I’ve just finished a book called temples of enterprise by some obscure fellow named Michael Hudson. None of these struggles are new. And the outcome of oligarchy gaining the upper hand is pretty well known.
The agricultural practices of the oligarchy, the primary reason for soil erosion throughout antiquity. The Greeks understood that the Romans understood even the Babylonians understood that their agricultural practices were salinifying the land. They all knew what the practices were and what their destructive effects were. Over Rome’s a family started out being able to sustain themselves with under a hectare of land, fast foreword a few centuries and that went up to 20 hectares. This was both because the nature of agriculture had transformed to cash crop production as much as it was due to the decline and soil fertility.
So with all that history in mind, tell me again, why allowing unchecked rentier and predatory practices like this is a good idea? Tell me this isn’t, “it’ll work this time!”
We can’t have immense wealth disparity because wealth disparity is economic and political decision-making power. This is the reason to limit wealth. This is the reason to tax wealth, not work. This is the reason to have antitrust and estate taxes.
We must remove the absurdities of somebody like the treasury secretary, who supposedly has a net worth of about 500 million claiming that he’s a soy farmer. What he is an agricultural oligarch who rents his land to share cropping farmers. I would like to point out that for most of American agriculture, the food processing sector has pushed almost all risk into the hands of ranchers and farmers who have been methodically stripped of their own agency in their lives. Farmers and ranchers both mostly do not sell the product at auction. They are told by the processing conglomerates what price they will get and what volume a product to deliver without any negotiation.
This goes even further because in many cases ranchers, particularly of pork or chicken are told exactly how they are going to produce the animals. They have to take on all the risk, but they are dictated to in the same way or similar ways to the actual delivery people for Amazon packages. So-called independent contractors are only independent contractors in name they take on all the risk every element of their daily functions is dictated by Amazon.
I could go on, but I think the population of macroeconomists who continue to act as if superficial Band-Aids only need be applied to the housing market rather then an absolutely five alarm fire emergency to bring wealth and equality back to earth and to break up gigantic corporations, is part of the problem in acting in alliance knowingly or not with oligarchy.
We are very very, very far down the oligarchic rabbit hole. This time the oligarchy is global and it is driving the world off a cliff.
Thank you dear reader for that deep, insightful comment... Michael is a dear friend and a valuable historian of civilisation... We recently joined a podcast with Steve Keen. It was organised by the David Graeber institute...
Micheal is a national and world treasure, and I have always admired your level-headed grace regarding a nation's monetary systems. I avidly listen to any of his interviews.
His work could be summarized, tongue in cheek, as a riff on Clinton's most potent political slogan: "it's the oligarchy stupid"
What galls me is the disparity between the emergency we live in and the proposed solutions, though. Some would ask us to believe it's not the Musks or Kochs and their wealth founded in extreme corporate consolidation, taxing them doesn't really matter you see, but the banking sector.
The US had solutions to the Gilded Age and the great depression.
To not overshoot, to not collapse regulations, to not abandon democracy, requires addressing a problem with money. That 13 trillion of assets is part of it, but only part. To make any major transition, there has to be a functioning money system of some sort. This isn't compatible with wiping trillions of assets from the books, or making investments that will make minimal or negative returns. Factoring in the decreased value of assets exposed to climate event risk, the political risk of taking any other course than that being currently followed is enormous. To alienate finance and the world's richest and most powerful people, while investing in economic contraction, demands a power politicians do not possess and can't possess without a revolution that delivers a reinvention of money. To see where such a revolution may start, look for countries where renewable energy is secure and abundant, where food security is very high.
This article comes at the perfect time, I was litterally just talking about how depressing the 'pasokification' of European social democrats feels right now. Seriously, what do you think is the endgame for parties that keep falling for the siren call of deregulation? This piece is so incredibly insightful, you connect the historical dots perfecly.
I really like this article, but note that many times you mention the Democrat Party. It has been, in my lifetime, the Democratic Party. There was no name change. For some reason I have noticed those on the right have started calling it the Democratic Party. That is incorrect.
Are you reading this Ann? Here's another little nugget. Steve Keen whose systemic analysis is brilliant and his policy of a "Modern Debt Jubilee" is a good reform...needs to upgrade that policy because what actual good is a one off debt jubilee that then lets Finance immediately re-dominate everyone for another 60-70 years...when with my 50% Discount/Rebate at retail sale permanently integrates debt jubilee into the the economic process while effectively reducing the rate of increase of new debt by 75%???
What if the greatest progressive opportunity both economically and spiritually has been going on right in front of us for centuries and we've been missing it because its such an integral part of our lives its like being unconscious of our own breathing?
