The podcast from Michael Hudon linked in this tweet by Steve Keen is well worth listening to:
Debt Deflation and the Neofeudal Empire with Michael Hudson https://t.co/0iHSy45oLr @rethinkecon
— Steve Keen (@ProfSteveKeen) October 3, 2020
Michel Hudson had the whole problem of rentier capitalism worked out a long time ago.
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………..and like you, criminally underused to widen the debate about our economic problems.
Great audio.
Well worth a listen.
Hudson’s analysis is spot on.
Also, on his blog, a transcript – at https://michael-hudson.com/2020/10/%e2%80%a8debt-deflation-and-the-neofeudal-empire/ (with link to podcast)
Highly recommended podcast – especially liked the comments on property and debt.
Made me think – if we had moderate controlled rents, security of tenancy, and little house price inflation, why would anyone taken on the burden of a house purchase? That has been the situation in much of Northern Europe for decades, and was in the UK when we had plentiful social housing. The combination of massive cuts to social housing as it was sold off, a flood of (bank created) money for mortages in turn driving house price inflation pushed people into house buying, egged on by the Thatcher government. Its now the only way to get a ‘secure’ roof over your head and is a tax free form of ‘saving’. For most of us who only own one property in which we live, its not really a very effective form of saving as we can only exploit it if we sell and move away from our home territory. Downsizing as well of course
The only ones to really benefit are the banks where 2/3rds of their lending is now on property, property companies building poor quality but vastly profitable homes that are unaffordable to most, and those who can afford to buy multiple properties and rent them out. The rentiers that Hiudson refers to. .All the political parties are obsessed with just building more houses, which is a market solution to what is not a market problem. It just keeps on benefiting the same crowd without really tackling the real problem of secure affordable housing. The answer lies in more fundamental changes, including bringing back social housing on a large scale, in the places where it is most needed, changing the financial incentives for landlords or even bringing those once affordable properties back into public/local ownership and some form of land value tax. There is more of course but just carrying on with the current approaches will not change the situation.
I’d also recommend Ian Mulheirn’s analyses of housing – https://medium.com/@ian.mulheirn/part-1-is-there-really-a-housing-shortage-89fdc6bac4d2. He provides a contrarian analysis, challenging current assumptions about the need to just build more houses, and pointing in similar directions.