A revolutionary take on a massive set of problems: Capitalism's failings and today's global economic crisis.
Every Saturday, Economics Professor Richard D. Wolff and guests discuss the current state of the economy, both locally and globally in relation to the economic crisis. They focus on wages, jobs, taxes, and debts - and on interest rates, prices, and profits. The goal is to explain why certain economic changes are happening and other changes get postponed or blocked and they will explore alternative ways to organize enterprises, markets, and government policies.
The show is for people who want to understand and change not only their own financial situation but also the larger economy we all depend on.
This project is made possible because of a partnership between Truthout, Professor Wolff and 99.5 FM WBAI, New York City's Pacifica radio station.
Show Archive:
2014:
January 2nd
Updates on Wisconsin's public employees, the GRAT tax evasion, and the last 50 years of the "War on Poverty." Major discussions of the FED's "taper program," the Boulder, CO vote to produce electricity production itself, and evaluating 20 years of NAFTA. Response to emailed question on AIG bailout and its results.
2013:
December 26th
Updates on dangers in anti-bacterial soap, South African union to start socialist party, Germans retire abroad, billionaires' whims shape health care. Major discussions of Obamacare and alternatives to capitalist bank scandals. Responses to emails on worker coops in US and on "regulated capitalism."
December 19th
Updates on bee-killing pesticides; movements against austerity and inequality in Chile, New York and Italy; university presidents' six-figure pay packages vs. adjuncts' exploitation; rejecting pay cuts; Minnesota's orchestra reforms as worker coop. Wolff interviews NYU professor Juan Flores on deepening economic crisis in Puerto Rico. Responses to questions about bitcoins and exceptions to constitutions that "guarantee" contracts.
December 12th
Struggles Over the Welfare State
Updates on the tentative budget deal in Congress, psychiatrists refusing insurance and austerity's terrible toll on Ireland. Interview with Yale History Prof. Jennifer Klein on rise, fall and possible rise again of the US welfare state and organized labor. Response to questions on possibilities of worker take-over of Boeing in Seattle.
December 5th
Updates on Detroit's and Illinois's attacks on public employee pensions, minimum wages, tiny Middle East oil countries take over global air travel, job openings vs. unemployed, and companies' profit-driven hustles of dangerous flame-retardant chemicals. Major discussions of (1) redistribution policies versus not distributing unequally in the first place and (2) capitalism's uneven development. Response to emails on free trade's consequences, robotics/less labor versus doing labor differently, and government repression against opponents of austerity policies.
November 21st
Updates on key economic causes of Obamacare difficulties, risks of global deflation, Madrid's garbage strike, and the $13 billion settlement with JP Morgan Chase. Interview with Prof Sheila D. Collins on new book about lessons from the New Deal for today's crisis. Response to listeners on super PACs and issues of socialism.
November 14th
"There Is No Recovery ... and the Policy Is Not Working"
Updates on Janet Yellen, minimum wages, Twitter, and the Cuba trade embargo. Major discussions of a bankruptcy inside Mondragón and "private" universities that aren't. Response to questions on full employment and inflation.
November 7th
Updates on big banks' manipulation of foreign exchange market; Ireland pays for bank bailouts; Big Pharma guilty of "recklessly endangering health"; a new book on US poverty. Major discussions of economics education as Manchester University students protest; unemployment and falling share of labor in total national income. Response to frustrated listener's question about obstacles to needed change with focus on de Blasio mayoral victory in New York; and Richmond, California mayor's use of eminent domain.
October 31st
Updates on Goldman Sachs charity/PR, bank scandals, housing "recovery" exposed, suicides rise in Kansas and a Benedictine Nun that is leading the new anti-austerity party in Catalonia. Major discussions of public banking (as in North Dakota) and the basic analysis of continuing "austerity" policies around the world. Response to questions on nature, impact, and injustice of US property taxes.
October 24th
Worker Enterprises in Bolivia, New Party in Spain
Updates on big banks' misdeeds, inadequate health care, the social costs of low wages and Nobel prizes in economics. Major discussions about poverty and education and important economic events on Bolivia (workers taking over enterprises), Spain (indignados form new political Party X), and China (raising value of yuan to change China's and world's economy). Response to questions on (1) how Great Recession affects retirees and retirement, and (2) latest data on the highest incomes in US.
October 17th
Updates on France's case against Amazon, and on what's really in fast food chicken nuggets. Major discussions on lasting inequality in US cities like New Haven and the economics of the "medical-industrial complex" in the US. Response to listeners concerning the economic aspects of the attack against the City College of San Francisco.
October 10th
Updates on world wealth distribution, Swiss referenda to reduce economic inequality, and capitalism vs. democracy. Major discussions on uneven development's impact on migration and on critique of national debt as matter of "a selfish generation" or "living beyond our means."
