Economic Update with Richard D. Wolff

By Democracy at Work, Richard D. Wolff

What's Economic Update with Richard D. Wolff about?

Democracy at Work ([email protected]) is a non-profit (501C3) organization that conceives, creates, and distributes media aimed at demonstrating why, and how, democratizing the workplace is a viable solution for a new and better economic system.

4.8

1,275 ratings

Download our free app to listen on your phone

LAST EPISODE

Socialism & Worker Co-ops

09.23.2021

Repeat. 20th century socialism is now behind us. Socialists continued to evaluate both its achievements and failures via extensive self-criticism. A changed socialism has emerged, focused on a transition of workplaces from top-down hierarchical capitalist structures into democratic worker cooperatives. ...

Economic Update with Richard D. Wolff episodes:

09.23.2021 Socialism & Worker Co-ops Repeat. 20th century socialism is now behind us. Socialists continued to evaluate both its achievements and failures via extensive self-criticism. A changed socialism has emerged, focused on a transition of workplaces from top-down hierarchical capitalist structures into democratic worker cooperatives. ...
09.16.2021 Occupy Wall Street: Analysis and Legacy This program is devoted to Occupy Wall Street (OWS) on its 10th anniversary. Prof. Wolff discusses OWS as a historic turning point, as legacy for the US left, and his personal experience. Wolff presents OWS's 4 basic causes, its anti-capitalist ...
09.09.2021 The Rational and Irrational in Anti-Vaxxers On this week's show, Prof. Wolff presents updates on the complexities of anti-vaccination movements, the long decline of religion in US capitalism, Disneys’s shift to serve the richest, lessons from AFL-CIO chief Richard Trumka's leadership, and failures of GOP, Dem ...
09.02.2021 20 Years after 9/11, US is still a Stuck Nation On this week's show, Prof. Wolff presents updates on Alabama miners' strike, how China's focus on reducing inequality affects competition with the US, and the economics of the "right to repair" consumers' movement in the US. The second half of ...
08.26.2021 Extremes of Rich/Poor in US Capitalism This week on Economic Update, Prof. Wolff discusses the new US program for monthly child benefits; why Covid strengthens some and divides other nations; the myth of "labor shortage;" the real cost of ultra-luxury cruises; Uber and sexual assaults; and ...
08.19.2021 Liberating Technology from Capitalism On this week's show, Prof. Wolff provides updates on two small labor victories (Vermont's AFL-CIO and 4000 pork-processing meat cutters in Sioux Falls), how global capitalism became even more unequal during the pandemic, Iceland's move to the 4-day work week, ...
08.12.2021 Chile's Feminist Social Revolution On this week's show, Prof. Wolff discusses the election of a socialist, African-American woman as new mayor in Buffalo, NY; US unemployment insurance's meager support for jobless; Teamsters target Amazon workers for union drive; veterans' suicides and the costs of ...
08.05.2021 A US Left Rises to Remake the World On this week's show, Prof. Wolff presents updates on "The Friends" reunion and what it teaches, how China outmaneuvers US tariffs, etc., and how Yellow Vests plus French unions defeated Macron "reforms." On the second half of the program, Wolff ...
07.29.2021 Best Years of US Lie in its Past On this week's show, Prof. Wolff talks about Chipotle Mexican Grill blaming its price increases on its workers, economist Arthur Laffer's claims that many poor, minority workers are "not worth $15/hour." and false claims that lower taxes help economic growth ...
07.22.2021 Capitalism's Shrinking Popularity On this week's show, Prof. Wolff discusses French voters abstaining (66%), and rejecting party establishments in the face of social crisis; Seattle City Council helps tenants with law changes as conservatives seek to recall progressive Council leader Sawan; growing US ...
07.15.2021 The Challenge of Progressive Unionism On this week's show, Prof. Wolff discusses Wall Street money corrupting US elections and the facts of a declining US capitalism (wage stagnation driving inequality, rising health and education costs, falling real social security benefits, unequal wealth of people of ...
07.08.2021 Inflation and Labor Shortage On this week's show, Prof Wolff talks about the social effects of inflation and the lack of accountability on the part of employers. Capitalist employers set prices with the only motive of maximizing. Employees, the vast majority, must live with ...
07.01.2021 The Three Basic Kinds of Socialism (Repeat) As ever more people become anti-capitalist and look toward socialist alternatives, it is important to grasp key differences among the alternative kinds of socialism. This program explains those differences among (1) the moderate socialism, (2) the communist kind of socialism ...
06.25.2021 How Capitalism Shapes Our Food In this episode, Prof. Wolff presents updates on the economic aspects of the Covid pandemic: lockdowns vs vaccines, scientific debate vs corporate advertising, long-term vs short term costs, the billionaires made by profiting from vaccines, and false claims of vaccine ...
06.17.2021 Insurgent Working Class and Organization In this week's show, Prof Wolff presents updates on the efforts to finally add dental, vision, and hearing coverage to Medicare, the effects of Trump's tariffs on China, and the contradictions between capitalist profiteering and healthcare. In the second half ...
