Economic Update

Economic Update - When Stale Debates Distract

Updates on how air-bnb reflects workers' falling living standards, price-gouging anti-virus masks, purpose of Trump's record deficit, end of Brexit distraction makes UK face its real problem: capitalism, and cause of San Diego's pension crisis. Major discussion of the economics' centuries-old, #1 debate - more vs less govt economic intervention. That debate mostly distracts from the feared debate over capitalism vs really alternative systems. 

Economic Update - Larger Social Changes to Support Worker Coops

 This program responds to a criticism that D@W focuses too much on the transition from capitalist firms to worker-coop firms with too little attention paid to the larger social changes needed to get beyond capitalism. Discussion focuses on the broader social changes needed to sustain a worker-coop based economy including a government that administers an economy-wide  democratic sharing of profits and resources among the worker-coop enterprises.

Economic Update - Socialism and Left Unity in the US

 Updates on Trump's 2019 $ 1 trillion plus deficit, burden of poor countries' debt, Amsterdam forgives young peoples' debts, "strong man" governments' fund-raising strategy, and gross failures of Trump/GOP's 2017 tax cut. Interview Karen Ranucci (Center for Critical Thought) and Rob Robinson (Left Forum) on their programs and their collaboration to serve the rising US interests in socialism and building a movement for transition.

 

 

Economic Update - Capitalism's Uneven Development

 Introduction to capitalism's systematically uneven economic development. From Marx's original criticism of capitalism for producing and reproducing unevenness to the many historical examples, today's program argues that there are heavy social costs that flow from capitalism's uneven development. Those costs then become bases for arguing the need to move beyond capitalism.

Economic Update - Exposing Economic Myths

Discussions of (1) "unemployment rate" as inadequate measure of economy's well-being; (2) decline of real value of US minimum wage; (3) multiple failures and flaws of markets, (4) corporations as less economically efficient than worker coops.