Professor Richard Wolff dissects the erratic and unpredictable nature of the Trump administration's economic policy, and how it signals the decline of American Empire.
R.W: "You've got to do something. And the only thing they can think of, given the narrowness of our education, is that fantasy. They're going to save America by going backwards. What in the world is that? Go back to what? Whatever it is that got you here. I mean, it's nuts. And what they're doing is they're living out fantasy."
Yeah, let's Make America Great Again and continue our decline.
Quite right. That is what MAGA is: to go back to the great America of Jim Crow, of slavery and women no voting. This is why I found this description of MAGA by R.W. so accurate, a fantasy out of the narrowness of our education.
But this is not the decline of capitalism at all. The BRICS are capitalist. Even China's socialism is based on capitalist growth, it's just that the proceeds are divided more evenly. The Chinese system may be sustainable economically but it is not sustainable ecologically.
This frustrates me so much. Even Chris, who I know hasn't fallen for the climate denial psy-ops, isn't discussing the major impact on geopolitics of the accelerating climate and environmental crises, on target for 2 degrees (among many other things) and mass agricultural failure by 2030.
Trump isn't being erratic. He won't be swept away. The US deep state (big oil and animal ag, banking and tech) want to wall themselves off from economic and climate collapse (both of which they are largely responsible for).
The US is mostly in a relatively lucky latitude. They're already prepared to shoot foreigners at the border.
I’m convinced I’m in a dying empire and I don’t know how we might transition to something better. But a good place to start is to stop doing harm. Stop bombing babies and children in tents. And their mothers and fathers, etc.
The 2 of you together are so profound, it chokes me up. I wouldn’t say this without conviction.
One of my concerns in all this insanity is the destruction of confidence in elder wisdom, the elderly being cast aside as out of touch, untrustworthy, that only adds to the downward spiral of security in democracy.
As anybody reading this is well aware elders are the cornerstone of cultural integrity, telling stories, empirical knowledge, that defines our path, past/present/future.
The cult of self continues to be fuelled with every click, every online search floats in limbo, in the void of 140 characters self stroking vacuums.
Why so many continue to use X is perhaps the biggest mystery. Just stop as many individuals, towns and cities have done in my region of the world, it’s at least a start to building resistance. Do something, anything!
This is where this is all heading. It is what it has always been about. Re-writing the Constitution in the interest of the white settler capitalist class to rationalize and promote the dying Empire.
All footnoted. You can read the entirety here. This is where this is all heading. It is what it has always been about. Re-writing the Constitution in the interest of the white settler capitalist class to rationalize and promote the dying Empire.
Oligarchs for Austerity and the CNP Have a Big New Scheme: Suing their Way to a New Constitution
Tags 17th Amendement, ALEC, austerity, Blackstone, Chuck Cooper, CNP, Council for National Policy, David Barton, David M. Walker, Koch brothers, Medicaid, Medicare, Pete Peterson, Private Equity, Privatization, privatizations, Social Security
"Did you hear? President Trump is going to be running for a third term in office. No, that’s not an April Fools joke. He’s not joking. Or at least insists he’s not. Who knows how serious he is, but it’s a sign of the times to hear such blatantly unconstitutional actions just being casually and openly discussed.
Although, as we’re going to see, the constitutionality of third presidential term may not be as set in stone as many suspect. Along with the rest of the US Constitution. A constitutional convention could be just around the corner. Just a lawsuit away. And we can thank the DC austerity lobby and for this ominous potential undertaking.
Yes, the DC austerity lobby is back, with VERY big plans. Because it never really went away. We’re talking about the same austerity lobby that has spent years trying to roll back Obamacare, eviscerate Medicare and Medicaid through block-grants, and generally erode what’s left of the US’s social safety-nets as more and more Americans are forced to take any work available just to qualify for increasingly meager government assistance. That austerity lobby. It’s not just back. It’s bigger and stronger than ever. Or at least sneakier than ever.