06.10.2021 The Center Cannot Hold This program begins by analyzing the political monopoly (aka "The Center") operated by the GOP and Dems in the US: its organization and dominance until the last few years. The monopoly deteriorates as both GOP and Dem coalitions suffer splits ...
06.03.2021 A "Living Wage" On this week's show, Prof. Wolff comments on how and why "consumerism" matters and on why Biden's "progressive shift" is both like and unlike (far more limited so far) FDR's. Wolff then interviews two Canadian professors of labor studies, Bryan ...
05.27.2021 The Great American Purge (REPEAT) The program begins by explaining the economics behind the great US anti-leftist purge (McCarthyism) after 1945. It then shows the economic impacts of that purge over the last half century. Finally, it explains how that history produced a very different ...
05.20.2021 Labor and Capitalism's Rise and Fall On this week's show, Prof. Wolff discusses Congress Bills H.R.51 giving statehood to Washington, DC, and H.R.1 countering GOP efforts to restrict voting; and Biden's tax reforms to help pay for new and expanded government programs. In the second half ...
05.13.2021 Valuing Work by Women of Color On this week's show, Prof. Wolff discusses Bernie Madoff's $ 82 billion swindles and capitalism's incentives for swindling, the economics of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, US government's racist housing policies, and refuting the defense of capitalism as "lifting people ...
05.06.2021 Capitalism versus Democracy On this week's show, Prof. Wolff presents an analysis of how and why capitalism is an undemocratic economic system. The first half is devoted to the micro-level, the organization of the enterprise. The second half has a macro-level focus that ...
04.29.2021 How US Capitalism Uses Nationalism From 1945 to 1990 we were told a great struggle pitted capitalism against socialism/communism (chiefly the USSR and China). Yet still today, US leaders demonize Russia and China despite the end of communism in the USSR and a huge growth ...
04.22.2021 A Green 3rd Party for the US On this week's episode, Prof. Wolff talks about Rolls Royce's $400,000 cars, unionization defeat at Amazon, why Biden boom is just hype, and progressive wins in the New York state budget. On the second half of the show, Wolff welcomes ...
04.15.2021 Workers Successfully Take Over their Workplaces On this week's show, Prof. Wolff discusses how the US home rental market is failing over 20% of all renters, and the basic flaws in Biden's $2 trillion infrastructure proposal. On the second half of the show, Prof. Wolff interviews ...
04.08.2021 Marxism's Ongoing Relevance After clearing away the Cold War debris that blocked discussion of Marxism's insights since 1945, we focus on Marxism's core contribution to (1) thinking about and (2) changing modern capitalist society. That contribution is class structure and class struggle. Marxism ...
04.01.2021 When Economic Systems Fail On this week's episode, Prof. Wolff talks about the structural failure of Biden's American Rescue Plan, Nigerian mass workers' movement, private electricity for the US rich, big vs small business struggles, and why opposition to lockdowns only prolongs Covid. On ...
03.25.2021 Dems' Self-promotion versus Hard Economic Realities On this week's show, Prof. Wolff discusses the US coal industry decline, Brazil's Covid disaster, economic surge after Covid, and Elizabeth Warren's wealth tax proposal. On the second half of the show, Wolff interviews investigative journalist Bob Hennelly on the ...
03.18.2021 Finally a Tiny Sales Tax on Stocks On this week's show, Wolff talks about the taxing of CEO pay in the US, the immoral and self-defeating vaccine policy, and LeBron James speaking out on social issues. On the second half of the show, Wolff interviews attorney James ...
03.11.2021 People to People: Horizontal Social Change On this week's show, Prof. Wolff presents updates on the Texas energy catastrophe, the 'Robinhood/Reddit' Wall Street incident, college workers organizing, Hollywood's dependency on China, and how New Zealand used total lockdown to beat COVID and support its economy. In ...
03.04.2021 Socialism and Puerto Rico On this week's EU, Prof. Wolff presents updates on worsening US inequality, universities borrowing more, billions earned by hedge funds in 2020, Bezos "charity" giving, Macron and French conservatives' anti-Americanism, and Communists after 1945 vs Proud Boys now. On the ...
02.25.2021 The System Implodes: Amazon, Evictions, Tax Abuses, and Minimum Wages On this week's show, Prof. Wolff discusses Amazon's profits; New York state's eviction crisis and capitalism's reproduction of poverty and inequality; New York's stock transfer tax; raising the minimum wage; and the subsidizing of billionaire's big sport businesses.
02.18.2021 Why Capitalism Reproduces Inequality and a Solution The extreme economic inequalities of both global and US capitalism are not new or exceptional. Capitalism reproduces inequality and repeatedly blocks or reverses redistribution efforts.Inequality stems from capitalist enterprises' internal organization: a tiny minority, employers, with dominant, unaccountable power enriches ...
