Paul Jay's Interview Of Professor Micheal Hudson: "The World Is Tired Of Paying The Bill For The US Military"

Paul Jay interviewed Professor Michael Hudson on Real News recently. Hudson is an ex-Wall Street Economist who is now a Research Professor at the University of Missouri, Kansas City. Hudson is the author of "Super Imperialism: The Origins and Fundamentals of U.S. World Dominance" and "Trade, Development And Foreign Debt".

Hudson starts the interview by saying he was Chase Manhattan's Balance Of Payments Director during the 1960s. During that time and the 70s he was aware the entire balance of payments defecit for the US Government was due to the US Military. Hudson continues saying that during that same time, the entire balance of payments for private business was in balance. Furthermore, the US Government actually ran a surplus with its foreign aid during this period.

Back then, it was the cost of the Vietnam War and the cost of establishing and maintaining bases in Southeast Asia which drove the defecit. In comparison, today the US has over 850 military bases around the world. (If you know anything about Gulf War II, over $12 Billion in US $100 bills (pallet loads of them) "disappeared" with no accounting.) As Hudson points out, we are still giving away free money in Afghanistan with little accounting and little to show for it. Hudson says because of such types of waste, today, "There is a huge deficit in military spending."