Episodes

Tuesday Apr 11, 2023
Economic Update - ”When We Put People First in US Politics.”
Tuesday Apr 11, 2023
Tuesday Apr 11, 2023
In this week’s show, Prof. Wolff presents updates on the failures of GOP and Democrats to face or solve major crises; layoffs and stock buybacks by US hi-tech companies; a new study of "food insecurity" in LA county. The second half of the show is dedicated to a discussion of how US history of the 1920s and 1930s shows the possibility of a progressive political shift and upsurge in the US today.

Monday Apr 03, 2023
Economic Update - The Marxist Tradition
Monday Apr 03, 2023
Monday Apr 03, 2023
In this week’s show, Prof. Wolff discusses the history and diversity of Marxist theories and practices that comprise the Marxist tradition. Wolff also explores why Marxism draws renewed interest globally now. Finally, a detailed examination shows how some basic insights from Marx's work are especially relevant to victims and critics of today's capitalism and especially to those who seek transition to another, better system.

Monday Mar 27, 2023
Economic Update - ”Why the US Constitution is an Obstacle to Change”
Monday Mar 27, 2023
Monday Mar 27, 2023
In this week’s show, Prof. Wolff presents updates on the US banking crisis, plant closing injustice, growing child labor in the US, Biden's budget's tax "proposals," and a new book that shows US homelessness is an economic problem. In the second half of the show, Wolff interviews Professor Robert Ovetz on how and why the US Constitution blocks social change.

Monday Mar 20, 2023
Economic Update - ”How Austerity Paves the Way for Fascism”
Monday Mar 20, 2023
Monday Mar 20, 2023
This week, Professor Wolf interviews Prof. Clara Mattei on her new book Capital Order: How Economists Invented Austerity and Paved the Way to Fascism."

Monday Mar 13, 2023
Monday Mar 13, 2023
In this week’s show, Prof. Wolff focuses on the struggle over Social Security- real versus false alternatives- and the East Palestine, Ohio, derailment tragedy. In the second half of the show, Wolff interviews Alexis Colon about the colonial status of Puerto Rico and Puerto Ricans fighting against it.

Monday Mar 06, 2023
Economic Update - ”Establishment Media and Russia with Aaron Mate”
Monday Mar 06, 2023
Monday Mar 06, 2023
In this week’s show, Prof. Wolff presents updates on dying empires and climate crisis; mass shootings; fast-food mega-corps fund referendum to slow California plan to raise fast food workers wages and working conditions, and why the debt ceiling debate in Congress is a phony GOP-Dem political theater. In the second half of the show, Wolff interviews Aaron Mate, independent US media critic with special expertise on Russia.

Monday Feb 27, 2023
Economic Update - ”Are Mega-Corporations Ruining Our World?”
Monday Feb 27, 2023
Monday Feb 27, 2023
In this week's show, Prof. Wolff presents a critique of monopoly and oligopoly; past efforts and success in popular control over mega-corporations - in US and abroad; the fight back by mega-corporations to nullify reforms and regulations. Finally, some real solutions to the social problem and costs of an economy dominated by mega-corporations.

Monday Feb 20, 2023
Monday Feb 20, 2023
In this week's show, Prof. Wolff presents updates on India's extreme inequality and its lesson, employers squeeze employees with "non-compete" job contracts, and how the profit motive distorts the concept of insurance. In the second half of the show, Wolff interviews Dr Stephen Bezruchka on how deeply and globally inequality endangers health with special attention to the US and Covid-19.

Monday Feb 13, 2023
Economic Update - ”Unionization, Marxism and Education”
Monday Feb 13, 2023
Monday Feb 13, 2023
In this week’s show, Prof. Wolff shares updates on Starbucks union growth; Texas journalists and Yale graduate students/employees unionize, strike, win; Western Mass Labor Federation denounces Biden's denial of railway workers' right to strike; two major kinds of US tax injustice: (1) exempting bonds and stocks from property tax when 10% richest own 80% of stocks and bonds, and (2) failing to levy excess profits tax on war profiteers as UK and Portugal have already done. In the second half of the show, Wolff interviews Notre Dame Professor Emeritus David F. Ruccio on Marxian economics, its absence from US universities, and its social insights.

Monday Feb 06, 2023
Economic Update - 2023 World Economic Trends
Monday Feb 06, 2023
Monday Feb 06, 2023
Identifying and examining the larger economic dimensions and trends of three key aspects of today's global economy: Russia/Ukraine war, Europe's quandary, and the decline of the US empire. Attention focuses on the immense direct and indirect costs of the war in Ukraine; on Europe's desperate position and choices caught between the US and China blocs in the world economy; and on how the US empire is responding to its decline in the world economy. Our approach is to stress what so many others deny or minimize. The risk of war and lessons of the past decline of empires figure prominently in the analysis.