Professor of Economics, Author, Radio Host, Speaker

Richard D. Wolff

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Have a question for Professor Wolff? Want to suggest a topic or article? UPVOTE your favorite questions or submit your own. Top suggestions will be given a video answer on YouTube.
 
Professor Wolff receives hundreds of questions per week covering a wide array of topics, from economics and politics, to historical movements and current events. While Professor Wolff does his best to reply to some questions on Economic Update with Richard D. Wolff, he's received more questions than can be answered individually. Prof. Wolff will now provide video answers to his favorite questions on this page.
 
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What about the Fed's holdings of mortgage backed securities?

Gary Serrino
posted by | 593pt
July 09, 2016

What would happen if the mortgage backed securities (MBS) owned by the Federal Reserve were to significantly decline in value?

Richard Wolff posted an official response
It depends on what the Federal Reserve would do with such MBS. If it sold them at depressed prices that would have all sorts of effects on the MBS market and on connected other markets. If the Federal Reserve just held the depreciated MBS, that would stand as a loss on the books of the Federal Reserve which would likely have little effect at all. If the Federal Reserve responded by not buying more MBS, that could have major effects on the prices of the whole MBS space and thereby on the housing market generally. That in turn could have major impacts on overall income, employment, etc.
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Can there be a sustainable banking sector?

White Lotos
posted by | 18pt
July 09, 2016

Dear Prof. Wolff: I'm a Swiss Banking student and have been following your content for quite a while now. I'm grateful for your weekly Marxian/progressive content as this important perspective is not represented in conventional media. Here's my question: Could you dedicate one episode of Economic Update towards the financial sector, especially it's banks and how we can make the banking industry work for broad societal goals again? I'm especially interested in what needs to be changed, which business fields are compatible with broad societal interests, what business models of banks would have to adapt and how the banking sector could collaborate with a real economy consisting of more and more worker co-ops. Also I would be glad if my personal data remains anonymous. Yours sincerely.

Richard Wolff posted an official response

Thank you for your suggestion. I try to touch on this topic throughout some episodes but will keep this in mind for a more focused episode in the future. Thank you for being a listener.

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How does 3D-printing affect modern labour movements?

Carlos Machado
posted by | 8pt
July 09, 2016

Is 3D-printing a useful tool for modern labour movements and anti-capitalist organizations? In my opinion 3D-printing, automation, and lightspeed communication (thanks to the internet), gives people greater control over their lives and the possibility to start creating communities, cooperatives and all other kinds of institutions, organized under socialist principles functioning outside the modern capitalist economy.

Richard Wolff posted an official response

Thank you for your question, Carlos. Please refer to Catherine's question about basic income, as I refer a bit to technology in the answer. I share you optimism in the possibilities new technologies provide but am understandably cautious of their use and development under a capitalist system that will prioritize their use for profit. However, technologies can be used by different groups for different means. Thank you for your question, Carlos.

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Recommended reading material?

Susan Kukel
posted by | 148pt
July 07, 2016

Could you or your staff recommend some books or other reading material on Marxism? I am currently reading "From Marx to Gramci" by Paul Le Blanc, but picked that up by random and do not know if there are better books or authors that I should look be looking for. Thank you so very much.

Richard Wolff posted an official response

Thank you, Susan. I suggest a good compendium of key writings (one if the best and oldest us by Emile Burns and is called Handbook of Marxism). You may also, for Marxian economics, take a look at our book (myself and Steve Resnick, Contested Economic Theories, MIT Press, 2012). Going to Marx himself would also work; best there are Marx' The German Ideology, The Civil Wars in France, and the compendium of his notebooks called The Grundrisse. Thank you again for your question, Susan.

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Is basic income a formidable model for rising unemployed levels?

Catherine Granicz
posted by | 98pt
July 07, 2016

With AI, robotics and automation rapidly being deployed across various global industries, the assumption that unemployment levels will increase dramatically seems to be a foregone conclusion. As we enter this acutely diseased phase of capitalism -- I say acutely diseased because the effect on humanity will be catastrophic -- it seems to me that discourse on this subject is severely lacking. BI (basic income) is one plausible solution. Yanis Varoufakis talks extensively about BI. My question is: in your opinion, do you feel that BI is a formidable model for rising unemployed levels and, if so, how could it be calculated to adequately support peoples' needs?

Richard Wolff posted an official response

Catherine, thank you for your question. The problem with capitalism has always been that on the one hand it stimulates tech change, although in directions that prioritize profits far too much. On the other hand, capitalism distorts the application of technical change to maintain the dominance of capital and capitalism. So if you are right about how AI, robotics, etc will reduce the need for labor (much as many earlier tech changes in capitalism did), then what capitalism will likely do is condemn millions to unemployment and all its horrors while others work overtime and the richest become richer still. A non-capitalist application of AI, robotics, etc would very differently reduce the workday for all, rather than dangerously divide populations into those workings and those living off BI etc. I would approach handling reduced need for labor without accepting the constraints of a capitalism than which the human community can do better, much better. Hope this helps, Catherine, my best.

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Is it true that the only way to create money is through debt?

Joseph Mustion
posted by | 33pt
July 07, 2016

Please review the attached documentary. Is it true that the only way to create money is through debt. Did the producer have an agenda? I feel like this is not the whole story. https://youtu.be/jqvKjsIxT_8

Richard Wolff posted an official response
Thank you for your question, Joseph. I apologize in advance I do not have the time to watch the entire video, but I will do my best to answer: Debt is the major way that money is created now chiefly by banks (when an individual or enterprise obtains a loan from a bank, the bank simply credits that person or firm's bank checking account with the amount of the loan thereby "creating" money). When governments create money they do the same thing by giving banks loans via crediting their accounts with the government with an additional sum equal to the loan. However, governments can also simply print and distribute money and/or deposit sums of new government-created money into the accounts of persons or firms. Banks have wanted to tightly control the government's money-creating powers lest governments choose ways of increasing or decreasing the money supply in an economy that do not profit banks or, worse still, hurt banks' profits. Limiting money to debt is one way of exerting such control. It is not the only or the necessary way to do it.
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Richard D. Wolff is Professor of Economics Emeritus at UMass Amherst and a visiting Professor in the Graduate Program in International Affairs of the New School University in New York. Richard Wolff is also a co-founder and active contributor of his non-profit: Democracy at Work

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