Economic Update with Richard D. Wolff

In this week's episode of Economic Update, Professor Wolff discusses the strengths and weaknesses of Senator Elizabeth Warren's new bill "The Accountable Capitalism Act", Elon Musk's recent comments on homeless people, Mitch McConnell's criticisms of Trump for isolationism, and the over 9,000 Michigan nurses voting to join the Teamsters Union. Finally, Professor Wolff interviews Bucknell Universit...

In this week's episode of Economic Update, Professor Wolff discusses the "catalog" of 2024's economic problem areas: (1) Slow growth relative to China/BRICS; (2) the war in Ukraine; (3) the crises in Gaza and the greater Middle East; (4) Biden & Trump tariffs policy; (5) scapegoating immigrants; (6) corporations disinterest in climate change and DEI initiatives; (7) rising U.S. labor militancy and...

This week's episode of Economic Update, Professor Wolff delves into key global developments, including President Trump's looming tariff wars, the collapse of Emmanuel Macron's government in France, and massive strikes by Volkswagen workers in Germany. He also examines the fall of governments in South Korea and Syria and its implications, along with the public reaction to the assassination of a pro...

In this week's episode of Economic Update, Professor Wolff dives deep into why socialism remains a popular and successful economic system. Professor Wolff highlights new laws passed by the government of Spain that punish airline companies who employ 'unjustified' airline passenger fees. We then debunk the unsubstantiated and nonsensical myth we hear so often that: 'Socialism has never worked,' and...

On this week's episode of Economic Update, Professor Wolff devotes this week's episode to Labor Unions and Political parties. We explain why US & Western capitalism today provoke labor and unions into more and more social and political action. The latest examples are the recent Canadian Postal Workers strike and the Barnes and Noble bookstore workers rally in New York City. The Professor discusses...

In this week's episode of Economic Update, Professor Wolff discusses how US foreign aid serves the interests of corporations and their profits. We highlight how San Juan County in Washington state handled its fiscal crisis by cutting its employees' work week to 32 hours. We update you on workers of Wells Fargo Bank who are currently conducting a unionization drive, which could lead to other US ban...

On this week's episode of Economic Update, Professor Wolff discusses how major pharmaceutical companies (CVS, United Healthcare, Cigna) are complicit in the opioid crisis in the United States. We highlight a successful food co-op in Minneapolis and explain the inauthenticity of mainstream discourse on the US economy.  Finally an interview with Richard "RJ" Eskow, Bernie Sanders' speechwriter, an e...

On this week's episode of Economic Update, Professor Wolff discusses U.S. Universities and Politicians' repression of student protesters, the continued global demands of indigenous people for liberation from colonialism's legacies, and Harvard's corporate administration sacrificing its students' and faculty's freedom of expression to pander to some of its donors.  Finally, an interview with Profes...

In this week's episode of Economic Update, Professor Wolff discusses the economic repercussions of Western sanctions and how the retaliations they provoke. We then turn to the latest labor strikes and wage & benefit gains achieved by unions at Boeing and East Coast dock workers. We highlight China's dominance of the global energy markets; and U.S. spending on military and police.  Finally, we clos...

On this week's episode of Economic Update, with the 2024 U.S. Presidential Election 8 days away, Professor Richard Wolff explores the shared refusal of both major candidates and their parties to face and debate solutions to the major problems facing US capitalism in 2024: (1) Inequality, (2) instability and (3) a declining empire. Instead we are witnessing both Trump and Harris compete to be the "...

On this week's episode of Economic Update, Professor Richard Wolff discusses the new law signed by California Governor Gavin Newsom banning "legacy and donor" favoritism in private college admissions to foster a "merit system." We also bring your attention to Javier Milei and his regime in Argentina as they impose austerity measures on the country: the masses will suffer to pay off debts that enri...

On this week's episode of Economic Update, Professor Richard Wolff discusses how FED Chair Jerome Powell admits capitalism's intrinsic instability, a Tennessee plastic plant won't let workers leave before storm Helene hits, we examine new drugs for obesity (Ozempic and Wegovy) which highlights the failures of for-profit medical care.  Finally, we interview Jordan Chariton on his new book "We, the...

