Richard D. Wolff

Karen Hudes, a wold bank whistle blower, talks about the tons of stored gold with agreements after WW2, then switching to fiat currency. The world gold belonging to the populace needs to be released now to back the new currency. The fed is bankrupt but that announcement will be made after the election. I heard of a people in Africa have started using the cell phone to transfer money to each other for goods and services costing a fraction of a penny each time. Please give us your take on this possibility. - KPFK listener

If Milton Friedman is the far right's economist, from the Chicago School of Thought, which influenced politics into the 21st century... Who is the far left's version of him? Is there a Marxist-Leninism's version of Milton Friedman? I would be interested in reading their work. Thanks for everything!

We always talk as if poverty is the problem, but the problem is concentrated wealth. Instead of raising the minimum wage, maybe we should install a Maximum Wage. No One is worth $10,000 an hour. That's obscene. Would love to hear a discussion and see a movement on imposing a Maximum Wage. Not in terms of taxing the wealthy, but simply a cap on income.

Can collective cooperatives run globally, trading only among themselves? This way, it can be shown that a global network of socialist organizations can work - and with improved working conditions, others can be naturally drawn towards the network? Cooperatives world wise will only trade among themselves. And we can have globally recognized socialist symbol which all cooperatives can wear / display, so we would know where to trade from? This way, in addition to intellectual activism, a economical proof will also emerge globally. Is this feasible?

Hi Richard. I've been reading a lot lately from Stephanie Kelton, Warren Mossler, Randal Wray, Bill Mitchell, etc, about Modern Monetary Theory, and I think it's fascinating. However, one policy they advocate for consistently is a "Job Guarantee," whereby the government would offer a job to anybody who was ready, willing, and able to work, at a basic living wage. Macroeconomic claims that this would create full employment and price stability aside, I'm wondering: what are the Marxian implications of such a program? Can a program like that be structured in a way consistent with workers distributing their own surplus? (Also, do you have any other thoughts about MMT?) Thank you!

It's "Reflection On the Overthrow of Communism." It goes from 12.23-20.19 in the audio, although I agree with your logic, Dr. Wolff, what you argue validates what I also have advocated for years. creating and new economic system from the ground up by democratizing the enterprise , "co-ops etc. but Dr. Parenti argues, as do many on the left that a "pure socialism" cannot exist without a strong state etc. Top Down hierarchical centralize state power . maybe you could respond before I die which may be very soon since I have bile duct cancer "incurable" thank you

After having read a bit of Voltaire's Bastards and hearing a few of his speeches, I've become insterested in John Ralston Saul's thoughts on managers and managerial schools. What is the optimal role of a "manager" in a WSDE, should they exist, and what are your thoughts on the move towards university programs dedicated to different kinds of "management"?

I love Economic Update, and I'm a dedicated listener. I just wanted to bring this article to Dr. Wolff's attention: (http://www.freep.com/story/money/cars/general-motors/2016/07/12/supplier-bankruptcy-filing-could-disrupt-gm-production/86997150/). It's a perfect example of what happens when a monopsonistic purchaser controls the other firms that feed its supply chain. In this case, GM wouldn't let a company go into bankruptcy because it was under an obligation to sell GM the parts that GM needs to produce their vehicles. That sounds reasonable, but what comes next shows how truly ridiculous our economy is and has become. The reason why the company is facing bankruptcy is that GM had demanded the supplier sell the products at an unfair price that didn't allow them to function as an enterprise. So now GM has basically turned this firm into a colony that feeds their corporate empire. The smaller firm can no longer cover their costs, make their profits, and succeed as a capitalist enterprise because the larger firms won't pay them enough, but they must continue production despite all that because the larger firm demands that they do so. Love the show! Thanks to Dr. Wolff and all the folks at Democracy at work for their efforts.

