Economic Update – December 19, 2025
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.

10:00 AM Pacific Time: Fridays
Economics Professor Richard D. Wolff and guests discuss the current state of the economy, locally and globally. The program explores government policies, alternative ways to organize, and markets.
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.
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.
This week on Economic Update, Professor Wolff delivers updates on the nationwide Starbucks strikes, the results of Trump’s tariffs: facts and fakery. The second part of the show features an interview with journalist and podcast host John Fugelsang about his new book: Separation of Church and Hate: A Sane Person’s Guide to Taking Back the … Continued
On today’s episode of Economic Update, Professor Wolff delivers an introduction to the key economic concept of “the surplus.” He explains economic structures as ways of organizing the production and social distribution of the surplus. Then he briefly applies this concept to the economies of slavery and feudalism before focusing on the role of the … Continued
The totality of today’s Economic Update is devoted to exploring (1) the multiple ways that capitalism imposes class warfare on its people, and (2) how class warfare shapes the capitalist system’s impact on employers and employees. Specific examples show (1) what kind of class struggle is involved in tariffs such as those imposed by Trump, … Continued
On this week’s episode of Economic Update, Professor Wolff’s updates include the 60+ people killed by the U.S. military in what it claimed were “narco boats,” Socialist Catherine Connolly wins the Presidency in Ireland, Canada hit with nationwide postal workers strike alongside a strike of the entire public workforce (51,000) in Alberta, Canada, and finally … Continued
On this week’s episode of Economic Update, Professor Wolff delivers updates on the Italian dockworker unions refusing to load or unload Israeli cargo, the broadened national general strikes in Italy demanding the end of the Italian government’s support for Israel because of Gaza, and a discussion of the return of socialism into U.S. politics after … Continued
This week on Economic Update, Professor Wolff delivers updates on the impending U.S. recession, JP Morgan admits failures of the neoliberal period as it turns nationalist, and the causes of mass shootings in the U.S. In the second half of today’s show, Professor Wolff interviews two young U.S. union organizers and their organizing method of … Continued
On this week’s episode of Economic Update, Professor Wolff delivers updates on the censoring of U.S. government reports on hunger, changes in U.S. agriculture amid capitalism’s decline, the special place of white, male, Christian union members in the MAGA world, and the relation of A.I. and jobs. In the second half of the show, Professor … Continued
This week on Economic Update, Professor Wolff delivers updates on the I.C.E. raid at a battery factory in Georgia, the growing inequality in the U.S. during both Trump terms, the 75 U.S. military airstrikes on Somalia in 2025, and France’s mass national street actions against the Macron government’s austerity policies. The second part of the … Continued
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.