A lobby dedicated to life-destroying, soul-crushing policies. Financed by billionaires. One billionaire in particular: Pete Peterson, the Wall Street billionaire who served as Richard Nixon’s Secretary of Commerce before going on to form the private-equity giant Blackstone Group. The same Blackstone Group that has been managing a growing portion of public and private pensions questionable commercial real estate investments as the private-equity sector has increasingly attracted hundreds of billions of dollars in pension fund assets under management. Yes, the Pete Peterson — the austerity lobby’s long-time sugar daddy — also happens to be a billionaire from the sector of Wall Street that has made a fortune in recent years off the mismanagement of pensions. It’s very on theme.
So is this a story about the austerity lobby taking advantage of the Republican DC power trifecta? It is a historic opportunity. The GOP doesn’t just control all three branches of government. President Trump is looking increasingly lawless by the day as his administration embraces not just the DOGE-led Project 2025 agenda with a zeal few expected it’s hard to imagine but is simultaneously attempting to put in place the Unitary Executive theory that will transform the office of presidency into something closer to a national CEO. A transformation of the US government very much in keeping with the long-standing ambitions of a figure who has emerged as a kind of philosopher king for the contemporary political right: Curtis “Mencius Moldbug” Yarvin, whose Silicon Valley “Dark Enlightenment” writings eventually came to life as Project 2025 playbook now playing out. The pro-monarchy Yarvin has long called for an unelected American ‘CEO’ to replace the office of the presidency. We aren’t there yet. But we’re getting there. One lawless action at a time.
But this story about the austerity lobby’s big new plans aren’t about taking advantage of the GOP’s lock on the federal government. It’s about something much bigger. Something we really should have seen coming: Article V constitutional convention plans. Yes, the austerity lobby — which has long advocated for a Balanced Budget constitutional amendment — has fully embraced the constitutional convention pathway to victory.
The kind of pathway that could easily turn into a ‘runaway convention’ and potential complete overhaul of the US Constitution. Because, as we’ve seen, when we are talking about an Article V constitutional convention, we are talking about an overhaul technically managed by delegations of state representatives but ultimately managed by the austerity lobby and its fellow travelers in the Republican mega-donor complex who currently have an overwhelmingly dominant grip on the levers of power across the US government. A corporatist mega-donor class with a dominant grip on federal and state governments, which are both going to come into play should a constitutional convention."
Oligarchs for Austerity and the CNP Have a Big New Scheme: Suing their Way to a New Constitution
Tags 17th Amendement, ALEC, austerity, Blackstone, Chuck Cooper, CNP, Council for National Policy, David Barton, David M. Walker, Koch brothers, Medicaid, Medicare, Pete Peterson, Private Equity, Privatization, privatizations, Social Security
"Did you hear? President Trump is going to be running for a third term in office. No, that’s not an April Fools joke. He’s not joking. Or at least insists he’s not. Who knows how serious he is, but it’s a sign of the times to hear such blatantly unconstitutional actions just being casually and openly discussed.
Although, as we’re going to see, the constitutionality of third presidential term may not be as set in stone as many suspect. Along with the rest of the US Constitution. A constitutional convention could be just around the corner. Just a lawsuit away. And we can thank the DC austerity lobby and for this ominous potential undertaking.
Yes, the DC austerity lobby is back, with VERY big plans. Because it never really went away. We’re talking about the same austerity lobby that has spent years trying to roll back Obamacare, eviscerate Medicare and Medicaid through block-grants, and generally erode what’s left of the US’s social safety-nets as more and more Americans are forced to take any work available just to qualify for increasingly meager government assistance. That austerity lobby. It’s not just back. It’s bigger and stronger than ever. Or at least sneakier than ever.
A lobby dedicated to life-destroying, soul-crushing policies. Financed by billionaires. One billionaire in particular: Pete Peterson, the Wall Street billionaire who served as Richard Nixon’s Secretary of Commerce before going on to form the private-equity giant Blackstone Group. The same Blackstone Group that has been managing a growing portion of public and private pensions questionable commercial real estate investments as the private-equity sector has increasingly attracted hundreds of billions of dollars in pension fund assets under management. Yes, the Pete Peterson — the austerity lobby’s long-time sugar daddy — also happens to be a billionaire from the sector of Wall Street that has made a fortune in recent years off the mismanagement of pensions. It’s very on theme.