As professor Keen observes, banks create money into the economy which has the effect of raising demand and driving GDP growth through turnover of money stocks. The money supply will depend on the leverage level defined by new loans minus repayments of principal and interest. It follows that defaults prevent the destruction of money through repayments (less liquidation of collateral). In this way, defaults contribute a large part of the real economy. To date I have seen no analysis to measure this affect, I suspect that many people are being sacrificed through foreclosures (etc) in order to balance the money supply when this role should be undertaken by government printing presses. I would appreciate your thoughts?

Are you aware that your youtube presence is under systemic attack by "fog-bots"? I have noticed this activity against the youtube presence of all major progressive speakers - it is clearly a well organised and funded tactic used to contain and limit the narratives of important progressive players. It works by flooding the youtube search with random posts of your work excluding your latest contributions: thus obscuring your overall narrative and most cogent contributions. I would suggest you look at installing a counter-bot to neutralize this attack and keep your current contributions at the top of the search list.

Dear Professor Wolff, I'm not sure if you have seen this amazing story from last Saturday's Guardian, so I thought I would send it on to you to consider for future updates. My first thought after reading the story was "holy cow", could this portend a coming re-alignment of lobbying forces in the US. Is it possible that, for the first time we could witness a battle of the titans, with the Israeli lobby coming face to face with corporate America, not to mention the possible implications for EU-Israel relations. Imagine this question being asked to the candidates in the upcomming presidential debates: "Do you support the recent House of Representatives legislation blocking Boeing's $25bn passenger aircraft sale to Iran and it's consequesces for Airbus's deal to sell Iran 118 aircraft?" https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jul/09/us-aircraft-sales-iran-blocked-jeopardising-25bn-boeing-deal Keep up the great work. Tim Bolger

Are there any colleges or universities that are organized as worker co-ops? Do the regional accreditors in the US acknowledge the worker co-op financial structure?

Article: http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2016/06/21/not-just-the-1-the-upper-middle-class-is-larger-and-richer-than-ever/?mod=e2fb My comment was: "When they say "the middle class is shrinking," they're right. But it's not because "the lower class is growing." This article shows that it's actually because "the upper middle class is growing" – and very rapidly. "As a representative of the "upper lower middle class," I want to suggest that we in the bottom 68% really need to think about what this means, and build bridges with that group, because they, perhaps even more than the 1% because of their relatively greater numbers, are a huge barrier to a more equitable society."

I was struck by Dr Webster Tarpley (host of the weekly radio broadcast, 'World Crisis Radio', overseer of the 'Tax Wall Street Party', and frequent Left Forum guest) offering a steadfast class-driven analysis of the dire predicament the 'precariat' faces in contemporary U.S society...to be heard in the second hour of his latest show. For Saturday, July 9th, easily accessible online. From his lengthy and impassioned detailing of the one-percent's decades-long refusal to contribute almost any of their loot to the demands of infrastructure, healthcare, education, etc., to his insistence that MLK's last campaign on behalf of impoverished strikers in Memphis ought to remind contemporary obsessions with ethno-racial minuate that poverty and deprivation appear as projects knowing, essentially, no colour,..an invitation from ' Economic Update ' to Dr. Tarpley would surely make for an incredible show!!!

I suspect this "sleep" begins shortly after we are born. If a mother and a father are also asleep and steal a child's life and attention, the child learns to go along with this process, and indeed, becomes an active coconspirator! Then naturally, the child either grows up as easy fodder in a capitalist society or goes to prison! Imagine a future in which schools and prisons are administered by enlightened Buddhist monks. Until then we will be content with the capitalists stealing our natural human wealth. We start out in a stable, and it gets worse. The capitalists go far beyond harvesting the poor. Soon they are stealing from each other through transferable investments such as stocks and bonds. Brothers and sisters even manage to get each other disinherited. Why aren't there more non-transferable investments such as Social Security? "Waking up" comes about through radio programs such as yours, through trustworthy mentoring, and through resource-rich websites such as my own rock-bottom "Non-escalating.Verbal Self-defense" --http://www.1010playbook.com -- at present, a two-person operation. We are open to becoming a larger enterprise by some unknown means. Any ideas or suggestions?