The Economic Crisis Dates Back to the 1970s: Finance, Pensions, Job Security (2012)
Richard D. Wolff (born April 1,
1942) is an
American Marxist economist, well known for his work on
Marxian economics, economic methodology, and class analysis. He is
Professor of Economics
Emeritus,
University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and currently a
Visiting Professor in the
Graduate Program in
International Affairs of the
New School University in
New York. Wolff has also taught economics at
Yale University,
City University of New York,
University of Utah,
University of Paris I (
Sorbonne), and The
Brecht Forum in
New York City.
In
1988 he co-founded the journal
Rethinking Marxism. In
2010, Wolff published
Capitalism Hits the Fan: The
Global Economic
Meltdown and What to
Do About It, also released as a
DVD. He released three new books in
2012:
Occupy the Economy: Challenging Capitalism, with
David Barsamian (
San Francisco:
City Lights Books), Contending Economic Theories:
Neoclassical,
Keynesian, and
Marxian, with
Stephen Resnick (
Cambridge, MA, and
London:
MIT University Press), and
Democracy at
Work (
Chicago:
Haymarket Books).
Wolff hosts the weekly hour-long radio program Economic
Update on
WBAI, 99.5 FM, New York City (
Pacifica Radio) and is featured regularly in television, print, and internet media.
The New York Times Magazine has named him "
America's most prominent Marxist economist." Wolff lives in
Manhattan with his wife and frequent collaborator, Dr.
Harriet Fraad, a practicing psychotherapist.
Wolff taught at the
City College of New York from
1969–
1973. Here he started his lifelong collaboration with fellow economist Stephen Resnick, who arrived in
1971 after being denied tenure at
Yale for signing an anti-war petition. Both would then be part, along with
Samuel Bowles,
Herbert Gintis, and
Rick Edwards, of the "radical package" that was hired in 1973 by the Economics
Department at the
University of Massachusetts Amherst, where Wolff has been full professor since
1981. Wolff retired in 2008 but remains professor emeritus and that year joined
The New School as a visiting professor.
The first co-authored academic publication by Wolff and Resnick was "The
Theory of
Transitional Conjunctures and the
Transition from
Feudalism to Capitalism,"[11] which laid out the pillars of the framework that they have worked on ever since. They formulated a non-determinist, class-analytical approach for understanding the debates regarding the transition from feudalism to capitalism. Their topics have included
Marxian theory and value analysis, overdetermination, radical economics, international trade, business cycles, social formations, the
Soviet Union, and comparing and contrasting Marxian and non-Marxian economic theories.
Wolff's work with Resnick took
Louis Althusser and
Étienne Balibar's
Reading Capital as its
point of departure and developed a subtle reading of
Karl Marx's
Capital Volumes
II and III in their influential
Knowledge and
Class. For the authors, Marxian class analysis entails the detailed study of the conditions of existences of concrete forms of performance, appropriation, and distribution of surplus labor. While there could be an infinite number of forms of surplus appropriation, the Marxist canon refers to ancient (independent), slave, feudal, capitalist, and communist class processes.
“
Marx used the word "exploitation" to focus analytical attention on what capitalism shared with feudalism and slavery, something that capitalist revolutions against slavery and feudalism never overcame. ”
—Richard D. Wolff
In
1989, Wolff joined efforts with a group of colleagues, ex- and then current students to launch Rethinking Marxism, an academic journal that aims to create a platform for rethinking and developing Marxian concepts and theories within economics as well as other fields of social inquiry. He continues to serve as a member of both the editorial and the advisory boards of the journal.
Wolff was a visiting professor in spring
1994 at
University of Paris 1 Pantheon-Sorbonne. Wolff continues to teach graduate seminars and undergraduate courses and direct dissertation research in economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and, most recently, in the graduate program in international affairs (GPIA) at The New School.
Wolff was a founding member of the
Green Party of
New Haven, Connecticut, and its mayoral candidate in
1985.[13] In
2011, he called for the establishment of a broad-based left-wing mass party in the
United States. Wolff, especially since 2008, gives many public lectures throughout the United States and other countries. He is regular lecturer at the Brecht Forum. Wolff is often a guest on television and radio news programs, and, within the
U.S., has appeared on a variety of programs, as well as writing for a number of publications and websites. Wolff hosts a weekly radio program on economics and society, Economic Update, at WBAI in New York City.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_D._Wolff