"Casino Capitalism": Economist Michael Hudson on What’s Behind the Stock Market’s Rollercoaster Ride

DemocracyNow.org - Black Monday is how economists are describing Monday’s market turmoil, which saw stock prices tumble across the globe, from China to Europe to the United States. China’s stock indices fell over 8 percent on Monday and another 7 percent today. On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average initially fell a record 1,100 points before closing down nearly 600 points. The decline also caused oil prices to plunge to their lowest levels in almost six years. To make sense of what’s really behind the fluctuations in the market, we are joined by economist Michael Hudson, president of the Institute for the Study of Long-Term Economic Trends, a Wall Street financial analyst and author of the book, "Killing the Host: How Financial Parasites and Debt Bondage Destroy the Global Economy."
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[@manjay49]

Dr. Hudson. The Best.

[@tarikdean3265]

I've been telling people for 25 years that excessive financialization was going to ruin the global economy.

[@bbhihoney]

Excellent, clear, concise explanation.

[@mjpeter3964]

Excellent description of a host vs parasite relationship in business, Mr. Hudson!

[@doubleuu]

damn....now this makes perfect sense!

[@zorroinhell5549]

Lawrence Summers should be in jail for the last economic crash!

[@tuckerbugeater]

He did it deliberately! Central banks are like loan sharks and they have an agenda! This is just making the rich richer. It's giving power to tech companies during the final automation of jobs.

[@missmargarita5505]

I remember when the government issued the bail-outs to the banks. I asked, why they wouldn't give the TAX-PAYERS' money to the TAX-PAYING PEOPLE, which would have been used to pay their debts and the banks would still have ended up with the money? An economy that relies on debt for rents and now even basic necessities is doomed. We're being duped every day.

[@jamescc2010]

Precisely...Bailout main street so we can live and contribute better than giving our tax money to crooks (we need to prosecute them) in WS to enrich 1%, gamble and destroy global economy. 1% continues to put 99% in bad position to make us powerless and struggled; therefore, depending on the government and them to control us.

[@missmargarita5505]

The irony is that even if they gave the bailout money to the 99%, the 1% would still end up with it when we are taxed and purchase their products. It would have helped everyone, though, not just the rich.

[@beta447]

Great segment.

[@33Crazydude]

I would love to see Economist Michael Hudson on the BBC!
Michael Hudson would kick butt

[@AliMohamed-xd4qe]

33Crazydude they would never have him on BBC.

[@jamescc2010]

Very accurate and reflect what most of us think and believe. At least in US, we have some freedom to share opposite views but this needs to spread to mainstream and ordinary Americans who are unaware of what is going on in the world.

[@Luvv711]

If corporate stock buybacks create artificially high prices in stocks, why aren't there SEC restrictions on buybacks?
And why didn't the stockholders object to buybacks? New issuances do dilute stock prices, and so do dividends, so doesn't that contradict Mr Hudson's claim that dividends artificially inflate stock prices?
If the buybacks artificially inflated prices, why didn't the correction only affect the stocks that buyback the most?
Mr Hudson did not present data to backup his claim of the market correction casual relationship to buybacks.

[@christinejones3198]

vote for Bernie

[@omarvanegas8481]

Go Bernie!!!

[@DavidByrne85]

+TheFunkadelicFan Aw man, that'd be a dream

[@omarvanegas8481]

With Dick Wolf as a visiting advisor...

[@dmoneytron]

I keep trying to find more of Michael Hudson but I have to scrape the web for his incisive analysis. I wish he made more public appearances.

[@GS-gq5is]

Although, I'm coming to this video 7 years later, I'm so glad to see Professor Hudson calling out Larry Summers for what he was, is and probably will remain: a tool for the 1-percent, who also seems to falsely cry wolf again and again -- not to tell the truth, but to gain attention and hold on to his diminishing relevance.

[@MichelleWinther]

To make sense of what’s really behind the fluctuations in the market, we are joined by economist Michael Hudson, president of the Institute for the Study of Long-Term Economic Trends, a Wall Street financial analyst and author of the book, "Killing the Host: How Financial Parasites and Debt Bondage Destroy the Global Economy."

[@wakjob961]

Wow, a host that doesn't interrupt or loud talk over the guest... interesting.

[@voicefrompeople155]

Capitalist system look after stock market, socialist system look after people.

[@PyroShredder982]

Bro sounds like slinky dog on toy story

[@Mohamedetp]

This guys is the shit

[@TheUnspokenAlias]

The days of sissies like Lessig are numbered. The lodge composed of Stiglitz, Piketty & Co has been bringing interesting elements to the table, but their audience largely remains the one that's basically responsible, on a class level, for the present disaster. Lessig's fear Sanders is too radical to have his agenda adopted by a majority of Americans is actually a class fear. He would have waited until the 50ies to support FDR.
Hudson is much more straightforward, which doesn't make up for his contradictions : if the fall of the Chinese stock exchange is due to local factors (namely bad investment priorities in a reorganizing market), why mention Western investors are realizing what's happening there today could happen here tomorrow, thereby internationalizing the influence of the Chinese phenomenon ? And why not mention the burden of the Chinese reserves in € (25 % of the country's stock), while the common European currency's viability is being questioned ?...
Since the 2008 crash, the economy has more than ever been a religion rather than a science, and the approximations of its gurus and sorcerers have gotten out of touch with any rationality : in Summers' lodge, the've been anticipating the new apocalypse feverishly...

[@TheUnspokenAlias]

And to condense that, "numbers have no soul". Sons of Melancholia would have been great on Mr. Robot's soundtrack.
But is condensing what we want ?

[@rgaleny]

wag the dog economics