Michael Hudson

Overview

Michael Hudson (b. 1939) is an American economist known for his analysis of debt, finance, and economic rent. He frames the modern economy as a contest between productive activity and rent extraction by the FIRE sector (finance, insurance, and real estate), reviving classical and Georgist concerns about unearned income.

Key Work

• Killing the Host (2015) argues that the financial sector increasingly extracts rents — much of it ultimately land rent via mortgage credit — rather than funding productive investment.
• "Finance Capitalism versus Industrial Capitalism" (2021, Review of Radical Political Economics) is the peer-reviewed statement of his thesis.
• He co-authored the 2021 super-stimulus paper with Goodhart, Kumhof, and Tideman, linking his rent analysis to a concrete land-tax policy proposal.

Significance

Hudson connects Georgist land-rent theory to the dynamics of debt and banking, arguing that rising land prices and the credit that funds them are central to financial instability — a view aligned with the 18-year land cycle.

See Also

• Economic Rent · 18-Year Land Cycle · Fred Harrison

Sources

1. Michael Hudson (2015), Killing the Host: How Financial Parasites and Debt Bondage Destroy the Global Economy (book).
2. Michael Hudson (2021), "Finance Capitalism versus Industrial Capitalism," Review of Radical Political Economics.
3. Goodhart, Hudson, Kumhof & Tideman (2021) — wiki summary