October 3rd
Updates on meaning of government shutdown and possible default; new French law gives workers say on selling companies; biggest billionaire US land-owners; grocery store evidence show no "recovery" in US economy. Major discussions on costs and consequences of profit-driven capitalist enterprises versus workers self-directed enterprises. Response to questions on (1) Germany's September 22 elections and (2) whether Obamacare, if passed, would at least guarantee health insurance to America's poorest.
September 26th
Updates on buying politics, an adjunct's story, women in the US economy, and cutting mental health spending. Major discussions of "debt ceiling" maneuvers in Washington and meaning of Bangladesh workers' demonstrations. Response to listeners on the meanings of cutting need-based state help for students and San Jose, CA's fiscal crisis.
September 19th
Updates on big FED decisions; Yale and other rich folks; Polish, Columbian and Greek workers fight back; and taxpayers subsidize Walmart. Interview Sarah Jaffe on low paid US workers mobilizing. Response to listeners on (1) Michigan take-over of Pontiac and impact on all workers and (2) new statistics show "recovery" has only been for top 1%.
July 2nd
Capitalism's Social Costs
Updates on Obamacare's "penalties," a Parisian suicide, neglect of community colleges, and how inequality worsens itself. Interview with psychotherapist Dr. Harriet Fraad on why US workers don't fight against their economic decline. Response to listener's question on how to prevent socialism from deforming into Stalinism.
June 27th
Economic Realities
Updates on G8 and Bernanke "shows", Turkey vs Brazil protests, Europe's austerity, drug companies "pay to delay." Major discussions of crisis in financing public education and of lotteries as disguised tax increases. Responses to listener questions on job losses from progress, worker coops' survivability, capitalism and democracy, and campaign financing reform.
June 21st
Capitalism and Democracy
Updates on pay gaps, Alabama bankruptcy, Minnesota lockout, Greek lockout. Discussions of capitalism and democracy, "pure" capitalism, and capitalism's historical shifts. Comments on listeners' questions: workers' owning vs. directing and tax-exempt vs. non-profit.
June 8th
Capitalism's Costs
Updates on Disney's price hikes, Portugal's unions' general strike, Chinese buy US biggest pork processor, low-wage retail workers fighting in Seattle, General Petraeus goes corporate, and income/wealth inequality in US. Detailed discussions of (1) why technical progress fails to ease work burdens in capitalism, and (2) why/how US "recovery" is so uneven as well as fragile. Response to listeners on anarchism and on Chinese solar panels.
May 31st
Labor, Unions and Crisis
Updates on corporate globalization, Philly schools, paid vacation law(?), the Cadillac Tax. Interview with Stanley Aronowitz on labor, unions and the left. Responses to listeners on higher ed economics and US income inequality.
May 24th
A Journalist's Perspective
Updates on changing US retirement ages, Pope Francis's anti-capitalism, inequality inside countries, unionists march in Rome, public schools being savaged. Interview with independent journalist and writer Laura Flanders of GritTV. Response to listeners questions on Apple Computer's exposure as major tax evader.
May 21st
Measuring Capitalism's Results
Updates on Google caught evading taxes, food stamp nation, public higher ed crisis. Major discussions on the US medical-industrial complex and the meaning of Bangladesh's building collapse. Responses to listener questions on anarchism and economics of private property.
May 7th
Mayday and Labor
Updates on Bangladesh tragedy, drug price gouging, CEO pay and OSHA; discussion of labor strategy then and now; comments on markets, private property and scapegoating government.
May 2nd
Crisis/Individual Lives
Economic updates of airline delays, minimum wages for tipped workers, global military spending, and profit-driven Bangladesh building collapse. Interview with Barbara Garson on new book, Down the Up Escalator. Comments on new coop restaurant, unemployment office blues, and risks of deflation.
April 23rd
Tax Truths
Updates on Europeans limiting CEO pay, Chileans demonstrate for free education, many countries with higher tax rates for the rich than in US, and UNICEF report on cild welfare in US vs other countries. Major analyses of the social security/payroll tax system, property tax on stocks and bonds, Alaska suffers economic blackmail. Listeners questions on inflation, military spending, and useful sources of economic analysis.
May 16th
Interview With Chris Hedges on the Coming Social Turmoil
Updates on CEO pay, the assault on social security, Maggie Thatcher, and "job creation." Interview with Chris Hedges on deepening social crisis, divisions, and turmoil coming. Response to listeners: on French socialists, hidden money, and workers coops paying taxes.
