Economic Update with Richard D. Wolff
171 episodes - English - Latest episode: 6 days ago - ★★★★★ - 1.8K ratingsEconomic Update with Richard D. Wolff is a weekly nationally syndicated program produced by Democracy at Work and hosted by Richard D. Wolff. The program explores complex economic issues and empowers listeners with information to analyze not only their own financial situation but the economy at large. Beyond focusing a critical eye on the economic dimensions of everyday life - wages, jobs, taxes, debts, interest rates, prices, and profits - the program also explores systemic solutions to our economy's problems including alternative ways to organize production and distribution of the goods and services we all depend on.
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Episodes
The System is the Problem
June 02, 2022 04:00 - 28 minutes - 66.3 MBIn this week's show, Prof. Wolff talks about insurers defrauding pensions, record highway deaths, inflation and risk, interest rate rises, Massachusetts to vote on millionaires tax, Starbucks CEO as dictator, and Mitt Romney's sudden concern with "fairness" exposed.
Capitalism's Flaws Fester
May 26, 2022 04:00 - 28 minutes - 66.3 MBIn this week's show, Prof. Wolff discusses today's US child care workers' crisis; how sanctions on Russia profit fossil fuel companies and worsen pollution; systemic causes of the US infant formula shortage; how food corp executives helped write Trump's 2020 order keeping Covid-plagued meatpacking plants operating; meat price inflation vs. general US inflation; and how cryptocurrencies (including "stablecoins") are as unstable as money has historically been.
War and the Left
May 19, 2022 04:00 - 28 minutes - 66.3 MBIn this week's show, Prof. Wolff talks about the GOP's stance on student debt forgiveness, US corporations replacing home ownership with rentals, today's US economy not "strong," and left unity, as 4 French left parties work to defeat Macron. In the second half, Wolff interviews Prof. Marcello Musto on the history of the left and Marxism, and how they deal with war in the past and in Ukraine.
Jobs Driving Us Mad
May 12, 2022 04:00 - 28 minutes - 66.3 MBIn this week's show, Prof. Wolff presents updates on the unionization of Grinnell College student-workers; US GDP drops 1.4% in Q1 of 2022; food inflation versus rationing; Germany's refugee shame; small US businesses to plan price inflation; and western corporations leaving Russia replaced by eager corporations from China, India, Turkey, Brazil etc. In the second half of the show, Wolff interviews Emily Guendelsberger, author of On the Clock, on how badly paid, insanely stressful jobs are t...
Housing - Human Right vs. System Failure
May 05, 2022 04:00 - 29 minutes - 66.4 MBIn this week's show, Prof. Wolff discusses global impacts of food inflation, endless class struggle over length of the workday and workweek and US deaths by guns. In the second half of the show, Wolff interviews housing activists Manon Vergerio and Velvet Ross (Fannie Lou Diane) on the US housing crisis, homelessness and evictions.
Inflation - How Markets Fail
April 28, 2022 04:00 - 29 minutes - 66.4 MBIn this week's show, Prof. Wolff talks about Sri Lanka’s economic crisis as a global example, and how US billionaires escape taxation at our expense. In the second half, Wolff discusses how and why the market system produces inflations like today’s.
Progressive Politics Win
April 21, 2022 04:00 - 28 minutes - 66.3 MBThis 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.
Ukraine and an Empire’s Decline
April 14, 2022 04:00 - 28 minutes - 66.3 MBThis 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.
Capitalism and Its Self-delusions
April 07, 2022 04:00 - 28 minutes - 66.3 MBIn 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.
Amazon Workers Organize a Union
March 31, 2022 04:00 - 28 minutes - 66.3 MBThis 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 organizing efforts across Amazon and beyond in a revived labor militancy.
Christian Socialism
March 24, 2022 04:01 - 29 minutes - 66.4 MBThis 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.
Ukraine, Race and Class
March 17, 2022 04:00 - 28 minutes - 66.3 MBThis 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.
What Marx & Marxism Offer us Today
March 10, 2022 05:00 - 28 minutes - 66.3 MBThis 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.
Green Party vs 2-Party Monopoly
March 03, 2022 05:00 - 28 minutes - 66.3 MBOn 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.