So is this a story about the austerity lobby taking advantage of the Republican DC power trifecta? It is a historic opportunity. The GOP doesn’t just control all three branches of government. President Trump is looking increasingly lawless by the day as his administration embraces not just the DOGE-led Project 2025 agenda with a zeal few expected it’s hard to imagine but is simultaneously attempting to put in place the Unitary Executive theory that will transform the office of presidency into something closer to a national CEO. A transformation of the US government very much in keeping with the long-standing ambitions of a figure who has emerged as a kind of philosopher king for the contemporary political right: Curtis “Mencius Moldbug” Yarvin, whose Silicon Valley “Dark Enlightenment” writings eventually came to life as Project 2025 playbook now playing out. The pro-monarchy Yarvin has long called for an unelected American ‘CEO’ to replace the office of the presidency. We aren’t there yet. But we’re getting there. One lawless action at a time.
But this story about the austerity lobby’s big new plans aren’t about taking advantage of the GOP’s lock on the federal government. It’s about something much bigger. Something we really should have seen coming: Article V constitutional convention plans. Yes, the austerity lobby — which has long advocated for a Balanced Budget constitutional amendment — has fully embraced the constitutional convention pathway to victory.
The kind of pathway that could easily turn into a ‘runaway convention’ and potential complete overhaul of the US Constitution. Because, as we’ve seen, when we are talking about an Article V constitutional convention, we are talking about an overhaul technically managed by delegations of state representatives but ultimately managed by the austerity lobby and its fellow travelers in the Republican mega-donor complex who currently have an overwhelmingly dominant grip on the levers of power across the US government. A corporatist mega-donor class with a dominant grip on federal and state governments, which are both going to come into play should a constitutional convention."
Yes, that's MMT. I recommend Stephanie Kelton's book, which makes sense of the basics in very concrete ways that don't totally rely on scary econ jargon. It's related to New Deal and Keynesian econ, both of which supported by lots of objective data.
In contrast to the now dominant Chicago School, which is no more than anti-New Deal assertions and right wing assumptions with little, if any, empirical evidence.
I was also wondering why Wolff never mentioned it. Is it anathema to Marxist critique?
Thanks for your comment. Prof Wolff seems out of touch on this.
Any economist - Marxist or not - who still insists - contrary to all the evidence - that fed taxes fund fed spending is - inadvertently or not - reinforcing a fiction.
A key function of this government fiction is to frighten workers into accepting austerity, fearing that, otherwise their taxes will rise.
What oligarchs always want is docile workers. Ditto, oligarch-owned govts.
It is a fiction that US fed debt is a problem, and there is now empirical evidence to demonstrate the facts.
Speaking as someone who was a blue collar worker for 28 years, it's NOT about workers "frightened into accepting austerity fearing...their taxes will rise."
Austerity, the policy pushed by the World Bank and the IMF, is approved of by powerful economic interests and imposed by governments abroad; citizens don't have any choice. Pro-corporate U.S. domestic policies are enacted by elected officials whose campaigns were funded by these interests. We workers can see this clearly. However, since the Dems dumped the New Deal and went neolib (along with Labour, Liberals, etc.) we have no champions.
It's not fear; it's deep anger and disgust. We also realize we pay taxes while billionaires and megacorporations don't. In contrast to some vague discomfort taxes might go up, our most basic issue is wages in terms of constant dollars have been stagnant for decades. In addition, earned pensions have been gutted by the slick maneuver of offloading the debt onto a newly formed corporate subsidiary that subsequently declares bankruptcy. Which leaves only an inadequate Social Security, now also on the chopping block. That's what those of us reduced to barely surviving realistically fear.
And mine is we're not fooled and we're not silent. It's that the elites don't listen. They assume our inferiority means we have nothing worth hearing. The Ivy Ds have dominated the party leadership for decades. H. Clinton slipped up by letting their real attitude show with that "a basket of deplorables" remark.
The Dem party faithful are mainly 20%ers, the admin and professional upper middle class. The ones bewildered by the results of the last election because they never bothered to notice or simply ignored the suffering of the majority working class.
