On this week's episode of Economic Update, Professor Wolff delivers updates on how 73% of U.S. credit card debt is needed for everyday purchases, the issues with Venezuelan oil, and MAGA splits as Trump panders to the voting masses at the expense of a few giant corporations. The second half features an interview with Geo Maher, author, educator, and activist, on the crisis in Venezuela and its long-term implications for the U.S. and the rest of the world.

The d@w Team Economic Update with Richard D. Wolff is a DemocracyatWork.info Inc. production. We make it a point to provide the show free of ads and rely on viewer support to continue doing so. You can support our work by joining our Patreon community: https://www.patreon.com/democracyatwork Or you can go to our website: https://www.democracyatwork.info/donate Every donation counts and helps us provide a larger audience with the information they need to better understand the events around the world they can't get anywhere else. We want to thank our devoted community of supporters who help make this show and others we produce possible each week. We kindly ask you to also support the work we do by encouraging others to subscribe to our YouTube channel and website: www.democracyatwork.info

On this week's episode of Economic Update, Professor Wolff delivers updates on the Pentagon's investments into private companies, the end of electric vehicle subsidies in conjunction with the arrival of Chinese EVs in the U.S., the growing trade and produce exchange between Canada and China, and the nurses' strike of NYC private hospitals grows to include 15,000. In the second part of today's episode, Professor Wolff talks with Professor Clara Mattei about her new book, "Escape from Capitalism."

The d@w Team Economic Update with Richard D. Wolff is a DemocracyatWork.info Inc. production. We make it a point to provide the show free of ads and rely on viewer support to continue doing so. You can support our work by joining our Patreon community: https://www.patreon.com/democracyatwork Or you can go to our website: https://www.democracyatwork.info/donate Every donation counts and helps us provide a larger audience with the information they need to better understand the events around the world they can't get anywhere else. We want to thank our devoted community of supporters who help make this show and others we produce possible each week. We kindly ask you to also support the work we do by encouraging others to subscribe to our YouTube channel and website: www.democracyatwork.info

This week on Economic Update, Professor Wolff analyzes topics from Israel and Gaza to Epstein scandals to U.S. neocolonialism to Europe's failure to seize Russian wealth held in European banks with a focus on the historical importance of key developments shaping the global crisis emerging today.

The d@w Team Economic Update with Richard D. Wolff is a DemocracyatWork.info Inc. production. We make it a point to provide the show free of ads and rely on viewer support to continue doing so. You can support our work by joining our Patreon community: https://www.patreon.com/democracyatwork Or you can go to our website: https://www.democracyatwork.info/donate Every donation counts and helps us provide a larger audience with the information they need to better understand the events around the world they can't get anywhere else. We want to thank our devoted community of supporters who help make this show and others we produce possible each week. We kindly ask you to also support the work we do by encouraging others to subscribe to our YouTube channel and website: www.democracyatwork.info

This week on Economic Update, Professor Wolff devotes the first half to New York's new Mayor Zohran Mamdani. He discusses how and why he defeated so many efforts to block him, and what he needs to do to succeed, deliver on his campaign promises, and create a lasting legacy of his time in office. The second half of today's show features an interview with Sabrina Salvati on her new documentary film, "REMOVED: Black Erasure in Boston."

The d@w Team Economic Update with Richard D. Wolff is a DemocracyatWork.info Inc. production. We make it a point to provide the show free of ads and rely on viewer support to continue doing so. You can support our work by joining our Patreon community: https://www.patreon.com/democracyatwork Or you can go to our website: https://www.democracyatwork.info/donate Every donation counts and helps us provide a larger audience with the information they need to better understand the events around the world they can't get anywhere else. We want to thank our devoted community of supporters who help make this show and others we produce possible each week. We kindly ask you to also support the work we do by encouraging others to subscribe to our YouTube channel and website: www.democracyatwork.info

On this week's episode of Economic Update, Professor Wolff delivers updates on the Black Friday strikes against Amazon in Germany and against Zara in Spain, the rapid decline of New School University as an example of a deepening crisis in U.S. higher education, and a new U.S. national security paper that throws Europe under the bus, further signaling the end of the U.S. empire. The second part of today's show features an interview with author, activist, and host of "The Muckrake Podcast," Jared Yates-Sexton, on his political analysis and campaign for change in the U.S today.

The d@w Team Economic Update with Richard D. Wolff is a DemocracyatWork.info Inc. production. We make it a point to provide the show free of ads and rely on viewer support to continue doing so. You can support our work by joining our Patreon community: https://www.patreon.com/democracyatwork Or you can go to our website: https://www.democracyatwork.info/donate Every donation counts and helps us provide a larger audience with the information they need to better understand the events around the world they can't get anywhere else. We want to thank our devoted community of supporters who help make this show and others we produce possible each week. We kindly ask you to also support the work we do by encouraging others to subscribe to our YouTube channel and website: www.democracyatwork.info

On this week's episode of Economic Update, Professor Wolff provides an analysis of "globalization" as a fancy slogan to hide a profit-driven, profit-boosting period (1970-2015) that saw US capitalists move factories abroad. It destroyed so many well-paid factory jobs (especially of white, male Christians) that it produced massive suffering among the affected communities. As their rage built and both Republican and Democratic politicians turned a blind eye to their suffering, right-wing politicians saw an opportunity. Find a candidate really different from the old Republican and Democratic establishments - a Trump - and have him express the rage, anger, and bitterness of those who had lost the American Dream. Trump blamed globalization, foreigners in general, immigrants in particular, liberals, and Democrats: all lumped into "globalists," a term that changed from celebration to total evil. Conveniently for the leaders of major US corporations - the people who had actually made the decisions to move production abroad and profited from that escaped from Trump's blame. Now he promises to lead them to more profits by switching back to economic nationalism. But like globalization, it will prove profitable for the same corporations now as it did before. America First will hide the suffering it imposes every bit as much as globalization did. Capitalism is the problem.