April 9th
Economic Reality Checks
Updates on "recovery," No. Dakota's public bank, costs of US wars, global austerity, and rising health care costs for employees. Major discussions of banking crisis, Stockton, CA bankruptcy, declining US manufacturing and "neutrality on raising corporations' taxes. WSDEs: Mexican tire factor run by workers since 2005; responses to questions on "pure" capitalism and business reactions to resource limits.
April 2nd
Economic Update: Economics and Capitalism
Updates on Cyprus's extreme austerity, equal justice and markets, falling job quality, and capitalism's impact on China. In-depth discussions of how worker coops can get needed capital and on basic flaw in economic education at college and university levels. Response to listeners' questions on printing money and inflation and on teachers' self-directed schools.
March 26th
Economic Update: Fighting Economic Injustice
Updates on important lessons of Cyprus crisis, big bucks for Wells Fargo CEO, the home finance crisis, and real fur faked. Interview with Keith Harrington on organizing for a changed, new economic system. Analysis of South Mountain Co, a workers coop; response to questions on Obamacare and on minimum wage debate.
March 20th
Economic Update: Guest Victor Wallis
Professor Wolff is joined by Victor Wallis to discuss ecology and economics comparing capitalist and socialist responses to environmental crisis. Part 2 deals with Keynesian economics as a theory that clashes with both the mainstream economics ("neoclassical") that celebrates private capitalism and with critical theories such as Marxian economics that are opposed to capitalism.
March 12th
Economic Update: Capitalism, Critiques and Alternatives
Updates on defeats for Walmart, recovery for the tiny minority, Qatar royalty buys, and European moves to limit exec pay and tax financial transactions. Analysis of capitalism's history, its critics, and the alternatives they proposed. Discussion of workers' cooperative in Wisconsin and an analysis of the difference between capitalist competition and competition among cooperatives.
February 26th
Profit, Austerity and Criticizing the System
Updates on profit-driven scandals (horsemeat in Europe and fish in US); how long we work, Correa's anti-austerity victory in Ecuador, and getting public benefits for public investment in sports stadiums. Major analyses of "internship" in US business and the basic contribution of Marxian economics. Description of Colorado worker self-directed enterprise and response to listeners on (a) mutual decision-making between residential communities and worker coops' and (b) critique of Marxian debates on crisis causes.
February 19th
Updates on worker takeover of Greek factory, minimum wage debate, and European horsemeat scandal. Detailed analyses of Post Office cutbacks, economics of educational decline, and paying for war with taxes. Comments on Cambridge, MA workers who reopen and run pizza closed by capitalist owners; responses on relation of capitalism and democracy and labor as source of all value.
February 12th
Lessons from Megabanks’ Megascandals
Updates on big bank misdeeds, internet provider monopoly, and social effects of unemployment. Critical analysis of proposal to break up big banks, capitalism and the tomato industry, and expose of real goals of austerity policies. Response to listeners with example of successful worker coop (WSDE), Union Cabs of Madison, WI., differences between ESOPs and WSDEs, and beginning of analysis of how WSDE’s raise the capital they need to start and continue.
January 28th
Economic Update: Beyond Austerity to Economic Democracy
Updates on global capital's devastating moves and on the FED's huge recent expansion of the money supply. Interview with Prof. Jan Rehmann: a Gramscian analysis of the Occupy movement. Response to listeners (1) how transition to workers self-directed enterprises (WSDEs) would change education and (2) an example of WSDEs today, New Era Windows of Chicago.
January 20th
Economic Update: Economics and Banking
Updates on Gerard Depardieu's individual tax evasion, corporate tax evasion via profit repatriation, worst CEOs of 2012, and phony DC "debt-ceiling" theatrics. Discussion of Swiss bank crimes, Keynesian vs Marxian economics, political turmoil in 2013, and criticism of markets. Response to question on new capital gains taxes.
January 14th
Economic Update: Contending Economic Theories
Trying a new format, we use the full hour to examine the two basic kinds of economic theory mostly widely used now to understand economic issues. On one side, the dominant mainstream theories ("neoclassical economics" and "Keynesian economics")celebrate the capitalist economic system. On the other side, Marxian economics is the dominant critical theory of capitalism whose premiss is that society can do better than capitalism.
January 8th
Economic Update: Our Unjust Federal Tax System
Updates on how the new US tax deal favors the rich, deepening student loan problems, and how 2012 benefited billionaires. Analysis of possible conversion from a war-oriented to a peace-oriented economy. Response to listener question on using workers' pension funds to change corporate behaviors.
2012:
December 30th
Economic Update: Unemployment Analyzed
Updates on Marvins' "shared unemployment," $4 trillion profits hoarded by US corporations, and root issues of the "fiscal cliff." Discussion of solutions for unemployment. Responses to listeners: on pluses and minuses of China's economic growth and on the contradictions of "social investing."
