super imperialism

8/2/2019 Super Imperialism

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Affairs, Commonweal, Cross Currents and the Review of Social Economy, in addition to

specialized monographs on balance-of-payments theory and accounting. He has worked as aBalance-of-Payments analyst for the Chase Manhatten Bank and for the accounting firm of

Arthur Andersen, and as a senior economist for the Continental Oil Com.

In addition, he has lectured at the Institute for PolicyStudiesin Washington, D.C, before theNational Association of Business Economists in New York, and elsewhere throughout the United

States. He is currently writing a history of international trade and investment theory, and a studyof the economic origins of the American Civil War.

Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc.383 Madison Avenue

New York, New York 10017

Printed in U.S.A.

------------------------ http://dailycensored.com/2010/09/20/monetary-reform-conference-challenges-dominant-

institutions-exposes-monetary-myths/

Monetary Reform Conference Challenges

Dominant Institutions Exposes Monetary

Myths

TheAmerican Monetary Institute(AMI) will host its6th Annual AMI Monetary ReformConferencefeaturing many of the worlds finest experts and actors on financial reform fromSeptember 30th through October 3rd at the University Center in Chicago.

The solution to American financialization is straightforward. One need not be a policy wonk nora Wall St. insider to understand and take action upon the simple concept of monetary power.

Today, the power to conceive new money is largely concentrated in few private hands. Yet

Article I, 8 of the Constitution reads The Congress shall have PowerTo coin Money,

regulate the Value thereof, and foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures.Were these powers to be monopolized by Congress, the root of the nations systematic monetary

and fiscal problems would be eliminated. The American Monetary Institute has authored the

American Monetary Act, which would implement three key reforms- nationalizing the FederalReserve, eliminating the private sectors ability to create money, reclaiming the governmentsability to create money and invest it in infrastructure, including people. Founder of the American

Monetary Institute, Stephen Zarlenga, details the reforms in the last chapter of his bookThe Lost

Science of Money- the Mythology of Money and the Story of Power.

The Annual AMI Monetary Reform Conference has served to further the discussion of solutionsto the debt based monetary system since its inception in 1996. Mr. Zarlenga will open with a
http://michael-hudson.com/books/super-imperialism-the-economic-strategy-of-american-empire/http://michael-hudson.com/books/super-imperialism-the-economic-strategy-of-american-empire/http://michael-hudson.com/books/super-imperialism-the-economic-strategy-of-american-empire/http://dailycensored.com/2010/09/20/monetary-reform-conference-challenges-dominant-institutions-exposes-monetary-myths/http://dailycensored.com/2010/09/20/monetary-reform-conference-challenges-dominant-institutions-exposes-monetary-myths/http://dailycensored.com/2010/09/20/monetary-reform-conference-challenges-dominant-institutions-exposes-monetary-myths/http://www.monetary.org/http://www.monetary.org/http://www.monetary.org/http://www.monetary.org/2010schedule.htmlhttp://www.monetary.org/2010schedule.htmlhttp://www.monetary.org/2010schedule.htmlhttp://www.monetary.org/2010schedule.htmlhttp://www.monetary.org/amacolorpamphlet.pdfhttp://www.monetary.org/amacolorpamphlet.pdfhttp://www.monetary.org/lostscienceofmoney.htmlhttp://www.monetary.org/lostscienceofmoney.htmlhttp://www.monetary.org/lostscienceofmoney.htmlhttp://www.monetary.org/lostscienceofmoney.htmlhttp://www.monetary.org/lostscienceofmoney.htmlhttp://www.monetary.org/lostscienceofmoney.htmlhttp://www.monetary.org/amacolorpamphlet.pdfhttp://www.monetary.org/2010schedule.htmlhttp://www.monetary.org/2010schedule.htmlhttp://www.monetary.org/http://dailycensored.com/2010/09/20/monetary-reform-conference-challenges-dominant-institutions-exposes-monetary-myths/http://dailycensored.com/2010/09/20/monetary-reform-conference-challenges-dominant-institutions-exposes-monetary-myths/http://michael-hudson.com/books/super-imperialism-the-economic-strategy-of-american-empire/


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presentation of AMIs recent work. Other notable speakers include top Australian monetary

economistSteve Keen, recipient of the inaugural (Paul) Revere Award for giving an earlywarning (2005) of the present debt-deflation collapse, who will discuss How Central Banks and

