Economic Update with Richard D. Wolff

U.S. Capitalism as a Crisis for Men 07.07.2026 30хв

This week on Economic Update, Professor Wolff delivers updates on rising wages for app-based NYC food delivery workers, a wave of U.S. firms being sold to their workers, McDonald's disaster with an AI experiment, and how Canada's leader Carney is also a major campaigner for capital and against labor inside Canada. The second part of today's show features an interview with psychotherapist Tess Fraad-Wolff on the psychological crisis faced by men in US capitalism today.

Marx's Key Insight: Capitalism's Surplus 05.07.2026 32хв

The central concept of Marx's contribution to a critical understanding of the capitalist economic system - the entry point into his distinctive analysis - is "the surplus." Today's show is devoted to making clear (1) what the surplus is, (2) how and why the surplus is central to understanding capitalism's key features, and (3) how the surplus explains such flaws in capitalism, such as the endless class struggles it provokes and the extreme inequalities of wealth and income it generates.

Supermarket Jobs, Super Exploitation 05.07.2026 31хв

This week on Economic Update, Professor delivers updates on the so-called Social Security Crisis, the gross inequality of stock ownership in the U.S. today, the exploited and underpaid non-tenure track faculty ("adjuncts," etc.) who are joining unions, especially the UAW, which won a union election on June 3 at the University of Southern California, which includes 2,700 members. The second half of the show features an interview with Ann Larson, author of the new book, Cleanup on Aisle Five: Essential Work, Poverty Wages, and the View Behind the Supermarket Register. You can find here book here: https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Cleanup-on-Aisle-Five/Ann-Larson/9781668094501

Lessons from China's Economic Development 05.07.2026 31хв

On this week's episode of Economic Update, Professor devotes the entire program to the why and how of China's passage from abject poverty and colonial humiliation to become, in unprecedented, record historical time, a superpower economy challenging the US today.

The Yellow Vests Mass Movement in France 04.07.2026 32хв

This week on Economic Update, Professor delivers updates on the big union wins for 40,000 workers in the UC system, the ongoing strike of graduate student workers at Harvard, and basic statistics on the extent of hunger in US households (between 1 in 7 and 1 in 5 households). In the second half, Professor Wolff interviews Professor Ida Susser, author of the new book, "The Yellow Vests and the Battle for Democracy: Taking to the Streets of Paris in the 21st Century."

Center for Popular Economics: Goals and Achievements 08.06.2026 31хв

On this week's episode of Economic Update, Professor delivers updates on why and how worker co-ops are a strategic direction for socialism, and Europe's deindustrialization. The second half features an interview with Anne McGrew and Will Chaney about the Center for Popular Economics and its work since 1978, teaching economics in ways that neither college and university departments nor labor unions do.

Economic Update: The Economics of Unemployment Today 27.05.2026 31хв

This week on Economic Update, Professor Wolff briefly discusses two current large strikes by workers fighting back: the British Columbia nurses in Canada and the commuter rail workers in New York (LIRR). The rest of today's episode is an analysis of the 7.4 million Americans who are unemployed today, the causes and effects of that unemployment, the irrationality of that unemployment, and the current failed "policies" to deal with it.

Economic Update: The Global "Birth Strike" Changes Everything 20.05.2026 35хв

This week on Economic Update, Professor Wolff delivers updates on the tentative agreement reached by the unionized portion (85%) of the staff at the Los Angeles Unified School District (400,000 students, 83,300 workers), the three separate labor unions that unified to win major improvements in wages and working conditions, how capitalist versus socialist enterprises would install AI, and how progressive mayors like Mamdani of New York could counter billionaires' threats to evade taxes by moving their businesses if any political leader taxed the rich (or moved to make the rich pay their fair share of taxes). The second half of the show features an interview with Dr. Harriet Fraad, a practicing psychotherapist in New York City, on the global movement to not have children, its social causes, and its social consequences.

