Richard Wolff
Richard D. Wolff is professor of economics emeritus at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, where he taught economics from 1973 to 2008. He is currently a visiting professor in the graduate program in international affairs of the New School University, New York City. Richard also teaches classes regularly at the Brecht Forum in Manhattan. His books include: Capitalism's Crisis Deepens: Essays on the Global Economic Meltdown(2016); Democracy at Work: A Cure for Capitalism (2012); Occupy the Economy: Challenging Capitalism(2012); Contending Economic Theories: Neoclassical, Keynesian, and Marxian (2012); and Capitalism Hits the Fan: The Global Economic Meltdown and What to Do About It (2009). A full archive of Richard's work, including videos and podcasts, can be found on his site. Follow him on Twitter: @profwolff
Articles by this author
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Views Saturday, April 18, 2020 Learning From Coronavirus: We Can't Rely on Capitalism to Serve Our Most Basic Social Needs We are living through two major and overlapping failures of capitalism. It failed to prepare adequately for the coronavirus pandemic (delayed and insufficient production, stockpiling, and distribution of vital medical supplies and services). Then it failed to cope adequately with the economic crash... Read more |
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Views Friday, January 31, 2020 Government Debts as Class Swindles In modern capitalism, governments routinely borrow money. They do this to finance budget deficits that occur when governments raise less in taxes than they spend. Governments also borrow to invest in long-term projects of economic development. The swindling occurs when the lenders and borrowers—... Read more |
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Views Wednesday, May 01, 2019 Yes, We Can do Better Than Capitalism As capitalism drives itself into ever-greater inequality, instability and injustice, its critics multiply. Worried defenders react in two ways. Many dismiss the criticisms. After all, capitalism has been around a long time and weathered ups and downs before. They presume or hope that criticism will... Read more |
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Views Wednesday, September 19, 2018 “Stealing Intellectual Property” is Fake News Trump uses the fake news of “intellectual property theft” to justify his tariff war on China. He boasts that he is going to stop the Chinese stealing that victimizes Americans. In yet another way, he will be the savior of Americans’ economic future, a savior who needs/deserves their votes and... Read more |
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Views Sunday, August 19, 2018 How US Politics Sustains US Capitalism Until their contradictions explode coexisting economic and political systems sustain one another. “Normal” politics includes precisely the process of working out social conflicts such that the economic system is sustained. Whatever its form, the state’s tasks include that sustenance. When politics... Read more |
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Views Wednesday, July 18, 2018 The Capitalism/Racism Partnership In the wake of W.E.B. DuBois ’s 150th birthday, his works offer a lens through which to assess US capitalism’s relationship to racism today. He famously wrote: “Capitalism cannot reform itself; it is doomed to self-destruction,” while adding that in the US, race would be a key issue in that process... Read more |
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Views Wednesday, July 16, 2014 Capitalism's Deeper Problem Recent press reports refer to troubling price increases for such assets as real estate, government bonds, companies targeted for acquisition and artwork. A New York Times front-page headline read “ The Everything Boom, or Maybe the Everything Bubble .” Western Europe, North America and Japan are... Read more |
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Views Monday, November 04, 2013 The Great Austerity Shell Game: Here's How the Capitalist Scam Works Read more |
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Views Friday, September 27, 2013 Recovery Hype: American Capitalism's Weapon of Mass Distraction From President Obama on down, defenders of the status quo insist that the US economy has "recovered" or " is recovering ". Some actually see the world that way. They inhabit, imagine they inhabit, or plan to soon inhabit the world of the infamous top 1%. Others simply seek security in life by... Read more |
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Views Monday, September 02, 2013 Organized Labor's Decline in the US is Well-Known. But What Drove it? Organized labor's decline in the US over the past half century is well-known; what drove that decline, less so. The New Deal 's enemies – big business, Republicans, conservatives – had developed a coordinated strategy by the late 1940s. They would break up the coalition of organized labor, socialist and communist parties: the mass base that had forced through the 1930s New Deal. Read more |