Economic Update with Richard D. Wolff

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

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

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

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

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