On this week's episode of Economic Update, Professor Richard Wolff discusses the modern political history in the United Kingdom as Conservatives protect UK corporations and the rich by employing  "Distractions": First Brexit, and now Ukraine. We then turn to the latest worker uprising this time in Washington state, as workers at Boeing strike demanding better wages and benefits, and state governme...

On this week's episode of Economic Update, Professor Richard Wolff addresses the numerous requests for financial planning or investment advice that he receives from many of you. We touch on the truth about investing in the stock and/or bond markets. In addition, Professor Wolff offers a basic understanding of the economics of US capitalism's century-long, profit-driven failure to adequately provid...

On this week's episode of Economic Update, Professor Richard Wolff offers a special episode to continue the previous discussion on communism. We will discuss how socialism's history evolved into separating socialism from communism and creating multiple, different meanings of what is considered communism today.   The d@w Team Economic Update with Richard D. Wolff is a DemocracyatWork.info Inc. prod...

On this week's episode of Economic Update, Professor Richard Wolff offers a special episode discussing the unscary origins of the ideas of communism and socialism before the Cold War demonized them. We will discuss how socialism's history evolved into separating socialism from communism and creating multiple, different meanings of what is considered communism today.   The d@w Team Economic Update...

On this week's episode of Economic Update, Professor Richard Wolff draws attention to the 10,000 hotel workers who recently conducted a strike impacting major hotels across 19 US cities. We highlight the contested merger of the two largest grocery chains in America. Albertsons and Kroger threaten to become the third largest retail giant after Amazon, and Walmart plus the Canadian government forces...

On this week's special Labor day episode of Economic Update, Professor Richard Wolff honors both Labor Day and President Abraham Lincoln. President Lincoln once said in 1861 that "Labor is the superior of capital." Yet, capital in the United States has only two major political parties, the Republicans and the Democrats who both are currently advocating for capital over labor and essentially operat...

On this week's Economic Update, Professor Richard Wolff discusses Kate Pickett's and Richard Wilkinson's best-selling study in the book "The Spirit Level" (2009), showing how economic inequality correlates with most of the major social problems of our time.  We will juxtapose their latest paper "The Spirit Level at 15: The Enduring Impact of Inequality" Which details how economic inequality has on...

On this week's Economic Update, Professor Richard Wolff discusses the growing Labor movement and the nuclear disarmament movements in the United States; we will also examine the economic impacts of people under 50 not having nor wanting to have children; we highlight the UK Conservatives fearmongering claiming Free Speech is in danger from "cancel culture" and how anti "cancel culture" legislation...

On this week's program, we question the effectiveness as well as the economics of US sanctions (Economic Warfare), also the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) endorses the United Auto Workers (UAW) plan of setting all union contracts to expire on May 1, 2028, essentially laying the groundwork for a "General Strike". We also highlight the latest rhetoric from the US Chamber of Commerce's declara...

This week's episode features updates on the UK and French elections showing dramatic shifts to the left contradicting US mass media, US self-induced global economic isolation in pursuit of punishing countries doing business with China, Trump and Biden equally unwilling to solve Social Security's financial problems by taxing incomes of the rich as Congress could and should. Professor Wolff closes w...

On this week's Economic Update, Professor Wolff devotes the entire program to explaining clearly and accessibly what government deficits are, why they occur, and who benefits from them.  We show how deficits and debts reward corporations and the rich at the expense of the mass of employees. This show will equip our audience to see through the misuse of deficits and debts in the 2024 election campa...

On this week's Economic Update, Professor Wolff discusses a huge victory for Uber and Lyft drivers' struggling for better wages in Massachusetts; we also bring to your attention six United States senators who criticized Jamie Dimon, CEO of JP Morgan Chase for failing to curb fossil fuel investments as he promised. In addition, we discuss the unfortunate new law passed by the new right-wing governm...

On this week's Economic Update, Professor Wolff discusses the remarkable bursts of unionization at Starbucks in the US, award-winning New York nurse fired for referring to "genocide" in Gaza, and critique of Paul Krugman's argument that "democracy" is at stake in the 2024 election.  Finally, we close with a major discussion on the tension between the realities of climate change and the profit-driv...