Top all-time · #2087
Michael Hudson
Personal blog · michael-hudson.comeconomicshistory
Michael Hudson's personal blog at michael-hudson.com covers economics and history. Since 2010, 35 different Hacker News readers have linked it 44 times, most often “Global Economic History in 2.5 Hours”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-11-01, and you can follow it by feed.
Too few sampled comments (25) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN readers link Michael Hudson's site for writing on debt, usury, rentier capitalism, finance and empire. Most comments cite his posts as sources, and several recommend them directly.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 25 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Most-linked posts?
- /2023/11/israel-as-a-landed-aircraft-carrier/6 people · 6 mentions · first linked 2023-11-16
- Global Economic History in 2.5 Hours4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2023-08-02
- /2018/08/and-forgive-them-their-debts/2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2018-09-14
- How an “Act of God” Pandemic Is Destroying the West2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2020-09-03
- The new road to serfdom: The coming real estate collapse (2006) [pdf]2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2010-06-27
- How Interest Rates Were Set, 2500 BC – 1000 AD (2000)2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2022-05-17
- How Interest Rates Were Set, 2500BC – 1000 AD2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2013-10-05
What Hacker News says?
> HUDSON: This was the one thing that Alan Greenspan contributed to economic theory: the Traumatized Worker Syndrome. He said, the reason you’ve had this huge productivity gain without any wage increase is workers are afraid to go on strike, or even to complain about working conditions, because they’re just one paycheck away from homelessness. https://michael-hudson.com/2016/03/traumatized-worker-syndro...
Comment linking /2016/03/traumatized-worker-syndrome/
on “An enormous thread on alleged Google Facebook collusion”Submitted How Interest Rates Were Set, 2500BC – 1000 AD as a story · 21 points
HN discussionThe issues have been well understood for decades but the fixes involves dismantling existing power structures so nothing simple about it. Short summary of the issues - https://michael-hudson.com/2023/07/global-economic-history-i...
Comment linking /2023/07/global-economic-history-in-2-5-hours/
on “Economic Termites: Monopolies not noticeable enough for most of us”Submitted A Debt Jubilee for America? as a story · 5 points
HN discussion> Just because they engaged in debt cancellation doesn't mean they didn't practice usury - quite the opposite, indicates they practiced it quite a bit. Well that is the whole point! Mesopotamia invented usury, among other long standing contributions, including the Zodiac, and various mod 60 constructs. And that amazing civilization totally collapsed. Btw, Debt cancellation ("jubiliee") is the cause celebre of the ec…
Comment linking /2018/08/and-forgive-them-their-debts/
on “Businesses should try to be the best, not the biggest”Submitted How an “Act of God” Pandemic Is Destroying the West as a story · 4 points
HN discussionWe can get our analogy ducks in order: - The economy is an ecology . - A company is an organism . - Rentiers are carcinogens . It would be interesting to know if there have been models of economies that disallow usury and rent seekers. I know Michael Hudson has made the distinction between industrial and rentier capitalism [1], and there is also CASSE [2] (but that seems to be aligned with the "too many people" ideo…
Comment linking /2021/01/the-rentier-resurgence-and-takeover-finance-capitalism-vs-industrial-capitalism/
on “Businesses should try to be the best, not the biggest”Submitted The new road to serfdom: The coming real estate collapse (2006) [pdf] as a story · 4 points
HN discussionFor a wider prospective of how this whole tax haven thing got setup [0] is a nice read. 0: http://michael-hudson.com/2016/04/laundering-havens-for-war-...
Comment linking /2016/04/laundering-havens-for-war-budgets/
on “Spanish authorities raid Google offices over tax”Submitted How Interest Rates Were Set, 2500 BC – 1000 AD (2000) as a story · 3 points
HN discussionAnd of course the Sabbath did not actually originate with the Jews. The tradition goes back to at least the Bronze Age if not earlier. If people are interested in a rigorous treatment of ancient economics and their surprising modern relevance consider they should really look into Hudson [1]. [1] https://michael-hudson.com/2018/08/and-forgive-them-their-de...
Comment linking /2018/08/and-forgive-them-their-debts/
on “Let’s bring back the Sabbath as an act against ‘total work’”Submitted How Rome Reversed Christianity From Compassion to Control as a story · 3 points
HN discussionhttps://michael-hudson.com/2000/03/how-interest-rates-were-s...
