Economic Update

Economic Update- The U.S. Economy As An Apartheid System

This week's episode of Economic Update hosted by Professor Richard Wolff, we will be discussing the continuing decline of US manufacturing; a 29,000 person strike at California State Univ.; the Houthis disrupt Red Sea shipping in move against Israel; and Texas refuses to obey US federal government's rules in struggle over immigration and white supremacy. In addition we have a special Interview with leading economist Prof. Michael Hudson on basic crises facing US capitalism.

Economic Update- U.S. Capitalism At The Crossroads

This week's updates are divided into two parts.  Part A: the special dimensions and qualities of the US labor movement's current dynamism, Piketty shows capitalism generates widening wealth and income gaps leading to crashes or else simmering, divisive, domestic resentments. The system itself becomes destabilized. It can then lurch to the left as happened via The New Deal in the USA or right as in Nazi Germany, Italy and Spain (fascism). Both movements advocated gov 't intervention to stabilize capitalism: one left, one right. The left worked via massive supports to working people (minimum wages, gov't jobs, social security, etc.). The right went to try forced labor, anti-immigrant efforts, demonizing immigrants to support employers. Turns right have their parallels now: Brexit, Trump, Milei (Argentina) and Miloni in Italy. The big question: since all the rightward moves failed and sent Germany, Italy and Spain over into social democracy." Will their behavior be equalled again?"

 

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, Israel's caught also in the shifts and changes of the world economy as US dominance declines.

 

Economic Update- Corporations Vs. Democracy

 In this week's show, Prof. 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 disappearance of those systems, the growing critique of capitalism reflects but also informs critical social movements now.

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 that process any more than Britain could stop or reverse it in the 18th and 19th centuries. Wars fail or worse. The only real option is mutual accommodation.

Economic Update- Center Cannot Hold

This program begins by analyzing the political monopoly (aka "The Center") operated by the GOP and Dems in the US: its organization and dominance until the last few years. The monopoly deteriorates as both GOP and Dem coalitions suffer splits and cracks opening opportunities for radical political shifts and perhaps new parties. The context of a declining US capitalism facing mounting unsolved social problems adds to the winds of change as do pressures to resort to repression. Wolff affirms that the Center cannot hold. 

Economic Update-The Ripple Effects of Labor’s 2023 Rise

In this, the last episode of Economic Update for the year, Prof. Wolff presents updates on the Yale graduate & professional students’ union’s recent victory, how the writers/actors strike impacted the labor movement with a show of solidarity, Starbucks loses fight with its workers’ unionization, the National Institutes of Health votes to unionize and fight legal barriers to unionization, the British unions fighting its Conservative gov't, and the turning of the U.S. Labor Movement from reform vs revolution to reform + revolution. 

 

Economic Update- FACING THE HUMAN RIGHTS CRISIS

Updates included analysis of Philadelphia extreme income inequality, US strikers per year since 2017, UAW organizing strike at VW plant in Tennessee plus other UAW unionization drives, 400,000 Quebec public employees on strike heading towards general strike. Interview Rob Robinson, formerly homeless advocate/fighter for homeless rights, housing, official of Human Rights network

 

Economic Update: Politics, Economics & Chocolate: Capitalism’s Flaws & Failures

This week's episode of "Economic Update with Richard Wolff" features updates on the economic crises in Argentina and Germany, the graduate student unionization wave happening across U.S., how & where the chocolate industry is using child labor, a critical analysis of what "profit" means and a departed Kissinger.

Economic Update: The U.S. Military Machine & What It Costs

Updates on Tesla vs the Swedish Unions, a teachers strike in Portland, Oregon, "food insecurity" in U.S. today, how the King of Britain has been secretly profiting from assets of the dead and a Michigan "entrepreneur" fails in effort to buy electoral defeat of Rachid Tlaib. In the second part of this week’s episode, Prof. Wolff interviews Norman Solomon on his latest book, War Made invisible: How America Hides the Human Toll of its Military Machine.