Well, thats what the trinitarian combination of double entry bookkeeping, retail sale and the new monetary paradigm of Strategic Monetary Gifting will accomplish in both the temporal universe and in the minds of virtually every human being. To wit the 50% Discount/Rebate policy at retail sale. For instance: You go to the home building office and decide to buy a $500k house. The builder agrees to discount the price by 50% to $250k because with the above new policy enacted by the government it directs the central bank to create and distribute the merchant's 50% discount back to them so they are made whole on their full price. This is the exact process by which virtually all new money is currently created which is by the double entry bookkeeping operations of equal debits and credits that sum to zero in this case a 50% credit/gift to price plus the debiting/gifting back of the entirety of that discount to the merchant equals the merchant getting their full price thus no moral hazard plus beneficial effects all around for everyone involved because you get a $500k house for $250k and the demand for everyone of the goods and services of the house builder, grocer, clothier, etc. etc. etc. is mathematically doubled because everyone participates in retail sale. Thats the miracle of the trinity of double entry bookkeeping, retail sale and Strategic Monetary Gifting.
But wait! What is the retail point of Finance? And before I answer that question here is a dirty "little" secret: finance is presently always pre-production or post retail sale where consumption exits the economy and becomes consumption and is thus a very costly wholly exterior parasite on the entire economic process.
Answer to the above question: Why its your mortgage, automobile or other big ticket item's monthly payment. So in the above example the central bank gifts you 50% of that total payment so you get a $500k house for an equivalent payment of a $125k mortgage. With trinities miracles upon miracles never cease. And here is the final and greatest miracle of the above trinitarian policy effects:
As everyone participates in retail sale and the normal, natural reaction to receiving a gift is gratitude which is probably the most beneficial personal experience one can have the above policy is the greatest opportunity to self actualize gratitude for a gift since meditation and prayer. So do yourself a favor by
1) advocating for the above policy and
2) also consciously feeling grateful for its effects so you won't be guilty of being the opposite of wise which is a fool.
I should pitch the new monetary paradigm to China. They have a much more pragmatic attitude toward debt than we do which is why they have been kicking everyone else in the west in the ass economically. If they were to implement Monetary Gifting strategically it might force the west to do so also in order to match the economic and even more in portantly the human psychological advantages.
The key applied ideas AKA paradigms are where the real power to succeed and to change both minds and the temporal universe realities is where to start...and finish.
Whoever gets there first will not only benefit the fastest, but will historically be regarded as the wisest. The west has recently been technologically more innovative, but the Chinese/the orient has always been a more contemplative culture which might help them see the new concept more easily.
I’ve just finished a book called temples of enterprise by some obscure fellow named Michael Hudson. None of these struggles are new. And the outcome of oligarchy gaining the upper hand is pretty well known.
The agricultural practices of the oligarchy, the primary reason for soil erosion throughout antiquity. The Greeks understood that the Romans understood even the Babylonians understood that their agricultural practices were salinifying the land. They all knew what the practices were and what their destructive effects were. Over Rome’s a family started out being able to sustain themselves with under a hectare of land, fast foreword a few centuries and that went up to 20 hectares. This was both because the nature of agriculture had transformed to cash crop production as much as it was due to the decline and soil fertility.
So with all that history in mind, tell me again, why allowing unchecked rentier and predatory practices like this is a good idea? Tell me this isn’t, “it’ll work this time!”
We can’t have immense wealth disparity because wealth disparity is economic and political decision-making power. This is the reason to limit wealth. This is the reason to tax wealth, not work. This is the reason to have antitrust and estate taxes.
We must remove the absurdities of somebody like the treasury secretary, who supposedly has a net worth of about 500 million claiming that he’s a soy farmer. What he is an agricultural oligarch who rents his land to share cropping farmers. I would like to point out that for most of American agriculture, the food processing sector has pushed almost all risk into the hands of ranchers and farmers who have been methodically stripped of their own agency in their lives. Farmers and ranchers both mostly do not sell the product at auction. They are told by the processing conglomerates what price they will get and what volume a product to deliver without any negotiation.
This goes even further because in many cases ranchers, particularly of pork or chicken are told exactly how they are going to produce the animals. They have to take on all the risk, but they are dictated to in the same way or similar ways to the actual delivery people for Amazon packages. So-called independent contractors are only independent contractors in name they take on all the risk every element of their daily functions is dictated by Amazon.
I could go on, but I think the population of macroeconomists who continue to act as if superficial Band-Aids only need be applied to the housing market rather then an absolutely five alarm fire emergency to bring wealth and equality back to earth and to break up gigantic corporations, is part of the problem in acting in alliance knowingly or not with oligarchy.
We are very very, very far down the oligarchic rabbit hole. This time the oligarchy is global and it is driving the world off a cliff.
Thank you dear reader for that deep, insightful comment... Michael is a dear friend and a valuable historian of civilisation... We recently joined a podcast with Steve Keen. It was organised by the David Graeber institute...
😊This one, Ann?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLAT2Kpn9oM
I am going to give it a listen!
Thank you!
That’s it…It had a slow start, but viewers have told Nika that our respective ditherings added a touch of authenticity to the show…!
Its all about changing the monetary paradigm which includes known and enforceable barriers to financial speculations as well of course.
I watched it, drawn by you and Micheal.
Micheal is a national and world treasure, and I have always admired your level-headed grace regarding a nation's monetary systems. I avidly listen to any of his interviews.
