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Welcome friends, to another edition of Economic Update, a weekly program devoted to the economic dimensions of our lives. Jobs, debts, incomes, our own and our children. And I'm your host, Richard Wolff. I want to begin today by making a simple observation that needs to be said. The horrific explosion of COVID 19 cases and deaths across the United States is in significant ways a product of an economic system capitalism that was unprepared for it as it should have been, and was unable to contain it as it should have been. I say prepared and I say should have been and I say contained because many other countries, advanced industrial countries like the US but not as wealthy as the US were able to be prepared and were able to contain it far, far better than the United States. Did Mr. Trump have a lot to do with it, yes. But it goes deeper and further than that and that needs to be said and understood. I want to turn next to the unemployment situation. In our economy, the way unemployment works is most states provide about 26 weeks worth of it, half a year and then if you're still eligible and you've run out of your 26 weeks, you qualify for federal unemployment assistance. Currently, roughly 21 million Americans are getting insurancestate or federal. That's 13% of the U.S. labor force. If you add to that the so called discouraged workers, those who've given up looking, at least for the time being, and large numbers of people who have only part time jobs or jobs that earn below the $20,000 a year or which everyone who pays attention knows puts you in poverty. You're talking nearly half the labor force in this society. That's what you're talking about when you use the phrase economic crisis. Nor is there any sign of it getting better. On the contrary, it's getting worse as the resurgence of the COVID virus plays itself out across the United States. What this means is that the horrific damage of the virus is compounded by the damage and waste of an economic crisis that has tens of millions of people either out of work or unable to live a decent life with the part time or the low paid work that they do get. This is crazy. We are supporting millions of people, which of course we ought to do that, but we're not getting anything back. We're not having those people do useful work, which ironically is what they want. What we know would be better for their family life, for their mental health, for their physical well being. This is a society that is unable to to get the benefit for all of us of what those unemployed people could produce while being unable to give Those unemployed or low paid people, the very thing they want, which is a job at decent pay. That's an economic system that fails. The solution is obvious. It's what the United States did in the 1930s when we had unemployment like this. We created a federal jobs program. What could the federal jobs program do in this country? Are you kidding me? You know and I know we haven't tested most of our people. That's a job for the unemployed. We don't track most of the people who have the disease. That's a job for the unemployed. We have a million fewer people working in cities and state governments providing public services now than than we did a year ago during a pandemic and during a depression. We need more public services to make up for what the private sector can't do. That's a job for the unemployed who can become the providers of government services. I mean, everybody understands that we could be way better off if we had a program. But neither the Republicans nor the Democrats, neither Biden nor Trump have talked, let alone done anything about a massive jobs program, which is the screaming need for which they have no response. It's a problem of the system. My next update has to do with an order Mr. Trump gave out right after he learned that he wasn't going to be president much longer. Here's what the order he did. US citizens are banned from owning shares in 31 companies that do business with the Chinese military establishment. Now, what's this for? Let me be clear that we all understand if Americans can no longer hold shares, buy shares, investors cannot invest in 31 huge companies, by the way, in China that are global megacorporations but that have special relationships with the Chinese military. They will sell those shares to other people. There are plenty who want to buy them. So it will have the following effect on the Chinese companies. Zero. It'll just mean that instead of a US Investor, it's a British investor or a German investor, Italian investor or an African investor. Get the picture? So what's this for? Well, it's also a very bad precedent. What are you doing telling people in your country that you're going to ban them from owning shares in other companies that do business with the military? Guess what, American audience of mine, Most of the big corporations in the United States, American corporations, have dealings with the American military. It's the largest single consumer of goods and services in the United States. Our military is so, of course, American. Every major corporation, or at least the vast majority, do business. Do you really want to establish the precedent that all over the world. People who currently own shares in General Motors or Ford or Raytheon or General Electric or Amazon or Facebook or. You get the picture. They all do business with the American military. Is that a precedent you want to set? That's a precedent that's going to come back and haunt you and hurt you. That's not smart. But it may be clever politics for your political base. That's possible. You could look like you're whacking the Chinese. But is that really sensible? No. For another reason. The United States is the world's largest debtor country. We borrow more money from the rest of the world than any other country borrows from the rest of the