Banking Systems Really Work;Prof. Michael Hudson, author ofSuper Imperialism: The

Economic Strategy of American EmpireandGlobal Fracture, editor ofDebt and Economic

Renewal in the Ancient Near East, distinguished Professor of Economics, University ofMissouri, the first to publicly identify the mechanism of Dollar Imperialism through the U.S.

balanceof payments deficits, who will speak on Recent Developments in Iceland and Latvia

and their Implications for Europe and America; Dr. Michael Clark, of the United Nations,instrumental in the recent issue of 240 billion new SDRs by the International Monetary Fund,

though they had only issued 21 billion of them since inception in January 1970, who will speak

on the International Implications of Monetary Reform; Richard C. (Rick) Cook, a formerfederal governmentanalyst, author ofWe Hold These Truths: The Hope of Monetary Reform,

who will speak on the Democratization of the Monetary System. Speakers and panels will

explore a number if issues and facets of monetary reform including understanding money

creation, banking, the current international situation with a focus on Brazil, Britain, Latvia, and

Iceland, actions and strategies for genuine reform, monetary effects on health and nutrition,countering lies.

See the entire schedule and description of speakers, talks, panels at the America Monetary

Instituteswebsite. A recent interview with Stephen Zarlenga on Carol Brouillets weekly

Community Currency radio showis postedhere. Pre-registration via the website is required andthose whoregistermust also contact the AMI by email or [email protected] or (224)

805-2200.

---------------------http://dailycensored.com/2010/10/08/money-of-by-for-corporations-or-money-of-by-for-the-

people/

Money of, by, for the Corporations or Money

of, by, for the People?

Report from the 6th Annual AMI Monetary Reform Conference, held in Chicago September

30th- October 3rd 2010

Participants and speakers came from Asia, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand to share their

understandings and analyses of not only the monetary system but also the larger systems in

which finance is embedded that affect the United States and the entire world. Awards were givento Green Party activists Dee Berry and Ben Kjelshus, who helped get a monetary reform plankin

the Green Party platform, and to Professor Steve Keen from Australia, whose advance modeling

