Economic Update: US Capitalism at the Crossroads

Jan 29, 2024

Capitalism Hits Home: BRICS & The End of US Dominance

Apr 27, 2023 | n this episode of Capitalism Hits Home, Dr. Fraad discusses the decline of the American empire, both globally and domestically. After WWII, the US was the only industrialized nation that stood strong, helping it ascend to global dominance. Today, however, the world order is shifting. The BRICS economic alliance (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) is extremely powerful and widespread, with over 19 more countries hoping to join the alliance. The US dollar is losing its primacy and our country is steeped in debt. Internally, poverty is ever-increasing, corruption is normalized in our politics, and our wealthiest individuals and corporations don’t pay taxes. How did we get here? What can be done? Dr. Fraad tackles these questions and more.

Thomas Piketty on Capitalism, Corbyn and Why Zuckerberg Is Getting It Wrong - BBC Newsnight | 2015

Renowned economist Thomas Piketty sits down for a tête a tête on the world economy with Evan Davis

Capitalism Hits Home: How Americans Cope with Falling Living Standards

Feb 3, 2022 • Declining living standards, joblessness and pronounced inequality are leaving Americans feeling disconnected, helpless and depressed. In this episode of Capitalism Hits Home, Dr. Fraad talks about the 3 Ds - depression, dissociation and denial - Americans are resorting to as coping strategies for their stark decline in health and living standards. Fraad offers examples of more productive and beneficial ways to cope and heal.

What an appalling economic system! A working man should be able to keep his family in relative comfort from the rewards of his labours. Children need mothers at home. (Or at least someone who will substitute for a mother.) Children can't bring themselves up! If a man (one person) cannot support the family, then there is something radically wrong with the economic system. You cannot be pro-family and be pro- this ridiculously anti-family set up. Republicans! Are you listening? – © Mark

Yanis Varoufakis: Capitalism Has Become 'Techno-feudalism' | UpFront

A recent Oxfam study found that since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, the world’s richest 10 billionaires have seen a wealth increase of half a trillion dollars – enough to pay for every person on the planet to get a vaccine.

In this UpFront special, Marc Lamont Hill discusses with economist and former Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis what is driving the staggering wealth inequalities and how governments are offering socialism for the rich, and austerity for the rest.

Prof. Wolff on the Capitol Hill Riot: Capitalism's Last Gasp?

Prof. Richard D Wolff on the Four Reasons Capitalism Is Imploding

Professor Richard D. Wolff discusses the "four basic problems that the United States and its Capitalist system have had for a very long time" and how "none of them have been solved", and how "none of them have even been approached for the serious fundamental problems that they are". Watch to hear Professor Wolff break down these four all-encompassing issues we face in America today and have faced in our history.

Richard Wolff on How American Capitalism Is Just Socialism for the Rich

Professor Richard D. Wolff discusses how "recent news reports have exposed a certain scandal surrounding the Payroll Protection Program that the government allowed, now that Capitalism crashed here in the United States; at the same time that the failures to prepare for, or to contain the Coronavirus, have engulfed our country."

Capitalism Is Just a Fancy Word for Unchecked Greed

According to new research published by the Economic Policy Institute, average CEO pay has continued to skyrocket while wages stagnate, and now CEOs make roughly 320 times the amount that the average worker makes. These gains for the ruling elite have far outpaced the gains in the stock market, allowing us to rule out "good stocks" as the sole cause. The cause CAN, however, be boiled down to unfettered greed, as Ring of Fire's Farron Cousins explains.


Won’t it soon be time for a revolution? – Mark

Heated Debate on Capitalism with America’s Most Prominent Marxist Economist – Richard Wolff

Economist Richard Wolff sits down with Patrick Bet-David to discuss socialism, capitalism and business.

Patrick Bet-David »

Capitalism Hits Home: COVID-19: A Psychological, Political and Economic Plague

The Changing Face of the USA Today: Young People Gravitate to Socialism as Capitalism Keeps Failing Them

According to a new round of Gallup polling, Socialism is now as popular among Millennial voters as Capitalism. The main reason for this, which the poll did not get into, is that this age group has seen nothing but failures from capitalism for most of their lives, and they want a better system. Capitalism, in its current form, is not working for any age group, but older voters are still able to look back fondly at what once was. Ring of Fire’s Farron Cousins explains what’s happening.

Right-wingers Now Claim Jesus Was a Free Market Capitalist

The folks over at PragerU are terrified of the word “socialism” and they’ve gone as far as to say that Jesus Christ himself was definitely not a socialist but instead was a full on free market capitalist. This is an absolutely ridiculous claim, even when they try to give us examples from the Bible with their own unique, reality-warping spin on them. Ring of Fire’s Farron Cousins discusses this.

Yanis Varoufakis on Iran Nuclear Deal Demise, US Trade Negotiations, Europe’s Far Right & Capitalism

Capitalism Will Eat Democracy – Unless We Speak Up | Yanis Varoufakis

Have you wondered why politicians aren't what they used to be, why governments seem unable to solve real problems? Economist Yanis Varoufakis, the former Minister of Finance for Greece, says that it's because you can be in politics today but not be in power — because real power now belongs to those who control the economy. He believes that the mega-rich and corporations are cannibalizing the political sphere, causing financial crisis. In this talk, hear his dream for a world in which capital and labor no longer struggle against each other, "one that is simultaneously libertarian, Marxist and Keynesian.