Not theoretical for me. I know because I lived through the usurpation of the Dem party by the neolibs starting in the late '70s and I fought them. (Plus I've done relevant pol and econ research.) I was a blue collar rank and file union activist as well as a local D campaign mgr. This new D elite dumped the New Deal (including financial regulations) and abandoned the working class.
The repeal of regs enabled the '08 crash. After which the Ds bailed out the Wall St. vultures who caused it while the millions who lost jobs, pensions, homes got nothing. It's no surprise to anyone paying attention this effected the last few elections. Then to add insult to deep economic injury the D faithful explain the results by calling us stupid or deluded. Not only not true, but hardly a good strategy to win us back to the party that was once ours.
I agree with much of what Wolf is saying but it overlooks and actually excludes the central foundation of both a healthy economy and life on earth. That is a stable climate and basic ecological health. Sustainability in the most profound sense. Amidst the dangerously violent decline of the colonialist West into fascism and the growing economic strength of the non western aligned nations we are continuing to move ever deeper into a very real climate crisis which will kill billions without a very powerful reversal, which may well be too late in coming.
Economic catastrophe and wars are bad but this ecological will not only destroy our economies and promote war, rape, and starvation, it may make the earth uninhabitable.
This oversight is a fundamental flaw of both supply siders and Keynesians. Roger Hallam contends that this can only be addressed by revolution. Essentially, Chris has been saying the same. What are we willing to put on the line to do the right thing?
I love both of these guys, BUT. The tariff discussion totally fails to take the most important issue into consideration, which is the environment. If tariffs cause people to make and sell things locally, or if they reduce the hyperconsumerism of Americans, then they are good things. Dr. Wolff's concerns here are minor details in comparison.
Fabulous interview, Chris. And thank you, Professor Wolff. I could listen to this stuff every day. How about an interview every day? That would smarten us up a little bit,don’t you think? Gear us up to face off Trump and the gang.
This confirms what I know by direct experience. I fought the neolibs who usurped the D party starting in the late '70s; at the time I was a blue collar union activist and a local D campaign mgr. They dumped the New Deal (including financial regs) and abandoned labor. Likely related to the '71 Powell Memo, a corporate agenda little more than anti New Deal. These Ds worked to make the U.S. safe for corporate capitalism, then the world via international agreements like the WTO.
A few years ago I researched econ theories, expecting the issue would be interpretation of data. Conservatives would see the same reality very differently than would progressives and Marxists I read the Austrian school, then the Chicago School of Econ as founded by Milton Friedman, the one who advised Pinochet because "democracy interferes with market efficiency." What surprised me is the now dominant Chi School has little validation, if any, through empirical evidence. It's just anti New Deal and anti Keynes, based on assumptions taken as givens (as is the Powell Memo) and on assertions like Brit PM Thatcher's "there are no alternatives."
The Ds tried to drum up voter support through fear of Project 2025, a detailed, contemporary version of the Powell Memo. Predictably, the Ds did not challenge an econopathy defining away devastation of human communities and destruction of entire ecosystems as externalities. The ultimate coalition of horror was Biden's admin. where the econ conceits of neolibs openly merged with the empire fantasies of neocons. Terminal capitalism has problems as not much remains to be extracted via trickle up from the middle class, and eco-crises loom. However, there are still plenty of opportunities for profits through those endless wars.
Dear Chris: thank you so much for having Richard Wolff on your show.
I also follow him & Dr. Michael Hudson.
R.W: "You've got to do something. And the only thing they can think of, given the narrowness of our education, is that fantasy. They're going to save America by going backwards. What in the world is that? Go back to what? Whatever it is that got you here. I mean, it's nuts. And what they're doing is they're living out fantasy."
Yeah, let's Make America Great Again and continue our decline.
They're not trying to save America. They trying to save primacy. America, like Europe, is irrelevant to them.
Quite right. That is what MAGA is: to go back to the great America of Jim Crow, of slavery and women no voting. This is why I found this description of MAGA by R.W. so accurate, a fantasy out of the narrowness of our education.
Two brilliant brilliant men, talking complete sense. Analysis just doesn't get any better than this!
Thank you both.