has contributed to our understanding of monetary science, and separately to Professor KaoruYamaguchi from Japan for advancing monetary science and reform.
http://www.debtdeflation.com/blogs/http://www.debtdeflation.com/blogs/http://www.debtdeflation.com/blogs/http://michael-hudson.com/http://michael-hudson.com/http://michael-hudson.com/http://michael-hudson.com/books/super-imperialism-the-economic-strategy-of-american-empire/http://michael-hudson.com/books/super-imperialism-the-economic-strategy-of-american-empire/http://michael-hudson.com/books/super-imperialism-the-economic-strategy-of-american-empire/http://michael-hudson.com/books/super-imperialism-the-economic-strategy-of-american-empire/http://michael-hudson.com/books/global-fracture-the-new-international-economic-order/http://michael-hudson.com/books/global-fracture-the-new-international-economic-order/http://michael-hudson.com/books/global-fracture-the-new-international-economic-order/http://www.amazon.com/Debt-Economic-Renewal-Ancient-Near/dp/1883053714http://www.amazon.com/Debt-Economic-Renewal-Ancient-Near/dp/1883053714http://www.amazon.com/Debt-Economic-Renewal-Ancient-Near/dp/1883053714http://www.amazon.com/Debt-Economic-Renewal-Ancient-Near/dp/1883053714http://dailycensored.com/2010/09/20/monetary-reform-conference-challenges-dominant-institutions-exposes-monetary-myths/http://dailycensored.com/2010/09/20/monetary-reform-conference-challenges-dominant-institutions-exposes-monetary-myths/http://dailycensored.com/2010/09/20/monetary-reform-conference-challenges-dominant-institutions-exposes-monetary-myths/http://dailycensored.com/2010/09/20/monetary-reform-conference-challenges-dominant-institutions-exposes-monetary-myths/http://www.richardccook.com/we-hold-these-truths/http://www.richardccook.com/we-hold-these-truths/http://www.richardccook.com/we-hold-these-truths/http://www.monetary.org/http://www.monetary.org/http://www.monetary.org/http://www.communitycurrency.org/radioshow.htmlhttp://www.communitycurrency.org/radioshow.htmlhttp://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/community-currency/2010/9/17/community-currency-091610.htmlhttp://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/community-currency/2010/9/17/community-currency-091610.htmlhttp://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/community-currency/2010/9/17/community-currency-091610.htmlhttp://dailycensored.com/2010/09/20/monetary-reform-conference-challenges-dominant-institutions-exposes-monetary-myths/http://dailycensored.com/2010/09/20/monetary-reform-conference-challenges-dominant-institutions-exposes-monetary-myths/http://dailycensored.com/2010/09/20/monetary-reform-conference-challenges-dominant-institutions-exposes-monetary-myths/http://dailycensored.com/2010/10/08/money-of-by-for-corporations-or-money-of-by-for-the-people/http://dailycensored.com/2010/10/08/money-of-by-for-corporations-or-money-of-by-for-the-people/http://dailycensored.com/2010/10/08/money-of-by-for-corporations-or-money-of-by-for-the-people/http://www.monetary.org/greenpartymonetaryplank.htmlhttp://www.monetary.org/greenpartymonetaryplank.htmlhttp://www.monetary.org/greenpartymonetaryplank.htmlhttp://www.monetary.org/greenpartymonetaryplank.htmlhttp://dailycensored.com/2010/10/08/money-of-by-for-corporations-or-money-of-by-for-the-people/http://dailycensored.com/2010/10/08/money-of-by-for-corporations-or-money-of-by-for-the-people/http://dailycensored.com/2010/09/20/monetary-reform-conference-challenges-dominant-institutions-exposes-monetary-myths/http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/community-currency/2010/9/17/community-currency-091610.htmlhttp://www.communitycurrency.org/radioshow.htmlhttp://www.monetary.org/http://www.richardccook.com/we-hold-these-truths/http://dailycensored.com/2010/09/20/monetary-reform-conference-challenges-dominant-institutions-exposes-monetary-myths/http://dailycensored.com/2010/09/20/monetary-reform-conference-challenges-dominant-institutions-exposes-monetary-myths/http://www.amazon.com/Debt-Economic-Renewal-Ancient-Near/dp/1883053714http://www.amazon.com/Debt-Economic-Renewal-Ancient-Near/dp/1883053714http://michael-hudson.com/books/global-fracture-the-new-international-economic-order/http://michael-hudson.com/books/super-imperialism-the-economic-strategy-of-american-empire/http://michael-hudson.com/books/super-imperialism-the-economic-strategy-of-american-empire/http://michael-hudson.com/http://www.debtdeflation.com/blogs/


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Stephen Zarlenga, author ofThe Lost Science of MoneyThe Mythology of Moneythe Story

of Power and co-founder of theAmerican Monetary Institute , noted that the severe nature of themonetary problem cannot be denied or hidden anymore. Modern economists, in general, have

been disgraced, as they have justified forms of usury to empower those misusing the worlds

money systems in favor of utility over morality. He quoted Henry George, who wrote

[economics]a science whichseems but to justify injustice, to canonize selfishness by

throwing around it the halo of utility

The vast majority of people can see that the financially powerful are taking advantage of the

weak. The real battle has been over whether the creation of money will be private or public, andhow to define money. Zarlenga has concluded from hisstudythat

money is an abstract social power an institution of the law, becoming money because

government receives it in taxes, and having value because of people working in a supportive

legal and social structure producing values for life.

Without monetary reform there cannot be democracy. The main parts of the American Monetary

Act would nationalize the Federal Reserve and incorporate it into the Treasury Department,

prohibit private banks from creating money, and allow the government to create money byspending it on infrastructure, including healthcare andeducationand a one-time citizensdividend. (His opening remarks are postedhere.)

New Zealander Jamie Walton detailed the minimum planks of theAmerican Monetary Actthat

would be necessary to put time on the side of the people, acknowledging that many more reforms

would be needed before the Act could even get passed by Congress. He emphasized thatmonetary reform was the key to all the other things that we seekrecovery, stability, prosperity,

sustainability, justice, peace, security, and freedom. (Yamaguchis sophisticated model showshow this reform would theoretically work demonstrating that it can pay off the nationaldebt

without inflation).