The d@w Team Economic Update with Richard D. Wolff is a DemocracyatWork.info Inc. production. We make it a point to provide the show free of ads and rely on viewer support to continue doing so. You can support our work by joining our Patreon community: https://www.patreon.com/democracyatwork Or you can go to our website: https://www.democracyatwork.info/donate Every donation counts and helps us provide a larger audience with the information they need to better understand the events around the world they can't get anywhere else. We want to thank our devoted community of supporters who help make this show and others we produce possible each week. We kindly ask you to also support the work we do by encouraging others to subscribe to our YouTube channel and website: www.democracyatwork.info

This week's episode of Economic Update is an adaptation from a talk Professor Wolff gave at Yale University on December 2, 2025, to the Yale Political Union. In this presentation, he discusses the significance of the title "Marx was Right," which Yale offered, and points out that, over the last 75 years, such a topic or event would not likely have occurred on that campus. He provides a basic summary of critical points throughout Marx's work where he has been proven "right." Professor Wolff also discusses how and why socialism has evolved, from the rise and fall of the USSR to the rise of the People's Republic of China.

The d@w Team Economic Update with Richard D. Wolff is a DemocracyatWork.info Inc. production. We make it a point to provide the show free of ads and rely on viewer support to continue doing so. You can support our work by joining our Patreon community: https://www.patreon.com/democracyatwork Or you can go to our website: https://www.democracyatwork.info/donate Every donation counts and helps us provide a larger audience with the information they need to better understand the events around the world they can't get anywhere else. We want to thank our devoted community of supporters who help make this show and others we produce possible each week. We kindly ask you to also support the work we do by encouraging others to subscribe to our YouTube channel and website: www.democracyatwork.info

On this week's episode of Economic Update, Professor Wolff delivers updates on the internal struggle inside the U.S. Teamsters Union between O'Brien leadership and Hooker challenge group (pro- vs anti-Trump), Trump-McMahon attack on the nursing profession in the U.S., and Trump's own reduction of tariffs and thus of government revenue from tariffs. Then, Professor Wolff interviews Abby Martin about her new film, "Earth's Greatest Enemy," which explores the U.S. military's disastrous ecological impact on the planet.

The d@w Team Economic Update with Richard D. Wolff is a DemocracyatWork.info Inc. production. We make it a point to provide the show free of ads and rely on viewer support to continue doing so. You can support our work by joining our Patreon community: https://www.patreon.com/democracyatwork Or you can go to our website: https://www.democracyatwork.info/donate Every donation counts and helps us provide a larger audience with the information they need to better understand the events around the world they can't get anywhere else. We want to thank our devoted community of supporters who help make this show and others we produce possible each week. We kindly ask you to also support the work we do by encouraging others to subscribe to our YouTube channel and website: www.democracyatwork.info

This week on Economic Update, Professor Wolff delivers updates on the nationwide Starbucks strikes and on the results of Trump's tariffs: facts and fakery. The second part of the show features an interview with journalist and podcast host John Fugelsang about his new book: Separation of Church and Hate: A Sane Person's Guide to Taking Back the Bible from Fundamentalists, Fascists, and Flock-Fleecing Frauds.

The d@w Team Economic Update with Richard D. Wolff is a DemocracyatWork.info Inc. production. We make it a point to provide the show free of ads and rely on viewer support to continue doing so. You can support our work by joining our Patreon community: https://www.patreon.com/democracyatwork Or you can go to our website: https://www.democracyatwork.info/donate Every donation counts and helps us provide a larger audience with the information they need to better understand the events around the world they can't get anywhere else. We want to thank our devoted community of supporters who help make this show and others we produce possible each week. We kindly ask you to also support the work we do by encouraging others to subscribe to our YouTube channel and website: www.democracyatwork.info

On today's episode of Economic Update, Professor Wolff delivers an introduction to the key economic concept of "the surplus." He explains economic structures as ways of organizing the production and social distribution of the surplus. Then he briefly applies this concept to the economies of slavery and feudalism before focusing on the role of the surplus in capitalism. Finally, we use the surplus to delineate the ways alternative post-capitalist systems, such as socialism or communism, distribute it.

The d@w Team Economic Update with Richard D. Wolff is a DemocracyatWork.info Inc. production. We make it a point to provide the show free of ads and rely on viewer support to continue doing so. You can support our work by joining our Patreon community: https://www.patreon.com/democracyatwork Or you can go to our website: https://www.democracyatwork.info/donate Every donation counts and helps us provide a larger audience with the information they need to better understand the events around the world they can't get anywhere else. We want to thank our devoted community of supporters who help make this show and others we produce possible each week. We kindly ask you to also support the work we do by encouraging others to subscribe to our YouTube channel and website: www.democracyatwork.info