Private equity funds and other Wall Street investors are buying up homes across the US and the West, driving up rent and the cost of living. Economist Michael Hudson explains how these corporate landlords are a result of the system of financialized capitalism, dominated by an unproductive rentier class. He is interviewed by host Ben Norton.
VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJd0d7Uda2M
Transcript: https://www.geopoliticaleconomy.report/p/corporate-landlords-rent-michael-hudson
Part 1 of this interview: https://www.geopoliticaleconomy.report/p/world-us-financial-colonialism-economist-michael-hudson
Read Michael's article "How the Global Majority can free itself from US financial colonialism": https://geopoliticaleconomy.com/2025/07/17/michael-hudson-global-majority-us-financial-colonialism/
Michael's website: https://michael-hudson.com/
Topics
0:00 Cost of living crisis in West
0:30 Blackstone: largest US landlord
1:07 Blackstone CEO is Trump donor
1:49 Investors buy up US homes
2:36 Wall Street buys single-family homes
3:54 Wall Street buys up neighborhoods
5:31 Homelessness rises in USA
6:06 Blackstone buys up homes in Spain
7:34 Introduction to Michael Hudson
9:12 Highlights
10:43 Interview starts
11:58 Feudalism, capitalism, & rentier class
16:58 Adam Smith, David Ricardo, & Karl Marx
19:10 Difference between value, price, & rent
21:33 Bankers, industrialists, & landlords
27:34 Theory of comparative advantage
28:20 Problems with economics education
30:57 Profits vs rent
32:48 Financialization and GDP
37:21 Adam Smith in Beijing
38:47 Peter Thiel defends monopolies
40:20 China's reform and opening up
43:06 China's public ownership of finance
44:25 Need to tax land rent
50:45 China's industrialization
53:54 Passive income (ie, rent seeking)
56:01 Mainstream "junk economics"
59:07 Outro
