Michael Hudson: Naked Capitalism – Your and My Informational Necessity

By Michael Hudson, a research professor of Economics at University of Missouri, Kansas City, and a research associate at the Levy Economics Institute of Bard College. His latest book is The Destiny of Civilization

I hate sounding like Margaret Thatcher, but There Is No Alternative to keeping Naked Capitalism thriving. This is the second year that I’m writing a fundraiser post for it. If you don’t need to be persuaded to give to Naked Capitalism, please go immediately to the donation page and do your part to help.

The last year has been especially important for Naked Capitalism’s leadership in four categories in which no other site provides such insight.

First is its coverage of the US/NATO war against Russia, starting what Biden officials announce will be a twenty-year war  in Ukraine to deplete Russia’s ability to help China. (Every dead Ukrainian soldier costs Russia at least a bullet; they’ll run out in no time, Blinken says.) Naked Capitalism is an antidote to the US State Department handouts by emphasizing the economic consequences that military strategists have ignored. Nobody else is really focusing on this. That is why Yves’ commentary and other NC articles (including the numerous ones that I’ve written) are recognized by other sites, regularly cited on Moon of Alabama and Andrei Martyanov’s blog. Just looking at last week’s postings illustrate how important this site is in providing the overall context that appears nowhere else.

The second topic that I depend – I can say exclusively – on Naked Capitalism (which probably is the first for many Naked Capitalism readers) is the Covid coverage emphasizing its airborne character, in contrast to the CDC and NEH party line from pharmaceutical-company handouts. I don’t know of any other site where I can even begin to get this perspective. For my own personal decisions as to how to proceed, I depend on Naked Capitalism.

I love the third ongoing thread of Naked Capitalism’s political commentary: the recognition that no important political improvement can be made without cleaning out (and ending?) the Democratic Party.

After all that ideological clean up over the new Cold War, pandemic coverage and dismantling of the DNCC’s maneuverings to keep on polarizing the US economy, comes the basic thrust of this site: its focus from the beginning on financial and economic analysis. Despite all the Fed’s talk of curing the price inflation (their euphemism for preventing wage levels from rising to break-even levels), we are in a debt deflation. The rest of the internet seems blind to this overriding debt dynamic.

To provide these dimensions, Yves, her fellow bloggers Lambert, and now John McGregor and Conor Gallagher, and also the commentariat provide a vast summary of the international press and e-sites. This is an enormous effort, and like the rest of you, I would not have time on my own to read or even scan these and still be able to do any work of my own. So Naked Capitalism makes it possible for me to follow what I’m concerned about most – the above four dimensions – usually to start my working day. I must confess that I can’t imagine how Yves is able to write her own articles in addition to going through all these sites.

I also come back later to read what the commentators have added. This is another key dimension that Naked Capitalism has that no other site comes close to (or even attempts).

Just think of the alternative! There isn’t one.

So the bottom line is that my understanding of the world would be substantially less detailed and up to date if Naked Capitalism did not exist. That’s why it’s so important for this annual fund raiser to succeed and keep it going. Please go straight to the Tip Jar to keep this critical informational guide healthy and vibrant. You’ll be smarter, saner, and very likely healthier.