02.11.2021 The US Political Right in Anger and Mourning On this week's show, Prof. Wolff presents updates on the radical policies of Berlin's city gov't and its Die LInke Party; why raising minimum wage to $15/hour is too little, too late; how bans on evictions and utility shut offs ...
02.04.2021 History's Lessons on Capitalism's Failures: Germany and US On this week's show, Prof. Wolff evaluates capitalism by how it deals with Covid-19 and talks about Boeing's latest fatal crash. The second half of the show is dedicated to a major discussion of the causes of Hitler in Germany ...
01.28.2021 Why Women Have Better Sex In Socialism On this week's show, Prof. Wolff presents short updates on the Economic Plans of the Biden administration and US economic inequality, and why raising minimum wage to $15/hour is insufficient to deal with US economic inequality and its social consequences. ...
01.21.2021 The Economics Lesson Taught by the Pandemic On this week's show, Professor Wolff explains where the government is respected and empowered, nations have effectively contained the Covid-19 pandemic. He gives examples where the government is demonized, disrespected, distrusted, the pandemic has been devastating. Wolff argues that a ...
01.14.2021 Noam Chomsky on Prospects and Tasks as 2021 Begins This week, Prof Wolff gives updates on President-elect Biden's economic advisor "team", how Argentina's women's movement wins legalized abortion and now targets other basic social changes, and how the deepening inequality of US wealth and income cause and reflect the ...
01.07.2021 Externalities and Capitalism's Inefficiencies This program introduces the economic concept of "externalities." Those are the real costs of employers' business decisions that employers do not pay for or take into account: costs "external" to businesses' profit/loss calculations. Those real social costs are external and ...
12.23.2020 Growing Independent, Progressive Media This week's show features updates on the continuing lessons from 2020 at the year's end: the economics of US policing and the 'defund' campaign, building a Cold War against China, and lessons from the 2020 election about political monopoly. In ...
12.17.2020 Lessons From A Crisis Year 2020 This week's show features a survey of the major economic events of 2020 that were poorly covered by mainstream media: the twin crises of viral pandemic/capitalist crash; protesting right-wing regimes (France, US, India, Poland); how the US Census Survey reveals ...
12.10.2020 Working Class Power On this week's show, Prof. Wolff discusses Biden's 'new economic team,' big US banks falling short in key stress tests, India's 250-million-strong general strike, and lastly, huge chunk of US relief funds aimed at small and medium businesses grabbed instead ...
12.03.2020 Social Movement Gains in LA On this week's show, Prof. Wolff discusses the immense social waste of today's US unemployment the Trump ban on investments in Chinese companies, new global organization for worker co-ops, and higher education cuts in UK and US. The second half ...
11.19.2020 What "Capitalism's Decline" Means This week's show is dedicated to a discussion of the signs of US capitalism's decline. US history as the passage of US capitalism from its birth, through its state-supported growth and expansion, to its global peaking from 1945 to 2000. ...
11.12.2020 US Labor battles Covid-19 and Politics On the first half of this week's show, Prof. Wolff discusses labor's gains (Florida and Maine) and losses (the tragic Prop 22 in California), and the refutation of the claim that China's spectacular economic growth is a product of capitalism, ...
11.05.2020 No Matter Who Wins On this week’s show, Prof. Wolff presents the following short updates: Inspire Brands buys Dunkin Donuts, as big firms grow while medium and small firms die; private US capitalism is now on "life-support" financial dependence on US gov't; and pre-Covid ...
10.29.2020 Capitalism's Worst Nightmare On this week's show: what major social changes will flow from today's combination of major economic crash and the viral pandemic (capitalism's worst nightmare)? To answer, we consider how European feudalism changed after its 14th century combination of economic decline ...
10.22.2020 Cuban Commitment to Worker Coops On the first half of this week's show, Prof. Wolff presents updates on the different metrics used for US unemployment, IMF on uneven recovery, money and US elections, Indigenous People's Day, and lastly China's commitment to digital currency, while big ...
10.15.2020 Progressive Social Media Surges in Canada On the first half of this week's episode, Prof. Wolff presents a critique of pandemic eviction and updates on: the real US unemployment costs, Denmark sides with Germany against US pressure, China's successes, and lastly, why there has been no ...
10.08.2020 New US Labor Militancy On this week's show, Prof. Wolff talks about the Geneva, Switzerland vote that's raising the min wage to $ 25.16/hour or over $50k/year; GOP block federal aid to cities and states; economics of police brutality; 20th vs 21st century depressions; ...
10.01.2020 Capitalism's Anxiety About the State On this week's show, Prof. Wolff presents updates on how capitalism gets in the way of fighting Covid-19, systemic racism and Covid-19, why Europe did not allow the mass unemployment imposed on the US, and Wells Fargo CEO's fake excuse ...

Older episodes