Economic Update – May 30, 2025

Economic Update

Economics Professor Richard D. Wolff and guests discuss the current state of the economy, locally and globally. The program explores alternative ways to organize, markets, and government policies. Click Here to listen to the current episode of Economic Update with Richard D. Wolff.

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Economic Update

The Corporatization of Universities and Trump’s Attacks

This week on Economic Update, Professor Wolff begins by presenting updates on the death of libertarianism and the rise of U.S. economic nationalism, then on U.S. universities becoming big businesses, governed by money concerns. In the episode’s second half, Professor Wolff interviews Professor Geert Dhondt, the Chair of the Economics Department and Economics Professor at … Continued


Economic Update

Special Spring Fund Drive Programming: Reform versus Revolution / Capitalism’s Uneven Development

In this special, hour-long edition of Economic Update, Professor Richard Wolff begins by analyzing the choice between reform and revolution through two historical discussions: the anti-slavery fight in the mid-19th century and the anti-Depression fight in the U.S., during the 1930s. He then explains the stakes in choosing reform or revolution as goals for social … Continued


Economic Update

Special Spring Fund Drive Programming: Twin Crises of Housing and Homelessness / The History of the Market

In this special, hour-long edition of Economic Update, Professor Richard Wolff delivers updates on Trump versus Harvard, Trump’s “antisemitism” maneuver, how higher education in the U.S. is becoming ever more ” business-like,” and the economics behind the depreciation of the U.S. dollar since Jan 20, 2025. Then, he interviews Mr. Rob Robinson, who is to … Continued


Economic Update

Resisting Trump’s Restoration Project, with Kali Akuno

This week on Economic Update, Professor Richard Wolff examines a major labor strike unfolding in California, where 2,400 Kaiser Permanente mental health workers are fighting for better conditions. Next, he breaks down how tariffs function as an economic weapon, undermining the living standards of U.S. workers. Finally, Professor Wolff sits down with Kali Akuno, co-founder … Continued


Economic Update

Solidarity Cities as Alternatives to Capitalism

In this week’s episode, Professor Richard Wolff speaks on employers blocking, delaying, and opposing improvements on general social welfare; highlights how Trump ends “affirmative action” for veterans (including those disabled); and remarks on how tariffs worsen uncertainty with seriously negative consequences. In the second half of the show, Professors Maliha Safri and Stephen Healy, co-authors … Continued


Economic Update

Tariffs, the Working Class, and Resistance

In this week’s episode of Economic Update, Professor Wolff critiques the DOGE practice of firing federal civilian employees, analyzes the Trump tariff program, and shows how both are presented as ways to solve deep economic problems in the U.S. but are actually an assault on the working class. The second part of the show features … Continued


Economic Update

Unlearning Market Idolatry

This week on Economic Update, Professor Wolff explores the last 150 years of largely uncritical celebrations of “the market” as if it were a perfect institution that must be protected from the intrusion of other institutions such as the government, labor unions, and popular organizations. We compare a historical example and the present to criticize … Continued


Economic Update

Mounting Economic Problems

In this week’s episode of Economic Update, Professor Richard Wolff discusses certain minimum wages by the Trump administration, the costs of Germany’s rearmament, and how Trump’s tariffs and deportations have hit central America with economic catastrophe. The second half features a detailed discussion of the historical blaming of foreigners for the internal problems of capitalism … Continued


Economic Update

How Marx’s Class Analysis Could Solve Inequality Now

In this week’s episode, Professor Richard Wolff discusses how Marx’s class analysis presents a solution to today’s inequality and the challenges to overcoming it we have faced throughout history. In short, since the early existence of human society, people lived in tribes, clans, and villages that exhibited equality of wealth, income, and political power among … Continued


Economic Update

Build and Fight: The Resistance Forms

In this weeks episode, Professor Wolff discusses the economic causes and effects of the global  demographics decline, the Trump administration’s colonial plans for Greenland, and examples of resistance and fighting back, as the Trump/Musk firing of federal workers gets underway. In the show’s second half, Professor Wolff interviews the activist, organizer, and people’s lawyer who … Continued