Economic Update with Richard D. Wolff

Episode: Fantasy, Comedy, Tragedy: Delivering News Today

Date: February 21, 2019

Episode Overview

In this episode, Professor Richard D. Wolff examines the stark disconnect between economic realities and the ways news media present them. He opens with reflections on major recent economic events and under-reported international stories, then shifts to analyze how corporate interests and political agendas shape news coverage. In the second half, Wolff interviews comedian and satirist Lee Camp (host of Redacted Tonight), exploring how comedy can expose social and economic truths that mainstream media too often misses or distorts.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Disconnect Between Economic Reality and Media Coverage

• Underreported International Protests:
  • Major demonstration in Kolkata, India: Over a million marched against the Modi government and neoliberal policies, but U.S. media barely noticed.

    "A million people marched in Kolkata... Maybe that's why you couldn't get much coverage. Maybe it was too difficult to understand that a Communist party mobilized a million people in a major city." – Richard Wolff (03:17)

  • Absence of U.S. coverage keeps Americans uninformed about crucial movements and issues abroad.
• Truncated Narratives on Venezuela and Europe:
  • U.S. media gives "just bits of violence" about Venezuela, omitting history of U.S. intervention, economic monocultures, elites vs. poverty, and foreign policy context.
  • Movements like the Yellow Vests in France and right-wing ascendance in Hungary presented without background.
• Consequences:
  • Public left in the dark about global conflicts and the roots of economic crises.
  • Reporting is often “painfully ignorant about what’s going on.” (07:24)

2. Corporate Boondoggles and Public Subsidies

• Foxconn and Amazon Deals:
  • Cites Foxconn’s much-hyped yet shrinking Wisconsin factory and Amazon’s recanted HQ2 in NY/VA as cases of massive public subsidies for questionable returns.

    “The Foxconn deal now looks much smaller... Billions and billions of dollars of subsidy mean that money is not available to provide the public schools and to maintain the roads and do the things that Wisconsin needs.” – Richard Wolff (09:27)

  • These “back room” deals touted for job creation actually produce few jobs at enormous cost to taxpayers.
  • Main beneficiaries: real estate interests and politicians seeking PR wins.

3. Big Banks: "Too Big to Fail" Gets Even Bigger

• Recent Bank Mergers:
  • SunTrust and BB&T merging to form one of the country's largest banks, adding to post-2008 financial consolidation.
  • The “too big to fail” banks are even bigger now, positioning for future bailouts.
  • Key Data:
    • JP Morgan: $2.5 trillion in assets;
    • Bank of America: $2.3 trillion;
    • Citigroup & Wells Fargo: $1.8 trillion each.

4. U.S. Manufacturing: The Vanishing Act

• Politicians’ Claims vs. Reality:
  • Trump’s State of the Union boasts about jobs in manufacturing are misleading.

    “In 1950, the United States had 15 million manufacturing jobs. Today it has eight and a half. That’s right. Over the last 60, 70 years, we have lost roughly half the manufacturing jobs we once had.” – Richard Wolff (13:30)

  • Reason for decline: Offshoring and automation by profit-seeking capitalists, not mere policy choices.
  • “Manufacturing output is up. Manufacturing employment goes into the toilet.”

Part Two: News, Comedy & Truth — Interview with Lee Camp

1. The Power of Comedy in News

• Humor as a Tool:
  • Comedy delivers “dark truths” in a way that keeps people engaged and can reach across ideological bubbles.
  • Lee Camp:

    “It turns out that describing the slow downfall of our environment and the exploitation of the working class can get dry at times... I spice it up with comedy.” (16:29)

  • Art circumvents “gatekeepers” that maintain the status quo.
• The Role of Dissident Art:
  • Satire and comedy from dissident voices historically break through censorship and apathy.

2. Trump as Symptom & Distraction

• Trump Reveals and Obscures:
  • Trump, in Camp’s view, is both a “front and center snake oil salesman” who exposes the system’s rot, and a “shiny object” distracting from systemic critique.

    “He shows the inverted totalitarian structure for all its glory. The rule by the corporate state is up there as if it’s been drawn by a caricature artist.” – Lee Camp (18:32)

  • Focusing ridicule solely on Trump “puts it on one man,” keeping the underlying economic system out of scrutiny.

