Economic Update with Richard D. Wolff

This week on Economic Update, an analysis of Ukraine propaganda war, US inflation worsens, the US college debt crisis and New York City eviction crisis looms. In the second half of the show, Wolff interviews Gayle McLaughlin , former Mayor and City Council member, Richmond, CA. on winning progressive politics.

This week on Economic Update, Prof. Wolff discusses nurses' suicides as results of our profit-driven healthcare, sanctions and their effect on inflation, US states where 40% of workers earn under $15/hr, and US corporate profits triple from 2008 to present. In the second half, Wolff talks with host and journalist Chris Hedges about Ukraine and the end of the US empire.    

In the first half of this week's show, Wolff evaluates US capitalism as a system of production and distribution of goods and services. In the second half, he compares the evaluation with the very different self-image of dominant voices within US capitalism. His conclusion: US capitalism has peaked and finding it very difficult to face its decline.    

This week on Economic Update, Prof. Wolff talks about oil and gas inflation, its impacts, and politicians' phony solutions, the stagnant US gender pay gap and its significance, and why Americans are experiencing economic crisis, while Biden pretends the US economy has "recovered" and is in great shape. In the second half of the show, Wolff interviews Amazon union leader Chris Smalls about union or...

This week on Economic Update, Prof Wolff presents updates on Amazon workers' strike, the impact of US inflation, and the underappreciated economic aspects of Russia-Ukraine war. In the second half of the show, Wolff interviews Prof. Joerg Rieger on Christian Socialism, past and present.

This week's show on Economic Update, Prof. Wolff talks about the emerging new world order, Ukraine and inflation, and the economics of sanctions.  On the second half of the show, Wolff is joined by Prof. Adolph Reed, Jr. to discuss race, class and the US left.    

This week's show features a discussion of what Marx offers in the way of a basic critique of capitalism and an alternative economic system that would be better for most people, and how this differs from mainstream economics.    

On this week's show, Prof. Wolff talks about the UK selling visa to the rich, why "non-profit" is really "un-taxed," Apple's CEO's 2021 pay of $99 million, AOC and NYPD arrests for stealing diapers and kids' medicines, cleaning products. Green Party leaders Gloria Mattera and Michael O'Neil join Wolff in the second half.    

This week on Economic Update, Prof. Wolff presents updates on the 2021 record 100,000 opioid overdose deaths in the US, the savage reductions in K-12 public education, inflation's profiteers, and offers a different take on the truckers' convoy in Canada. The second half of the show features an interview with activist Rob Robinson, formerly homeless, now a professor advocating for public housing.  

On this week's show, Prof. Wolff talks about the US' 2021 trade deficit and its implications, the FED's inflation policy dilemma, and the political economy of the Baltimore and Bronx fires. In the second half of the show, Wolff uses the actual history of fascism in Italy, Germany and Spain to analyze the positions and prospects of fascism in the US today.

This week on Economic Update, Prof. Wolff presents a critique of US Megacorp merger (Microsoft and Activision Blizzard), China vs US on inflation and economic growth, and the collapse of Boris Johnson (like Trump's lost election). In the second half of the show, Wolff interviews author Aviva Chomsky on problems and prospects of US labor and left social movements.    

On this week's show, Prof. Wolff talks about the recreation of `company towns' (eg., Kalamazoo, MI) by the richest US capitalists, Biden and the reality of US jobs lost, how and why the US follows UK decline, and rising mass alienation from established political leaders and parties. The second half of the program features a discussion of socialism without Cold War taboos.    

On this week's show, Prof. Wolff talks about the sharp reduction in US population growth; how "lockdowns" are the anti-Covid policy everywhere, ,some gov't run and focused while others are private, haphazard, and unfocused. In the second half of the show, Prof. Wolff is joined by Fabian Scheidler, author of The End of the Megamachine: A Brief History of a Failing Civilization.

On this week's show, Prof. Wolff talks about US bank closings as a sign of system decline; victory for 3000 striking Columbia University students; Laredo, Texas combats food deserts with co-ops; pandemic years worsen global inequalities, US defense bill aggravates US capitalism's inequalities. Special guest Tess Fraad-Wolff joins the second half of the show to discuss the role of emotions in US po...

This week on Economic Update, Prof. Wolff presents updates on Huawei vs Cisco, Europe's exploding energy prices falsely blamed on Covid, Robert Kuttner announces he has become a socialist, polls show big drop in religious affiliation and praying especially among Christians from 2007 to 2021 as secularism accelerates. In the second half of the show, Prof. Wolff is joined by Mike Elk of Payday Repor...

This special program discusses how the history of the US working class shaped US politics. We start with how and why the 1930s Great Depression married the US working class to FDR's Democratic Party (New Deal Coalition). We next show how and why after 1945, US business leaders and Republicans broke up that marriage to undo the New Deal. By re-building working class divisions - especially around ra...

On this week's show, Prof. Wolff presents updates on Columbia University grad student strike, the contradictions of 2021, Cuba's Covid vaccine, Trump clone and French politics' lesson, why US manufacturing jobs keep vanishing, why capital-labor struggles affect high and low-paid workers alike: the baseball lockout, and Mitt Romney's 100% hypocritical attack on Dalio's China investments.

On this week's show, Prof. Wolff presents a critique of obscene wealth in the US and the economics of the rape crisis in th US and UK. The second half of the show features an interview with author Bob Hennelly, on the anti-mandate vs anti-vaccine confusion and the debate over Democratic Party losses and strategies.    

On this week's show, Prof. Wolff presents updates on 50 years of fossil fuel corps putting profits before science, CVS to close 900 drugstores as part of decline of US workers living standards, FBI lies in Malcolm X assassination, and huge estate tax cuts for US rich. On the second half of the show, Prof. Wolff interviews Prof. Melissa Scanlan on her new book showing how coops are a better bet tha...

On this week's show, Prof. Wolff talks about teacher burnout economics, inflation as an employer-employee fight, the "labor shortage" isn't, "Build Back Better" does not begin to approach what Europe already has, the basic political economy of last November's elections, the critique of obscene wealth.

On this week's show, Prof. Wolff presents updates on his recent debate with Ayn Rand Institute on capitalism vs socialism, inflation in Europe, an analysis of right vs left splitting in US today, and real vs fake causes of energy price inflation. The second half of the show features an interview with David McNally, Prof, University of Houston, on lessons of capitalism's history.    

On this week's show, Prof. Wolff presents updates on South Dakota leads US to become world's #2 "tax haven,"  pandemic's economic shock cut by very uncapitalistic means, why employers want the govt to pay workers to go back to work, and how libertarians mistake puppets for puppeteers. The second half of the show features an interview with Chris Hedges on lessons for us from US prisons and prisoner...

Biden's and Democrats' fading tax reforms, German and Austrian politics shift left, Yale sells out to rich donors, product shortages often deliberate, wages for housework, and real US food inflation.

On this week's show, Prof. Wolff discusses how Amazon rips off small business and squeezes workers, US and China's military tactics, top mainstream economists grasp the deepening critique of capitalism, and how strikes at Nabisco and Kellogg expose capitalism's classic contours of class struggle. The second half of the show features an interview with Prof Talia Lugacy on her new independent film T...