Selling oil is one thing. Getting paid in something you can use is another. A country can run a trade surplus and still find itself holding another government's debt, a depreciating currency or reserves vulnerable to sanctions.
In this conversation with Kathleen Tyson at the David Graeber Institute, Michael Hudson examines the practical problems behind de-dollarization. Gold offers an asset that is nobody else's debt, but it cannot by itself provide the credit and payment arrangements needed to keep international trade moving.
Their differences make this exchange particularly useful. Hudson asks what institutions could settle international balances without imposing austerity. Tyson favors a wider range of bilateral arrangements, allowing countries to work out payments around the resources and productive capacity they actually have.
The discussion also considers how resource exporters could keep more of the income generated by their production. Refining oil or processing minerals domestically changes what a country earns and what it needs to import. Hudson connects that industrial question to the financial one: escaping dependence requires greater control over both production and the terms of payment.
Hosted by Nika Dubrovsky.