world. And you know who the biggest single creditor of the United States is? The People's Republic of China. That's right. They've lent trillionsor at least more than a trillion dollars to the United States. Now, let me explain. For those who don't know this, that might include just a few of Mr. Trump's followers. If the United States borrows a trillion dollars from China, it has to pay interest on those borrowings, just like everybody else pays interest on borrowings. Which means that every year the United States has to pay interest to China for the trillion dollars they've lent to the United States. You know how much that comes to? Tens of billions of dollars. Mr. Trump will not allow private investors to hold shares of Chinese companies. Meanwhile, he is shipping to China tens of billions of dollars in interest from the United States paid for by taxpayers. And you know what the Chinese are free to do with the tens of billions in interest we pay them? They can use it for their military. We, which they no doubt have partly, at least done so. You're not cutting off the military, you're in fact financing it. But you're hoping your audience doesn't know and therefore can't evaluate it. Well, friends, little footnote. The last few days, the Chinese signed an agreement called the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, and it's a free trade area with 14 other countries in Asia. They're now having a no tariff program. They're going to cut their tariffs and they're going to free trade with one another. And who do they include? China is the leader, but it includes such economic powerhouses as Japan, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, Indonesia. You know what this is? This is the largest such agreement in the world. 30% of world trade, 30% of GDP is handled by these 15 countries. China is moving forward while games are played here that have marginal effect and risk a blowback that will hurt The United States economy. Remarkable. To watch these things unfold. I'm happy to announce that the notion of worker co ops, which many of you know we are advocates for here at Democracy at Work, is spreading. I want to bring to your attention an interesting development. Last May, a work manifesto was produced by a group of scholars from all over the world talking about what kind of economic system was responsible for what was then the COVID 19 crisis, which looks pale in comparison to how bad that crisis has become. But they said that one of the problems was the commodification of labor, buying and selling people as if they were things. And in particular the undemocratic organization of the workplace where a tiny group of people at the top make all the decisions. The this was bad for controlling, containing the virus. And so they wrote a manifesto and they built an organization. And I want you to see how much the notion of worker co ops is spreading. The website they contraind they started is called Democratizing work dot com. That's all one word, Democratizing work dot com. And the leading academic working in this country with the people around the world is a professor at the Harvard University Business school by the name of Julie Battilana. JULIE Battilana, PROFESSOR at the Harvard Business School promoting worker co ops as a better way to go. We have more allies than you may have thought. Last update. I have time for an event in England that portends for the U.S. the Conservative government in England has created a higher education restructuring regime. I kid you not, that's their name. And they appointed a board to administer it. They're using profit calculations to cut down the number of universities and colleges in England. We don't need them anymore. One member is reputed to have said, well, Covid is hurting education and money is not being given to schools, so they can't provide the education that the students need and the students can't afford it. So the solution is not to give the students the money to afford it or to give the subsidies to the colleges. No, it's cutting the colleges. And if you think that's crazy, you're right. And you know what it reminds me of the last 10 years when we cut hospitals and beds and clinics and medical education, leaving us unprepared for Covid. We're going to be unprepared for much if we cut back our higher education. We've come to the end of the first part of today's show. Before we move on, I want to remind you our new book, the Sickness is the System. When Capitalism Fails to save us from from Pandemics or itself is out now and available@democracyatwork.info books. I want to also thank our Patreon community for their invaluable support. And if you haven't Already, go to patreon.com economicupdate and sign up today for access to exclusive content and more. Please stay with us. We will be right back with today's guests. Welcome back, friends, to the second half of today's Economic Update show. It is with great pleasure that I am able to introduce both to our radio and TV audiences Nikki Okuk. She is a South Central Los Angeles resident and activist of working to halt Rapid gentrification. She's doing that with her associates by means of a community led bid to buy and redevelop the 40 acre Crenshaw Mall under a cooperative and community wealth building model. She has spent several years building green collar jobs and a democratic workplace which she spoke about in her 2017 Ted Talk, Fire the Boss. She is a Black Lives Matter organizer and tribal member, Awakane Kamanuku and you can go to www.downtowncrenshaw.com to learn more about all of her activities. I brought her onto the program because the kind of social movement that she's involved in and is a part of the leadership of is exactly the kind of movement that can and should and I believe will change America in fundamental ways. So first of all, Nikki, if I can call you that, thank you so much for giving us some time off of your schedule.