Economic Update

Debris From A Declining Empire

On this week’s episode, Professor Wolff discusses United Kingdom politician George Galloway’s by-election victory and the raised minimum wage in the UK. He comments on Elon Musk’s lawsuit against the NLRB, as Trader Joe, Starbucks, and Amazon also join to ask a right-wing Supreme Court to gut business regulations. He then looks at US protectionism, … Continued


Economic Update

Breaking Up With Capitalism

This week’s episode, Professor Richard Wolff discusses the Philadelphia University of the Arts Faculty Union and its struggles; clarifies declining inflation and what it does and does not mean; and answers the question as to why sanctions fail. Then, Professor Wolff interviews Essence Magazine’s senior news & politics editor, author, and lawyer Malaika Jabali and … Continued


Economic Update

Capitalism and Tax Injustice

In this week’s special fund drive episode of Economic Update, Professor Richard Wolff discusses Germany’s recession; efforts by California fast-food workers to unionize; how the war in Ukraine boosts the US stock market and corporate stock holdings, while hurting most wage/salary incomes; and major injustices of the US federal tax system (tax exemptions for schools, … Continued


Economic Update

The U.S. Economy as an Apartheid System

In this week’s episode, Professor Richard Wolff discusses the continuing decline of U.S. manufacturing; a 29,000 person strike at California State University; the Houthis disruption of Red Sea shipping in move against Israel; and Texas’s refusal to obey U.S. federal government’s rules in a struggle over immigration and white supremacy. Then we present a special … Continued


Economic Update

U.S. Capitalism at the Crossroads

On this week’s Economic Update, Professor Richard Wolff discusses the special dimensions and qualities of the U.S. labor movement’s current dynamism. Thomas Piketty’s analysis shows how capitalism generates widening wealth and income gaps, leading to crashes or simmering, divisive, and domestic resentments. The system itself becomes destabilized and can then lurch to the left, as … Continued


Economic Update

As The Empire Crumbles

This week’s updates include: information on the closing Greyhound bus stations, miscalculating strengths of Russian obstacle in Ukraine, UK empire cannot afford both Yemen bombs and National Health Service, Boeing aircraft safety debacle enables Chinese export leadership in global auto trade, and Israel’s caught in the shifts and changes of the world economy, as US … Continued


Economic Update

Corporations vs Democracy (encore)

In this week’s show, Professor Wolff analyzes the corporation. It stands as a basic institution blocking real democracy in our society. The corporation’s structure and operations empower and enrich a tiny social minority at the expense of the people’s wealth and democratic power. Like the critiques of slave plantations and feudal manors that preceded the … Continued


Economic Update

US-China Decoupling Myth

The so-called “decoupling” of the US and Chinese economies is NOT happening. Their economies are too deeply intertwined. The reality hidden by “decoupling” is just capitalism’s usual uneven development. Capitalism relocated investment away from its old centers (Western Europe, North America, and Japan) to China, India, Brazil, et al. The US cannot stop or reverse … Continued