Workers were promised that rising house prices and pension investments would give them a stake in financial prosperity. Michael Hudson examines the bargain: their retirement savings could help finance corporate takeovers that stripped assets and undermined the jobs those workers depended on.
Speaking with Robinson Erhardt, Michael follows this process from hospital sale-and-leaseback deals to the privatization of public infrastructure. Owners gain income streams while the businesses and households using those assets face new charges. A growing financial fortune can therefore reflect a growing burden on production.
The conversation also returns to the classical economists' efforts to reduce the cost of living by curbing unearned income. Michael considers why that project was abandoned in the West, how China retained a larger role for public investment, and where its own property bubble exposes unresolved problems with land and finance.