Causes & Consequences of the Iran War 05.05.2026 29хв

The d@w Team Economic Update with Richard D. Wolff is a DemocracyatWork.info Inc. production. We make it a point to provide the show free of ads and rely on viewer support to continue doing so. You can support our work by joining our Patreon community: https://www.patreon.com/democracyatwork Or you can go to our website: https://www.democracyatwork.info/donate Every donation counts and helps us provide a larger audience with the information they need to better understand the events around the world they can't get anywhere else. We want to thank our devoted community of supporters who help make this show and others we produce possible each week. We kindly ask you to also support the work we do by encouraging others to subscribe to our YouTube channel and website: www.democracyatwork.info

Marx's Relevance for Today 28.04.2026 31хв

In response to questions about Marx's relevance today, this program explains how Marx's criticism of capitalism was unique (more micro-focused than macro-focused analysis). It shows how Marx's critique of capitalism differs from his critique of slave and feudal class systems, on the one hand, and from post-capitalist ("socialist" or "communist") class systems, on the other. Marx's analysis is shown NOT to prioritize the private vs public enterprises dichotomy that has been debated as "the issue" over the last century. Instead, Marx's relevance for today lies in arguing for a post-capitalist system that is different from the slave, feudal, and capitalist class systems it seeks to replace. The d@w Team Economic Update with Richard D. Wolff is a DemocracyatWork.info Inc. production. We make it a point to provide the show free of ads and rely on viewer support to continue doing so. You can support our work by joining our Patreon community: https://www.patreon.com/democracyatwork Or you can go to our website: https://www.democracyatwork.info/donate Every donation counts and helps us provide a larger audience with the information they need to better understand the events around the world they can't get anywhere else. We want to thank our devoted community of supporters who help make this show and others we produce possible each week. We kindly ask you to also support the work we do by encouraging others to subscribe to our YouTube channel and website: www.democracyatwork.info

Born Sick in the USA: Improving The Health of a Nation 21.04.2026 32хв

On this week's episode of Economic Update, Professor Wolff provides updates on the 3 major teachers' unions struggling with the LA Unified School District, rising electricity costs in the U.S., and corrupt utility commissions, and on the extreme redistribution of wealth from the lower 99% to the richest 1% in the U.S. from 1990 to 2025. The second half of today's show features an interview with public health professor Stephen Bezruchka on the economic and political roots of widespread sickness in the U.S., as analyzed in his new book, "Born Sick in the USA: Improving the Health of a Nation". The d@w Team Economic Update with Richard D. Wolff is a DemocracyatWork.info Inc. production. We make it a point to provide the show free of ads and rely on viewer support to continue doing so. You can support our work by joining our Patreon community: https://www.patreon.com/democracyatwork Or you can go to our website: https://www.democracyatwork.info/donate Every donation counts and helps us provide a larger audience with the information they need to better understand the events around the world they can't get anywhere else. We want to thank our devoted community of supporters who help make this show and others we produce possible each week. We kindly ask you to also support the work we do by encouraging others to subscribe to our YouTube channel and website: www.democracyatwork.info

Economic Implications of the U.S. War on Iran 14.04.2026 31хв

This week on Economic Update, Professor Wolff discusses the 3800 Colorado meatpackers on strike before diving into a presentation on how the war on Iran and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz have disrupted the production and transportation of oil and gas sufficiently to drive up oil and gas prices globally, while also raising the prices of fertilizer and plastic and, via rising diesel fuel prices, all products brought to retail by trucks. In short, inflation was stoked by the war. Requesting $200 billion for the war on Iran deepens the U.S. fiscal crisis even further, stretching NATO almost to the breaking point. Trump's popularity appears to be in a tailspin. The d@w Team Economic Update with Richard D. Wolff is a DemocracyatWork.info Inc. production. We make it a point to provide the show free of ads and rely on viewer support to continue doing so. You can support our work by joining our Patreon community: https://www.patreon.com/democracyatwork Or you can go to our website: https://www.democracyatwork.info/donate Every donation counts and helps us provide a larger audience with the information they need to better understand the events around the world they can't get anywhere else. We want to thank our devoted community of supporters who help make this show and others we produce possible each week. We kindly ask you to also support the work we do by encouraging others to subscribe to our YouTube channel and website: www.democracyatwork.info

