Economic Update – June 20, 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.

Upcoming Episode

Economic Update

Analyzing Trump’s Mass Support

On this week’s episode of Economic Update, Professor Wolff delivers updates on the blow back to Iowa Senator Joni Ernst’s rationalization of budget cuts to Medicaid to help fund tax cuts for corporations and the rich, how 8,000 Connecticut healthcare workers win contract gains by threatening to strike, and how the advertising industry spawned by … Continued


Economic Update

Europe Declines Faster than the United States

On this week’s episode, Professor Wolff delivers updates on U.S. versus Chinese wheelbarrows, the Cold War error against China, the lasting effects of terminated U.S. federal workers, how tariffs alone won’t bring manufacturing back to the U.S., further declines in U.S. coal mining, McDonald’s hamburgers in the U.S., and the rapid economic decline in Europe. … Continued


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