But this is not the decline of capitalism at all. The BRICS are capitalist. Even China's socialism is based on capitalist growth, it's just that the proceeds are divided more evenly. The Chinese system may be sustainable economically but it is not sustainable ecologically.
This frustrates me so much. Even Chris, who I know hasn't fallen for the climate denial psy-ops, isn't discussing the major impact on geopolitics of the accelerating climate and environmental crises, on target for 2 degrees (among many other things) and mass agricultural failure by 2030.
Trump isn't being erratic. He won't be swept away. The US deep state (big oil and animal ag, banking and tech) want to wall themselves off from economic and climate collapse (both of which they are largely responsible for).
The US is mostly in a relatively lucky latitude. They're already prepared to shoot foreigners at the border.
I’m convinced I’m in a dying empire and I don’t know how we might transition to something better. But a good place to start is to stop doing harm. Stop bombing babies and children in tents. And their mothers and fathers, etc.
The 2 of you together are so profound, it chokes me up. I wouldn’t say this without conviction.
One of my concerns in all this insanity is the destruction of confidence in elder wisdom, the elderly being cast aside as out of touch, untrustworthy, that only adds to the downward spiral of security in democracy.
As anybody reading this is well aware elders are the cornerstone of cultural integrity, telling stories, empirical knowledge, that defines our path, past/present/future.
The cult of self continues to be fuelled with every click, every online search floats in limbo, in the void of 140 characters self stroking vacuums.
Why so many continue to use X is perhaps the biggest mystery. Just stop as many individuals, towns and cities have done in my region of the world, it’s at least a start to building resistance. Do something, anything!
This is where this is all heading. It is what it has always been about. Re-writing the Constitution in the interest of the white settler capitalist class to rationalize and promote the dying Empire.
All footnoted. You can read the entirety here. This is where this is all heading. It is what it has always been about. Re-writing the Constitution in the interest of the white settler capitalist class to rationalize and promote the dying Empire.
All footnoted. You can read the entirety here. https://spitfirelist.com/news/oligarchs-for-austerity-and-the-cnp-have-a-big-new-scheme-suing-their-way-to-a-new-constitution/
Oligarchs for Austerity and the CNP Have a Big New Scheme: Suing their Way to a New Constitution
Tags 17th Amendement, ALEC, austerity, Blackstone, Chuck Cooper, CNP, Council for National Policy, David Barton, David M. Walker, Koch brothers, Medicaid, Medicare, Pete Peterson, Private Equity, Privatization, privatizations, Social Security
"Did you hear? President Trump is going to be running for a third term in office. No, that’s not an April Fools joke. He’s not joking. Or at least insists he’s not. Who knows how serious he is, but it’s a sign of the times to hear such blatantly unconstitutional actions just being casually and openly discussed.
Although, as we’re going to see, the constitutionality of third presidential term may not be as set in stone as many suspect. Along with the rest of the US Constitution. A constitutional convention could be just around the corner. Just a lawsuit away. And we can thank the DC austerity lobby and for this ominous potential undertaking.
Yes, the DC austerity lobby is back, with VERY big plans. Because it never really went away. We’re talking about the same austerity lobby that has spent years trying to roll back Obamacare, eviscerate Medicare and Medicaid through block-grants, and generally erode what’s left of the US’s social safety-nets as more and more Americans are forced to take any work available just to qualify for increasingly meager government assistance. That austerity lobby. It’s not just back. It’s bigger and stronger than ever. Or at least sneakier than ever.
A lobby dedicated to life-destroying, soul-crushing policies. Financed by billionaires. One billionaire in particular: Pete Peterson, the Wall Street billionaire who served as Richard Nixon’s Secretary of Commerce before going on to form the private-equity giant Blackstone Group. The same Blackstone Group that has been managing a growing portion of public and private pensions questionable commercial real estate investments as the private-equity sector has increasingly attracted hundreds of billions of dollars in pension fund assets under management. Yes, the Pete Peterson — the austerity lobby’s long-time sugar daddy — also happens to be a billionaire from the sector of Wall Street that has made a fortune in recent years off the mismanagement of pensions. It’s very on theme.