December 26th
Economic Update: People, Power and False Economics
Updates and discussion of pensions and guns, fiscal cliff, charitable tax deductions, Mondragon, the environment, and prison economics.
December 17th
Economic Update: Conditions of the Working Class
Updates on Newtown, CT. school shooting, global warming and the CIA, Hostess abuses workers' pensions, and growing gap between CEOs' and workers' pay. Discussion: (1) lessons of Michigan Republicans' assault on union finances and (2) causes and results of declining workers' conditions in US, Europe. Response to listeners: rotation of work in coop workplaces vs capitalist enterprises.
December 10th
Economic Update: Systemic Crises - Economic and Ecological
Updates on unpaid law clerks, Buffett's minimum tax on high incomes, and CBO report on medical care costs and federal deficits. Discussion of Walmart as emblem and example of capitalist "success." Responding to listeners on Robin Hood tax and student debt relief campaign and on rationales for cutting corporate tax rates.
December 6th
Economic Update: Inconvenient Economic Truths
Updates on unpaid law clerks, Buffett's minimum tax on high incomes, and CBO report on medical care costs and federal deficits. Discussion of Walmart as emblem and example of capitalist "success." Responding to listeners on Robin Hood tax and student debt relief campaign and on rationales for cutting corporate tax rates.
November 25th
Economic Update: Worker's Self-Directed Enterprises
Updates on California's vote for tax hikes on the super rich, a public-funded museum sued for charging admission, and worker self-direction as a solution for the bankrupt Hostess bakery. Interview with political science professor Peter Ranis on workers' coops in Argentina, Cuba, and the US. Response to questions on why corporations and the rich prefer austerity as policy in capitalist downturns.
November 18th
Economic Update: Capitalism's Costly Uneven Development: Detroit
Updates on politicians' big business incomes after their government jobs and the debate over social security. Interview with Prof David Fasenfest of Detroit's Wayne State University on causes and cures of Detroit's economic devastation. Responses to listeners on Britain's homeless and on controlling banks "too big to fail."
November 11th
Economic Update: Puerto Rico: Colony and Laboratory
Updates on Obama's re-election, unemployment's social costs, and Kodak's betrayal of retirees. Interview journalist Ed Morales: history of Puerto Rico as US colony and policy laboratory and global crisis's impact on Puerto Rico since 2007. Response on how differently educated, trained, and skilled workers could fully, democratically participate in workers self-directed enterprises (WSDEs).
November 4th
Updates on student debt crisis, profit-driven history of US housing, and storm (Sandy) economics. Discussions of Keynesian and Marxian economics. Response to question on transition from capitalist to workers self-directed enterprises.
October 20th
Updates include, the real-wage decline 2010-2012, more on Walmart and Greece's bailout benefiting only banks.
October 14th
Economic Update: Economics Means Different Theories and Analyses
Updates focus on the economics of public vs charter schools and Walmart as capitalist "success story." A major discussion of economic theories that celebrate vs theories that criticize capitalism. Responses to listeners' questions about German workers' "co-determination" and French socialism's waffling.
October 6th
Economic Update: The Presidential Debate Evaded Economic Realities
Updates include the decline of graduate school enrollment and how the wealthy evade taxes. This is followed by an Expose of Romney's "double taxation" excuse to lower taxes on the rich. A response is given to questions on the relation of workers self-directed enterprises to markets and the issue of workers' competence to run enterprises.
October 1st
Economic Update: Class Warfare
Updates on public pensions crisis and megabanks' massive failures. Interview: NYU Prof. Juan Flores on class warfare in the US. Responses to listeners on federal subsidies of big banks and on varieties of capitalism.
September 22nd
This episode provides an update on the anniversary of Occupy Wall Street and how the movement has succesfully changed the American economy. The segment ends with an analysis of how the top 1 percent of Americans leverage the politically system against the bottom 99 percent to prevent them from gaining back the wages they lost in the economic system.
September 17th
Updates on Chicago teachers strike and looming student loan crisis. Extended interview with John Curl, author of For All the People, on hidden US history of workers' cooperative enterprises.
September 10th
Economic Update: "No Better Economic Policy?"
Updates on Spain's government vs radical unions' responses to crisis, who gains most from expanding money supply, temp and low-paid replace middle level jobs, US dominates global arms sales. Analyses of who pays federal taxes and basic differences between capitalist enterprises and workers' self-directed enterprises. Responses to listener comments on (1) China's economic growth and (2) "capitalism with a human face."
September 3rd
Economic Update: The Complexities of Capitalist "Success"
Updates on Romney's economic plan, French socialists' employment plan, Yale wealth growth, and wisdom of world's richest woman. Interview Max Fraad-Wolff on Apple Corp's mixed picture as capitalist "success." Response to question on financial speculation in food products.
