Debt Parasitism And The Collapse Of Antiquity

michael-hudson  |  The Collapse of Antiquity, the sequel to Michael Hudson’s “…and forgive them their debts,” is the latest in his trilogy on the history of debt. It describes how the dynamics of interest-bearing debt led to the rise of rentier oligarchies in classical Greece and Rome. This caused economic polarization, widespread austerity, revolts, wars and ultimately the collapse of Rome into serfdom and feudalism. That collapse bequeathed to the subsequent Western civilization a pro-creditor legal philosophy that has led to today’s creditor oligarchies.

In telling this story, The Collapse of Antiquity reveals the eerie parallels between the collapsing Roman world and today’s debt-burdened Western economies. 

Endorsements

“In this monumental work, Michael Hudson overturns what most of us were taught about Athens and Sparta, Greece and Rome, Caesar and Cicero, indeed about kings and republics. He exposes the roots of modern debt peonage and crises in the greed and violence of antiquity’s oligarch-creditors, embedded in their laws, which in the end destroyed the civilizations of classical antiquity.”
James K. Galbraith, author of Welcome to the Poisoned Chalice: The Destruction of Greece and the Future of Europe.

“In this fascinating book, Hudson explores the rise of the predatory rentier oligarchies of classical Greece and Rome. He makes a fascinating and persuasive case that the trap of debt led to the destruction of the peasantry, the states and ultimately even these civilizations.”
Martin Wolf, Chief Economics Commentator, Financial Times.

“Michael Hudson is an old school, 19th-century classical economist who puts fact before theory. To read his new book, The Collapse of Antiquity, is to learn why and how it has come to pass that we live in a world in which the money owns the people, not the people who own the money. The clarity of Hudson’s thought is like water in a desert, his history lesson therefore a sad story that is a joy to read.”
Lewis Lapham, editor of Lapham’s Quarterly.

Scope

The Collapse of Antiquity is vast in its sweep, covering:
• the transmission of interest-bearing debt from the Ancient Near East to the Mediterranean world, but without the “safety valve” of periodic royal Clean Slate debt cancellations to restore economic balance and prevent the emergence of creditor oligarchies;
• the rise of creditor and landholding oligarchies in classical Greece and Rome;
• classical antiquity’s debt crises and revolts, and the suppression, assassination and ultimate failure of reformers;
• the role played by greed, money-lust (wealth-addiction) and hubris, as analysed by Socrates, Plato, Aristotle and other ancient writers;
• Rome’s “End Time” collapse into serfdom and pro-creditor oligarchic legacy that continues to shape the West;
• the transformation of Christianity as it became Rome’s state religion, supporting the oligarchy, dropping the revolutionary early Christian calls for debt cancellation and changing the meaning of the Lord’s Prayer and “sin,” from a focus on the economic sphere to the personal sphere of individual egotism;
• how pro-creditor ideology distorts recent economic interpretations of antiquity, showing increasing sympathy with Rome’s oligarchic policies.

Backcover

Rome’s collapse was the forerunner of the debt crises, economic polarization and austerity caused by subsequent Western oligarchies. The West’s pro-creditor laws and ideology inherited from Rome make inevitable repeated debt crises, transferring control of property and government to financial oligarchies.

Classical antiquity’s great transition to the modern world lay in replacing kingship not with democracies but with oligarchies having a pro-creditor legal philosophy. That philosophy permits creditors to draw wealth, and thereby political power, into their own hands, without regard for restoring economic balance and long-term viability as occurred in the Ancient Near East through Clean Slates.

Rome’s legacy to subsequent Western civilization is thus the structure of creditor oligarchies, not democracy in the sense of social structures and policies promoting widespread prosperity.

 

The Earth's Magnetic Field And Global Climate Crisis

npr  |   An ancient, well-preserved tree that was alive the last time the Earth's magnetic poles flipped has helped scientists pin down more precise timing of that event, which occurred about 42,000 years ago.

This new information has led them to link the flipping of the poles to key moments in the prehistoric record, like the sudden appearance of cave art and the mysterious extinction of large mammals and the Neanderthals. They argue that the weakening of the Earth's magnetic field would have briefly transformed the world by altering its climate and allowing far more ultraviolet light to pour in.

 

Their provocative analysis, in the journal Science, is sure to get researchers talking. Until now, scientists have mostly assumed that magnetic field reversals didn't matter much for life on Earth — although some geologists have noted that die-offs of large mammals seemed to occur in periods when the Earth's magnetic field was weak.

The Earth is a giant magnet because its core is solid iron, and swirling around it is an ocean of molten metal. This churning creates a huge magnetic field, one that wraps around the planet and protects it from charged cosmic rays coming in from outer space.

 Sometimes, for reasons scientists do not fully understand, the magnetic field becomes unstable and its north and south poles can flip. The last major reversal, though it was short-lived, happened around 42,000 years ago.

