Economic Update

Economic Update - "Answering our Critics"

Three major criticisms of Economic Update are considered: (1) that we don't praise capitalism for reducing world poverty, (2) that we don't admit that "socialism has never worked anywhere," and (3) that no inventor of a new product or technique who starts a business will ever accept that employees in such a business are equal partners with the inventor, originator of the business. Today's program answers these criticisms, refuting their arguments systematically.

Economic Update - US Capitalism and the Family: Myth vs Reality

Updates on Job Quality Index and its US decline, the French activism against President Macron's effort to cut pensions, Gartman Letter urges investors to sell stocks in face of Trump's policies deteriorating the economy, Obamas purchase $11.5 million Martha's Vineyard mansion, and Kansas City cuts public transport fares to zero. Interview with Dr Harriet Fraad on myth vs reality of US capitalism and the family

Economic Update - Libertarianism, Capitalism and Socialism

 Libertarians defend capitalism by saying its many current flaws/faults flow from the state's economic interventions, not from the system itself. Libertarians oppose socialism as even more state-dominated. We criticize libertarians based on capitalism's long history of strong state interventions and socialism's long-standing anarchistic components. We conclude by inviting consideration of possible agreements between some libertarians and some socialists.                 

Economic Update - Competition and Monopoly in Capitalism

This week’s special topic discusses capitalism's growing problems, such as inequalities, instabilities, and unsustainability. That leads some defenders to argue that the causes of these problems are monopolies displacing competition in many industries. We disagree: capitalism's history is oscillations between competition and monopoly, each causing the other. Capitalism itself is the problem, not its oscillating forms.

Economic Update - Teaching Economics: A Revolutionary Approach

Updates on Sawant victory in Seattle City Council election, the US obesity problem's costs and causes, critiquing libertarian arguments for capitalism. Interview Dr. Amy S. Cramer, Prof of Economics, Arizona, on her accessible education project "Voices on the Economy.

Economic Update - Political Strategy for Transition

Today's program discusses a political strategy for transition beyond capitalism to an economy based on democratic worker-cooperatives. The first half explores the history of how transition was achieved from feudalism to capitalism. The second half draws lessons from that history to provide a strategy for a transition now beyond capitalism.

 

 

Economic Update - U.S.' Profit-driven Medicine

Updates on Berlin, Germany's law freezing all rents for 5 years, overindebted corporations threaten world economy, prisoners' slave labor in Los Angeles, French inequality and yellow vests, Bernie's push to put workers on corporate boards. Interview with Dr. Michael Magee on US medical-industrial complex.

 

 

 

 

Economic Update - The Human Agenda

 Updates on costs of NBA offense to China, worsening global inequality, poverty mocks Nobel prize for 3 economists working on "incremental solutions" to poverty, why Google donated to global warming deniers, and latest crisis in defaults on US auto loans. Interview Richard Hobbs, Human Agenda Director, San Jose, CA, expert on worker coops."

 

 

Economic Update - The Capitalist Corporation

 This program examines the structure and functioning of the large capitalist corporation dominating modern economies. We discuss their basic economics and influence on politics. We criticize rationales for corporate profits such as "risks" and "entrepreneurship" and explore parallels between corporate structures and monarchies.

 

 

 

 

Economic Update - Making Critical Arguments

Updates on US housing crisis as systemic failure (the homeless LA opera singer), Greta Thunberg's critics exposed, Europeans gain from US-China trade war, Sackler family "donations" to museums, universities, capitalists take over Sports Illustrated. Interview on Left's critical arguments with Prof. Ben Burgis of Georgia State University.