Prof. Michael Hudson’s new book, The Collapse of Antiquity: Greece and Rome as Civilization’s Oligarchic Turning Point” is a seminal event in this Year of Living Dangerously when, to paraphrase Gramsci, the old geopolitical and geoeconomic order is dying and the new one is being born at breakneck speed.
Prof. Hudson’s main thesis is absolutely devastating: he sets out to prove that economic/financial practices in Ancient Greece and Rome – the pillars of Western Civilization – set the stage for what is happening today right in front of our eyes: an empire reduced to a rentier economy, collapsing from within.
And that brings us to the common denominator in every single Western financial system: it’s all about debt, inevitably growing by compound interest.
Ay, there’s the rub: before Greece and Rome, we had nearly 3,000 years of civilizations across West Asia doing exactly the opposite.
These kingdoms all knew about the importance of canceling debts. Otherwise their subjects would fall into bondage; lose their land to a bunch of foreclosing creditors; and these would usually try to overthrow the ruling power.
Aristotle succinctly framed it: “Under democracy, creditors begin to make loans and the debtors can’t pay and the creditors get more and more money, and they end up turning a democracy into an oligarchy, and then the oligarchy makes itself hereditary, and you have an aristocracy.”
Prof. Hudson sharply explains what happens when creditors take over and “reduce all the rest of the economy to bondage”: it’s what’s called today “austerity” or “debt deflation”......more below
https://sputnikglobe.com/20230515/pepe-escobar-us-empire-of-debt-headed-for-collapse-1110374196.html
Civilian agencies were used to mask defense-related research, Major General Aleksey Rtishchev has said
The US Agency for International Development (USAID) could have been involved in testing pharmaceutical drugs on Ukrainians, a senior Russian military official said on Friday. The agency was officially closed by the administration of US President Donald Trump this summer.
According to Major General Aleksey Rtishchev, the head of Russia’s Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Protection Troops, US officials have acknowledged defense-related work at biological laboratories in Ukraine.
He named, among others, former National Security Council spokesman John Kirby, former senior State Department official Victoria Nuland, and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Rtishchev noted that Cornell University organic chemistry professor Dave Collum told American journalist Tucker Carlson in.......more below
Certain jabs can cause immune cells to attack the body, leading to myocarditis and pericarditis, particularly in young men, scientists say
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12 Dec, 2025 14:36
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Covid vaccines linked to heart damage – study
Certain jabs can cause immune cells to attack the body, leading to myocarditis and pericarditis, particularly in young men, scientists say
Covid vaccines linked to heart damage – study
FILE PHOTO. Doctor prepares vaccine syringe. © Getty Images / Luis Alvarez
Certain Covid-19 vaccines can trigger immune responses that may inflame heart tissue and lead to potentially fatal complications in rare cases, with young men being especially susceptible, according to a new study.
The paper, authored by Stanford University researchers and published in the Science Translational Medicine journal, examined why some patients developed myocarditis or pericarditis after receiving mRNA...
Caracas has accused the US of seeking to overthrow the government under the guise of an anti-drug campaign
The US could begin land strikes targeting alleged Venezuela-linked drug operations “pretty soon,” President Donald Trump has said, while claiming to have almost completely stopped narcotics inflow by sea. Venezuela has vehemently denied having any links to drug cartels.
Speaking to reporters at the White House on Friday, Trump claimed Venezuela-linked maritime drug trafficking had dropped by 92%, saying US forces were “knocking out drugs at levels that nobody’s ever seen before.” “We knocked out 96% of the drugs coming in by water,” he added, later asserting, “It's going to be starting on land pretty soon.”
The US leader, however, provided no details on potential targets or the scope of the operation.
Since September, US forces have significantly ramped up military presence in.....more below
https://www.rt.com/news/629412-trump-teases-land-strikes-venezuela/