Congressman Dennis Kucinich participated via video praising Zarlenga and the AMIs work and

stating that he hoped to introduce a bill incorporating the American Monetary Acts mainproposals into Congress this November.

Monetary experts Robert Poteat, Professor Nic Tideman, and Dick Distelhorst made eloquent,

powerful cases for the need for monetary reform as soon as possible, emphasizing the moral

imperative of money being used to serve people rather than to rob the many for the benefit of the

few. David Kelley also spoke about how to counter the lies, blasting the Orwellianlanguageandrhetoric that so often paralyzes the public. We need to understand profoundly the depth andmagnitude of the looting that is going onidentify it, name it, stop it.

I spoke at the conference on Strategy for the Monetary Reform Movement, trying to identifywhere we are historically and point to the most effective steps to take. Every speaker seemed to

shine a light on some aspect or facet of the unique time we are living in, as well as the larger
http://www.monetary.org/lostscienceofmoney.htmlhttp://www.monetary.org/lostscienceofmoney.htmlhttp://www.monetary.org/lostscienceofmoney.htmlhttp://www.monetary.org/lostscienceofmoney.htmlhttp://www.monetary.org/lostscienceofmoney.htmlhttp://www.monetary.org/lostscienceofmoney.htmlhttp://www.monetary.org/lostscienceofmoney.htmlhttp://monetary.org/http://monetary.org/http://monetary.org/http://dailycensored.com/2010/10/08/money-of-by-for-corporations-or-money-of-by-for-the-people/http://dailycensored.com/2010/10/08/money-of-by-for-corporations-or-money-of-by-for-the-people/http://dailycensored.com/2010/10/08/money-of-by-for-corporations-or-money-of-by-for-the-people/http://dailycensored.com/2010/10/08/money-of-by-for-corporations-or-money-of-by-for-the-people/http://dailycensored.com/2010/10/08/money-of-by-for-corporations-or-money-of-by-for-the-people/http://dailycensored.com/2010/10/08/money-of-by-for-corporations-or-money-of-by-for-the-people/http://dailycensored.com/2010/10/08/money-of-by-for-corporations-or-money-of-by-for-the-people/zarlengaremarks.htmlhttp://dailycensored.com/2010/10/08/money-of-by-for-corporations-or-money-of-by-for-the-people/zarlengaremarks.htmlhttp://dailycensored.com/2010/10/08/money-of-by-for-corporations-or-money-of-by-for-the-people/zarlengaremarks.htmlhttp://www.monetary.org/amacolorpamphlet.pdfhttp://www.monetary.org/amacolorpamphlet.pdfhttp://www.monetary.org/amacolorpamphlet.pdfhttp://dailycensored.com/2010/10/08/money-of-by-for-corporations-or-money-of-by-for-the-people/http://dailycensored.com/2010/10/08/money-of-by-for-corporations-or-money-of-by-for-the-people/http://dailycensored.com/2010/10/08/money-of-by-for-corporations-or-money-of-by-for-the-people/http://dailycensored.com/2010/10/08/money-of-by-for-corporations-or-money-of-by-for-the-people/http://dailycensored.com/2010/10/08/money-of-by-for-corporations-or-money-of-by-for-the-people/http://dailycensored.com/2010/10/08/money-of-by-for-corporations-or-money-of-by-for-the-people/http://dailycensored.com/2010/10/08/money-of-by-for-corporations-or-money-of-by-for-the-people/monetaryreformstrategy.htmlhttp://dailycensored.com/2010/10/08/money-of-by-for-corporations-or-money-of-by-for-the-people/monetaryreformstrategy.htmlhttp://dailycensored.com/2010/10/08/money-of-by-for-corporations-or-money-of-by-for-the-people/monetaryreformstrategy.htmlhttp://dailycensored.com/2010/10/08/money-of-by-for-corporations-or-money-of-by-for-the-people/http://dailycensored.com/2010/10/08/money-of-by-for-corporations-or-money-of-by-for-the-people/http://www.monetary.org/amacolorpamphlet.pdfhttp://dailycensored.com/2010/10/08/money-of-by-for-corporations-or-money-of-by-for-the-people/zarlengaremarks.htmlhttp://dailycensored.com/2010/10/08/money-of-by-for-corporations-or-money-of-by-for-the-people/http://dailycensored.com/2010/10/08/money-of-by-for-corporations-or-money-of-by-for-the-people/http://monetary.org/http://www.monetary.org/lostscienceofmoney.htmlhttp://www.monetary.org/lostscienceofmoney.html


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patterns, tohelpus identify leverage points to turn the system from its destructive path to the

direction of justice, truth, morality, and life.