The Great U.S. Pension Crisis 07.04.2026 32хв

On this week's episode of Economic Update, Professor Wolff presents updates on European turmoil that include how the French municipal elections are revealing Macron's weaknesses, Germany's opposition of the war on Iran, the UK waffling on Iran and helping the U.S., and Europe's deepening subordination to the U.S. and China as economic giants in today's world economy—especially in advanced technological areas. The show's second half features an interview with Professor Teresa Ghilarducci on the crisis of pensions in the U.S., the "reforms" being proposed, and the grim realities to be faced if pensions continue to decline. The d@w Team Economic Update with Richard D. Wolff is a DemocracyatWork.info Inc. production. We make it a point to provide the show free of ads and rely on viewer support to continue doing so. You can support our work by joining our Patreon community: https://www.patreon.com/democracyatwork Or you can go to our website: https://www.democracyatwork.info/donate Every donation counts and helps us provide a larger audience with the information they need to better understand the events around the world they can't get anywhere else. We want to thank our devoted community of supporters who help make this show and others we produce possible each week. We kindly ask you to also support the work we do by encouraging others to subscribe to our YouTube channel and website: www.democracyatwork.info

Criticizing Pro-Capitalist Ideology 31.03.2026 31хв

This week on Economic Update, Professor Wolff discusses the flaws in the argument that profit is an appropriate, just return to the risk taken by a capitalist who invests. The critique focuses on (1) what it means that a capitalist can withhold means of production from production, and (2) how workers, their families, and communities also take risks in any productive enterprise yet get no profits, thereby invalidating the justification of profit as a reward for risk. In the second half, he shows that technical innovations such as AI do not cause unemployment; rather, the capitalist system does. An example is offered of how AI could be installed to advantage every enterprise's majority—its employees—rather than profit its employers (a minority in enterprises). The d@w Team Economic Update with Richard D. Wolff is a DemocracyatWork.info Inc. production. We make it a point to provide the show free of ads and rely on viewer support to continue doing so. You can support our work by joining our Patreon community: https://www.patreon.com/democracyatwork Or you can go to our website: https://www.democracyatwork.info/donate Every donation counts and helps us provide a larger audience with the information they need to better understand the events around the world they can't get anywhere else. We want to thank our devoted community of supporters who help make this show and others we produce possible each week. We kindly ask you to also support the work we do by encouraging others to subscribe to our YouTube channel and website: www.democracyatwork.info

Economic Update: The Reality, Hype, and Danger of A.I. 24.03.2026 31хв

On this episode of Economic Update, Professor Wolff provides updates on job losses in February 2026 in the U.S. economy, how California unions are actively protecting immigrant workers from ICE, capitalist crashes and politics (1929 vs. today), and Europe's economic dead end. In the second half, Professor Wolff interviews journalist-critic (and Bernie Sanders' speechwriter) Richard RJ Eskow about AI. The d@w Team Economic Update with Richard D. Wolff is a DemocracyatWork.info Inc. production. We make it a point to provide the show free of ads and rely on viewer support to continue doing so. You can support our work by joining our Patreon community: https://www.patreon.com/democracyatwork Or you can go to our website: https://www.democracyatwork.info/donate Every donation counts and helps us provide a larger audience with the information they need to better understand the events around the world they can't get anywhere else. We want to thank our devoted community of supporters who help make this show and others we produce possible each week. We kindly ask you to also support the work we do by encouraging others to subscribe to our YouTube channel and website: www.democracyatwork.info

Trump's Tariff Policies: A Critique 17.03.2026 31хв

This week on Economic Update, Professor Wolff explains how and why Trump's tariff policies add uncertainties to global trade that undermine the very benefits he promised tariffs would bring. He also explains why the United States has never truly been a democracy, but rather an authoritarian society whose current shift is from a polite authoritarianism to a blunt, unvarnished one. The core argument is that the workplace—whether a factory, office, or store—is organized in a fundamentally authoritarian way, and that this structure then extends to and infects the rest of society. The d@w Team Economic Update with Richard D. Wolff is a DemocracyatWork.info Inc. production. We make it a point to provide the show free of ads and rely on viewer support to continue doing so. You can support our work by joining our Patreon community: https://www.patreon.com/democracyatwork Or you can go to our website: https://www.democracyatwork.info/donate Every donation counts and helps us provide a larger audience with the information they need to better understand the events around the world they can't get anywhere else. We want to thank our devoted community of supporters who help make this show and others we produce possible each week. We kindly ask you to also support the work we do by encouraging others to subscribe to our YouTube channel and website: www.democracyatwork.info