Unaffordable Housing
February 24, 2022 05:00 - 28 minutes - 66.3 MBThis 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.
Covid Criminals, Pandemic Profiteers
February 17, 2022 05:00 - 28 minutes - 66.3 MBOn this week's show, Prof. Wolff presents updates on Mississippi's legalization of pot, US's $30 trillion national debt, Mexican workers at GM plant vote in militant union, and Amazon's 17% price increase (after a year of record profits), as much of nation already suffers from 7% inflation. In the second half of the show, Wolff interviews John Nichols, author of Coronavirus Criminals and Pandemic Profiteers.
Fascism
February 10, 2022 05:00 - 28 minutes - 66.3 MBOn 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.
Rebuilding a Labor and Left Movement
February 03, 2022 05:00 - 29 minutes - 66.4 MBThis 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.
The Socialism Issue
January 27, 2022 05:01 - 28 minutes - 66.3 MBOn 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.
The End of the Megamachine
January 20, 2022 05:00 - 28 minutes - 66.3 MBOn 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.
Emotions and US Politics Today
January 13, 2022 05:00 - 29 minutes - 66.4 MBOn 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 politics today (by Dems and GOP establishments but also Trump and Bernie wings).
Strikes amid Reviving US Labor Movement
January 06, 2022 16:14 - 29 minutes - 66.4 MBThis 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 Report to discuss the growing wave of US strikes since the pandemic began.
Working Class History and the 2020 Election (REPEAT)
December 30, 2021 05:00 - 28 minutes - 66.3 MBThis 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 race and gender - males and whites moved toward the GOP. A weakened Dem party responded by appeali...
The Contradictions of 2021
December 23, 2021 05:01 - 29 minutes - 66.4 MBOn 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.
Anti-Mandate is NOT Anti-Vaccine
December 16, 2021 05:01 - 28 minutes - 66.3 MBOn 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.
Ecology, Co-ops, and Profit
December 09, 2021 05:01 - 28 minutes - 66.3 MBOn 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 than traditional capitalist corporations to solve current ecological crises.
Class Struggles in the US Today
December 02, 2021 05:00 - 28 minutes - 66.3 MBOn 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.
Imagining a Different Economy
November 25, 2021 05:00 - 28 minutes - 66.3 MBOn 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.
Chris Hedges and US Prisons
November 18, 2021 05:00 - 28 minutes - 66.3 MBOn 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 prisoners.
Germany Shifts Left
November 11, 2021 05:00 - 28 minutes - 66.3 MBBiden'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.
A Story of War
November 04, 2021 04:00 - 28 minutes - 66.3 MBOn 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 This is Not a War Story released by Warner Media HBO Max.
China and Inflation: Real Analyses, not BS
October 28, 2021 04:00 - 28 minutes - 66.3 MBThe program's first half focuses on the realities of China's rise and not the Cold War rhetoric. The second half analyzes the inflation now threatening the US economy. Its causes and consequences turn out to be quite different from the mainstream media treatments of the subject.
Signs of System Decline
October 14, 2021 04:00 - 28 minutes - 66.3 MBOn this week’s show, Prof. Wolff presents updates on the following topics: US wars lost: against Afghanistan, Iraq, and Covid; private profit from climate disaster; systemic infrastructure neglect; decline of whites in US; UK fears about US loss in Afghanistan; capitalism's profit-driven "long supply chains;" and lastly, workers power against employers in US today.
How US Workers are Really Treated
October 07, 2021 04:00 - 28 minutes - 66.3 MBThis week on Economic Update, Prof. Wolff pays homage to Mikis Theodorakis, Greek musician and political hero, and discusses Starbucks workers in Buffalo, the economic fallout of Supreme Court's anti-abortion act, what Hurricane Ida fatalities show, and the $8 trillion cost of US wars since 9/11. The second half of the show features an interview with Leila Roberts and Tess Fraad-Wolff on the harsh realities of US treatment of workers.
Native Americans and American Socialists
September 30, 2021 04:00 - 28 minutes - 66.3 MBOn this week's show, Prof. Wolff present updates on global supply chain slow-downs; student costs/debts in US, UK far higher than in most peer nations; FED adds inflation to the ways its policies worsen income and wealth inequalities; and lastly, higher gun sales and violence since 1990s despite the dramatic declines in violent crime rate. The second half of the show features an interview with Michelle Vassel (administrator of Wiyot tribe) and David Cobb (Director of Cooperation Humboldt) on...
