← Economic Update with Richard D. Wolff
Economic Update with Richard D. Wolff
Economic Update: Fantasy, Comedy, Tragedy: Delivering News Today
00:28:59
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- [00:10]
A
Welcome, friends, to another edition of Economic Update, a weekly program devoted to the economic dimensions of our lives. I'm your host, Richard Wolff, and it is my pleasure to bring this kind of analysis to you every week. Before jumping into our topics for today, I want to make clear to everybody that the initiative taken last year by public school teachers in half a dozen states, all of which had been won by Mr. Trump, but all of which were showing that public employees, particularly teachers, are not going to accept the destruction of public services, the damaging of a whole generation of school kids, and the disrespect to teachers by providing them low salaries and inadequate money to be a good teacher, which is what they want. That this is spreading, that earlier in the year the Los Angeles public school teachers had a successful strike, and then the Denverexcuse me, the Denver, Colorado teachers took up the banner. It is spreading all over the United States. It's long overdue. And I want to tip my hat to all of the creative and powerfully courageous teachers that are leading these kinds of improvements in society, not waiting for political leaderships that have failed once again to do their job. The theme for today is a little unusual. Perhaps it's a kind of discussion of the glaring differences between what's actually going on in the economy and what the media and the public conversations have to say about it. So let me start with what is in perhaps one way the most glaring. In recent weeks, there was one of the greatest demonstrations in the history of the world. And if it's surprising you, that's my point. Something isn't working. A million people, you heard me right. A million people marched in Kolkata, used to be called Calcutta, marched against the Modi government there, marched against the neoliberalism that has been the dominant policy for India, a policy worsening the already extreme poverty and inequality that that society suffers. The movement was led also by the following the Communist Party of India, Marxist. 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. But whatever the reasons, it means that people around the world, particularly people in the United States, are simply unaware of the kinds of conflict and what the issues are building in other societies. It's hard not to come up then with the conclusion that it will have to be some scandalous event, some explosive moment that'll finally get the media's attention. And then the media, the reporters and the editors, they won't know very well how to evaluate any of this. And as if this Weren't the only example. There are so many. Venezuela, yes, they have all kinds of crises now, but we haven't been told for a long time, what is the meaning of an economic system like Venezuela's dependent on oil? A society, a monoculture, we used to call it in economics, whose fortunes rise and fall with the price and trading conditions of one item rather than having a diversified, balanced economy? What is the result of a revolutionary socialist government, Hugo Chavez, trying to change a society that has for 200 years been polarized between a tiny group of wealthy folks at the top and a small middle class and a vast poverty stricken population, both rural and urban? What happens when you try to change directions? What kinds of opposition? And then how does all of that interact with the American foreign policy since 1830's Declaration of Manifest Destiny? Being the United States is in control of the Western Hemisphere, how does that all play? None of it. We're given just bits maybe of violence in the street. I could go on not understanding what led to the yellow vest movement in France, what led to the extreme right wing government in Hungary. What are the conflicts? What are theyall of that's left out? So I want to complain to all of you that 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. Next example. We've had two grotesque examples in the last year of corporations, big ones, playing us as the citizens in a way that's really unconscionable. The first was the Foxconn deal. Foxconn was going to build an immense factory in Wisconsin through a deal they made with the then Governor Walker, who should be famous Republican governor, and with Mr. Trump's blessing. It was to be an example of foreign companies coming here to establish manufacturing and get manufacturing going again. Lots of pr, lots of hoopla. The second example was Amazon's search for a second headquarters and they finally ended up with one in Queens, part of New York City, and another one in Crystal City, Virginia. In both cases, and here's the big point, in both cases, lots of PR covered by the media about how the jobs they were going to bring, with a secondary focus on the billions with a B, the billions of dollars in subsidies Foxconn was going to get from Wisconsin and Amazon was going to get from the city and state of New York and from the state of Virginia and from the city, Crystal City there. Well, they're all falling apart. They're all in doubt. The Foxconn deal now looks much smaller. It's not altogether clear how much of the subsidy they already got will get for what. What paired down for what's going on here is horrible. 