dgi – hudson, tyson & keen – 2 20 26
from dgi events via dgi site [https://davidgraeber.institute/sanctions-accelerating-globalization-and-the-global-south/]:
Sanctions, “accelerating globalization,” and the Global South
Event date: February 20 / 2026
Conversation with Michael Hudson, Kathleen Tyson and Steve Keen.
Together, they will discuss:
- Will the Global South break free from dollarized debt?
- How the legacies of imperialism and debt continue to shape the world order;
- What true economic sovereignty for the Global South could look like;
- Practical strategies for rethinking value, debt, and care in a changing world.
These dialogues continue Graeber’s and Hudson’s shared commitment to exposing injustice and imagining new possibilities for global solidarity and economic transformation.
On February 20th at 6pm London time /1 PM New York time Michael Hudson will be joined by Kathleen Tyson and Steve Keen as part of our ongoing dialogues on Sanctions, “accelerating globalization,” and the Global South.
Michael Hudson is President of The Institute for the Study of Long-Term Economic Trends (ISLET), a Wall Street Financial Analyst, Distinguished Research Professor of Economics at the University of Missouri, Kansas City. He is the author of Super-Imperialism: The Economic Strategy of American Empire (Editions 1968, 2003, 2021), ‘and forgive them their debts’ (2018), J is for Junk Economics (2017), Killing the Host (2015), The Bubble and Beyond (2012), Trade, Development and Foreign Debt (1992 & 2009) and of The Myth of Aid (1971), amongst many others.
Kathleen Tyson is Founder and Chief Executive Pacemaker.Global. Central banker, global markets supervisor, global markets plumber (co-inventor Triparty Repo, optimised OTC derivatives margin, modernisations of capital markets infrastructures and central banks, etc.). Author of Multicurrency Mercantilism: The New International Monetary Order (2023, London). The world transitions from the unilateral hegemonic dominance of US dollar to a multicurrency, multipolar global economy where contracting parties have optionality of many currencies for trade or credit.
Steve Keen is an economist and author. He is a vocal critic of neoclassical economics, which he believes relies on flawed models that overlook the inherent instability of financial systems. He is a Distinguished Research Fellow at University College London and has previously held positions at the University of Western Sydney and Kingston University. Steve was one of the rare economists to predict and publicly warn us of the 2008 financial crisis. Steve’s books, including “Debunking Economics” and his popular YouTube channel, have been crucial in helping us understand the nature of banks and money itself.
notes/quotes from livestream:
sk: topic of impact of globalization
kt: worried at begin of this decade.. moving toward new monetary order.. so published – multi-currency capitalism – movements happening faster than people expected.. moving payments out of banks into currencies they prefer.. trumps unpredictability even forcing allies to reconsider trade currencies.. all happening at speed.. we do need to build a new infra.. i will be trying to do that
sk: all this is saying trade is better than self sufficiency.. theory of comparative advantage.. that trade increases welfare.. i’m taking this on this year.. a way to alt.. fin and physical capital can’t be interchanged like they claim.. to specialize you have to move machinery from one place to another.. now trump is weaponizing the dollar.. very good reason to move away from american system.. non us dollar globalization quickly replacing it
mh: i spent 70s teaching at new school.. and used ricardo’s theory.. basis of free trade and maths underlying it.. all countries become more equal.. but real tendency.. economies polarize.. ricardo’s theory is declaration of war against other countries that don’t have the banking class.. so he didn’t include whole role of debt.. rest of world running into deepening debt.. result is .. more and more of own is spent on paying debts to foreign countries.. us doesn’t have trouble with that because in own currency.. but if not in own currency.. can’t create money to pay off debts.. so inability to pay foreign debts so.. others withdrawing.. marco rubio: now rejecting whole un principle of having to pay attention to other countries.. and having them tell us what to do.. us over playing its hand.. ie: we make the rules .. that are going to put america first.. like 1950s.. but then unable to do it critical mass.. but now.. for first time.. each can establish own econ order.. allocation of money/credit as public utility.. only creating productive credit.. today’s fight is trying to protect selves from american neo futilism..
