General Discussion

marmar

(77,064 posts) Sun Nov 3, 2013, 09:45 AM Nov 2013

Hungry Like the Wolff: A compilation of items from Richard Wolff, an economist who "gets it"

Beyond the economic consequences of continuing withdrawal, the political effects will likely be more pronounced and visible. The old political compromise will no longer be honored. Capitalists withdrawing from the old centers need not and will not pay rising real wages there. Indeed, they have not done so for several decades. For a while, household and government debt increases postponed the effects of those stagnant or falling real wages. Because the credit bubble built on that debt burst in 2007, north America, western Europe, and Japan now face the full force of a withdrawing capitalism without the debt cushion. That means fewer and/or poorer jobs at shrinking pay levels with fewer benefits and reduced government-provided services. Will workers accept a capitalism that preserves all the power and income ceded to capitalists while ending the workers’ compensation of rising real wages? ..................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://rdwolff.com/content/us-political-dysfunction-and-capitalism%E2%80%99s-withdrawal

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Corporate rule hurts the US more than shutdown

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Most Republicans and Democrats facilitated the process by endlessly promoting "free trade" and arguing that any constraints on free enterprises' relocations were unthinkable, inefficient and other synonyms for "really bad". As more and more jobs left the US, and formerly prosperous cities and states entered long-term declines, the two parties blamed their favorite targets: one another.

The idea that capitalism and capitalists were the problem was something neither Democrats or Republicans allow into their debates and talking-points. Yet, it was precisely capitalists' profit-driven, self-interested decisions to move that have caused our economic problems. And so they remain. .........................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/oct/22/republicans-democrats-bipartisan-consensus-capitalism

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Listen (audio): http://rdwolff.com/content/economic-update-economic-decline-mounts

by Richard Wolff.
Published on July 6, 2013

Updates on political economy of "internships," Philadelphia public schools disaster, Obama criticized by South African unions. Major discussions of social costs of financial crises, "quantitative easing" policies, and the contradictions of capitalism (part 1). Response to question on workers self-directed enterprises as means for transition beyond capitalism.

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Richard Wolff - Intro to Marxian Economics (Session One)

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A socialism for the 21st century must include and stress the importance of micro-level social transformation at the base of society in the workplace. Ending exploitation in workplaces is that transformation. Instead of workers producing surpluses for others to appropriate and distribute, they must now do that for themselves collectively. They must become their own board of directors. Ending workplace exploitation means that non-workers, whether private individuals or state officials, can no longer appropriate or distribute workers' surpluses. As "producer cooperatives" or "democratized enterprises" (among other names), such transformed workplaces represent a priority goal of a new socialism. That socialism stresses the micro-level transformation of society - the end of exploitation wherever people work - as the necessary companion or counterpart to the traditional macro-focus on property ownership and distribution mechanisms. The macro and micro components of socialism would both become equally necessary, conditions of each other's existence, mutually reinforcing as well as mutually dependent. Neither will be viewed or treated by policy as determinant of the other. Both will shape one another much as they both shape and are shaped by the larger social and natural contexts. ............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://rdwolff.com/content/socialism-21st-century

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On Economic Update with Professor Richard Wolff, Wolff and guests will discuss the current state of the economy, both locally and globally in relation to the economic crisis.

Wolff will focus on wages, jobs, taxes, and debts - and on interest rates, prices, and profits. We aim to explain why certain economic changes are happening and other changes get postponed or blocked and we will explore alternative ways to organize enterprises, markets, and government policies. Economic Update is a weekly show for people who want to understand and change not only their own financial situation but also the larger economy we all depend on.

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To cut Social Security payments now punishes the people already most afflicted by the capitalist crisis that they did not cause. The richest Americans and the large financial and other corporations are the least affected by cutting Social Security, yet they push the hardest for those cuts. The rich and the corporations gained the most over the last 30 years, bear much responsibility for the crisis, and got big bailouts exclusively for themselves. The rich and the corporations saved billions as working people overfunded Social Security with their excess payroll taxes over decades.

The abuse of Social Security, already decades old, reaches a new level of injustice with the impending cuts in payouts to eligible beneficiaries. Alongside unemployment, home foreclosures, reduced job benefits and security, falling real wages, and rising indebtedness, the assault on Social Security further squeezes the mass of Americans for the benefit of the few at the top. This reality trumps words of concern for "the middle class" pouring from Republicans and Democrats, Boehner and Obama. Politically, pressures keep building. Social Security may prove to be an explosive spark. ......................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://rdwolff.com/content/social-securitys-explosive-injustices

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Listen (audio): http://rdwolff.com/content/economic-update-social-turmoil-coming

by Richard Wolff and Chris Hedges.
Published on April 12, 2013

Updates on CEO pay, the assault on social security, Maggie Thatcher, and "job creation." Interview with Chris Hedges on deepening social crisis, divisions, and turmoil coming. Response to listeners: on French socialists, hidden money, and workers coops paying taxes.

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The Economic Crisis and Globalization - Part 1: The Economic Crisis, An Overview