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. And the same is true in New York and Virginia. These are boondoggles and the public relations flurry and the politicians trot it out to say how wonderful it is, but that jobs are coming. When you sit down and you do the arithmetic, the jobs are few. The number of new jobs, fewer still. And when you calculate the amount of billions given to them, this is the most expensive program for jobs ever seen, and no reasonable person would be in support of it. Real estate interests like it. Politicians love the attention. It looks real good for Cuomo, for Trump, and even for de Blasio. But this is a bad deal worked out in the back rooms, costing the people of our country enormous amounts of money that could much better be used elsewhere. Here's another. SunTrust and BBT. Two huge regional banks are merging to become, if I remember, the seventh or eighth largest bank in in the United States. What are they doing? Well, here's the joke if you think it's funny. After the crash of 2008, one of the biggest slogans of the time was, our banks are too big to fail. What did that mean? Well, that was a ploy of the banks. They went to the government to bail them out. Since all of them were bankrupt. All of them could not meet their demands. Their liabilities exceeded their assets. They were bankrupt, in fact. So they went to the government to bail them out. The government hesitated. There was public money they would have to use. And the banks came back and said, we're too big to fail. Which is a polite way of saying, if you don't help us and we go down, we'll take the whole economy with us. A threat no politician was willing to risk. So they got the trillions from the Federal reserve, from the U.S. treasury that we all remember in 2008, 9 and 10. Well, as this merger of the SunTrust and the BBT banks shows, it's a continuing story. The banks that were too big to fail have become bigger still. They'll be in a better position than they were now. Next time the downturn comes, many expect it this year or next to be able to blackmail the people of the United States through its government to bail them out again. And just to remind you to take A look. JP Morgan is now the biggest bank in the United States. $2.5 trillion in assets, significantly bigger than than it was in 2008. Number two in America, the Bank of America, $2.3 trillion. That's an amount of money, that's half the budget of the United States in assets. They're bigger than they were. Citigroup, 1.8 trillion. Wells Fargo, 1.8 trillion. There's the big four. They're the big monsters. All of them are bigger than they were when they threatened us with their bigness last time. Something we ought to think about more than we do. And my last update for President Trump's State of the Union speech, where he boasted about 500,000 jobs added in manufacturing. I'm not going to quarrel with his numbers. Others have done that. It's easy to do. He's very loosey goosey when he uses numbers in ways everybody who pays attention knows. But here are some of the facts he didn't tell you about. Just to be clear. 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. The line is a straight line, line down, but worse. In 1950, manufacturing was 30% of the labor force. Today it's 8.5% of the labor force. Come on, folks, this is a country whose capitalist employers have decided what to do with manufacturing. Here's what they've one, they moved the jobs out of the United States in order to pay lower wages number they automated the jobs. They substituted machines, computers, robots, whatever to get rid of those workers. Manufacturing output is up. Manufacturing employment goes into the toilet. And nothing Mr. Trump promises has happened and nothing Mr. Obama, who made the same promise about manufacturing, that didn't work out either. If you don't want manufacturing to disappear, you have to face that you can't let capitalists driven by profit make those decisions because they've been making them for 60 years. And I just gave you the result. And the rest of Mr. Trump's speech was just so much warm air. Well, we've come to the end of the first half of our show. I want to remind you at this point, as I often do, please become a subscriber to our U2 channel. Economic update on U2. It is a way of showing your interest, getting information about us and being supportive of this project. And it matters a lot to us. Please also make use of our websites democracyatwork.info that's all one word democracy at work. And rdwolff with two Fs.com you can communicate to us through those websites. You get much more information that we put there. You can follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. And as always, I want to conclude by a special thanks to our Patreon audience whose support and enthusiasm for what we do is a basic part of what keeps us going. Stay with us. We'll be right back with an extraordinary interview. Welcome back, friends, to the second half of today's ECONOMIC update. It is with pride and pleasure that I welcome today Lee Camp. He's the host and head writer of the hit comedy news show Redacted tonight on RT America. It's a program I've watched many times to enjoy not just the news, which is real and serious, but the delivery, the way in which the ironies of all of it are brought forward. It's a way of presenting the news that is part of why I asked Lee to join us today. He's also the creator of the popular YouTube program called Moment of Clarity and he's author of the book by the same name. I learned recently that he's a former contributor to the Onion newspaper that has brought humor to so much of America and to the news that so badly needs it. And he's also a former humor writer for the Huffington Post. Lee, thank you very, very much for joining us.
- [15:45]
B
Thanks for having me.
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A
I should add that George Carlin, another comedian I've admired all my life, his daughter Kelly called him one of the few comics these days keeping her father's style and delivery going in American culture. And if nothing else, that alone would recommend him. So thanks for joining us.
- [16:08]
B
Thank you so much. I'm looking forward to explaining economics to you.