Socialism & Worker Co-ops
September 23, 2021 13:56 - 28 minutes - 39.8 MBRepeat. 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. The powerful appeal of worker coops as grounding a new 21st century socialism is presented.
Occupy Wall Street: Analysis and Legacy
September 16, 2021 04:00 - 28 minutes - 66.3 MBThis 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 economics, and its lessons.
The Rational and Irrational in Anti-Vaxxers
September 09, 2021 04:00 - 28 minutes - 66.3 MBOn 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 leaders to stop last 75 years of decline of manufacturing in the US economy (driven by corporate profitability).
20 Years after 9/11, US is still a Stuck Nation
September 02, 2021 04:00 - 28 minutes - 66.3 MBOn 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 the show features an interview with investigative reporter Bob Hennelly, author of "Stuck Nation: Can the United States Change Course on Our History of Choosing Profits Over People?"
Extremes of Rich/Poor in US Capitalism
August 26, 2021 04:00 - 28 minutes - 66.3 MBThis 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 lastly, the outsized US costs of healthcare.
Liberating Technology from Capitalism
August 19, 2021 04:00 - 28 minutes - 66.3 MBOn 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, US students hobbled by debt, and why "labor shortage" is actually class war. On the second half of the show, Wolff interviews Wendy Liu, author of "Abolish Silicon Valley: How to Liberate Technology from Capitalism."
Chile's Feminist Social Revolution
August 12, 2021 04:00 - 28 minutes - 66.3 MBOn 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 US wars. On the second half of the show, Wolff interviews Rodrigo Roa Fernandez, Chilean revolutionary activist on his country's new feminist movement, Constituent Assembly, and new Constitution.
A US Left Rises to Remake the World
August 05, 2021 04:00 - 28 minutes - 66.3 MBOn 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 interviews Astra Taylor, filmmaker and debt rebellion activist.
Best Years of US Lie in its Past
July 29, 2021 04:00 - 28 minutes - 66.3 MBOn 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 while higher taxes hurt it. On the second half of the program, Wolff interviews August H. Nimtz, Jr. on today's crisis of a declining US capitalism, its impacts and implications.
Capitalism's Shrinking Popularity
July 22, 2021 04:00 - 28 minutes - 66.3 MBOn 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 economic inequality cuts mass consumption and thus hurts US economy; June 2021 polls show capitalism losing, socialism gaining among US adults including Republicans; Washington Post columnist seeks to ban billionaires as bad fo...
The Challenge of Progressive Unionism
July 15, 2021 12:30 - 28 minutes - 66.3 MBOn 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 color vs whites, gross worsening of US income and wealth inequalities). On the second half of the show, Prof. Wolff is joined by David Van Deusen, President of Vermont state AFL-CIO, to talk about the victories of progressive uni...
Inflation and Labor Shortage
July 08, 2021 13:55 - 28 minutes - 66.3 MBOn 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 inflation but are excluded from decisions setting prices. Employers scream “labor shortage” to get the government to force workers back to work at low wages. Employers recover from economic crashes but undercut workers’ efforts to do the same. How ca...
The Three Basic Kinds of Socialism (Repeat)
July 01, 2021 04:00 - 28 minutes - 66.3 MBAs 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 or "democratic" socialism ( a la Scandinavia), (2) the communist kind of socialism (in the USSR and People's Republic of China, and (3) the new socialism focused on democratizing the workplace. Doing better than capitalism will require deciding which of these three k...
How Capitalism Shapes Our Food
June 25, 2021 04:00 - 28 minutes - 66.3 MBIn 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 profiteers. In the second half of the show, Prof. Wolff is joined by former NY Times food-critic Mark Bittman to discuss his new book "Animal, Vegetable, Junk."
The Center Cannot Hold
June 10, 2021 04:00 - 28 minutes - 66.3 MBThis 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 and cracks opening opportunities for radical political shifts and perhaps new parties. The context of a declining US capitalism facing mounting unsolved social problems adds to the winds of change as do pressures to resort to repression. Wolff affirms t...