that help the economy over time. But once it's taken over by the financial sector, the government lives in the short run too.

  Michael Hudson

  Running, Taken, Government

  Source: www.counterpunch.org

  4 Copy quote

• The other dynamic keeping the stock market up - both for technology stocks and others - is that companies are using a lot of their income for stock buybacks and to pay out higher dividends, not make new investment,. So to the extent that companies use financial engineering rather than industrial engineering to increase the price of their stock you're going to have a bubble. But it's not considered a bubble, because the government is behind it, and it hasn't burst yet.

  Michael Hudson

  Technology, Government, Engineering

  Source: www.counterpunch.org

  4 Copy quote

• I think something like three-quarters of American currency is held abroad, by drug dealers, by tax evaders, Russians and Chinese. Other people think that they want to protect themselves against their own currency going down. When you have 75% of the currency and even more of the high-denomination $100 bills held abroad, you wonder whether these are people we really want to pay. If you get rid of the $100 bills, its foreign holders will be the main losers.

  Michael Hudson

  Thinking, People, Drug

  Source: www.counterpunch.org

  4 Copy quote

• When I say the economy is shrinking, it's the economy of the 99%, the people who have to work for a living and depend on earning money for what they can spend. The 1% makes its money basically by lending out their money to the 99%, on charging interest and speculating. So the stock market's doubled, the bond market's gone way up, and the 1% are earning more money than ever before, but the 99% are not. They're having to pay the 1%.

  Michael Hudson

  People, Shrinking, Gone

  Source: www.counterpunch.org

  4 Copy quote

• The economy is being run primarily by the banks for their own interest.

  Michael Hudson

  Running, Economy, Interest

  Source: www.counterpunch.org

  4 Copy quote

• Throughout history, the only way of restoring stability is to write down the debts. That is treated now as if it's something that can't be done. But it's the only thing that's going to revive the economy.

  Michael Hudson

  Writing, Done, Debt

  Source: www.counterpunch.org

  4 Copy quote

• People think of a business cycle, which is a boom followed by a recession and then automatic stabilizers revive the economy. But this time we can't revive. The reason is that every recovery since 1945 has begun with a higher, and higher level of debt. The debt is so high now, that since 2008 we've been in what I call, debt deflation.

  Michael Hudson

  Recovery, Thinking, People

  Source: www.counterpunch.org

  4 Copy quote

• In fact, there's no way that banks can be paid everything that they're owed.

  Michael Hudson

  Way, Facts, Paid

  Source: www.counterpunch.org

  4 Copy quote

• We're at the end of long cycle that began in 1945, loading the economy with debt. We're not going to be able to get out of it until you write down the debts. But that's what the IMF believes is unthinkable. It can't say that, because it's supposed to represent the interest of the banks.

  Michael Hudson

  Believe, Writing, Long

  Source: www.counterpunch.org

  4 Copy quote

• There really isn't a recovery, and no signs of it on the horizon, because people have to pay the banks. It's a vicious circle - or rather, a downward spiral.

  Michael Hudson

  Recovery, Circles, People

  Source: www.counterpunch.org

  4 Copy quote

• Most banks - with Deutsche Bank at the top of the spectrum here - have decided that they can't make money lending to barrowers anymore, so they're going to the second business plan: They lend money to casino capitalists. That is, to people who want to gamble on derivatives.

  Michael Hudson

  People, Want, Casinos

  Source: www.counterpunch.org

  4 Copy quote

• What's the best gamble in the world, right now? Its betting that Deutsche Bank stock is going to go down. Short sellers borrowed money from their banks to place bets that Deutsche Bank stock is going to go down. Now, it's wringing its hands and saying, "Oh the speculators are killing us." But it's Deutsche Bank and the other banks that are providing the money to the speculators to bet on credit.

  Michael Hudson

  Hands, Credit, World

  Source: www.counterpunch.org

  4 Copy quote

• You have to abolish pension plans. You have to abolish social spending. You have to raise taxes. You have to have at least fifty percent of the European population emigrate, either to Russia or China. You would have to have mass starvation. Very simple. That's the price that the Eurozone thinks is well worth paying.

  Michael Hudson

  Simple, Thinking, Pension Plans

  Source: www.counterpunch.org

  4 Copy quote

• To save the banks, you would have to turn the entire Eurozone into Greece.

  Michael Hudson

  Turns, Greece, Eurozone

  Source: www.counterpunch.org

  4 Copy quote

Page 4 of 7

First

← Prev

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

Next →

• facebook
• twitter
• googleplus
• email
• linkedin