- [16:10]
A
Good, professor. Good, good. I need it, I need it, I need it. You mix comedy and news Redacted tonight is famous for that. Tell me why you do that and whether that mixture works and if so, how. Tell me about this magical mix of humor and news.
- [16:30]
B
Well, it turns out that describing the slow downfall of our environment and the exploitation of the working class can get dry at times. It can be a little boring. So I spice it up with comedy and I think it is in certain ways these are dark times. These could also be exciting times if we succeed in changing things. I think that people are willing to listen longer if they're getting both the enjoyment with the facts at the same time. I think you can talk to people that maybe would turn it off quickly because it doesn't agree with Everything they've lined up inside their little bubble there. So I think comedy has a lot of dynamics that allow for communication in a different way. And then I think just art in general, whether it's comedy, music, painting, if you look at dealing dissidents throughout history, those willing to speak dark truths, 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.
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A
Yeah, I notice I get criticism sometimes and I think they're well taken that it becomes difficult to listen to me if there are too many sequences of bad things happening. People like to know. But it becomes depressing after a while.
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B
And you do a great job of this, I think. I love your show, by the way, is talking about those who are making efforts to change. This, I think is another way of breaking up. Just like these many workers were laid off, this is going on. This is going on with these people stood up and these people did this. And detailing around the edges where people are fighting to create a sustainable world.
- [18:11]
A
Well, let me ask you a question that I think of every time I see a comedian these days using or reacting to Donald Trump. I'm particularly thinking of Stephen Colbert, who seems to build his entire program around this. So how has Mr. Trump and his administration, how has that shaped your activity, your approach to what you do?
- [18:33]
B
Well, it's a good that comes with a bad. So the good thing is Donald Trump has, through his outright fraud and lying, and he is a front and center snake oil salesman. He has revealed our system for what it is. He is the epitome of a gilded billionaire. He is a brand name. He shows the inverted totalitarian structure for all its glory. The rule by the corporate state is up there with as if it's been drawn by a caricature artist. And so in that way, he's revealed our system, which makes, I think, explaining it to a lot of people much easier. You don't have the slick talk. You have a liar, you have someone who has just called out and his administration too, have kind of laid bare the system. So in that way, I think it makes my job easier in a sense. The other side, the bad side, is that he is a shiny object where if you're just pointing at him and laughing at him, then you're not seeing the system for what it really is. You're just putting it on one man. Which I think is where a lot of the comedy news, but also talking heads in general, are failing some intentionally. I think our mainstream media wants to use that to Cover up the deeper flaws in our structure. So if you just point at Trump and say, look how dumb he is. Look how orange he is. Look at this, look at that. You're not looking at the 90% of the system that basically our two corporate parties agree on. You're not looking at Wall street, you're not looking at climate change. You're just talking about the latest tweet. So he can be a shiny cuts both ways, and it can be a jingling of the keys. Look over here. And a lot of America will do it.
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A
And also, he really is a key jingler. The endless tweets are kind of. You can't even get into the critique of the first thing he says. He's already on to six more and you've lost it. And it's a kind of a. Yeah, it's almost hypnotic in a kind of way that.
- [20:33]
B
And he knows how to do those tweets when there's something he wants to cover up or when something's going bad for him or the system as a whole. You know, hey, look at this crazy tweet I just posted. And the media will, you know, do exactly that.
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A
You know, it keeps reminding me of that famous real estate agent who takes you to look at an apartment, and you're looking around and you notice behind the couch a whole row of mousetraps, which lets you know. And he sees your face. He registers. And he immediately starts talking about the view out the window so that you don't. Don't proceed by asking, why are there. This is an endless hustle for one goal. Sell the apartment or rent the apartment.
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B
Yeah. I mean, 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.
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A
He was desperate with that State of the Union speech to dismiss socialism, but in the way, giving vent to the fact he's alarmed. He used the word alarmed by it all. All right. You often, in your humor and in your news program talk about the economy. You're already unusual. One of the reasons I started watching was I was drawn that here is someone who's actually taking seriously that the economy is a problem. Not this or that detail, but the system as a whole. How do you sense where the American economy is when you make your humor, you write it because you write all your stuff yourself. What is it about? Where do you think that economy is going so that you shape your humor to Deal with that.