So is this a story about the austerity lobby taking advantage of the Republican DC power trifecta? It is a historic opportunity. The GOP doesn’t just control all three branches of government. President Trump is looking increasingly lawless by the day as his administration embraces not just the DOGE-led Project 2025 agenda with a zeal few expected it’s hard to imagine but is simultaneously attempting to put in place the Unitary Executive theory that will transform the office of presidency into something closer to a national CEO. A transformation of the US government very much in keeping with the long-standing ambitions of a figure who has emerged as a kind of philosopher king for the contemporary political right: Curtis “Mencius Moldbug” Yarvin, whose Silicon Valley “Dark Enlightenment” writings eventually came to life as Project 2025 playbook now playing out. The pro-monarchy Yarvin has long called for an unelected American ‘CEO’ to replace the office of the presidency. We aren’t there yet. But we’re getting there. One lawless action at a time.
But this story about the austerity lobby’s big new plans aren’t about taking advantage of the GOP’s lock on the federal government. It’s about something much bigger. Something we really should have seen coming: Article V constitutional convention plans. Yes, the austerity lobby — which has long advocated for a Balanced Budget constitutional amendment — has fully embraced the constitutional convention pathway to victory.
The kind of pathway that could easily turn into a ‘runaway convention’ and potential complete overhaul of the US Constitution. Because, as we’ve seen, when we are talking about an Article V constitutional convention, we are talking about an overhaul technically managed by delegations of state representatives but ultimately managed by the austerity lobby and its fellow travelers in the Republican mega-donor complex who currently have an overwhelmingly dominant grip on the levers of power across the US government. A corporatist mega-donor class with a dominant grip on federal and state governments, which are both going to come into play should a constitutional convention."
Oligarchs for Austerity and the CNP Have a Big New Scheme: Suing their Way to a New Constitution
Tags 17th Amendement, ALEC, austerity, Blackstone, Chuck Cooper, CNP, Council for National Policy, David Barton, David M. Walker, Koch brothers, Medicaid, Medicare, Pete Peterson, Private Equity, Privatization, privatizations, Social Security
"Did you hear? President Trump is going to be running for a third term in office. No, that’s not an April Fools joke. He’s not joking. Or at least insists he’s not. Who knows how serious he is, but it’s a sign of the times to hear such blatantly unconstitutional actions just being casually and openly discussed.
Although, as we’re going to see, the constitutionality of third presidential term may not be as set in stone as many suspect. Along with the rest of the US Constitution. A constitutional convention could be just around the corner. Just a lawsuit away. And we can thank the DC austerity lobby and for this ominous potential undertaking.
Yes, the DC austerity lobby is back, with VERY big plans. Because it never really went away. We’re talking about the same austerity lobby that has spent years trying to roll back Obamacare, eviscerate Medicare and Medicaid through block-grants, and generally erode what’s left of the US’s social safety-nets as more and more Americans are forced to take any work available just to qualify for increasingly meager government assistance. That austerity lobby. It’s not just back. It’s bigger and stronger than ever. Or at least sneakier than ever.
A lobby dedicated to life-destroying, soul-crushing policies. Financed by billionaires. One billionaire in particular: Pete Peterson, the Wall Street billionaire who served as Richard Nixon’s Secretary of Commerce before going on to form the private-equity giant Blackstone Group. The same Blackstone Group that has been managing a growing portion of public and private pensions questionable commercial real estate investments as the private-equity sector has increasingly attracted hundreds of billions of dollars in pension fund assets under management. Yes, the Pete Peterson — the austerity lobby’s long-time sugar daddy — also happens to be a billionaire from the sector of Wall Street that has made a fortune in recent years off the mismanagement of pensions. It’s very on theme.