Greg Coleridge described his work with the Program on Corporations, Law and Democracy

(POCLAD). He spent a considerable amount of time researching the roots of our problems,

eventually identifying the corporate form and its history. Subsequently POCLAD traveledaround the country, educating people about the need to rein in corporate personhood, whose

power is perhaps the greatest threat to humanity today. He mentioned (as I had) the PopulistParty and how they worked, and succeeded to some degree, to rein in the corporations over a

hundred years ago, and how the real battle that we find ourselves in is the corporate colonization

of our minds, the struggle between people power and corporate power. In the wake of theSupreme Court ruling that allowed corporations to spend an unlimited amount of money on

elections, they launchedMoveToAmend.orgto end corporate rule and legalize democracy! (The

text of his talkThe Rigor of Research and Fundamental Monetary Changeis posted on hisCreate

Real Democracy Blog)

Professor Michael Hudson, author ofSuper Imperialism: The Economic Strategy of AmericanEmpire, in his talk, also mentioned that the transference of wealth taking place today rivals thecorporate giveaways to the railroads in the 1800s and described it in biological terms. He said

that parasites not only numb their hosts but can actually affect their brains so that their hosts

think that the parasite is part of them, and even steer their hosts towards food so that the parasitescan feed themselves. The financial parasites are clearly devouring the productive capacity of the

Earth at tremendous human and environmental cost, and they couldnt do so without controlling

the public mind or the media. Professor Hudson also spoke about the looting of the Savings and

Loans in the 1980s which began the most dramatic period of the criminalization of the financial

industry. A supporter of the AMIs proposed reforms, he advised us to broaden our focus toinclude the fiscal reforms that must accompany monetary reform; the land issue and money

issues are impossible to separate. (Video link of this talk is postedhere-after the article).

Both Professor Keen and Professor Yamaguchi had separately developed complex computer

models to show the dysfunctionality of the current debt-based system, as well as to demonstrate

where reforms could be introduced to remedy the situation. Professor Keens main point was that

credit itself was not bad, depending on what it was created for. When introduced into the system

for productive purposes, it is not harmful, but when introduced to fuel speculation, it can bedisastrous and serves to act as the devouring parasite. He suggested adding other measures to

prohibit parasitic speculation. Professor Yamaguchis model was more complex than Professor

Keens. He showed how the system would work if the AMIs monetary reforms were introduced;

he provided his software to everyone for free to try out and get our feedback. (His model wasalso presented at the plenary session of theSystem Dynamics International Conference in Korea

in July of 2010 to the substantial approval of the audience On the Liquidation of Government

Debt under A Debt-Free Money System-

Modeling the American Monetary Act)(Video links of both talks are postedhere-after thearticle.)

Steven Walsh, who has been studying colonial script, facilitated the group discussion for several

hours to draw out our collective wisdom in identifying goals, obstacles, blocks, language, and
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processes we need to think about if we are to succeed in winning over the public, implementing

monetary reform, and realizing our higher goals. Ben Dyson described his accomplishments and

efforts in the U.K. to convert enemies into allies and gain public support to enact similarlegislative reforms under the banner of Positive Money and a win/win situation for everyone.

Tommy Gregory of the U.S. Department of Agriculture in the National Agricultural StatisticsService and organic farmer Douglas Wolfe examined agricultural issues and how money, parity,

and policy decisions affect farmers, the crops they grow, and consequently human health. The

monetary issue cant really be separated from land and tax issues, since money, land, militaryforce or taxes can be used to force people from the land or enslave and rob them. Today, there

has never been greater inequities, or a concentration of wealth and power in the hands of a few.William Bergman described, in brief, his experiences at the Federal Reserve Bank in Chicago,

and how he viewed the bailout, the winners and the losers.