The US Housing Crisis Today 10.03.2026 31хв

On this week's episode of Economic Update, Professor Wolff discusses the history of highly successful government-built and-operated housing launched in 1918, the gains won by UAW workers in the first contract at the Volkswagen factory in Chattanooga, TN, and the story of the three-year strike by the Newspaper Guild against the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, which was finally won—only for the paper's owners to shut it down. The second half features an interview with Rob Robinson about housing, affordability, and homelessness in the U.S. today. The d@w Team Economic Update with Richard D. Wolff is a DemocracyatWork.info Inc. production. We make it a point to provide the show free of ads and rely on viewer support to continue doing so. You can support our work by joining our Patreon community: https://www.patreon.com/democracyatwork Or you can go to our website: https://www.democracyatwork.info/donate Every donation counts and helps us provide a larger audience with the information they need to better understand the events around the world they can't get anywhere else. We want to thank our devoted community of supporters who help make this show and others we produce possible each week. We kindly ask you to also support the work we do by encouraging others to subscribe to our YouTube channel and website: www.democracyatwork.info

Militarism and Decline in Europe and the U.S. 03.03.2026 31хв

On this week's episode of Economic Update, Professor Wolff breaks down the simultaneous huge spending increases on the military in the U.S. and Europe, suggesting a shared crisis leading to a shared self-protective solution found by the ruling classes both in Europe and in the US. The shared end of colonialism plus the rise of global competition from China and the BRICS plunges their ruling classes into parallel crises, for which they prepare their last node of self-protection, namely building up domestic military. Europe does so in disguise and for self-protection against Russia. The U.S. does it by claiming self-protection from China, plus the rest of the world. We hope you enjoy this discussion and look forward to joining you next week for another all-new episode of Economic Update. The d@w Team Economic Update with Richard D. Wolff is a DemocracyatWork.info Inc. production. We make it a point to provide the show free of ads and rely on viewer support to continue doing so. You can support our work by joining our Patreon community: https://www.patreon.com/democracyatwork Or you can go to our website: https://www.democracyatwork.info/donate Every donation counts and helps us provide a larger audience with the information they need to better understand the events around the world they can't get anywhere else. We want to thank our devoted community of supporters who help make this show and others we produce possible each week. We kindly ask you to also support the work we do by encouraging others to subscribe to our YouTube channel and website: www.democracyatwork.info

The Jeffrey Epstein Class 24.02.2026 32хв

On this week's episode of Economic Update, Professor Wolff provides updates on the shared significance of three major strikes: New York City nurses, San Francisco teachers, Kaiser Permanente health workers in California; the cause of U.S./European discord at the 63rd annual Munich Security Conference in Germany in February. The second half of today's show features an interview with a New York City psychotherapist on the social significance of the Jeffrey Epstein scandal. The d@w Team Economic Update with Richard D. Wolff is a DemocracyatWork.info Inc. production. We make it a point to provide the show free of ads and rely on viewer support to continue doing so. You can support our work by joining our Patreon community: https://www.patreon.com/democracyatwork Or you can go to our website: https://www.democracyatwork.info/donate Every donation counts and helps us provide a larger audience with the information they need to better understand the events around the world they can't get anywhere else. We want to thank our devoted community of supporters who help make this show and others we produce possible each week. We kindly ask you to also support the work we do by encouraging others to subscribe to our YouTube channel and website: www.democracyatwork.info

Trump 2.0 The First Year: An Assessment 17.02.2026 30хв

This week on Economic Update, Professor Wolff provides an assessment of the first year of Trump's second term in office, covering how he inherited the problems of a declining empire and proved unable, or unwilling, to stop or reverse the decline, and how that flows in part from the ways the Republican and Democratic parties operate and in part from the difficult conditions both face. The results at the end of the first year are very poor for both parties. The d@w Team Economic Update with Richard D. Wolff is a DemocracyatWork.info Inc. production. We make it a point to provide the show free of ads and rely on viewer support to continue doing so. You can support our work by joining our Patreon community: https://www.patreon.com/democracyatwork Or you can go to our website: https://www.democracyatwork.info/donate Every donation counts and helps us provide a larger audience with the information they need to better understand the events around the world they can't get anywhere else. We want to thank our devoted community of supporters who help make this show and others we produce possible each week. We kindly ask you to also support the work we do by encouraging others to subscribe to our YouTube channel and website: www.democracyatwork.info