So is this a story about the austerity lobby taking advantage of the Republican DC power trifecta? It is a historic opportunity. The GOP doesn’t just control all three branches of government. President Trump is looking increasingly lawless by the day as his administration embraces not just the DOGE-led Project 2025 agenda with a zeal few expected it’s hard to imagine but is simultaneously attempting to put in place the Unitary Executive theory that will transform the office of presidency into something closer to a national CEO. A transformation of the US government very much in keeping with the long-standing ambitions of a figure who has emerged as a kind of philosopher king for the contemporary political right: Curtis “Mencius Moldbug” Yarvin, whose Silicon Valley “Dark Enlightenment” writings eventually came to life as Project 2025 playbook now playing out. The pro-monarchy Yarvin has long called for an unelected American ‘CEO’ to replace the office of the presidency. We aren’t there yet. But we’re getting there. One lawless action at a time.
But this story about the austerity lobby’s big new plans aren’t about taking advantage of the GOP’s lock on the federal government. It’s about something much bigger. Something we really should have seen coming: Article V constitutional convention plans. Yes, the austerity lobby — which has long advocated for a Balanced Budget constitutional amendment — has fully embraced the constitutional convention pathway to victory.
The kind of pathway that could easily turn into a ‘runaway convention’ and potential complete overhaul of the US Constitution. Because, as we’ve seen, when we are talking about an Article V constitutional convention, we are talking about an overhaul technically managed by delegations of state representatives but ultimately managed by the austerity lobby and its fellow travelers in the Republican mega-donor complex who currently have an overwhelmingly dominant grip on the levers of power across the US government. A corporatist mega-donor class with a dominant grip on federal and state governments, which are both going to come into play should a constitutional convention."
Hi Chris:
Just a suggestion
Interview Paul Street.
Think his words about our d3cline into Fascism would resonate well in your format.
There's a problem with Prof Wolff's analysis, namely that US Govt "debt" is nothing like household debt.
The US govt issues (creates) USD and, hence, can never run out. Unlike household debt, US debt is not repayable.
A recent empirical study (UK, but US is similar) demonstrates that fed govt spending uses neither fed taxes nor borrowing:
"Public expenditure is always financed through money creation rather than taxation or debt issuance." https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4890683
The empire isn't crumbling under a so-called debt burden. Let's hope it self-destructs through hubris.
Yes, that's MMT. I recommend Stephanie Kelton's book, which makes sense of the basics in very concrete ways that don't totally rely on scary econ jargon. It's related to New Deal and Keynesian econ, both of which supported by lots of objective data.
In contrast to the now dominant Chicago School, which is no more than anti-New Deal assertions and right wing assumptions with little, if any, empirical evidence.
I was also wondering why Wolff never mentioned it. Is it anathema to Marxist critique?
Thanks for your comment. Prof Wolff seems out of touch on this.
Any economist - Marxist or not - who still insists - contrary to all the evidence - that fed taxes fund fed spending is - inadvertently or not - reinforcing a fiction.
A key function of this government fiction is to frighten workers into accepting austerity, fearing that, otherwise their taxes will rise.
What oligarchs always want is docile workers. Ditto, oligarch-owned govts.
It is a fiction that US fed debt is a problem, and there is now empirical evidence to demonstrate the facts.
https://alpha-week.com/realvision/stephanie-kelton-mmt-and-deficit-myth
https://findingmoneyfilm.com/
https://www.ted.com/speakers/stephanie_kelton
Speaking as someone who was a blue collar worker for 28 years, it's NOT about workers "frightened into accepting austerity fearing...their taxes will rise."
Austerity, the policy pushed by the World Bank and the IMF, is approved of by powerful economic interests and imposed by governments abroad; citizens don't have any choice. Pro-corporate U.S. domestic policies are enacted by elected officials whose campaigns were funded by these interests. We workers can see this clearly. However, since the Dems dumped the New Deal and went neolib (along with Labour, Liberals, etc.) we have no champions.
It's not fear; it's deep anger and disgust. We also realize we pay taxes while billionaires and megacorporations don't. In contrast to some vague discomfort taxes might go up, our most basic issue is wages in terms of constant dollars have been stagnant for decades. In addition, earned pensions have been gutted by the slick maneuver of offloading the debt onto a newly formed corporate subsidiary that subsequently declares bankruptcy. Which leaves only an inadequate Social Security, now also on the chopping block. That's what those of us reduced to barely surviving realistically fear.
I take your points.
My point was that *one* reason US et al. neoliberals (govts or banks) pretend austerity is necessary is to shut workers up.