August 27th
Economic Update: "Labor's Day, Labor's Condition"
This episode includes updates on corporations paying CEOs more than they pay in taxes; causes of coming food price spike; and strikes at Caterpillar in Illinois and Lonmin platinum mine in South Africa. Discussion of 50-year decline in US organized labor, drawing lessons from that decline, and using them to propose a new strategy for labor today. Response to questions about innovation and capitalism that challenge the criticism of capitalism.
August 19th
Updates on European crisis (creative Spanish anti-austerity politics, Mondragon avoids worst of crisis, suicides in response to crisis), Chilean students' strike against privatized education as bad education. Interview with Jen Hill, co-founder of new social movement Democracy at Work - democracyatwork.info - explains nature and goals of economic transition to worker self-directed enterprises (WSDEs). Question answered on dominant US ideology that blames economic problems on the government.
August 12th
The Public's Health and Economics
Updates on extremes in Spain's crisis, Paul Ryan as VP candidate, US Justice Dept drops case against Goldman-Sachs, college costs crisis, and fast-rising food prices. Interview with Prof. Carles Muntaner on how deeply social and economic conditions shape health and on the implications of that shaping. Question answered on requiring workers in Workers Self-Directed Enterprises to all participate in directing enterprises.
August 5th
Updates on Europe's ongoing crisis, real US tax history, bank tycoon admits "mistakes", food price inflation again. Major analyses: economics of Medicaid and AFL-CIO closes National Labor College. Responses to questions on "planned obsolescence" and what individuals can do in crisis times.
July 28th
Updates include Capital One Bank's misdeeds, French socialists' new policies, taxing churches in Spain, Walton family's immense wealth, strike at Caterpillar, and taxing private wealth. Major discussions of huge corporate cash hoards and vast private wealth hidden from view and from taxes in tax-havens. Responses to questions on reorganizing banking and on Marx's surplus value theory.
July 22nd
False Choices and Bad Decisions
Updates on Chinese economy's response to global crisis, $6.6 billion legal deal among banks, credit card companies and retailers, and food stamp cuts threatened. Analysis of closing of US university presses, Texas Gov Perry refusal of Medicaid expansion. Responses on municipal pension issues and changes needed in giant banks.
July 16th
What Are the Social Costs of Capitalist Mega-Corporations?
This episode provides an update on the widening LIBOR scandal and the fine Wells Fargo received for overcharging African-American and Hispanic families on their mortgages. The segment ends with an analysis of why government economic actions favor large corporations at everyone else's expense.
July 8th
Banks, Banksters and Crisis Finance
This episode contains updates on the LIBOR-bank scandal in London and the looming big city bankruptcy in North Las Vegas. The episode includes an interview with Prof. William K. Tabb on banks and finance. The episode ends with responses to questions on the relationship of anarchism and Marxism, and about the basic issues of the US healthcare debate.
July 1st
"Lessons from Economic History"
This week's updates include a discussion of the "university is not a business," the current attacks on the public workforce, and the bankruptcy of Stockton, CA. The major discussion focuses on learning from history of capitalism's instability and crises. Questions answered focus on the banks, the Federal Reserve and the philosophy of labor.
June 24th
We will focus on wages, jobs, taxes, and debts - and on interest rates, prices, and profits. This week's show provides updates on the end of weak "recovery", Europe vs US austerity and explores criticism of the privatization debate. Professor Wolff interviews Tess Fraad-Wolff, MSW, about the economics of pornography. The questions section of the show looks at if the rich have the wealth to pay for mass social welfare and if public, democratically allocated funds can finance innovation.
June 17th
Our Fading Economic "Recovery"
This segment provides updates on cuts to public services and business vs. consumer debts. The segment ends with an analysis of the resumed economic downturn and the irony that unions and left allies "saved" capitalism in 1930s but don't now.
June 10th
A Successful Worker Co-op Examined
Professor Wolff's show provides updates on Montreal students fighting tuition hikes, the global economic slowdown (again), Spain's bank crisis, and big pay for CEOs of top financiers. The show finishes with an analysis of Wisconsin and California elections and the huge Mondragon cooperative corporation.
June 2nd
"Parental Leave" in US Jobs Lags All Other Advanced Countries
The show begins with updates on the grim US employment data released on June 1, on how Europe experiences global capitalist crisis differently in Greece, Spain and Germany, and on how "parental leave" in US jobs lags all other advanced countries. Professor Wolff interviews Dr Harriet Fraad on the rapid increase of US adults living alone and the causes and consequences of this both economically and psychologically. The radio show ends with responses to questions about Spain, US student debt, economic collapse.