His work could be summarized, tongue in cheek, as a riff on Clinton's most potent political slogan: "it's the oligarchy stupid"
What galls me is the disparity between the emergency we live in and the proposed solutions, though. Some would ask us to believe it's not the Musks or Kochs and their wealth founded in extreme corporate consolidation, taxing them doesn't really matter you see, but the banking sector.
The US had solutions to the Gilded Age and the great depression.
This is one of the best and clearest articles you've written. We need to learn from China...
To not overshoot, to not collapse regulations, to not abandon democracy, requires addressing a problem with money. That 13 trillion of assets is part of it, but only part. To make any major transition, there has to be a functioning money system of some sort. This isn't compatible with wiping trillions of assets from the books, or making investments that will make minimal or negative returns. Factoring in the decreased value of assets exposed to climate event risk, the political risk of taking any other course than that being currently followed is enormous. To alienate finance and the world's richest and most powerful people, while investing in economic contraction, demands a power politicians do not possess and can't possess without a revolution that delivers a reinvention of money. To see where such a revolution may start, look for countries where renewable energy is secure and abundant, where food security is very high.
Good point Franklin.
This article comes at the perfect time, I was litterally just talking about how depressing the 'pasokification' of European social democrats feels right now. Seriously, what do you think is the endgame for parties that keep falling for the siren call of deregulation? This piece is so incredibly insightful, you connect the historical dots perfecly.
I really like this article, but note that many times you mention the Democrat Party. It has been, in my lifetime, the Democratic Party. There was no name change. For some reason I have noticed those on the right have started calling it the Democratic Party. That is incorrect.
Are you reading this Ann? Here's another little nugget. Steve Keen whose systemic analysis is brilliant and his policy of a "Modern Debt Jubilee" is a good reform...needs to upgrade that policy because what actual good is a one off debt jubilee that then lets Finance immediately re-dominate everyone for another 60-70 years...when with my 50% Discount/Rebate at retail sale permanently integrates debt jubilee into the the economic process while effectively reducing the rate of increase of new debt by 75%???
From Wisdomicsblog.com
The Miracle of Trinity/Thirdness Greater Oneness
What if the greatest progressive opportunity both economically and spiritually has been going on right in front of us for centuries and we've been missing it because its such an integral part of our lives its like being unconscious of our own breathing?
Well, thats what the trinitarian combination of double entry bookkeeping, retail sale and the new monetary paradigm of Strategic Monetary Gifting will accomplish in both the temporal universe and in the minds of virtually every human being. To wit the 50% Discount/Rebate policy at retail sale. For instance: You go to the home building office and decide to buy a $500k house. The builder agrees to discount the price by 50% to $250k because with the above new policy enacted by the government it directs the central bank to create and distribute the merchant's 50% discount back to them so they are made whole on their full price. This is the exact process by which virtually all new money is currently created which is by the double entry bookkeeping operations of equal debits and credits that sum to zero in this case a 50% credit/gift to price plus the debiting/gifting back of the entirety of that discount to the merchant equals the merchant getting their full price thus no moral hazard plus beneficial effects all around for everyone involved because you get a $500k house for $250k and the demand for everyone of the goods and services of the house builder, grocer, clothier, etc. etc. etc. is mathematically doubled because everyone participates in retail sale. Thats the miracle of the trinity of double entry bookkeeping, retail sale and Strategic Monetary Gifting.
But wait! What is the retail point of Finance? And before I answer that question here is a dirty "little" secret: finance is presently always pre-production or post retail sale where consumption exits the economy and becomes consumption and is thus a very costly wholly exterior parasite on the entire economic process.
Answer to the above question: Why its your mortgage, automobile or other big ticket item's monthly payment. So in the above example the central bank gifts you 50% of that total payment so you get a $500k house for an equivalent payment of a $125k mortgage. With trinities miracles upon miracles never cease. And here is the final and greatest miracle of the above trinitarian policy effects:
As everyone participates in retail sale and the normal, natural reaction to receiving a gift is gratitude which is probably the most beneficial personal experience one can have the above policy is the greatest opportunity to self actualize gratitude for a gift since meditation and prayer. So do yourself a favor by
1) advocating for the above policy and
2) also consciously feeling grateful for its effects so you won't be guilty of being the opposite of wise which is a fool.
I should pitch the new monetary paradigm to China. They have a much more pragmatic attitude toward debt than we do which is why they have been kicking everyone else in the west in the ass economically. If they were to implement Monetary Gifting strategically it might force the west to do so also in order to match the economic and even more in portantly the human psychological advantages.
The key applied ideas AKA paradigms are where the real power to succeed and to change both minds and the temporal universe realities is where to start...and finish.
Whoever gets there first will not only benefit the fastest, but will historically be regarded as the wisest. The west has recently been technologically more innovative, but the Chinese/the orient has always been a more contemplative culture which might help them see the new concept more easily.
The Americans' worrying gamble
It Is Trump’s Casino Economy Now. You’ll Probably Lose.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/26/opinion/trump-economy-casino.html
By Kyla Scanlon