The IMF can literally conjure any amount of money out of thin air whenever they feel like it wtf how have I never heard about this
And before you ask, yes, almost all money created goes straight into the coffers of western countries instead of to the global south
If you’re interested in the whole dollar hegemony structure the book Superimperialism lays it all out. I found it quite slow reading with a lot of economics concepts I wasn’t yet familiar with, but I think understanding the underlying structures of US imperialism is quite important.
I’m only a couple chapters in, but it already seems clear to me how fucked the u.s. (and unfortunately regular usonians) will be when the dollar scam finally stops working.
Is this by Michael Hudson? I looked it up, but there are two books with very similar names. Did the title get updated in a newer edition or something? If not, which one are you recommending? The economic strategy of American empire or The origin and fundamentals of US world dominance? I note the latter is called the ‘new edition’ – but the new edition of what book? I hate it when publishers do this shit.
Edit: and it turns out that the ‘third edition’ of the former title came out after the ‘new edition’ of the latter title. What do publishers have against the simplicity of ordinal numbers?
Yes there are three editions. No idea why they can’t just be called that. I read the third edition, he mostly just tacks chapters on the beginning and end.
It’s also worth noting that there is a much older concept of “überimperialismus” (often translated as super imperialism) from Kautsky, which of course Lenin clowned in Imperialism because it’s simply wrong. I cited Hudson’s theory once and some ultra loser sent multiple text walls quoted from Imperialism. 🙄
Thanks. I’ll keep a look out for the third edition.
for anyone who’s interested in it but finds it easier to absorb information in an alternate format, I highly recommend this ongoing biweekly series by Hudson and Radhika Desai