Episodes
23 minutes ago
Economic Update: Marxism and Economics: A Global View
23 minutes ago
23 minutes ago
Saturday Jan 11, 2025
Economic Update: The Year 2024 in Review
Saturday Jan 11, 2025
Saturday Jan 11, 2025
In conclusion: American economic strengths are legacies of the United States' economic past. Now its problems take center stage.
Saturday Jan 04, 2025
Economic Update: Capitalism Vs. Democracy
Saturday Jan 04, 2025
Saturday Jan 04, 2025
On this week's show, Prof. Wolff presents an analysis of how and why capitalism is an undemocratic economic system. The first half is devoted to the micro-level, namely to the organization of the enterprise (factory, office or store). Its undemocratic character is exposed using examples and empirical evidence. The second half has a macro-level focus that shows how capitalism's generation of growing income and wealth inequality impels the employer class (a small numerical minority) to use their money politically. Their practice undermines real democracy leaving only its empty forms.
Saturday Dec 28, 2024
Economic Update: How US Capitalism Uses Nationalism
Saturday Dec 28, 2024
Saturday Dec 28, 2024
From 1945 to 1990 we were told a great struggle pitted capitalism against socialism/communism (chiefly the USSR and China). Yet still today, US leaders demonize Russia and China despite the end of communism in the USSR and a huge growth of capitalist enterprises in China. The explanation lies in US capitalism's long history of using nationalism (i.e. foreign dangers) to justify tax-payer funded government actions to protect, subsidize, and support major capitalists' dominant position in the US economy.
Saturday Dec 21, 2024
Economic Update: Class Struggles Worldwide
Saturday Dec 21, 2024
Saturday Dec 21, 2024
In this week's episode of Economic Update, Professor Wolff analyzes key global developments, including President Trump's looming tariff wars, the collapse of Emmanuel Macron's government in France, and massive strikes by Volkswagen workers in Germany. He also examines the fall of governments in South Korea and Syria and its implications, along with the public reaction to the assassination of a prominent healthcare CEO. Professor Wolff concludes by analyzing how these events collectively highlight class struggles fueled by the declining U.S. empire and its systemic challenges.
Saturday Dec 14, 2024
Economic Update: The Persistence of Socialism
Saturday Dec 14, 2024
Saturday Dec 14, 2024
In this week’s episode of Economic Update, Professor Wolff dives deep into why socialism remains a popular and successful economic system. Professor Wolff highlights new laws passed by the government of Spain that punish airline companies who employ 'unjustified' airline passenger fees. We then debunk the unsubstantiated and nonsensical myth we hear so often that: 'Socialism has never worked,' and finally we juxtapose the history of the last capitalist collapse (1930s Great Depression) when the US working class turned left versus the current crisis of US capitalism when the initial turn of the working class is to the right.
Saturday Nov 30, 2024
Economic Update: The US Capitalist Class and the Election
Saturday Nov 30, 2024
Saturday Nov 30, 2024
In this week’s episode of Economic Update, Professor Wolff discusses how US foreign aid serves the interests of corporations and their profits. We highlight how San Juan County in Washington state handled its fiscal crisis by cutting its employees' work week to 32 hours. We update you on workers of Wells Fargo Bank who are currently conducting a unionization drive, which could lead to other US banks doing the same. We provide a quick analysis of the history of settler colonialism in New Zealand and how this practice informs and influences the Israel and Palestinian crisis. Lastly, we interview Professors Michael Hillard and Richard McIntyre for a Marxian analysis of the exceptional nature of the US capitalist class and the US election.
Saturday Nov 23, 2024
Economic Update: The Dangers and Opportunities of Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Saturday Nov 23, 2024
Saturday Nov 23, 2024
On this week’s episode of Economic Update, Professor Wolff discusses how major pharmaceutical companies (CVS, United Healthcare, Cigna) are complicit in the opioid crisis in the United States. We highlight a successful food co-op in Minneapolis and explain the inauthenticity of mainstream discourse on the US economy. Finally an interview with Richard "RJ" Eskow, Bernie Sanders' speechwriter, an expert on AI and the basic social issues its spread now raises.
Saturday Nov 16, 2024
Economic Update: The Global Movement for Cooperatives:
Saturday Nov 16, 2024
Saturday Nov 16, 2024
On this week’s episode of Economic Update, Professor Wolff discusses U.S. Universities and Politicians' repression of student protesters, the continued global demands of indigenous people for liberation from colonialism's legacies, and Harvard's corporate administration sacrificing its students' and faculty's freedom of expression to pander to some of its donors. Finally, Professor Wolff interviews Professor Jerome N. Warren, editor of the newly published Routledge Handbook of Cooperative Economics and Management.
Saturday Nov 09, 2024
Economic Update: The Economics of US Labor Struggles and Gaza
Saturday Nov 09, 2024
Saturday Nov 09, 2024