Killing the Host: How Financial Parasites and Debt Bondage Destroy the Global Economy

[SOL]

Killing the Host" by Michael Hudson is a book that sheds light on how finance, insurance, and real estate (FIRE) have taken over the global economy at the cost of industrial capitalism and governments. The book argues that the FIRE sector is responsible for today's economic polarization, leading to wealth inequality where the 1% hold more power and resources than the rest of the population. This has been achieved through a favoured tax status that inflates real estate prices while deflating the "real" economy of labour and production.

The book highlights the impact of the Great 2008 Bailout, which saved the banks but not the economy and led to debt deflation and austerity in the US, Ireland, Latvia, and Greece. Debt deflation imposes austerity on the US and European economies, leading to a siphoning of wealth and income upward to the financial sector while impoverishing the middle class. The book argues that the financial industry has depicted itself as part of the productive economy, while in reality, it has been parasitic for centuries. The essence of parasitism is to drain the host's nourishment and dull the host's brain so that it does not recognize that the parasite is there.

Hudson argues that the illusion that much of Europe and the US suffer from today needs to be pierced, and junk economics needs to be replaced with economics based on reality. The book proposes that financial crises will continue unless our economic and political structures radically transform and the best ideas of classical economics are reclaimed. Hudson suggests that governments must reclaim their power from the financial sector and create policies that benefit the real economy rather than just the financial industry.


https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/17836526

[MarkD]

I will try to find time to read the book, but I am discouraged by the potential for gubmint to restore the productive economy. Oxymoronic. Give it back to the creative class. Or follow the Singapore example; politicians are paid based on how well the economy performs.

[AstuteShift]

What I’ve noticed and come to the realization is that any financial system based on interest is all based on destruction, rather than growth

Whether interest is used productively or not, it will lead to destruction eventually due to us humans being very weak to greed and fear.

Instead of raising taxes or interest rates, if we had a system on a flat fee regardless of wealth bracket then it would be enough or so hypothetically. Unfortunately, this is a pipe dream since we as humans are still very primitive despite having advancement in tech and the like.

Eventually, this interest based debt system will get replaced. Probably not in our lifetime but hard times form strong people who challenge the system not through direct means but rather indirect means, such as AI and the like.

The parasites will eventually be terminated like the roaches they are. The more they try to control, the more resilient counter force will be.

Remember, the more bleak, doom things appear to be, the more there is light at the end of tunnel. This is MP at its finest