Richard D. Wolff

[S9 E28]

20th century socialism is now behind us. Socialists continued to evaluate both its achievements and failures via extensive self-criticism. A changed socialism has emerged, focused on a transition of workplaces from top-down...READ MORE

As technology progresses and automation expands, what will be the fate of labor and manufacturing workers across the globe? Prof. Wolff joins Boom Bust to analyze automation and answers who will see the boon from bots in the workforce. See clip here:

This interview originally aired on Radio Sputnik Loud and Clear
Prof. Wolff joins Loud and Clear. Big tech firms were under fire at a high profile Congressional hearing conducted by the House Judiciary Committee on July 16, raising the spectre of serious anti-trust action against Amazon and other tech giants. Meanwhile, negotiations between the major U.S. automakers and the United Auto Workers Union are breaking down because the companies want concessions in case there is a recession. So are we headed into a recession?

Prof. Wolff joined Thom Hartmann to discuss whether or not Donald Trump is forcing the federal reserve to keep interest rates low, to ensure he is re-elected in 2020. The Government in a capitalist system is the lender and spender of last resort. When things are going well, business will tell you how wonderful things are. In hard times, they will run to government finance. The government will support the bad times, but do they have too much power when a leader has his or her hands close to the till? The Federal Reserve is supposed to be independent, but governments always want to meddle. See clip here:

This interview originally aired on Radio Sputnik By Any Means Necessary 
Prof. Wolff talks US Congress banning citizens of purchasing Russian sovereign debt and the shifting nature of the Chinese economy.

Prof. Wolff, and Peter Schiff, CEO of Euro Pacific Capital join Boom Bust to delve into the Federal Reserve's fluctuations and what this may mean for the global economy going forward. See clip here:

Prof. Wolff joins Rick Sanchez to share his insights on Deutsche Bank plans to lay off 18,000 employees over the next three years, along with other changes to its business model. He argues that Deutsche Bank’s announcement of the layoffs three years in advance may have been a mistake. See clip here:

Prof. Wolff sat down with Lee Camp to discuss the current state of the U.S. economy. Investigative journalist Aaron Mate is the guest on the second half of the show. Mate has been one of the most prominent journalists debunking the Russiagate narrative.

[S9 E27]

This week on Economic Update, Professor Wolff delivers updates on "regulatory capture" in the U.S. vs E.U.,  the IMF report on the U.S. economy finds major negatives and how Trump's desperation for re-election shapes his...READ MORE

Prof. Wolff says T-Mobile and Sprint Merger Endangers Free Media. He discusses the $26 billion merger between T-Mobile and Sprint, which the FCC announced is “in the public interest.” The merger could create an even bigger media and telecommunication monopoly that will crush medium and small enterprises.

Prof. Wolff debates libertarian Antony Sammeroff on the Labor Theory of Value on the Lions of Liberty Podcast, hosted by Marc Clair. Prof. Wolff debates from a Marxist economist position vs. Sammeroff's free market libertarian position. 

Prof. Wolff says capitalism is failing the people. He joins Ana Kasparian of The Young Turks to explain how on "The Conversation." 

Prof. Richard Wolff joins RT's Views News Hughes to discuss the UK’s taxation of seized Libyan wealth following the ousting and murder of Muammar Qaddafi.

Economic Issues of the Upcoming US Elections

[S9 E26]

This week on Economic Update, Professor Wolff delivers updates on pay inequalities for CEOs VS average workers, the economics of mega-mergers, billionaires' idea of “charity”, the economic consequences of...READ MORE

[S9 E25]

This week on Economic Update, Professor Wolff follows up with part two of his in-depth analyses of the USSR and anti-capitalist governments by providing (1) an overview of China's economic...READ MORE

[S9 E23]

This week on Economic Update, Professor Wolff delivers updates on U.S. church membership and its tax subsidies, Toyota and Merkel slam U.S. economic nationalism, 40 U.S. states sue...READ MORE

[S9 E22] 

This week on Economic Update, Professor Wolff discusses the three basic kinds of socialism as anti-capitalist ideologies grow in the U.S. and more people are looking toward socialist alternatives. Prof. Wolff lays out the importance of...READ MORE

This article originally appeared at CommonDreams.org.

Special thanks to Aydın ÖRDEK, member of Executive Board of Mulkiye Center for Education, for providing the Turkish translation.

Çeviri: Ekin Keskin*

Kapitalizm kendisini sürekli olarak daha büyük bir eşitsizliğe, istikrarsızlığa ve adaletsizliğe sürüklerken, kapitalizmi eleştirenler çoğalıyor. Kapitalizmin endişeli savunucuları iki şekilde tepki veriyor. Birçoğu eleştirileri önemsemiyor. Ne de olsa, kapitalizm uzun zamandır var ve daha önce de iniş çıkışlar yaşadı. Eleştirenler, hayal kırıklıklarına rağmen çok az bir değişim olması nedeniyle eleştirilerin sönümleneceğini tahmin ediyor veya umuyorlar. Şikâyet edenler ise sadece kaybedenler. Kazananlar kesinlikle sistemi ileriye taşıyacaklar. Kapitalizm savunucularının bir kısmı da basitçe kapitalizmin bir alternatifinin olmadığı konusunda ısrar ediyor, bu yüzden eleştiriler anlamsız hale geliyor.

Authors: Richard D. Wolff and Ian J. Seda-Irizarry

Richard D. Wolff (RDW): As a professor of economics, all my adult life I’ve had to struggle with a difficult sad fact about economics education in colleges and universities in the United States for the last half century. Because of the Cold-war, because of the years of struggle between the U.S. and the Soviet Union, the previous way of teaching of economics, which included the presentation of alternative theories, were repressed. Instead economics got narrowed to a very simple orthodoxy that excluded everything basically critical of capitalism. Capitalism, “economics” taught, was the greatest economic system since sliced bread, indeed the “optimum” imaginable. There were no alternatives worth studying from which one could learn. For example, Marxism, as the most developed critique of capitalism in the world, was simply excluded from 99% of all economics curriculum, as it remains today. It is an extraordinarily narrow orthodoxy.

This article originally appeared at Counterpunch.org

Whatever distractions candidates promote to win voters, some underlying issues will wield their influence on 2020 election outcomes in any case. The biggest of these are the historically accumulated anger and betrayal felt by millions of working class Americans. Since the 1970s, their relative position within income and wealth distributions has declined. Real wages stagnated while workers’ rising productivity made ever more profits for employers, widening inequality. That alone depressed the class, but US society is structured to add many political, cultural, and social demotions onto those whose relative economic position declines.

[S9 E21]

This special edition of "Economic Update" is devoted to Understanding Marxism, the title of a short new book just published by Democracy at Work. Today's program, like the book, explains...READ MORE

[S9 E20]

This week on Economic Update, Professor Wolff delivers updates on the college admissions scandal in the U.S., how lobbyists reflect and worsen inequality, North and South Carolina teachers’ strike for...READ MORE

This article originally appeared at Counterpunch.org.

Actually existing socialisms since the 1917 Soviet revolution leave a rich legacy: aspects to build on, aspects to reject. Collective consumption (free education, medical care, subsidized housing, transport, etc.) is among the first and party dictatorship is among the second. Those socialisms’ complex histories also leave a legacy of what went missing from them. Identifying and evaluating missing elements can provide today’s socialist movements with better means to surpass capitalism than earlier socialist movements had.

There is an entire body of political science thinking that has been unavailable in this country for many years because of its association with socialism and the left that have been demonized. Prof. Wolff joins Richard Eskow of The Zero Hour to talk about the insight that literature could offer us.