The participants were as interesting as the speakers. A challenge for the organizers was that there

wasnt enough time for everyone to meet or for all the conversations we wanted to have with

each other. The rule of organizing is that one must double the time one estimates is necessary toaccomplish any task. With monetary reform we have learned from history that there is alwaystremendous opposition, but the current situation offers us a rare opportunity to educate ourselves

and the public and to overcome the obstacles to achieving genuine reform.

Steven Keen also wrote a report on this conference and posted it at his website

www.debtdeflation.comwith links to videos of his presentation, as well as Professor Hudson and

Professor Yamaguchis talks. Here isProfessor Yamaguchi in a video interviewbyJoeBongiovanni and Peter Young.

Dick Distlehorst and Robert Poteat spoke on theCommunity Currencyradio show on

Monetary Reform, Thursday, October 7, 2010. Distlehorst made strong suggestions onactionsthat people can take.

-----------------------------

The Freedom of the Prosperous

Posted onMarch 14, 2011

14 March 2011

To the editors of The Monthly:

It is not particularly surprising to find a venture capitalist with pretensions to ever greater power

writing a floppy paean to a celebrity historian of the Everything-As-It-Is-Is-Greatschoolof

history. There arent many other ways to actually be a celebrity historian these days, or a venturecapitalist for that matter, unless you accept things as they are and explain at length why they
http://www.positivemoney.org.uk/http://www.positivemoney.org.uk/http://www.debtdeflation.com/blogs/2010/10/04/jubilee-shares-and-the-american-monetary-act/http://www.debtdeflation.com/blogs/2010/10/04/jubilee-shares-and-the-american-monetary-act/http://www.youtube.com/user/AmericanMonetaryInst#p/u/6/AfiKM1F1KBAhttp://www.youtube.com/user/AmericanMonetaryInst#p/u/6/AfiKM1F1KBAhttp://www.youtube.com/user/AmericanMonetaryInst#p/u/6/AfiKM1F1KBAhttp://il.youtube.com/user/EconomicStabilityhttp://il.youtube.com/user/EconomicStabilityhttp://il.youtube.com/user/EconomicStabilityhttp://il.youtube.com/user/EconomicStabilityhttp://www.communitycurrency.org/radioshow.htmlhttp://www.communitycurrency.org/radioshow.htmlhttp://www.communitycurrency.org/radioshow.htmlhttp://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/community-currency/2010/10/8/community-currency-100710.htmlhttp://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/community-currency/2010/10/8/community-currency-100710.htmlhttp://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/community-currency/2010/10/8/community-currency-100710.htmlhttp://www.communitycurrency.org/distlehorst.htmlhttp://www.communitycurrency.org/distlehorst.htmlhttp://www.communitycurrency.org/distlehorst.htmlhttp://charlesfairchild.wordpress.com/2011/03/14/the-freedom-of-the-prosperous/http://charlesfairchild.wordpress.com/2011/03/14/the-freedom-of-the-prosperous/http://charlesfairchild.wordpress.com/2011/03/14/the-freedom-of-the-prosperous/http://charlesfairchild.wordpress.com/2011/03/14/the-freedom-of-the-prosperous/http://charlesfairchild.wordpress.com/2011/03/14/the-freedom-of-the-prosperous/http://charlesfairchild.wordpress.com/2011/03/14/the-freedom-of-the-prosperous/http://charlesfairchild.wordpress.com/2011/03/14/the-freedom-of-the-prosperous/http://charlesfairchild.wordpress.com/2011/03/14/the-freedom-of-the-prosperous/http://www.communitycurrency.org/distlehorst.htmlhttp://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/community-currency/2010/10/8/community-currency-100710.htmlhttp://www.communitycurrency.org/radioshow.htmlhttp://il.youtube.com/user/EconomicStabilityhttp://il.youtube.com/user/EconomicStabilityhttp://www.youtube.com/user/AmericanMonetaryInst#p/u/6/AfiKM1F1KBAhttp://www.debtdeflation.com/blogs/2010/10/04/jubilee-shares-and-the-american-monetary-act/http://www.positivemoney.org.uk/


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should be so. Yet Malcolm Turnbulls review of Niall Fergusons latest ode, The Way Things

Are (Huzzah, Huzzah), is remarkable in many respects. It isnt just his painfully obviousconclusion, that prosperity and private property are the mutually reassuring bulwarks of

freedom. Nor is it the apparent fact, assumed but not in evidence, that these appear to be the

only guarantees of freedom to ever exist in history. It isnt even the uncomfortable fact that

Fergusons and Turnbulls works can persist in their singular trajectory despite that dailyreminders of the epic failures of the system they love so deeply. Maybe Ferguson in particular

should take a road trip from his beloved Harvard to Wisconsin and speak to those who have just

lost all rights to bargain for the cost and conditions of their labor.

