Dr. Michael Hudson was born on March 14, 1939, in Chicago, Illinois. Hudson first received his childhood education at a private school in the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools. Entering the University of Chicago after his high school graduation, Hudson initially started with two majors in Germanic Philology and History. In 1959, Hudson graduated with a bachelor’s degree from the University of Chicago and went on to work as an assistant to Jeremy Kaplan at the Free Press, Chicago. Still, Hudson found that work at the publishing house was neither lucrative nor interested him. Additionally, he had moved to New York, in 1960, in hopes of becoming a pupil of the conductor Dimitris Mitropoulos, after studying music from when he was a child.
However, in 1961, Hudson enrolled at New York University in the Economics Department. He devoted his master’s thesis to the development philosophy of the World Bank, paying special attention to acknowledge policy in the agricultural sector. Later, in 1964, Hudson joined Chase Manhattan’s Bank to engage in as “Balance of Payments Specialist” at the economic research department there.
Involved in his day-to-day tasks, Hudson was expected to pinpoint the payment capacity of Argentina, Brazil, and Chile. Thereafter, using the data, Hudson had to determine the income that the bank could obtain from the accumulated debt of these countries. Thus, Hudson himself proclaims that the experience he gained was priceless on how banks and the financial sector work, in addition to how bank accounting and real-life correlate. Despite this fact, Hudson later left his job at the bank to complete his PhD dissertation. He researched and devoted his thesis to US economic and technological thought in the 19th century. In 1968, his work was successfully defended before being published, in 1975, under the title Economics and Technology in 19th Century American Thought: The Neglected American Economists. Then, Hudson later started working at the accounting firm Arthur Andersen. It is at this firm where he notably proposed dividing US balance of payments figures into governmental and private sectors.
Hudson’s immense experience and expertise can be seen showcased across his body of work. His most notable works include ‘and forgive them their debts’, A Philosophy for a Fair Society, The Bubble and Beyond, J is for Junk Economics, Killing the Host, Super-Imperialism: The Economic Strategy of American Empire, Of The Myth of Aid and Trade, Development and Foreign Debt amongst many others. Hudson is currently the President of the Institute for the Study of Long-Term Economic Trends (ISLET) in addition to being a Wall Street Financial Analyst, and distinguished research professor of economics at the University of Missouri, Kansas City.