kt: my goal was to fix poverty.. ended up going to wall st and globalized the dollar.. 2003 was a turning pt for me.. iraq war.. since then i’ve been looking to how we can fix the world.. 1\ move away from dollar 2\ move to natural flow 3\ credit where does more good than bad.. will be interesting to watch the reset .. viva 2 key characteristics of formula .. if they use it.. all happening in real time very quickly and it’s fun to watch
mh: i don’t think debts can be paid by current system.. need a jubilee.. put first: our econ or paying others
kt: i’m going to be more optimistic .. in egypt 2024.. 530am going thru desert and say an irrigation rig.. 2022 started growing own food because of ukraine.. using mod tech that’s come out of china.. egypt already on path to produce more food than anyone thought possible.. increased econ by localizing.. it’s not as hopeless..
sk: good to hear about food.. challenge to global warming is at some pt going to be global famines..
mh: core theory in world bank.. keep others from being self sufficient in producing food.. us installed dictators with specific aim of stopping land reform.. so countries like chile in most fertile land in world having lowest farm productivity.. so this agri reform in whole array of govt services.. so don’t have monopoly systems like in us.. agri in us is a disaster.. that’s why trump keeps giving it more credit to hold the vote.. america provides ie of what other countries want to avoid
kt: i do think rest of world is cooperating a lot more.. putin building 20 new unis for 10k each.. he intends to ed global east and south.. interesting russia was largest import of food.. now exporter.. russian ability to out produce.. and stockpile during a famine.. china/russian now actively engaged in sharing govt and giving world more options.. sovereignty is defined by optionality.. taking choices that are in your best interest independent of others opinions
oi.. the finite set of choices of decision making is unmooring us.. keeping us from us..
we have means to go so much deeper
sk: this craziness now i think is the end of the american money.. but also has power to demolish rest of planet..
mh: trump is breaking up american world order.. forcing other countries to become independent.. not that they are reading our books.. they are trying to reinvent the wheel.. w/o any review of all of the history that you and i have talked about
kt: i don’t think that’s entirely fair.. europe doesn’t invite new thinking or look outside borders.. so will impose a sub optimal system.. europe’s problem.. you have to think differently.. i don’t see enough of that..
sk: i just hope out of all this chaos trump has caused.. we’ll be able to go back to a system that existed before america distorted it (64?)
kt: i’m not in favor of any synthetic currencies.. sterling should have fallen out.. but rigged it so sterling stayed in .. re weighting in 2027 will be litmus test.. is it viable to have any synthetic unit of account that isn’t rigged.. because they will rig it again.. it worked until the 90s..
what worked.. oooof
kt: when i was building the infra in use today.. avg 14.5 trillion.. i built them once i can build them again.. tech now is 25 yrs along.. i did reserve bank of india platform 2014.. it globalized all of india.. largest in world.. very diverse.. where everything done on paper to full time transparent/interoperable platform.. i globalized that to 14 more banks.. so i’m quite positive we can do things.. but we do have to build new infra.. things i didn’t see as gatekeepers i do now.. keeping rest of world down/out.. so yes.. need new infra.. but i know how to do it..
sk: but needs inter national agreement to do that..
kt: but you don’t need it.. we didn’t have a treaty to make clearstream (what she said earlier was a gatekeeper).. we don’t need new treaty/laws/govts to build new system and have banks adopt it.. they’ll do it.. build it .. they will come.. esp since sanction free jurisdiction
kt: on using tarriffs so separate people into friends, neutral, foes.. 90% of costs of tarriffs.. which are tax.. was born by us.. so it’s a cost on us econ.. it did restructure foreign trade.. ie: china going elsewhere for customers..
raymond in chat: @RaymondLi604Seems the problem with understanding modern economy & systems is that it requires too much “loaded context” b4 it becomes productive to discuss effective & efficiently
ha.. aka: whalespeak ness
@RaymondLi604It’s like a multi-million line codebase. No one coder can understand it all. And impossible to explain it via verbal or thru podcasts. Much less debug it, improve it, etc
@RaymondLi604 another reason why we need to try something legit different
mh: nice to meet you kathleen.. your plans seem plausible..
kt: happy to send you a book.. it was meant to calm things down.. i tried to be optimistic..
mh: please do
nika: very hard to be optimistic.. what we need
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be you. 