Global Fracture: The New International Economic Order

It is not possible to understand the extent or gravity of today's global debt-derivatives crisis without the historical analysis of Dr. Michael Hudson's book. This book is an unblinking look at the ugly underside of a dollarized world economic system. But note: the "Global Fracture" it describes is not the present debt-derivatives crisis. This book drills deep into the original sin of the breakdown of the Bretton Woods system: the 1971 US repudiation of the gold standard for settlements by Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger. This led to the destabilization and tumultuous replacement of gold settlements by the present paper-based global exchange system based on US dollars and US debt instruments that can never be repaid. Originally published in 1977, this updated edition describes the postwar history of the dollar-based Bretton Woods system and its degeneration into today's exclusively debt-backed sovereign pyramid scheme. So be aware the book is about the beginnings of this mess in the 1970s -- it only tangentially summarizes the present grave risk of the system completely unraveling due to abuse, fraud, systemic corruption, oligarchy, and unilateralism. It's also interesting to note that many primary perpetrators of the gold repudiation of 1971 are still the central powerbrokers today -- Henry Kissinger foremost of all. This is serious world economic history and analysis, not a glib gloss like Tom Friedman's globo-touts or an anecdotal personal perspective like John Perkins' "Confessions of an Economic Hitman." It's deeply incisive and far from 'economically correct. Read this to understand the true depth and complexity of the dollar meltdown, whose roots are to be found with the financial schemes and diktats of Kissinger and Nixon in the 1970s. This Nixon-era economic warfare aimed at forcing the EU and ASEAN to hold paper dollars and compel resource producers like OPEC to accept a US check at gunpoint for commodities. Hudson's career began as a national economist at Chase 40 years ago -- where he analyzed developing countries' resources and debt carrying capacity in order to load them with all the debt they could bear. But he evolved into an unflinching if strident critic of the entire international debt framework and the fatal burden it imposes on the Third World. Most recently Hudson was chief economic advisor to Rep. Dennis Kucinich during Kucinich's 2008 presidential candidacy.