    “If you just point at Trump and say, look how dumb he is... you’re not looking at the 90% of the system that basically our two corporate parties agree on.” – Lee Camp (19:21)

3. Critiquing Capitalism & Late-Stage Crisis

• Comedic Response to the State of the Economy:

  • Camp describes his comedic approach as rooted in a sense that we’re living through late stage capitalism—environmental collapse, social unrest, rising inequality.

    “We are in late stage capitalism and I think that you can see it. You can see everything’s fraying around the edges. You can see the environment collapsing around us.” – Lee Camp (22:20)

  • He intentionally brings these themes into his satire to spark concern for “what we need to be caring about.”

• The Fragility of the System:

  • Both Camp and Wolff sense that the economic system is “falling apart,” not just ripe for criticism.

    “This is really the first time in my life that I have the sense it’s falling apart... if we don’t do something, it’s gonna take us down with it.” – Richard Wolff (23:37)

  • Camp:

    “When you have a rocky structure, all it takes is a little push to make it fall over.” (24:04)

4. Venezuela and U.S. Imperialism

• Media Spin and U.S. Intervention:
  • Camp lampoons coverage of Venezuela, exposing media tropes (“proof that socialism doesn’t work”) while pointing to the real drivers: U.S. intervention, oil, dollar dominance.

    “Let me ask you, how many CIA backed coups would it take for you to realize socialism doesn't work?” – Lee Camp (24:53)

  • Notes that government officials now candidly confess their imperial motivations, dropping the pretense of humanitarianism.

5. Rising Skepticism and Openness to Alternatives

• Shattering the Capitalist Consensus:
  • Younger Americans increasingly question capitalism’s legitimacy.

    “51% of millennials, I think now, say capitalism isn’t the best system. And they can’t talk about that. Surely not.” – Lee Camp (21:16)

  • Coalitions fighting for economic, social, and environmental justice are converging, often under a critique of unrestrained capitalism.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the Media’s Role:

  “We have a press that does not deal with so much, that when it finally deals with something, it deals with it with a level of ignorance about what’s going on. That’s painful.” – Richard Wolff (07:24)

• On Corporate Subsidies:

  “These are boondoggles and the public relations flurry and the politicians trot it out to say how wonderful it is, but...this is the most expensive program for jobs ever seen, and no reasonable person would be in support of it.” – Richard Wolff (10:51)

• On Comedy and Changing Minds:

  “Comedy has a lot of dynamics that allow for communication in a different way...art has been a pivotal and crucial way that gets past a lot of the gatekeepers that are designed to keep the status quo in place.” – Lee Camp (16:29)

• On Trump as a Distraction:

  “Trump is serving for the mainstream media as the look out the window in a lot of ways...because 51% of millennials, I think now, say capitalism isn’t the best system. And they can’t talk about that. Surely not.” – Lee Camp (21:16)

• On Venezuela and U.S. Policy:

  “John Bolton said on Fox News that we want to go into Venezuela because we want the oil...They can’t even sustain the guise of this is humanitarian somehow. It’s not.” – Lee Camp (25:42)

Timestamps for Important Segments

• 00:10 – Episode introduction / U.S. teacher strikes update
• 03:17 – Kolkata protest and critique of U.S. media coverage
• 08:15 – Foxconn/Amazon public subsidies exposé
• 11:01 – SunTrust & BB&T bank merger; “too big to fail” discussion
• 13:30 – U.S. manufacturing jobs: decline and causes
• 15:45 – Introduction of Lee Camp interview
• 16:29 – Camp on why he mixes comedy with news
• 18:32 – Impact of Trump on comedy and mainstream media
• 22:20 – The American economy, late-stage capitalism, and satire
• 24:53 – Venezuela coverage & critique of U.S. interventionist policy
• 27:35 – Openness to anti-capitalist ideas among young Americans and modern coalitions

Takeaways

• There is a persistent and harmful gap between economic events (global protests, structural crises) and mainstream news coverage.
• Corporate interests and political actors use subsidies and deals to their advantage, while the public bears the cost.
• The “too big to fail” banking system not only persists but grows, portending future bailouts.
• Manufacturing jobs have plummeted despite political rhetoric, largely due to systemic forces outside government control.
• Comedy and satire, as wielded by Lee Camp and others, play a crucial role in breaking through media bias, demystifying systemic failures, and opening people to alternative economic ideas.
• Americans, especially the young, are more receptive to critiques of capitalism than ever before, and both hosts encourage critical engagement and coalition-building for change.