Ask Prof Wolff

A Patron of Democracy at Work asks: "How different would teaching economics be in a world full of coops? What would be the same/different?"

A Patron of Democracy at Work asks: "My question is regarding global south countries that are (1) highly indebted to foreign institutions like the IMF, and World, other countries and are stuck in a debt trap, and (2) are highly dependent on remittances from expat workers, as well as exports to meet their balance of payments problems. Just to meet their debt servicing commitments they end up having...

A Patron of Democracy at Work asks: "I listen to a lot of podcasts such as yourself to get a broader perspective. I love the clarity you bring to pretty much any subject you discuss. I would like your take on something I've heard recently, that communism is actually conservative fascism. It was in the context of the MAGA Communism narrative that has been discussed and in some cases pushed by creat...

A Patron of Democracy at Work asks: "It appears to me that the Fed policies, i.e. rate hikes, are being weaponized against us workers for our meager gains in wage increases via union building and the continuing leverage gained through the pandemic. If both sides continue at this pace what do you foresee as the conclusion?"

A Patron of Democracy at Work asks: "It's often said as an argument against democracy that Hitler's Nazi party was democratically elected. Is that true? How should we reconcile a belief in democracy with the fact that sometimes democracy can lead to evil people being elected?"

A Patron of Democracy at Work asks: "Can you comment on the upcoming merger between Kroger and Safeway-Albertsons? I live in Seattle where nearly all of the grocery stores are owned by those two companies. I'm concerned that the merger will create an effective monopoly and that my food costs will go even higher. Thanks!"

A Patron of Democracy at Work asks: "How did you arrive at overdetermination as an ontological and epistemological theory for explaining the world (or at least part of the world)?"

A Patron of Democracy at Work asks: "Hello, I would like to make a comment in reference to Prof. Wolff's Economic Update on colonialism, where he mentioned India's freedom from the British via the passive movement of 'Mahatma' Gandhi. In reality, it was a combination of resistance against the empire that led to the overthrow of the Brits from India. These resistances included infamous communist/so...

A Patron of Democracy at Work asks: "I'd like to hear Prof Wolff comment on esteemed colleagues, economists around the world who advocate for the fair distribution of economic wealth and resources as well as the Nobel Prize in Economics going to Ben Bernanke."

A Patron of Democracy at Work asks: "To what extent do we also have to take into account the need to reorganize the composition of jobs within the coop, so as to avoid recreating a controller class, as described by Michael Albert in 'No Bosses'?"

A Patron of Democracy at Work asks: "Does there exist any movement to abolish land-lording? Seems like the existence of landlords is a major part of the problem. Workers are doubly exploited. First, at work where they are not paid what their work is worth, and again, in the home where they are charged more than their dwelling is worth. An alternative could be, in addition to those that own their o...

A Patron of Democracy at Work asks: "Can this financial system ever get away from the stock market (Wall St. casino)? I'm watching my IRA go further and further down the drain. Is there a better system we can use?"

A Patron of Democracy at Work asks: "With so many types of insurances provided in the capitalist system, such as house, car, business, content insurances, and so on, would a democratic-socialist society need to provide such services through institutions or would the government take care of the unexpected incidents' cost?"

A Patron of Democracy at Work asks: "After we win over capitalism, how do we keep it? Human history tells me highly skilled sociopaths always rise to the top. To not repeat Russia's mistakes, how would we go about it?"

A Patron of Democracy at Work asks: "The focus on economic growth, something you talked about in the September 2022 Global Capitalism lecture, seems misplaced, at least for rich nations. I'm reminded of the Kenneth Boulding quote from the early 1970's—"Anyone who believes that exponential growth can go on forever in a finite world is either a madman or an economist." Can you please give your persp...

A Patron of Democracy at Work asks: "Prof Wolff, now that we've entered a recession here, how would the continued Fed interest rate hikes correlate to supply shortage due to our low production capacity? At what rate would the Fed have to lower demand in order to bring down inflation? Or are we inevitably entering stagflation?"

A Patron of Democracy at Work asks: "In his book "One Nation Under God: How Corporate American Invented Christian America,   Kevin Kruse talks about an alliance between American capitalists and conservative religious leaders, going back to the 1930s. This alliance pushes capitalism in churches under a biblical veneer of 'free-market Gospel.' Capitalists supply the money, and the churches supply th...

A Patron of Democracy at Work asks: "We agree that capitalism is imperfect and that it separates people into the employer and employee classes. However, resources needs to be planned, coordinated and managed otherwise chaos ensues. In many cases, resources are best handled in bulk to attain efficiency and affordability, and that gives rise to the need for concentration of control. Given that peopl...

A Patron of Democracy at Work asks: "China is having some problems, specifically with their housing market. What's the reason for this and does this mean China may not surpass the United States in nominal GDP?"

A Patron of Economic Update asks: "Professor Wolff, how can consumers support the push for unions in companies like Starbucks and Amazon?"

A Supporter of Democracy at Work asks: "GDP accounts for what we produce, but abjectly fails to take into account what we destroy to produce it, nor does it accept in its estimation the vast value of the natural world, and how this plays out on the numerous beneficial aspects affecting humanity and especially, the environment and climate change. How would the cooperative democratic system deal wit...

A Patron of Economic Update asks: "Hello Professor Wolff, I'm not sure how familiar you are with Canadian economics but things are very bad here. The average home price in 1980 was $47k ($163k adjusted for inflation), in 2000 it was $119k ($190k adjusted for inflation). Between January 2020 and March 2022, the average home price soared from $504,350 to $795,952. The average home price in my town,...

A Patron of Economic Update asks: "I noticed that in the Merriam-Webster dictionary result on Google Search for the word Marxism it listed antonyms as democracy, self-governance, self-government, self-rule. This seems very off and yet it comes from such a reputable source. Marxism is not by any stretch the opposite of democracy unless it's hijacked and distorted e.g. Stalin, Mao, etc. Why is the n...

A Patron of Economic Update asks: "In college many years ago I took a couple introductory courses in economics. There I learned that a free market was a market with perfect competition where buyers and sellers could freely enter the competition. From this definition, it followed that a free market would set the price on a good so that supply equaled demand. And there was enough of a discussion on...

A Patron of Economic Update asks: "I'd like to ask a question because it seems to me that whenever a situation occurs where unionized workers try to take over a business from their employers, offering to buy it, the employers would rather shut down than sell to the workers. Is there an economic reason for this? Even small businesses have had this happen where I don't think they have a general anti...