Economic Update with Richard D. Wolff

This week on Economic Update, Professor Wolff discusses four centuries of capitalism's achievements and its flaws. From rapid technical changes driven by profits, capitalism organizes the world's first world market and world economy; BUT profit-driven technology has many flaws and failures, and the profit-driven world economy is extremely unjust, concentrating wealth in North America, Western Europe, and Japan while impoverishing the other 88% of the world's people. There has to be a better way.

Economic Update with Richard D. Wolff is a production of Democracy at Work, Inc., and any reproduction in whole or part is strictly prohibited without written permission. We make it a point to keep the show ad-free and rely solely on viewer support to continue doing so. Every donation counts and helps us reach a larger audience with the information they need to better understand the events around the world that they won't find anywhere else.

We want to thank our devoted community of supporters who help make this show and the 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

Professor Wolff's latest book, "Understanding Capitalism," is available now for purchase: https://linktr.ee/understandingcapitalism

Professor Wolff's "Understanding Series," is available for purchase: https://linktr.ee/RichardWolffBooks

© 2026 Democracy at Work, Inc. All Rights Reserved

This week on Economic Update, Professor Wolff delivers updates on the California nurses fighting A.I.-dictated treatment plans, the mass movements happening among Europeans against their governments, a critique of this year's Nobel Prize in Economics, the exposure of egg producers' coordinated effort to profit from an egg-sellers oligopoly, how the Irish novelist Sally Rooney is battling the U.K. government over her right to contribute her book earnings to Palestine Action, and the parallel efforts of U.S. repression disguised as anti-terrorism, Lula's win in Brazil, and the Audi CEO who rallied with/for Trump.

Economic Update with Richard D. Wolff is a production of Democracy at Work, Inc., and any reproduction in whole or part is strictly prohibited without written permission. We make it a point to keep the show ad-free and rely solely on viewer support to continue doing so. Every donation counts and helps us reach a larger audience with the information they need to better understand the events around the world that they won't find anywhere else.

We want to thank our devoted community of supporters who help make this show and the 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

Professor Wolff's latest book, "Understanding Capitalism," is available now for purchase: https://linktr.ee/understandingcapitalism

Professor Wolff's "Understanding Series," is available for purchase: https://linktr.ee/RichardWolffBooks

© 2026 Democracy at Work, Inc. All Rights Reserved

In this week's episode of Economic Update, Professor Wolff delivers updates on two labor union victories (in Canada against Walmart and in Maine against a big U.S. hospital chain), billionaires' continued efforts to restrict democracy in California, and the failure of all US presidents to bring manufacturing back in the United States. The second half of today's show features an interview with Dr. Harriet Fraad on the causes and implications of the Cornell University rape scandal.

Economic Update with Richard D. Wolff is a production of Democracy at Work, Inc., and any reproduction in whole or part is strictly prohibited without written permission. We make it a point to keep the show ad-free and rely solely on viewer support to continue doing so. Every donation counts and helps us reach a larger audience with the information they need to better understand the events around the world that they won't find anywhere else.

We want to thank our devoted community of supporters who help make this show and the 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

Professor Wolff's latest book, "Understanding Capitalism," is available now for purchase: https://linktr.ee/understandingcapitalism

Professor Wolff's "Understanding Series," is available for purchase: https://linktr.ee/RichardWolffBooks

© 2026 Democracy at Work, Inc. All Rights Reserved

This week on Economic Update, Professor Wolff discusses how the recent upsurge in socialist politicians and interest in socialism raises the question: why did socialism fade after its last surge in the 1930s Great Depression? The New Deal was a kind of socialism that prevailed then and delivered government programs (Social Security, Minimum Wage, Unemployment Insurance, federal jobs programs), but after 1945, the Cold War presided over the New Deal's undoing. The lesson: something must be done about corporate profits, the pool of money untouched by 1930s socialism that corporations used to buy the politicians who undid the New Deal. That something is to convert factories, offices, and stores into worker co-ops democratically owned and operated by their workers. Workers would receive the profit produced by their labor and would thus never use it to undo the victories socialism achieves.

Economic Update with Richard D. Wolff is a production of Democracy at Work, Inc., and any reproduction in whole or part is strictly prohibited without written permission. We make it a point to keep the show ad-free and rely solely on viewer support to continue doing so. Every donation counts and helps us reach a larger audience with the information they need to better understand the events around the world that they won't find anywhere else.

We want to thank our devoted community of supporters who help make this show and the 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

Professor Wolff's latest book, "Understanding Capitalism," is available now for purchase: https://linktr.ee/understandingcapitalism

Professor Wolff's "Understanding Series," is available for purchase: https://linktr.ee/RichardWolffBooks

© 2026 Democracy at Work, Inc. All Rights Reserved

This week on Economic Update, Professor Wolff explains why the wars in Ukraine and Iran are driving higher interest rates in the U.S., affecting the diesel oil crisis, American inflation, and even the price of a Big Mac. The second half of the show features an interview with photojournalist Steve Mellon on converting Pittsburgh Post-Gazette into the worker co-op, Pittsburgh Progress.