It is the agonies in Wisconsin that hint at what is most surprising in Turnbulls missive: thecontemporary goliath of what we seem to be calling prosperity from which so many similar tunes

have sprung can not even be remotely regarded as exemplifying the model phenomenon of

liberty he unhesitatingly extols. Like most prosperous places, the United States wealth economic

power did not grow fromfreelabor set to work adding value to private property. As theeconomists and economic historians Michael Hudson and Jeffery Sommers argue, the US is not

alone in this regard:

Most wealth in history has been acquired either by armed conquest ofthe land, or by political

insider dealing, such as the great US railroad landgiveawaysof the mid 19th century. The great

American fortunes have been founded by prying land, public enterprises and monopoly rights

from the public domain, because thats where the assets are to take.

(http://www.counterpunch.org/hudson03112011.html ; see also Hudsons Superimperialism athttp://michael-hudson.com/books/super-imperialism-the-economic-strategy-of-american-

empire/)

The prosperity of the United States was born in large part out of an enormous volume and varietyof free resources worked into exchangeable forms through the slave trade, by colonies of the

poor and indentured on stolen land taken from others who werent thought to be using it properly

if they were recognised to be using it at all. Then when all the free resources were gone, therefollowed closely behind the many very necessary wars waged to keep the prosperous in the

lifestyles to which they have become accustomed. This is the world we have inherited, a world in

which there are virtually no more targets on which the vast system of private wealth in the UScan train its extractive mechanisms except onto the backs of teachers, firefighters and public

employees.

What is most surprising is that your publication, a self-imagined bastion of independent thought,

would even bother with reviewing such a book at such a time by such a correspondent. This is

especially true when there are so many other far more worthy works ofscholarshipwhich

examine in harrowing and illustrative detail the links between Americas prosperity and itsextraordinary systems of unfreedom on which it rests, including the worlds largest prison

system and its many sectors of exploitative, informal, unprotected labor, to take just two

examples you might consider.

Kind regards,
http://charlesfairchild.wordpress.com/2011/03/14/the-freedom-of-the-prosperous/http://charlesfairchild.wordpress.com/2011/03/14/the-freedom-of-the-prosperous/http://charlesfairchild.wordpress.com/2011/03/14/the-freedom-of-the-prosperous/http://charlesfairchild.wordpress.com/2011/03/14/the-freedom-of-the-prosperous/http://charlesfairchild.wordpress.com/2011/03/14/the-freedom-of-the-prosperous/http://charlesfairchild.wordpress.com/2011/03/14/the-freedom-of-the-prosperous/http://www.counterpunch.org/hudson03112011.htmlhttp://www.counterpunch.org/hudson03112011.htmlhttp://www.counterpunch.org/hudson03112011.htmlhttp://michael-hudson.com/books/super-imperialism-the-economic-strategy-of-american-empire/http://michael-hudson.com/books/super-imperialism-the-economic-strategy-of-american-empire/http://michael-hudson.com/books/super-imperialism-the-economic-strategy-of-american-empire/http://charlesfairchild.wordpress.com/2011/03/14/the-freedom-of-the-prosperous/http://charlesfairchild.wordpress.com/2011/03/14/the-freedom-of-the-prosperous/http://charlesfairchild.wordpress.com/2011/03/14/the-freedom-of-the-prosperous/http://charlesfairchild.wordpress.com/2011/03/14/the-freedom-of-the-prosperous/http://michael-hudson.com/books/super-imperialism-the-economic-strategy-of-american-empire/http://michael-hudson.com/books/super-imperialism-the-economic-strategy-of-american-empire/http://www.counterpunch.org/hudson03112011.htmlhttp://charlesfairchild.wordpress.com/2011/03/14/the-freedom-of-the-prosperous/http://charlesfairchild.wordpress.com/2011/03/14/the-freedom-of-the-prosperous/


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Charles Fairchild

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super imperialism

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