This week on Economic Update, Professor Wolff delivers updates on Trump’s cuts to school mental health counselors, the mass strike in LA County, why China is better positioned for a trade war with the U.S., and how profit drives corporate decisions to relocate U.S. factories overseas, thereby making the US economy vulnerable to long, global supply lines.

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.1:01

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 begins by presenting updates on the death of libertarianism and the rise of US economic nationalism, and US universities become big businesses, governed by money concerns. In the episode's second half, Professor Wolff interviews Professor Geert Dhondt, the Chair of the Economics Department and Economics Professor at John Jay College of the City University of New York, on how colleges and universities are reacting to Trump's attack on higher education.

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.1:01

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

Professor Wolff begins this week on Economic Update by analyzing the choice between reform and revolution through two historical discussions: the anti-slavery fight in the mid-19th century and the anti-Depression fight in the U.S. during the 1930s. He then explains the stakes in choosing reform or revolution as goals for social change and outlines how and why both options are now back on the working class's agenda in the U.S. He concludes the discussion by suggesting that revolution is the necessary guarantor of the duration of reforms in the U.S., offering an alternative perspective to consider when choosing reform over revolution. 

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.1:01

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 Trump VS Harvard, Trump's "antisemitism" maneuver, how higher education in the U.S. is becoming ever more " business-like,” and the economics behind the depreciation of the U.S. dollar since Jan 20, 2025. The show's second half features an interview with Mr. Rob Robinson, who is to be awarded an honorary doctorate from the City University of New York at its Commencement on June 10, 2025, in recognition of his multiple contributions in the fight against homelessness and inadequate housing in the U.S.

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.1:01

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 Richard Wolff examines a major labor strike unfolding in California, where 2,400 Kaiser Permanente mental health workers are fighting for better conditions. Next, we break down how tariffs function as an economic weapon, undermining the living standards of U.S. workers.

Finally, Professor Wolff sits down with Kali Akuno, co-founder and co-director of Cooperation Jackson, to discuss Trump’s controversial "restoration" agenda and the growing resistance against it.

Kali Akuno is the co-founder and co-director of Cooperation Jackson, a network of worker cooperatives and community-led programs that sustain and grow a democratic, just, and sustainable economy in Jackson, MS. Among these programs is the Fannie Lou Hamer Community Land Trust, which enables community members to collectively steward the land and creates opportunities for affordable property ownership.

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.1:01

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

**** SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT **** For those of you in the New York area, we'd like to invite you to join us for another presentation of "Global Capitalism Live with Professor Richard Wolff" taking place on April 30th. Professor Wolff will be giving a lecture on the impact of President Trump’s economic policies and explaining how they are an attack on working people as part of a reflection on May Day. This event will be held in person in the main lecture hall at the Women Building Up campus at 401 State Street in Brooklyn, NY. Seats are limited but you can still get tickets to the event by going to our website:  democracyatwork.info and clicking the link in the banner image at the top of the homepage or by going to: bit.ly/3YEZOu8

This week on Economic Update, Professor Wolff delivers updates on employers that are blocking, delaying, and opposing improvements on general social welfare, the Trump administration putting an end to "affirmative action" for veterans (including those disabled), and how the Trump tariffs are worsening uncertainty with very serious negative consequences. In the second half of the show, Professor Wolff interviews Professors Maliha Safri and Stephen Healy, co-authors of the new book "Solidarity Cities: Confronting Racial Capitalism, Mapping Transformation."

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.1:01

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

In this week's episode of Economic Update, Professor Wolff critiques the DOGE practice of firing federal civilian employees, analyzes the Trump tariff program, and shows how both are presented as ways to solve deep economic problems in the U.S. but are actually an assault on the working class. The second part of the show features an interview with David Van Deusen, the former head of the Vermont state AFL-CIO and now an organizer of union-based resistance to the Trump program.

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.1:01

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 explores the last 150 years of largely uncritical celebrations of "the market" as if it were a perfect institution that must be protected from the intrusion of other institutions such as the government, labor unions, and popular organizations. We compare a historical example and the present to criticize today's peculiar mix of market idolatry and its rejection in the U.S.

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.1:01

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

In this week's episode of Economic Update, Professor Wolff discusses certain minimum wages by the Trump administration, the costs of Germany's rearmament, and how Trump's tariffs and deportations have hit central America with economic catastrophe. The second half features a detailed discussion of the historical blaming of foreigners for the internal problems of capitalism in the U.S. 

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.1:01

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

In this week's episode of Economic Update, Professor Wolff discusses how Marx's class analysis presents a solution to today's inequality and the challenges to overcoming it we have faced throughout history. In short, since the early existence of human society, people lived in tribes, clans, and villages that exhibited equality of wealth, income, and political power among their members. As modern history began to unfold, slavery, feudalism, and capitalism evolved as society as we know it took shape. In each of those three systems, huge inequalities separated people into masters vs slaves, lords vs serfs, and employers vs employees. Exploited and oppressed slaves, serfs, and employees opposed the inequalities of those systems but were unable to overcome them despite repeated efforts (revolutions). Marx questioned why modern societies failed to install and sustain systems of egalitarian wealth and power distribution (democracy). His answer lay in the understanding that class differences within the organization of production produce inequalities and sustain them. Overcoming those inequalities thus requires ending the class divisions within the organization of production and instead organizing in favor of a worker-cooperative structured method of production.

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.1:01

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