Economic Update with Richard D. Wolff is a production of Democracy at Work, Inc., and any reproduction in whole or part is strictly prohibited without written permission. We make it a point to keep the show ad-free and rely solely on viewer support to continue doing so. Every donation counts and helps us reach a larger audience with the information they need to better understand the events around the world that they won't find anywhere else.

We want to thank our devoted community of supporters who help make this show and the 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

Professor Wolff's latest book, "Understanding Capitalism," is available now for purchase: https://linktr.ee/understandingcapitalism

Professor Wolff's "Understanding Series," is available for purchase: https://linktr.ee/RichardWolffBooks

© 2026 Democracy at Work, Inc. All Rights Reserved

In this week's episode of Economic Update, Professor Wolff delivers updates on Trump's effort to buy votes for Republicans and its consequences, World Wars 1 and 2 as culminations of capitalist colonialism, the U.S. as the inheritor of prior colonialisms to become the world's first global imperialist police force securing the wealth flow to the U.S. that is now in decline. The second half of today's show features an interview with Dave Zirin, author of the new book The People's Historian: The Outsized Life of Howard Zinn.

Economic Update with Richard D. Wolff is a production of Democracy at Work, Inc., and any reproduction in whole or part is strictly prohibited without written permission. We make it a point to keep the show ad-free and rely solely on viewer support to continue doing so. Every donation counts and helps us reach a larger audience with the information they need to better understand the events around the world that they won't find anywhere else.

We want to thank our devoted community of supporters who help make this show and the 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 Professor Wolff's latest book, "Understanding Capitalism," is available now for purchase: https://linktr.ee/understandingcapita... Professor Wolff's "Understanding Series," is available for purchase: https://linktr.ee/RichardWolffBooks

© 2026 Democracy at Work, Inc. All Rights Reserved

In this week's episode of Economic Update, Professor Wolff delivers updates on the September 6th German elections and their meanings, the importance of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, and the undemocratic internal organizations of major capitalist corporations. The second half of today's show features an interview with stand-up comedian, activist, and media commentator Francesca Fiorentini.

Economic Update with Richard D. Wolff is a production of Democracy at Work, Inc., and any reproduction in whole or part is strictly prohibited without written permission. We make it a point to keep the show ad-free and rely solely on viewer support to continue doing so. Every donation counts and helps us reach a larger audience with the information they need to better understand the events around the world that they won't find anywhere else.

We want to thank our devoted community of supporters who help make this show and the 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

Professor Wolff's latest book, "Understanding Capitalism," is available now for purchase: https://linktr.ee/understandingcapitalism

Professor Wolff's "Understanding Series," is available for purchase: https://linktr.ee/RichardWolffBooks

© 2026 Democracy at Work, Inc. All Rights Reserved

In this week's episode of Economic Update, Professor Wolff delivers updates on Die Linke ("The Left") political party surging in Germany, the errors and omissions in Bessent's anti-Iran sanctions program, and the background of the historic victory of unionized public workers (bus drivers) in Jackson, Mississippi, with the help of Jackson's political leaders. The second half of today's show features an interview with Kshama Sawant, revolutionary socialist, and 3-time election winner of a seat on Seattle City Council.

Economic Update with Richard D. Wolff is a production of Democracy at Work, Inc., and any reproduction in whole or part is strictly prohibited without written permission. We make it a point to keep the show ad-free and rely solely on viewer support to continue doing so. Every donation counts and helps us reach a larger audience with the information they need to better understand the events around the world that they won't find anywhere else.

We want to thank our devoted community of supporters who help make this show and the 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

Professor Wolff's latest book, "Understanding Capitalism," is available now for purchase: https://linktr.ee/understandingcapitalism

Professor Wolff's "Understanding Series," is available for purchase: https://linktr.ee/RichardWolffBooks

© 2026 Democracy at Work, Inc. All Rights Reserved

In this episode, Professor Wolff delivers updates on new research documenting market failure to meet the urgent, large need for childcare in the US, the selective morality of Ambassador Huckabee, the empty threats by corporations and the rich to leave jurisdictions that dare to tax them, and the significance of the debt passing milestone of $40 trillion. The second half of today's show features an interview with long-time activist and organizer, David Cobb, on the resurgence and importance of activism in the U.S. today

We want to thank our devoted community of supporters who help make this show and the 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

Professor Wolff's latest book, "Understanding Capitalism," is available now for purchase: https://linktr.ee/understandingcapitalism

Professor Wolff's "Understanding Series," is available for purchase: https://linktr.ee/RichardWolffBooks

© 2026 Democracy at Work, Inc. All Rights Reserved

This week on Economic Update, Professor Wolff delivers updates on the Starbucks Workers United call-to-boycott, the powerful lyrics of Dolly Parton's song "9 to 5," and the recent electoral victories by socialists and progressives, especially N'Kiyla Jasmine Thomas in Oklahoma. The second half of the show features an interview with Alissa Quart, co-author with Barbara Ehrenreich and founder of the Economic Hardship Reporting Project.

We want to thank our devoted community of supporters who help make this show and the 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

Professor Wolff's latest book, "Understanding Capitalism," is available now for purchase: https://linktr.ee/understandingcapitalism

Professor Wolff's "Understanding Series," is available for purchase: https://linktr.ee/RichardWolffBooks

© 2026 Democracy at Work, Inc. All Rights Reserved