Economic Update

The left-wing surge of the US working class during the 1930s Great Depression forced the Democratic Party to make the US govt serve the working class more than it ever had before or since. It was called the New Deal. In reaction, the US employer class, angry that gov't programs for the people were paid for by taxes on corporations and the rich, turned to the Republican Party after world war 2 ended in 1945, and directed it to roll back the New Deal, to literally reduce or eliminate all it had accomplished. Because the New Deal made the great mistake of leaving profits in the hands of employers, the employers used those profits to provide Republicans with the means to defeat the DEMs and roll back the New Deal. In reaction, the DEMs looked for money, found it in the hands of many of the donors who funded the Republicans. So for many years the US was led by one or the other party: the GOP rolled back the New Deal faster, the DEMs slower. One ruling class, two parties to serve it. The 2008 Great Recession ended the cozy system as both parties had to protect the privileges of the corporations and the rich even as the US empire and economy declined. As the mass of people suffered and neither GOP nor DEMs stopped it, people became desperate and elected Trump out of rage and hysteria. He did not and will not solve the basic problems any more than his predecessors did. For that a really, new and different political party is needed....one that puts the American Working People First, the American majority. The program ends with suggestions of how such a new party could really change the country and solve its worst problems.

This week's updates covers Trump ending Housing First, Spain goes for a wealth tax, Trump disqualifies unions at government agencies, France's mass movement  on September 10th against the Macron government, and Air Canada's strike by flight attendants who defied the government back-to-work order and won against both the Canadian government and their employer, Air Canada.

Professor Wolff explains what deficits are and why the capitalist system enables and invites employers to cause them. He then proceeds to explain how deficits both solve specific problems of capitalism while also causing others. Over time, problems accumulate to undermine the credit of the US and bring economic crisis. Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) is shown to offer one way out of the crisis by changing how money is created.

In this week's episode of the "Best Of Economic Update Series," we examine a comparison between the economic failures we face today caused by the same political forces and capitalists that we have encountered before, as well as the causes and effects of economic policies proven to fail.

This week on Economic Update, Professor Wolff discusses the following about Mamdani's victory in the New York City Democratic mayoral race: (1) how it happened, who voted for him and why; (2) the varieties of socialism and the long history of "municipal socialism" in the US and overseas, (3) possible socialist programs for a Mamdani mayoral administration; and (4) tax revenue possibilities to pay for socialist programs.