Richard D. Wolff

So what event will cause the govt to raise rates to at a minimum 1 percent from .5 and while they are at it why not set it at 0. Who cares? What is this mickey mouse monopoly money created and lent and consumer borrowing and spending joke economy and society we got here in north am....

Dear Professor Wolff, Thank you for everything you've done to advance the socialist cause. I was hoping you could cover how retailers fit within the capitalist mode of production. I know in the past you've discussed how companies like Wal-Mart survive off the surplus product of the labor that takes place within their manufacturers. What does this mean for retail workers within places like Wal-Mart, Macy's, and Target? Are they not "creating value" in the same way that a manufacturer is? I am currently reading Capital and trying to understand productive and "unproductive" labor. Could you talk about this distinction and the importance of "unproductive labor" in the capitalist system? Would this labor be necessary within a socialist system? Thank you Tony

Dear Prof. Wolff Despite my socialist worldview, I can't help but think that it is extraction of surplus labour and consequent accumulation that made investment in science possible. While I see that state investment does the job of gathering the resources for this task, I do not envision a mechanism for scientists to organise in a more libertarian, horizontal fashion as is the case of co-ops. Are there any authors on the subject? Is this something you'd think that would always require top-down government control? Would you imagine some sort of middle ground between cooperative labour and state control for situations such as this one?

Hi, I love your show, and play it on my local LPFM station, KLDK in Dixon, NM. I appreciate your careful and lucid economic analysis. However, there's something I don't hear you talk about. We live on the surface of a sphere. All economic activity is hence a subset of this ecosphere that supports us and everything we do. Other than energy from the sun, everything we consume comes from this, and all of our waste goes into it. Indications are that we are currently in a state of overshoot in various ways, meaning that the Earth cannot continue to sustain our current level of economic activity, much less growing activity. Would you be willing to include this extra dimension in your show? Best, Chuck Wright Dixon, NM

Professor Wolff, Can you please speak as to how you expect the cost of health care insurance may be impacted by the Trump presidency, both for those currently covered by employer subsidized plans and for those purchasing coverage independently? A friend of mine is currently shopping in Colorado for 2017 and states that the cheapest plan she can find for her family of four is $1,000 per month for a high deductible HSA. Can you provide sources for information that may shed more light on this topic? Thank you, Cathaerine

Professor Wolff, I wanted to ask your opinion on an article that Jacobin just put out. The most relevant part is at the bottom, although it is all very interesting. Essentially, it outlines a model for an organization that could push for progressive politics, hold politicians accountable, and field candidates, all while not playing the role of spoiler. As someone involved in the Democracy at Work action group network (D@W William and Mary) I was wondering if this was something that could be applied to our project. I was very excited to see we had developed something of a platform as our group had been lobbying the local government for change. The legal hurdles for third parties and the threat of people throwing their vote away has always stunted any attempt to work outside of the two party system. Perhaps Ackerman's proposed model could be a way for the left to organize in a way that get's around those issues going forward for groups like D@W or even the Green Party.

Has the probability ever arisen that the federal reserve or to a much greater consequence non-central banks would simply stop giving out loans if a new economic system were implemented that made it so for them to continue giving loans did not benefit them in a way that was satisfactory? With so much talk of democratization of the workplace, shouldn't this and must this also apply to the money creation process? (If workplace democratization occurs on a large scale)

I just heard a podcast of an interview with you by Mitch Jeserich in which he asked you about Trump's proposal (serious or not) to slap a tariff on any company that takes its operations overseas. You answered by saying that tariffs lead to trade wars. But I don't think that answers the question. He's not saying to put tariffs on every company in an industry in a particular country - the usual "tariff on Chinese steel" kind of thing - but on a Particular Company. Do you see the distinction? The tariff would only apply to the one company, not to its competitors, for example. Nor would it apply to a country, per se. Nor to the industry as a whole. Only to that particular company. If this is what he's proposing, would that lead to a trade war? What effects would a tariff on individual companies have?

Prof. Wolff, I kindly urge you to reach out to Sam Harris to appear on his podcast. As much as I, generally, enjoy his ideas and outlook, I believe he's sorely lacking in the ways of economics, broadly, and socialist economics, more specifically. I've also asked him to reach out to you, but he's so inundated with communications that I thought this conversation more likely to happen if I requested it with both participants. Thanks, Nick

Dear Professor Wolff, I have enjoyed your radio broadcasts immensely, especially the ones concerning worker co-ops and, as an adjunct professor myself, the perils facing our system of higher education. Combining these two issues, I wonder if any significant work has been done on the possibility of applying the democratic, cooperative model of industry to the enterprise of college and university education. Would a college that is run entirely by educators who are not managed and ultimately exploited by overpaid administrators, shareholders, trustees, etc. be viable? Thanks, Justin Harmon

I would like to hear you talk about the military industrial complex and the place of the weapons' industry and war making in the present US economy. It seems to me that instead of producing useful things they have moved to weaons and war making and it is very profitable and this drives the wars in the middle east and the world now.

Dear Professor Wolff, I enjoy your lectures immensely, and applaud your efforts on behalf of the working people. Recalling the 1983 film Trading Places, I ask whether it is possible to beat the speculators at their own game. Also, could a debtors' strike substantially diminish hedge fund value? It seems debt is the most heavily-traded commodity in our economy and I wonder how much longer mathematical trickery can continue to keep this bubble from bursting.

I would lie Prof Wolff to discuss the following in one of his Friday WBAI broadcast French humanist Nobel prize winner Maurice Allais. Globalization, unemployment and the imperatives of humanism, http://www.momagri.org/UK/editorials/Globalization-unemployment-and-the-imperatives-of-humanism_51.html French humanist Nobel prize winner Maurice Allais.

It is said that Trump voters are richer on the whole than Clinton voters, yet Trump voters are said to be stressed out members of the working class. How does this compute? Are most Democratic voters on or below the poverty line?