Of course it's not the only factor. It's not a simple either/or situation.
And mine is we're not fooled and we're not silent. It's that the elites don't listen. They assume our inferiority means we have nothing worth hearing. The Ivy Ds have dominated the party leadership for decades. H. Clinton slipped up by letting their real attitude show with that "a basket of deplorables" remark.
The Dem party faithful are mainly 20%ers, the admin and professional upper middle class. The ones bewildered by the results of the last election because they never bothered to notice or simply ignored the suffering of the majority working class.
Not theoretical for me. I know because I lived through the usurpation of the Dem party by the neolibs starting in the late '70s and I fought them. (Plus I've done relevant pol and econ research.) I was a blue collar rank and file union activist as well as a local D campaign mgr. This new D elite dumped the New Deal (including financial regulations) and abandoned the working class.
The repeal of regs enabled the '08 crash. After which the Ds bailed out the Wall St. vultures who caused it while the millions who lost jobs, pensions, homes got nothing. It's no surprise to anyone paying attention this effected the last few elections. Then to add insult to deep economic injury the D faithful explain the results by calling us stupid or deluded. Not only not true, but hardly a good strategy to win us back to the party that was once ours.
Re "And mine is we're not fooled and we're not silent"
I think you might have misinterpreted my claim.
I claimed that neoliberals' intention is to intimidate workers.
I claimed nothing about workers' response. I haven't researched it. But I have researched the intimidation.
Fantastic interview, thanks
I agree with much of what Wolf is saying but it overlooks and actually excludes the central foundation of both a healthy economy and life on earth. That is a stable climate and basic ecological health. Sustainability in the most profound sense. Amidst the dangerously violent decline of the colonialist West into fascism and the growing economic strength of the non western aligned nations we are continuing to move ever deeper into a very real climate crisis which will kill billions without a very powerful reversal, which may well be too late in coming.
Economic catastrophe and wars are bad but this ecological will not only destroy our economies and promote war, rape, and starvation, it may make the earth uninhabitable.
This oversight is a fundamental flaw of both supply siders and Keynesians. Roger Hallam contends that this can only be addressed by revolution. Essentially, Chris has been saying the same. What are we willing to put on the line to do the right thing?
I love both of these guys, BUT. The tariff discussion totally fails to take the most important issue into consideration, which is the environment. If tariffs cause people to make and sell things locally, or if they reduce the hyperconsumerism of Americans, then they are good things. Dr. Wolff's concerns here are minor details in comparison.
Fabulous interview, Chris. And thank you, Professor Wolff. I could listen to this stuff every day. How about an interview every day? That would smarten us up a little bit,don’t you think? Gear us up to face off Trump and the gang.
Great interview, loved it!
This confirms what I know by direct experience. I fought the neolibs who usurped the D party starting in the late '70s; at the time I was a blue collar union activist and a local D campaign mgr. They dumped the New Deal (including financial regs) and abandoned labor. Likely related to the '71 Powell Memo, a corporate agenda little more than anti New Deal. These Ds worked to make the U.S. safe for corporate capitalism, then the world via international agreements like the WTO.
A few years ago I researched econ theories, expecting the issue would be interpretation of data. Conservatives would see the same reality very differently than would progressives and Marxists I read the Austrian school, then the Chicago School of Econ as founded by Milton Friedman, the one who advised Pinochet because "democracy interferes with market efficiency." What surprised me is the now dominant Chi School has little validation, if any, through empirical evidence. It's just anti New Deal and anti Keynes, based on assumptions taken as givens (as is the Powell Memo) and on assertions like Brit PM Thatcher's "there are no alternatives."
The Ds tried to drum up voter support through fear of Project 2025, a detailed, contemporary version of the Powell Memo. Predictably, the Ds did not challenge an econopathy defining away devastation of human communities and destruction of entire ecosystems as externalities. The ultimate coalition of horror was Biden's admin. where the econ conceits of neolibs openly merged with the empire fantasies of neocons. Terminal capitalism has problems as not much remains to be extracted via trickle up from the middle class, and eco-crises loom. However, there are still plenty of opportunities for profits through those endless wars.