This reversal is called the Laschamp excursion, after lava flows in France that contain bits of iron that are basically pointed the wrong way. Volcanic activity back then, during the flip, produced this distinctive iron signature as the molten lava cooled and locked the iron into place. Iron molecules embedded in sediments around the world also captured a record of this magnetic wobble, which unfolded over about a thousand years.

"Even though it was short, the North Pole did wander across North America, right out towards New York, actually, and then back again across to Oregon," says Alan Cooper, an evolutionary biologist with Blue Sky Genetics and the South Australian Museum. He explains that it "then zoomed down through the Pacific really fast to Antarctica and hung out there for about 400 years and then shot back up through the Indian Ocean to the North Pole again."

The Collapse Of A Previous Civilization Which Became Extinct Before Noah's Flood?

dailymail |  'The Adam and Eve story', a 1966 work by former US Air Force employee Chan Thomas, was only partially published until recently when censored sections of the book were released for the first time in more than 50 years. 

In the remarkable text, Thomas claims Jesus lived with the Naga tribe in Northern India for almost 18 years in the period of his life which isn't mentioned in the Bible.

'Curiously enough there was a tribe in the extreme north of India called the Naga tribe,' Thomas wrote.

'They told the British of Jesus' having been there as a late-teenager-young-adult who attended the Nacaal Temple as a student and graduate of the temple.' 

According to Thomas, Jesus was considered a 'genius' by the Naga people and spent ten to 15 years learning to speak and write the local language.  

Thomas says Jesus's last words were actually spoken in the Naga language and he translates them as 'I am fainting, I am fainting, darkness is overcoming me'. 

In another section of the book Thomas also claims that Jesus was abducted by aliens on Easter Sunday and says two 'angels came to earth in their space vehicle to take care of the aftermath of Jesus' crucifixion'.

It then goes on to say that the Genesis story is actually a parable about the collapse of a previous civilization, in an extinction event before Noah's Flood.

Thomas begins the book with dedications to several US generals who are famous among conspiracy theorists for their covert work during the Cold War.

According to the Daily Star, the name 'The Adam and Eve Story' comes from Thomas's view that the book of Genesis is really a parable about the collapse of a previous civilisation which became extinct before Noah's flood.  

 

 

 

This Peculiar Adam And Eve Story Was In The News Before Subrealism Came Off Hiatus...,

reddit |  Just as we have seen with KGB declassifying huge amounts of formerly-classified "Tartaria" documents, apparantly the CIA had some special interest in "The Adam & Eve Story". It is basically a "research paper" explaining various earth-cycle catastrophes. It is pertinent to "missing time" and "history falsification" theories, and presumes many technologically-advanced ancient civilizations existed before us.

NOTE: The actual CIA dossier on the "Adam & Eve Story" also includes lots of peripheral documents up front, so skip to around pages 19-24 if you want a quick glance at the pertinent section.

Here is what u/^redacted sent me:

There is insurmountable evidence that we are the 6th advanced civilization to exist upon this earth, each time getting wiped out by a calamity. I've wondered why America has long had the Smithsonian cover up many ancient artifacts that don't fit their narrative, such as the hieroglyphs in the grand canyon, or the bones of giants all over America, but then I realized the truth rather recently... control. The CIA just declassified a document called [The Adam and Eve Story] (https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP79B00752A000300070001-8.pdf) which is about exactly this. Nobody is quite sure who wrote it, however it appears to be written by a scientist working for the government deciphering ancient texts then stumbling upon a terrible fact, that every 5-6-thousand years, the strength of the poles wane and begin to change positions and when this occurs, the mantle keeping our landmass in it's current position turns to jelly, causing the landmasses to be pulled 90-degrees, while the water on the earth stays put, like dropping an object into a glass of water then spinning the glass in a circle... water stay's put while the world around it moves. So, the world as we know it is obliterated in days, submerged under the ocean for 40-days (ala Tale of Gilgamesh, or Noah and the ark) until the poles finish their shift at which point the North pole becomes the South and vice versa. I believe that the rest of the story which was redacted tells of the survivors having to live in caves and resort to cannibalism to survive. I believe it's why the Aztec and N.American Indians both tell of a white man visiting them and giving them seeds to grow and teaching them how to harvest. I also believe those in power know this, and want to keep is a secret knowing full well that if they don't, they might have massive riots and won't be able to keep their "livestock" docile. What better way to fool the masses than to make them think they are being saved (such as the boats in the movie 2012), when in reality they are being taken to a facility where they will be used to feed the elite? How long will it take to regrow enough vegetation on Earth to not resort to cannibalism? Do some research on [our poles currently moving rapidly now!] (https://www.smalljoys.tv/earths-magnetic-poles/) Then read up on all the elite politicians and leaders visiting Antarctica now! I couldn't find any credible links, which is odd due to how many have been going up there, from the Pope, to John Kerry, to major leaders.