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B
Well, I just wake up in the morning and I just listen to your show and that's it. No, I think, I mean, 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. You have 50% of all wildlife killed in the past 40 years. We just can't sustain. And earlier I said these are dire times, but they also could be times of great change and great ability to get us to a more sustainable future. Because it's like the need for change is being punched into our face now. You can't deny it. You can't look away. People can drive down the road and know they never see a mammal bigger than this. Like they can look around and see. And so to me, that has to. I want that to be at some piece in each episode of Redacted. Tonight I want to talk about.
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A
Where.
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This is, where our fading empire is and where it's going. Because if I spend all day on the soap opera of politics, I think we're missing out on what we need to be caring about and the steps we need to take to make that change.
- [23:37]
A
Yeah. I've been saying to myself, and a little bit publicly, having been a critic of capitalism for a pretty long time, this is really the first time in my life that I have the sense it's falling apart. It's not a system that needs criticism alone, it's a system that needs criticism in part because we are in that delicate moment where if we don't do something, it's gonna take us down with it.
- [24:05]
B
Yeah. And you're seeing that even small criticism is alarming to these, the gilded elite who are trying to entrench this system, trying to hang onto it. Because when you have a rocky structure, all it takes is a little push to make it fall over. Whereas if this was going great, if this was humming along and workers were treated right and everything, they wouldn't need worry about it. They wouldn't need to worry about a.
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A
Little push, push, you know, big item in the news. I want just your gut reaction. Venezuela, we're being told everything from the sky is falling to freedom is at stake to here's another proof that socialism doesn't work. It kind of makes your head spin. A little country in a corner of a part of the world getting this kind of play. What are you going to do with this? With your.
- [24:54]
B
Well, let me ask you, how many CIA backed coups would it take for you to realize socialism doesn't work. All right, that's what I want to know. Good question. I mean, you can look at our lists of times we've gotten involved in countries and how often do we really help the country? How often do they end up just great and our democracy bombs just fix everything. You know, you can look at recent examples of Libya and Iraq and, and Afghanistan and say, how much better off are these people because we bombed them or we gave sanctions that, you know, cut medicine from people. So it's the same in Venezuela right now. And really there are three things that make us want to very much topple a government. One is socialists. You know, throwing off the capitalist change very much scares us. We see that with our endless hatred of Cuba and everything, and embargo of Cuba. Two is dropping the dollar, which Venezuela has done. And the third is oil. And Venezuela has the largest oil reserves of any country right now. And so we're doing it again. And if you look at. It's just so laughable. And as I said earlier, the mask has come off with Trump and the Trump administration. John Bolton said on Fox News that we want to go into Venezuela because we want the oil. He said this would be a great opportunity for American companies to get that oil. And it's amazing that they can't even sustain. The guise of this is humanitarian somehow. It's not. There are shortages of certain foods in Venezuela right now because of our sanctions, largely because of how troubled their economy is. But people aren't. There's still food on the shelves. People aren't starving. There are certain foods missing. And so it's ridiculous. And 80% of the country had never heard of Juan Guaido until Trump announced him as the president of Venezuela. It's a laughable attempt.
- [26:43]
A
It's amazing to me also that the debate is really between the Republican Bolton types who like almost the naughtiness of saying it the way it is kind of goes back to your earlier point. It's all on display by these guys. Whereas in the past we've had the polish of some Harvard trained character babbling about freedom, democracy and everything else while doing exactly the same thing. All right, final question. We have time for. Given your program, given everything you see, what's your sense of the American people's openness to thinking critically about capitalism, to thinking of alternative economic systems, to really beginning to take seriously the notion that there could be and there should be pretty basic change? What's your feel, Your gut is what I'm looking for.
- [27:36]
B
Yeah, I think it's far more I think the American people are far more open to it than they used to be. Even in my short lifespan, as I said earlier, I think Some studies showed 51% of millennials don't believe capitalism is the best system. I think that we've seen what endless greed has brought us, and it's not happiness. It's not even people that have achieved the success that are incredibly wealthy. I think there's a lot of depression on that level as well. So it's. And I think that the younger generations really get that and really understand that. And I just put out a new stand up comedy special. And in that I talk about how the different groups that are all fighting to change this should be working together and realize this is all under one umbrella. It is under this umbrella of like, you know, we are fighting against endless consumerism, endless materialism. That is all part of an unfettered capitalist system.
- [28:34]
A
Lee, thank you very, very much for joining us. Thank all of you. Also. This is another way that Lee has developed of getting these kinds of ideas across. I think of him as a collaborator, a colleague, somebody who really reflects the kinds of impulses that we try to bring to the fore. Thank you very much for joining us, and I look forward to speaking with you again next week.