On Contact with Chris Hedges: Richard Wolff & the Precarious State of the US Economy

Feb 13, 2022 • On the show, Chris Hedges interviews economist Richard Wolff on the precarious state of the U.S. economy and its consequences.

Chris Hedges – On Contact: The Gig Economy

Feb 5, 2022 • On the show Chris Hedges discusses the gig economy to Louis Hyman, Professor of Economic History at Cornell University.

After the end of World War II two generations of workers in the United States were blessed with a period of unprecedented prosperity. Wages for the working class were high. Jobs were stable and came with benefits and health insurance. Unions protected workers from abuse by the business elites. Taxes on the wealthiest individuals and corporations was as high as 91 percent. The public school system provided a quality education to the poor and the rich. The nation’s infrastructure and technology were cutting edge and unrivaled. But by the 1970s it all began to go south. Wages stagnated. Income inequality grew, until by 2008 the top wealthiest 10 percent of Americans received 87 percent of the economic growth, compared with 29 percent from 1933 to 1973. The good industrial jobs vanished. In their place rose the temp or gig economy, one where wages were low, the jobs were not secure and did not provide benefits, unions were emasculated and the nation’s great democratic institutions, along with its infrastructure, crumbled into decay. What went wrong? How did it happen? And what does it mean for our future?

Louis Hyman is Professor of Economic History at Cornell University, and author of Temp: The Real Story of What Happened to Your Salary, Benefits and Job Security.

The Nature of Neoliberalism and Its Consequences

Nov 11, 2021 • On the show, Chris Hedges discusses the nature of neoliberalism and its consequences with Professor Wendy Brown*, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton University.

Does the eruption of ethnonationalist movements defined by hyper-patriotism, xenophobia, racism, religious chauvinism, and so-called traditional moral values signal the end of neoliberalism? Or are these protofascist movements, the natural consequence of neoliberal policies that allowed corporations to corrupt and seize governing institutions and the press, impoverish the working class, and orchestrate the largest transference of wealth upwards in American history?

There is no doubt, as the political scientist Wendy Brown writes, that the constellation of principles, policies, practices, and forms of governing reason that may be gathered under the sign of neoliberalism has importantly constituted the catastrophic present, but, she argues, this was not neoliberalism’s intent, rather its Frankensteinian creation.

By generating anti-democratic forms of state power above its natural consequence, she argues, it was antidemocratic culture from below. The synergy between these two forces sees an increasingly undemocratic and anti-democratic citizenry ever more willing to validate an increasingly anti-democratic state.


• Professor Wendy Brown teaches at the Institute of Advanced Study, Princeton University and isthe author of In the Ruins of Neoliberalism: The Rise of Antidemocratic Politics in the West.

Neofascist Seizure of America’s State Governments

Oct 22, 2021 • On the show, Chris Hedges discusses the seizure of state government by American’s homegrown neofascist movement with the historian Paul Street.

The creeping homegrown Christianized fascism that is steadily gaining power in the United States is most evident not in Washington but in state-level politics. Some 150 million Americans live in fully or mainly “red states,” where state politics and policy are completely or largely in the hands of a neofascist Republican party. There are 22 states where Republicans control the governorship and legislative bodies. There are 15 states where the Democratic party controls the governorship and legislative bodies. And there are 13 states with divided governments. In the “red” states such as Texas and Florida laws are being passed to suppress voting, outlaw abortion, forbid honest discussion of white systemic racism in public education, ban local governments and school districts from enforcing minimum wage ordinances, prohibit local vaccine and mask mandates, cut pandemic-related unemployment benefits, reject federal Medicaid dollars to help the poor receive health care, and persecute undocumented workers and their families. The nation’s most retrograde corporate political funders and operatives – the Koch-backed “fifth column” culprits in historian Nancy MacLean’s book Democracy in Chains – have long focused heavily on politics and policy at the state level. State politics, with the collapse of the local press and its consolidation by a handful of corporations, is an easy mark. It is rarely covered and almost never in depth. Corporations, for relatively small costs, can buy the loyalty of state officials and banish those who do not do their bidding. What is happening, as the historian Paul Street writes, is that in the white nationalist “flyover” states, Republican neofascists are hard wiring these jurisdictions to orchestrate this creeping coup with Leninist discipline.

Paul Street is the author of ten books including his latest Hollow Resistance: Obama, Trump, and the Politics of Appeasement. He also writes regularly for Counterpunch where he published a recent column headlined “What Happens in the Red States."

Julian Assange Extradition Case

Oct 30, 2021 • On the show, Chris Hedges discusses the extradition hearing of Julian Assange in London with Joe Lauria, Editor-in-Chief of Consortium News.

For the past two days, Chris Hedges has been watching the extradition hearing for Julian Assange via video link from London. The United States is appealing a lower court ruling that denied the US request to extradite Assange not, unfortunately, because in the eyes of the court he is innocent of a crime, but because, as Judge Vanessa Baraitser in January concluded, Assange's precarious psychological state would deteriorate given the "harsh conditions" of the inhumane US prison system, "causing him to commit suicide.” The United States has charged Assange with 17 counts under the Espionage Act and one count of trying to hack into a government computer, charges that could see him imprisoned for 175 years.

If Assange is extradited and found guilty of publishing classified material, it will set a legal precedent that will effectively end national security reporting, allowing the government to use the Espionage Act to charge any reporter who possesses classified documents, and any whistleblower who leaks classified information, under the Espionage Act.

On Contact: Threat of War with Iran w/Codepink's Medea Benjamin

Chris Hedges discusses the threat of war with Iran and the US relationship with Saudi Arabia and Israel with anti-war activist Medea Benjamin of Codepink.

On Contact: Russiagate & Mueller Report with Aaron Mate

Chris Hedges discusses with Nation reporter Aaron Mate how despite the categorical statement in Robert Mueller’s report that Donald Trump and his campaign did not collude with Russia, the conspiracy theories by the nation’s mainstream media show little sign of diminishing.