Economic Update

How Deficits and Debts Rip Us Off

On this week’s Economic Update, Professor Wolff devotes the entire program to explaining clearly and accessibly what government deficits are, why they occur, and who benefits from them. He shows how deficits and debts reward corporations and the rich at the expense of the mass of employees. This show will equip our audience to see … Continued


Economic Update

Criminalizing the Homeless (with Rob Robinson)

On this week’s Economic Update, Professor Wolff discusses a huge victory for Uber and Lyft drivers’ struggling for better wages in Massachusetts. Also, he considers six United States senators who criticized Jamie Dimon, CEO of JP Morgan Chase, for failing to curb fossil fuel investments as promised and discusses the unfortunate new law passed by … Continued


Economic Update

From the Old Socialisms to the New

This week’s program is devoted to how old socialism’s rapid growth and global spread in the 19th and 20th centuries entailed a focus on the state. Key issues were: (1) Would the socialist state limit itself to regulating capitalist enterprises and the market (as in many Western European nations) to enhance the well-being of the … Continued


Economic Update

Fracking versus Fossil Fuel Profits

In this week’s Economic Update, Professor Richard Wolff discusses the latest U.S. and EU tariffs against China’s electric vehicles, the vote by 27,000 Virginia teachers to unionize, and the strike by students and workers at all six University of California campuses against attempted repression of students peacefully advocating a Gaza ceasefire. In the second half … Continued


Economic Update

The Political Economy Of Tariffs

In this week’s Economic Update, Professor Richard Wolff devotes the entire program to an analysis of tariffs. We discuss why tariffs are not a worker’s issue, why capitalism’s continuous swings between free trade and protectionist periods and phases make little impact on workers, and why competing capitalists seek to get workers to support their positions … Continued


Economic Update

Labor versus Capital Struggle in U.S. Intensifies

In today’s Economic Update, Professor Richard Wolff discusses The Washington Post’s exposure of the corporate rich sponsoring police repression against student protests and how Boeing, while exhibiting the airlines’ worst safety record, rewards its CEOs. In addition, the UAW loses a union election, as German capitalists and southern governors join forces to intimidate workers with … Continued


Economic Update

Roots of a Surging U.S. Labor Movement

In this week’s Economic Update, Professor Richard Wolff discusses the reasons why the official United States unemployment rate is currently low in comparison to historic rates; why U.S. restaurants are losing business; the hypocrisy of Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, in the face of repression of growing American protest movement against Israeli policy in Gaza; and … Continued