May 26th
Spains Thriving Communist Mayor, and More
The segment contains economic updates on Providence, Rhode Islands cuts to retired city workers' pensions and a tax exemption for Brown University; joblessness and unemployment for recent college grads; and the thriving communist mayor of Marinaleda, Spain. Major discussions focus on how and why enterprises buys political influence, including examples from Hollywood producers and the ATT Corp. The radio segment ends with responses to questions about the Tobin Tax on financial transactions and on how and why national debts have serious economic consequences.
May 19th
Government Bailouts, Corporate Take-Overs and Unemployment
This weeks show provides updates on the impact of subprime mortgage abuses and its impact on racial and ethnic minorities, on Japan's nationalization of the Tepco Corp., and the mixed results of the bailouts of GM and Chrysler. Major discussions include: (1) Why government take-overs of private enterprise are rarely "socialistic" and mostly pro-capitalist, and (2) the basic causes and cures for unemployment in capitalist economies. The radio segment concludes with responses to comments on the decision-making process of workers' self-directed enterprises and about "recovery" in the housing market.
May 12th
How Economic Conditions Shape People's Political Activity
This week's show provides updates on New York Mayor Bloomberg's veto of a bill raising minimum wage, the economics of single-payer medical insurance, and major insurance companies' withholding of death benefit payments. Major part of the program is devoted to responding to listeners' questions and comments on (1) property tax exemptions for rich universities, (2) how to get economic system change, (3) causes of rise of financialization in modern capitalism, and (4) how economic conditions shape people's political activity.
May 6th
Keynesian vs. Marxian Economics
This week's program is in a slightly different two-part format that includes: Part 1 is on how and why the government take-over of private corporations need not be and often is not "socialism" and why it is often done to strengthen private capitalists. Part 2 deals with Keynesian economics as a theory that clashes with both the mainstream economics ("neoclassical") that celebrates private capitalism and with critical theories such as Marxian economics that are opposed to capitalism.
May 4th
So what's the big picture to today's events? Yes, there's enormous wealth inequality. Yes, the economy still isn't producing wealth for the vast majority of us. Yes, there's Wall Street still making huge profits off screwing over customers. Yes, students are saddled with a trillion dollars in loans. But WHY is all of this happening? Absent of the political will to do this - how will it get done? Through mass rallies like we're seeing today? OR do things have to get really badHere with some answers is Prof. Richard Wolff - professor at New School University and author of numerous books including, "Capitalism Hits the Fan: The Global Economic Meltdown and What to Do About It."
April 24th
The Financialization of US Capitalism
In this week's show, Wolff provides updates on the extreme budget crisis and the cuts being made by state governments, on how the government is raising interest on student loans from 3.4 to 6.8 %, and on Argentina's take-over last week of the private Spanish oil company that dominated its oil and gas industry. In addition, Wolff interviews economics professor William Tabb about the financialization of US capitalism and its economic and social consequences, followed by a discussion of "family values" and economic planning in the US.
April 16th
How Our Economic System Impacts Our Psychology
In the latest segment Wolff discusses the huge fines for major pharmaceutical firms, the long-standing and huge wealth redistribution from richer to poorer states by Washington, and the funding crisis in public higher education. The main interview features Dr. Harriet Fraad discussing the profound psychological costs of capitalism's instability. The radio show segment ends with a response to questions on the transition to mass transit from private cars.
February 25th
Updates on workers' sit-in this week at Chicago window factory, French presidential election as a referendum on austerity response to capitalist crisis, and failure of US to prosecute financial crime. Interview with Economics Professor Richard McIntyre, University of Rhode Island, on today's "jobless recovery," comparing workers' militancy in the 1930s to conditions today, questioning "human rights" as the way forward for workers and unions. Response to listener on causes and effects of speculation in oil and food.
February 4th
Updates on rising US political donations by the wealthy, 1990-2010; falling unemployment and retail jobs, European pressures on Greece to cut wages. Major topics analyzed: (1) "trickle up" vs "trickle down" economics, (2) Obama's export promotion strategy, (3) dependence of private capitalist business on state supports. Response to mail:Florida exemplifies federal government support of a state economy and listener describes horrific job conditions in Hollywood.
January 28th
Updates on Obama's SOTU Speech, Apple's Chinese factories, declining US union membership, rising health plan costs, and UK moves to curtail executive salaries. Major analyses of the capitalist/socialism difference and why there is plenty of money now for needed public services, contrary to business and political claims. Responses to listener's comments on: the "sugar baby" industry, women holding families together, and differences among kinds of coops.
January 21st
Updates on top bank executives' 2011 pay, on multiple legal judgements against Johnson and Johnson for marketing psychotropic drugs (including to children), and on Greek, Portuguese and German workers' workweeks and productivity to refute claims that "lazy workers" cause southern Europe's economic problems. Interview with Mark Provost on growing inequalities of income and of wealth in the US: causes and implications. Response to listener's question on the "moral hazard" issue and beginning a discussion of different kinds of coops.
