When Michael Hudson speaks, I listen. ...and, so do the Chinese. They're not fools.

A couple of Hudson quotes passed by this morning prompting another rambling post.

"...the looming New Cold War is basically a fight between U.S.-sponsored finance capitalism and China's industrial socialism (which basically was the 19th-century program of industrial capitalism)".

"...the Chinese already have huge advantages treating education, public health  and housing as human rights provided by government. They're not driving their students into education and medical debt".

I don't think that a New Cold War is looming. It's here.

ScoMo has put us on the side of U.S.-sponsored finance capitalism. Small minds can't grasp big pictures.

Of course, both sides are in trouble because energy depletion cares nought for any means of production. Any ideology.

Both sides know about energy depletion. It's the underlying driver of the tension between them.

We're still in our denial bubble. It's cosy in there.

The US response to the GFC was to bail everything out with money created out of thin air.

If government had taken ownership, as it was entitled to do, the US would have become the largest socialist country ever (bigger than China, bigger than Russia).

Of course, that wouldn't do for the land of free enterprise. So the government effectively gifted back these bailed out businesses to their shareholders.

At the same time, millions of their citizens lost their homes. They were thrown into the arms of religion which fills the space vacated by their government.

The banks were showered with cash but initially they couldn't be bothered to lend. They weren't hungry. They'd received massive bonuses for buggering everything up.

In the US, government does what Wall Street wants. In China, bankers do what the State demands.

Our banks are owned by the US.

And so, financial capitalism lives on. The rentiers and snake oil salesmen are still hanging off the government teat that, by design, never runs out .

The self appointed leader of the free world is quasi-democratic. Powerful elites run the place to serve their interests. It's moving inexorably to insurrection and economic collapse.

Many of its ruling elites are warlike. Many have one foot in the grave. That's not good.

It's not good, for this quasi-51st State of the Union. It's not good, for this self appointed enemy of China and Russia.