Comment linking /2000/03/how-interest-rates-were-set-2500-bc-1000-ad/
on “Another stablecoin loses peg – DEI team working to restore the peg”Submitted Understanding America's Post-Industrial Economy as a story · 3 points
HN discussionI do want low inflation, as well as a debt jubilee[1] and a system reset to a sustainable economic model not based on usury. [1] - https://michael-hudson.com/2020/12/jubillee-perspectives-wit...
Comment linking /2020/12/jubillee-perspectives-with-steve-keen/
on “Americans Lose Faith That Hard Work Leads to Economic Gains, WSJ-NORC Poll Finds”Submitted "How Interest Rates Were Set, 2500 BC – 1000 AD" as a story · 3 points
HN discussionCovers it quite well - https://michael-hudson.com/2023/07/global-economic-history-i...
Comment linking /2023/07/global-economic-history-in-2-5-hours/
on “The US fiscal mess: Some unpleasant fiscal simulations”Submitted Wall Street’s Euthanasia of Industry as a story · 3 points
HN discussionI recommend Michael Hudson on the relationship between debt and capitalism. His view is that the danger to the stability of the economy presented by debt is not a feature of capitalism but is very old, but with capitalism comes a nrw unhealthy relationship with debt, where the interests of the creditor are regarded as sacrosanct. Two links: His tribute to David Graeber - https://michael-hudson.com/2020/09/vale-david…
Comment linking /2020/09/vale-david-graeber/
on “How religion shaped modern economics”Submitted Clearing the Fog as a story · 2 points
HN discussionThat's a much better term, and I agree, with one caveat - more and more the owning class don't invest in production (the 'real economy') but in financial instruments that really at the heart make money by extracting value from the productive sectors. Michael Hudson has some interesting writing on the subject, such as this journal article, 'Finance is not the Economy' - http://michael-hudson.com/2016/08/finance-is-no…
Comment linking /2016/08/finance-is-not-the-economy/
on “New data show that joining the 1% remains unsettlingly hereditary”Submitted The Seven Trumpets? as a story · 2 points
HN discussionA very interesting book to to gain a clear understanding: "Killing the Host" by Michael Hudson http://michael-hudson.com/2015/09/killing-the-host-the-book/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mH8FWrbzxEs Almost everything Mr. Gatez does is wrong and became a big problem for humanity - Windows, his investments in GMOs and atomic power and US pharma companies that are blackmailing poor countries - with this piece the most…
Comment linking /2015/09/killing-the-host-the-book/
on “Bill Gates Wants to Tax Robots”Submitted From Marx to Goldman Sachs: The Fictions of Fictitious Capital as a story · 2 points
HN discussionMichael Hudson on global economics - https://michael-hudson.com/2022/02/america-defeats-germany-f... Benjamin Norton on Latin American geopolitics - https://multipolarista.com/ Pepe Escobar has fantastic & entertaining insights on the Eurasia region if you can stomach the occasionally pro-Russian hagiography - his main site (+ other great analysts) is down to DDOS right now - http://thecradle.co/ The difference betw…
Comment linking /2022/02/america-defeats-germany-for-the-third-time-in-a-century/
on “Saito Renho on Japanese economic growth, ‘Abenomics’, redistribution, and more”Submitted Greenspan Returns to De-Regulation as a story · 2 points
HN discussionGeneral and fallacy debunking: 'Economics In One Lesson' by Henry Hazlitt http://jim.com/econ Land and rent analysis (missing in almost all textbooks): 'The New Road to Serfdom: An Illustrated Guide to the Coming Real Estate Collapse' by Dr. Michael Hudson http://michael-hudson.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/RoadToS... 'The Chaos Makers: The Dreamers & The Deceived' by Fred Harrison http://renegadeeconomist.com/wp-c…
Comment linking /wp-content/uploads/2010/03/RoadToSerfdom.pdf
on “Ask HN: Best book(s) to learn about the basics of economics?”Submitted Global Economic History in 2.5 Hours as a story · 1 points
HN discussionThe only take that made any sense to me about what's going on there - https://michael-hudson.com/2023/11/israel-as-a-landed-aircra...
Comment linking /2023/11/israel-as-a-landed-aircraft-carrier/
on “'Like we were lesser humans': Gaza boys, men recall Israeli arrest, torture”Submitted How an “Act of God” Pandemic Is Destroying the West as a story · 1 points
HN discussion