January 14th
Updates on PEW polls on shifts to market economies in Lithuania, Ukraine and Russia; on US media consolidation into 6 giant companies; on bankruptcy of Jefferson County, Alabama. Analysis of (1) public enterprises in US and especially community owned-power companies, and (2) economic inefficiency of global capitalist competition (example: excess automobile capacity). Response to questions on Henry George and taxing rents and on growth of pornography.
January 7th
Updates on latest data for income of top 1%, on low US tax burden relative to other countries, on flaw in two-tier union contracts (example: GM and UAW), and on PEW poll research findings of widespread positive US attitudes toward socialism. Interview with Prof. David Fasenfest, Wayne State Univ., on Detroit's economic decline as emblem of US capitalist development and role of Occupy Detroit movement. Response to questions on Social Security finances.
2011:
December 31st
Updates on (1) "the markets" as fake causes of layoffs and austerity, (2) the SEC deal over Citigroup conflict of interest, (3) China's tariffs on US autos, and (4) US real wage drop in 2011 while labor productivity and thus profits rise. Major interview with Gar Alperovitz on US economic decline and movement toward "socialized capital" and worker owned and directed enterprises.
December 24th
Updates focus on European and US bank regulations, UK deals allowing major corporate tax evasions, and top 1% comments on OWS protests. Interview psychotherapist Tess Fraad-Wolff on how recent economic changes have affected and changed personal lives, including intimate relationships, partly by expanding the pornography industry and its impact. Listeners' comments addressed: Germany's role in Europe's economy, workers' self-directed enterprises, and Ron Paul's economic proposals.
December 10th
Updates on latest European Summit as attempt of top 1% to impose austerity on 99% and Michigan's parallel attempt to impose austerity on Detroit; corruption scandals at Wachovia Bank and MF Global Brokerage. Interview with Victor Wallis on ecology and economics comparing capitalist and socialist responses to environmental crisis. Response to question on implications and lessons from Lehman Brothers Bank's bankruptcy, 2008 through 2011.
December 3rd
Updates today on a judge's rare rebuke of cosy SEC relations with banks, on rising debt among the elderly, on American Airlines' bankruptcy to pay its workers less, on latest unemployment data, and on Yale University's tax exempt fund-raising. The major focus was on Bloomberg Market Magazine's expose on Federal Reserve's secret $7.77 trillion loans to major banks. Question answered explained how markets could be changed to rationally connect workers' self-directed enterprises minus the traditional profit motive and its wasteful costs.
November 26th
Updates covered rise in corporate profits versus fall in wages and salaries as % of GDP over last 50 years, economics of US military buildup in Asia, rising European governments' debts and interest costs, Newt Gingrich's lobbying income, and campaign to cancel student debt. Detailed analysis of European economic crisis and risk of dissolution of the European Union because of uneven/unequal capitalist economic development. Response to question about workers' self-directed enterprises if they function in a market economy.
November 19th
Professor Wolff and guest, Matt Renner of Truthout.org and Occupier, discuss the past week of events at Liberty Park, "business drag" as a strategy of protesters, co-operation with the Labor Unions, the repeated destruction of the People's Library, and the impact of this revolution.
November 12th
Updates focused on the Harvard students walkout of their economics class, the labor union victories in Ohio elections and building bridges to the Occupy Wall Street movements, and the deepening Greek and Italian economic crises. Featured interview with Christina Towne - Part 2 - discussing her activities in and her thoughts about the future of Occupy Wall Street: a real insider's perspective.
November 5th
Brief updates cover China's latest financial interventions in Europe, Greece scapegoated as France and Germany deflect domestic attention and criticism of their austerity programs, comparison of European and US crisis-coping mechanisms, and poor US showing on OECD social justice indicators. We air the first part of fascinating interview with Occupy Wall Street activist Christina Towne on how and why she got involved. The second part - Towne's views on how and where OWS is developing as a movement - will be aired Nov. 12.
October 29th
Updates on recent OECD reports on social justice, poverty, education and taxing offshore wealth across 31 countries with focus on US, on China's funding on European bailout and purchase of Saab, on the European leaders scapegoating Greece to divert attention from their own austerity programs, and on comparing US and European responses to the global capitalist crisis. Analysis of just released Congressional Budget Office report on "Trends in the Distribution of Household Income, 1979-2007" proving how 1% top income receivers gained at the expense of other 99%.
