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Your posts about MMT have convinced me to look into for myself. L. Randall Wray has a new edition of Modern Money Theory coming out in April, that book seems to highly regarding so I’m going to check that one out.
I have also read Super Imperialism and want to echo how important it is for leftists to read. However, I would also caution folks who don’t have a solid econ background (and to be honest, even if you do) to allow yourself a lot of time to research stuff on your own as you are reading through it. Otherwise you might find yourself extraordinarily frustrated. Because Hudson really throws you into the deep end and expects you already understand a lot about international economics - which is a notoriously difficult topic. I mean, I recall Hudson calling out Paul Krugman for getting something wrong in an article he wrote (talking about balance of payments only in terms of trade and not govt flows). And while Krugman is wrong about a lot, it’s not like he’s uneducated when it comes to econ. This is complicated stuff but then again no investigation no right to speak.
But for an example, Hudson talks about the pressure the Vietnam war put on the system. But as I’m reading it, I’m confused because in my mind, the war spending is being done domestically by paying American soldiers and weapons manufacturers in the US. Hudson doesn’t explain how and why there was so much spending done in Vietnam/outside of the US, I had to research that myself. A lot of examples like that. Really, I wish Hudson made Super Imperialism to be twice as long and break it up into multiple volumes, and use the extra pages to really explain the details.
Super-imperialism is a difficult read! Took me a few goes to be honest, and every time I still discover new things I never noticed before. I don’t claim to fully comprehend the book, to be honest. It’s one of those books that as your understanding of economics and finance grew, when you re-read them you will learn new details that didn’t make sense before.
The Destiny of Civilization is much more straightforward in comparison, and I recommend it for people who want a simpler version of it (also more up to date with the recent growth of Chinese economy etc.)
Anyway, as for your last part, the US military personnel and all their logistics have to spend the dollars the government paid them overseas, in French Indochina right? That’s how the French banks racked up all those dollars, which were remitted back to the central bank in France because they didn’t know what to do with all those excess dollars.
Your posts about MMT have convinced me to look into for myself. L. Randall Wray has a new edition of Modern Money Theory coming out in April, that book seems to highly regarding so I’m going to check that one out.
I have also read Super Imperialism and want to echo how important it is for leftists to read. However, I would also caution folks who don’t have a solid econ background (and to be honest, even if you do) to allow yourself a lot of time to research stuff on your own as you are reading through it. Otherwise you might find yourself extraordinarily frustrated. Because Hudson really throws you into the deep end and expects you already understand a lot about international economics - which is a notoriously difficult topic. I mean, I recall Hudson calling out Paul Krugman for getting something wrong in an article he wrote (talking about balance of payments only in terms of trade and not govt flows). And while Krugman is wrong about a lot, it’s not like he’s uneducated when it comes to econ. This is complicated stuff but then again no investigation no right to speak.
But for an example, Hudson talks about the pressure the Vietnam war put on the system. But as I’m reading it, I’m confused because in my mind, the war spending is being done domestically by paying American soldiers and weapons manufacturers in the US. Hudson doesn’t explain how and why there was so much spending done in Vietnam/outside of the US, I had to research that myself. A lot of examples like that. Really, I wish Hudson made Super Imperialism to be twice as long and break it up into multiple volumes, and use the extra pages to really explain the details.
Super-imperialism is a difficult read! Took me a few goes to be honest, and every time I still discover new things I never noticed before. I don’t claim to fully comprehend the book, to be honest. It’s one of those books that as your understanding of economics and finance grew, when you re-read them you will learn new details that didn’t make sense before.
The Destiny of Civilization is much more straightforward in comparison, and I recommend it for people who want a simpler version of it (also more up to date with the recent growth of Chinese economy etc.)
Anyway, as for your last part, the US military personnel and all their logistics have to spend the dollars the government paid them overseas, in French Indochina right? That’s how the French banks racked up all those dollars, which were remitted back to the central bank in France because they didn’t know what to do with all those excess dollars.