Donald Trump to the Pope: 'Isil Wants to Get You'

Donald Trump

THE TELEGRAPH: Billionaire Republican frontrunner says he would like to meet Pope Francis but would not tolerate any criticism of capitalism

Donald Trump says he would not allow the Pope to criticise capitalism if they were to meet face to face, and would scare him into silence by reminding him that violent jihadis of the Islamic State want to invade the Vatican.

It was a typically bombastic Trump moment delivered during a wide-ranging interview in which he took on Hillary Clinton, underlined his views on illegal immigrants and said he would allow women to fight in American special forces. » | Rob Crilly, New York | Thursday, August 20, 2015

Unbridled Capitalism Is the 'Dung of the Devil', Says Pope Francis

Pope Francis makes his speech in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, where
he called for the poor to have the "sacred rights" of labor,
lodging and land. 

THE GUARDIAN: The pontiff condemns the impoverishment of developing countries by the world economic order and apologised for the church’s treatment of native Americans

Pope Francis has urged the downtrodden to change the world economic order, denouncing a “new colonialism” by agencies that impose austerity programs and calling for the poor to have the “sacred rights” of labor, lodging and land.

In one of the longest, most passionate and sweeping speeches of his pontificate, the Argentine-born pope used his visit to Bolivia to ask forgiveness for the sins committed by the Roman Catholic church in its treatment of native Americans during what he called the “so-called conquest of America”.

The pontiff also demanded an immediate end to what he called the “genocide” of Christians taking place in the Middle East and beyond, describing it as a third world war. » | Reuters | Thursday, July 9, 2015

Capitalism Is Doomed If Ethics Vanish, Says Bank of England Governor

'We simply cannot take the capitalist system for granted,' says Carney.

THE GUARDIAN: Mark Carney issues strong critique of City behaviour and warns of growing sense that basic social contract is breaking down

Capitalism is at risk of destroying itself unless bankers realise they have an obligation to create a fairer society, the Bank of England governor has warned.

Mark Carney said bankers had operated a "heads-I-win-tails-you-lose" system. He questioned whether traders met ethical standards and said that those who failed to meet high professional standards should face ostracism.

Speaking at a City conference, the Bank's governor warned that there was a growing sense that the basic social contract at the heart of capitalism was breaking down amid rising inequality. "We simply cannot take the capitalist system, which produces such plenty and so many solutions, for granted. Prosperity requires not just investment in economic capital, but investment in social capital."

In a strongly worded critique of City behaviour in the run-up to the financial crisis, Carney said market radicalism and light-touch regulation had eroded fair capitalism, while scandals such as the rigging of Libor markets had undermined trust in the financial system.

"Just as any revolution eats its children, unchecked market fundamentalism can devour the social capital essential for the long-term dynamism of capitalism itself. To counteract this tendency, individuals and their firms must have a sense of their responsibilities for the broader system."

Carney told delegates at a conference on inclusive capitalism in London – which was attended by the former US president Bill Clinton – that big banks had operated in a "heads-I-win-tails-you-lose bubble", with personal gain hotly pursued by bankers. » | Angela Monaghan | Tuesday, May 27, 2014

Margaret Thatcher – Capitalism and a Free Society

Margaret Thatcher and William F Buckley Jr. touch on a variety of subjects including economic incentives, minimum wage and redistribution of wealth.

Pope Francis Calls Unfettered Capitalism 'Tyranny' and Urges Rich to Share Wealth

THE GUARDIAN: Pontiff's first major publication calls on global leaders to guarantee work, education and healthcare

Pope Francis has attacked unfettered capitalism as "a new tyranny", urging global leaders to fight poverty and growing inequality in the first major work he has authored alone as pontiff.

The 84-page document, known as an apostolic exhortation, amounted to an official platform for his papacy, building on views he has aired in sermons and remarks since he became the first non-European pontiff in 1,300 years in March.

In it, Francis went further than previous comments criticising the global economic system, attacking the "idolatry of money" and beseeching politicians to guarantee all citizens "dignified work, education and healthcare".

He also called on rich people to share their wealth. "Just as the commandment 'Thou shalt not kill' sets a clear limit in order to safeguard the value of human life, today we also have to say 'thou shalt not' to an economy of exclusion and inequality. Such an economy kills," Francis wrote in the document issued on Tuesday.

"How can it be that it is not a news item when an elderly homeless person dies of exposure, but it is news when the stock market loses two points?"

The pope said renewal of the church could not be put off and the Vatican and its entrenched hierarchy "also need to hear the call to pastoral conversion".

"I prefer a church which is bruised, hurting and dirty because it has been out on the streets, rather than a church which is unhealthy from being confined and from clinging to its own security," he wrote.

In July, Francis finished an encyclical begun by Pope Benedict but he made clear that it was largely the work of his predecessor, who resigned in February.

Called Evangelii Gaudium (The Joy of the Gospel), the exhortation is presented in Francis's simple and warm preaching style, distinct from the more academic writings of former popes, and stresses the church's central mission of preaching "the beauty of the saving love of God made manifest in Jesus Christ". » | Reuters | Tuesday, November 26, 2013