October 22nd
Updates this week focus on Walmart's elimination and cut-backs of health insurance for its employees, on the failed inspections that recently allowed unclean melon production to kill 25 Americans and sicken many more, on the rising scandal of college students' debt burdens, and on the grotesque Herman Cain plan that would sharply lower taxes on the richest Americans. The major focus was a comparison of the 1930s with the current crisis in capitalism to draw lessons for the kind of economic policy now that the Occupy Wall Street movement might consider.
October 1st
Updates this week focus on Bank of America imposing fees for debit cards, on shrinking borrowing and disposable income growth as downward pressure on US economy, on Harvard's and Yale's wealth growth alongside their tax exemptions, and on the transaction tax on financial transactions looming in Europe.
September 24th
Updates focus on Obama's deficit and national debt reduction program, on government gridlock and inability to emerge from economic crisis, on ecological risks of Exxon-Mobil deal with Rosneft to drill for oil in Arctic. Today's in depth interview on recently signed labor contracts and strikes. Guest is Prof. Michael Pelias, Long Island University faculty union leader. Comparison of LIU gains and losses in their academic strike and final contract with just-signed General Motors deal with UAW for 48,000 auto workers.
Updates focus on (1) President Obama's jobs program and (2) the deepening crisis of European banks and indebted countries. In-depth discussion on the extent, causes and social effects of poverty in the US following on last week's report from the US Census Bureau. Guests Willie Baptist of the Poverty Initiative and Prof.
Updates focus on (1) the food stamp program, (2) giving corporations' names to football stadiums, (3) new supports for prison reform, and (4) analyzing the federal government's tax revenues. In-depth analysis focuses on how the world's three alternative economic theories - neoclassical, Keynesian, and Marxian - understand economics and economic crises differently, with special emphasis on the Marxian as it is least understood.
September 3rd
Updates focus on (1) appointment of Prof Alan Krueger as Obama's chief economic advisor in relation to continuing high unemployment, (2) a medical study on the deaths resulting from poverty, and (3) the history of US national debt. In-depth analysis: how the economic crisis is affecting both private and Social Security pensions and how to improve Social Security's finances. Question answered focused on why the economics profession - with few exceptions - failed to anticipate the crisis or find effective policies to overcome it.
This program focuses first on newly released information about major banks subsidized by the Federal Reserve since the 2008 crash; it shows the hitherto secret largesse and exceptional terms given the banks for their "recovery." Updates also concern tax cuts for corporations and the rich and US multinationals investing overseas rather than in US. We interview Bhairavi Desai, Executive Director of New York City's Taxi Workers Alliance, a new, unusual and successful labor organization that now represents 15,000 of the city's 25,000 active taxi drivers.
August 20th
This episode focused on the previous weeks' major events, including the S&P downgrade of US debt, extreme stock market gyrations, and major signs of broad economic decline. Visiting guest, Professor Immanuel Ness, touches on the history and current prospects of worker-controlled enterprises as alternatives to capitalist enterprises.
August 13th
Richard D. Wolff: "If you want a society to have the qualities of liberty, equality and fraternity that we celebrate in the French Revolution, or a government by, of and for the people, that Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln talked about, then you're going to have to bite the bullet of changing an economic system that otherwise undermines and clashes with those values."
August 6th
July 23rd
July 16th
July 9th
July 2nd
Professor Wolff was joined by Economics Professor from the University of Massachusets Amherst, Gerald Friedman to discuss healthcare.
June 18th
Neoliberal bankers wants to turn the Greek public into chattel. The Greek public objects. It's a theoretically long-predicted fork in the road for the European Union: either Greece defaults (it Neoliberal bankers wants to turn the Greek public into chattel. The Greek public objects.
June 11th
This week, Roger Salerno, Professor of Sociology at Pace University will join Professor Wolff to discuss excess debt, credit cards and their impacts on US Culture as well as our economy.
June 4th
Join Professor Richard Wolff and his guest, Professor Maliha Safri from Drew University, as they discuss the job report and other issues. On Economic Update with Professor Richard Wolff, Wolff and guests will discuss the current state of the economy, both locally and globally in relation to the economic crisis.We will focus on wages, jobs, taxes, and debts - and on interest rates, prices, and profits.
May 28th
Join Professor Richard Wolff as he discuss the economic recovery for a few, the housing crisis and other current events.
May 14th
May 7th
April 30th
Join Professor Richard Wolff and his guest, Catherine Mulder, an Economics Professor at John Jay College in New York City as they discuss the issues of the labor force and unions in relation to the economic crisis. Professor Mulder teaches a course on the Economics of Labor. On Economic Update with Professor Richard Wolff, Wolff and guests will discuss the current state of the economy, both locally and globally in relation to the economic crisis.We will focus on wages, jobs, taxes, and debts - and on interest rates, prices, and profits.
April 23rd
April 16th
April 9th
March 26th
