We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Monday, March 17, 2014

Ukraine, Austerity….Again?

Click here to access this 16:36m radio interview with economist Michael Hudson posted on his website.

Hudson's comments offer, along with some political analysis, economic predictions on what is likely to happen with Ukraine under its new NATO friendly government created by an Empire-promoted coup. There is much to recommend here; but his views do not go beyond certain limits that would be unacceptable to our ruling One Percent class. Were he to offer a more penetrating analysis, he would jeopardize his career as a college professor.

For example, he states the following toward the end of the interview:
...Americans aren't told what America has done is turn over the foreign policy basically to the neocons. It is as if Obama has adopted Dick Cheney's military policy...with an exclamation point. 
And, he continues with a rant about Obama. Obama, of course, is only an employee of the ruling class. He functions in the capacity of a public relations officer and takes orders from this ruling class who hired him. If he were to disobey them, he would be removed one way or another--assassinated if necessary. 

In general, Hudson's views represent a left-liberal analysis which, although on the fringes, is still permitted to college professors by the ruling class, but will never be allowed in mainstream media. There are some other comments which are equally troubling, favorable comments about The Fed, our central bank, and how the US taxes the rich, etc. But, I will leave you to screen out what is valid in his analysis and some of which is not.