Nine Key Events in 2025
Economic Update with Richard D. Wolff
This week on Economic Update, Professor Wolff analyzes topics from Israel and Gaza to Epstein scandals to U.S. neocolonialism to Europe's failure to seize Russian wealth held in European banks with a focus on the historical importance of key developments shaping the global crisis emerging 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:...
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Gentrification, Boston, and Racism
Economic Update with Richard D. Wolff
This week on Economic Update, Professor Wolff devotes the first half to New York's new Mayor Zohran Mamdani. He discusses how and why he defeated so many efforts to block him, and what he needs to do to succeed, deliver on his campaign promises, and create a lasting legacy of his time in office. The second half of today’s show features an interview with Sabrina Salvati on her new documentary film, "REMOVED: Black Erasure in Boston.” 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...
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The U.S. As A 'Traumatized' Society
Economic Update with Richard D. Wolff
On this week’s episode of Economic Update, Professor Wolff delivers updates on the Black Friday strikes against Amazon in Germany and against Zara in Spain, the rapid decline of New School University as an example of a deepening crisis in U.S. higher education, and a new U.S. national security paper that throws Europe under the bus, further signaling the end of the U.S. empire. The second part of today’s show features an interview with author, activist, and host of “The Muckrake Podcast,” Jared Yates-Sexton, on his political analysis and campaign for change in the U.S today. The...
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Globalization from Celebration to Condemnation
Economic Update with Richard D. Wolff
On this week’s episode of Economic Update, Professor Wolff provides an analysis of "globalization" as a fancy slogan to hide a profit-driven, profit-boosting period (1970-2015) that saw US capitalists move factories abroad. It destroyed so many well-paid factory jobs (especially of white, male Christians) that it produced massive suffering among the affected communities. As their rage built and both Republican and Democratic politicians turned a blind eye to their suffering, right-wing politicians saw an opportunity. Find a candidate really different from the old Republican and Democratic...
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Marx Was Right
Economic Update with Richard D. Wolff
This week’s episode of Economic Update is an adaptation from a talk Professor Wolff gave at Yale University on December 2, 2025, to the Yale Political Union. In this presentation, he discusses the significance of the title "Marx was Right," which Yale offered, and points out that, over the last 75 years, such a topic or event would not likely have occurred on that campus. He provides a basic summary of critical points throughout Marx's work where he has been proven "right." Professor Wolff also discusses how and why socialism has evolved, from the rise and fall of the USSR to the rise of the...
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The U.S. Military's Role in Ecological Crisis
Economic Update with Richard D. Wolff
On this week’s episode of Economic Update, Professor Wolff delivers updates on the internal struggle inside the U.S. Teamsters Union between O'Brien leadership and Hooker challenge group (pro- vs anti-Trump), Trump-McMahon attack on the nursing profession in the U.S., and Trump's own reduction of tariffs and thus of government revenue from tariffs. Then, Professor Wolff interviews Abby Martin about her new film, "Earth's Greatest Enemy," which explores the U.S. military's disastrous ecological impact on the planet. The d@w Team Economic Update with Richard D. Wolff is a...
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American Style Fascism
Economic Update with Richard D. Wolff
This week on Economic Update, Professor Wolff delivers updates on the flight attendants' union strike in Canada, polls show that U.S. Democrats are shifting leftward, with majorities favoring socialism, Nigel Farage discusses Epstein and prominent Americans, and the French people move against Macron's austerity through mass national street actions. In the second half of today’s show, Professor Wolff interviews attorney Michael S. Smith, co-author of the new book, “From the Flag to the Cross: Fascism American Style.” The d@w Team Economic Update with Richard D. Wolff is a...
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Higher Education Labor United (HELU) Rises
Economic Update with Richard D. Wolff
On this week’s episode of Economic Update, Professor Wolff delivers updates on the Vermont Public Employers who got the contractual right to act with pay to "defend democracy," Tesla’s board offers Musk a $1 trillion CEO pay package, Trump and top corporate executives merge at Intel and other hi-tech corporations, quite like the mergers in Nazi Germany and fascist Italy. The second half of the show features an interview with Joe Berry and Helena Worthen, long-time organizers of 'contingent' scholastic faculty in the U.S. (now comprising 75% of higher education teachers), and who are now...
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The Fight Against Money Corrupting Politics
Economic Update with Richard D. Wolff
This week on Economic Update, Professor Wolff delivers updates on Bernie-endorsed Independent U.S. Senate candidate Graham Platner in Maine, the latest Gallup poll showing that 68% Americans are pro-union, more than 97% of park workers at Yosemite and Sequoia & Kings Canyon parks vote to unionize, ICE has so far deported half a million, while DOGE has fired a million federal workers (mostly high-wage) resulting in a significant net job loss nationwide. The second half of the show features an interview with Trent Lange, leader of the California movement to get money out of politics....
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An Argument for A New Labor Party
Economic Update with Richard D. Wolff
The left-wing surge of the U.S. working class during the Great Depression of the 1930s compelled the Democratic Party to prioritize serving the working class more than it had before or would again. It was called the New Deal. In response, the US employer class, angry that taxes on corporations and the rich were used to fund government programs for the people, turned to the Republican Party after World War II ended in 1945 and directed it to roll back the New Deal, reducing or eliminating all it had accomplished. Because the New Deal made the great mistake of leaving profits in the hands of...
info_outlineThe left-wing surge of the U.S. working class during the Great Depression of the 1930s compelled the Democratic Party to prioritize serving the working class more than it had before or would again. It was called the New Deal. In response, the US employer class, angry that taxes on corporations and the rich were used to fund government programs for the people, turned to the Republican Party after World War II ended in 1945 and directed it to roll back the New Deal, reducing or eliminating all it had accomplished. Because the New Deal made the great mistake of leaving profits in the hands of employers, the employers used those profits to provide Republicans with the means to defeat the Democrats and roll back the New Deal. In response, the Democrats sought funding, finding it in the hands of many donors who had supported the Republicans. For many years, the U.S. was led by one party or the other: the GOP rolled back the New Deal faster, while the Democrats did so more slowly—one ruling class, two parties to serve it. The 2008 Great Recession ended the cozy system, as both parties had to protect the privileges of the corporations and the rich, even as the US empire and economy declined. As the mass of people suffered and neither the GOP nor the Democrats stopped it, people became desperate and elected Trump out of rage and hysteria. He did not and will not solve the fundamental problems any more than his predecessors did. For that, a genuinely new and different political party is needed — one that puts the American Working People First, the American majority. The program concludes with suggestions on how such a new party could truly transform the country and address its most pressing problems.
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