Capitalism Hits the Fan Part 1 of 2

American economist Richard Wolff at the opening plenary of the Left Forum in New York City on April 17, 2009. In this speech he explains our current financial crisis and puts it in the context of an en economic system that is fundamentally unstable.

Richard D. Wolff (born April 1942, Youngstown, Ohio) is a American economist, well-known for his work on Marxian economics, economic methodology and class analysis. Wolff received his Ph.D. in economics from Yale University in 1969. He frequently collaborates with fellow economist Stephen Resnick. Wolf is married to (and sometimes co-author with) psychoanalyst Harriet Fraad.

Wolff taught at the City College of New York from 1969-1973, and then began teaching at the Economics Department of the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where he has been full professor since 1981. He began collaborating with Stephen Resnick during their common appointments at the City University of New York, and continued after they both moved to University of Massachusetts. Wolff and Resnick have jointly published numerous articles and books that formulate a nondeterminist, class analytical approach. Their topics have included Marxian theory and value analysis, overdetermination, radical economics, international trade, business cycles, social formations, the Soviet Union, and comparing and contrasting Marxian and non-Marxian economic theories.

Wolff's work with Resnick took Louis Althusser and Etienne Balibar's Reading Capital as its point of departure and developed a subtle reading of Karl Marx's Capital Volumes II and III in their influential Knowledge and Class. For the authors, Marxian class analysis entails the detailed study of the conditions of existences of concrete forms of performance, appropriation, and distribution of surplus labor. While there could be an infinite number of forms of surplus appropriation, the Marxist canon refers to ancient (independent), slave, feudal, capitalist, and communist class processes.

In 1989, Wolff joined efforts with a group of colleagues, ex- and then current students to launch Rethinking Marxism, an academic journal that aims to create a platform for rethinking and developing Marxian concepts and theories within economics as well as other fields of social inquiry. He continues to serve as a member of both the editorial and the advisory boards of the journal.

Wolff continues to teach graduate seminars and undergraduate courses and direct dissertation research in economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

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• Richard Wolff
• economic
• Marxist
• Left Forum
• New York City
• Left
• politics
• economic crisis
• Great Depression
• Civil War
• Corporatism
• Corporations
• labor
• stagnate wages
• wages
• productivity
• socialism

[raskel71]

Why, Professor, do you evade the fact that many people leave employment to search for their own future? Is it not true that socialism/communism assumes that an individual works(production) is owned by the commune? Is it not true that the peoples revolt in Russia, Germany was funded by Capitalists? Is it not true that Internationalist Banks fund the Country debt for war? The fact is that freedom to pursue freedom is not the enemy--The Global Control by Bankers invented Communism!!! HELLO!!

[buddhagem]

@raskel71 Thanks for the crazy-guy comment. I always appreciate a good laugh. Love the last line: priceless.

[AnarchyDavey]

Buddha, you get all good shit. It is very much appreciated that you post it. Can I ask where you get it?

[buddhagem]

Thanks. Most everything you see I tape myself. This was from this year's Left Forum at Pace University. Other stuff is from the Anarchist Book Fair.

[Schezee]

Birth control destroyed the family in the West...Not the number of hours worked for the lack of rising wages.

Birth control altered the relationship between men and woman to the point that it made us consumers of one another.

Every one night stand is simply two people consuming one another and then throwing one another away in the morning like an empty pop can.

Pretty tough to have a healthy, committed marriage when this is how men and women view one another.

[buddhagem]

Sounds like someone's a little upset at the loss of his privilege to own someone. Must be hard for you to deal with women as humans rather than objects to own. But I promise you it's much more fulfilling.

[TNutZz]

@mackbk718

The Federal Reserve is not a Govt institution, it's a collection of private banks.

[wildnites558]

Wrong, left/liberal government modified, Fed Reserve controlled "Capitalism Hits the Fan" I love how after the Wall Street debacle of '08, all the anarchists and neo-Marxists come out of the woodwork like cockroaches attempting to sell their snake-oil to the American public. Like all the enviros came out to demostrate how a few hot summers in the late 90s supposedly proved the existence of global warming. After O. and his regulatory strangleholds are gone, the economy will return to normal.

[justgivemethetruth]

This is BY FAR the best explanation of the last 40 year of economic history that I have heard or read ... it is really elegant and well thought out. Thank you Richard Wolf! So ... what do we do now? ;-)

[bradleyt1]

Humanity before economy. It is time we wake up.

[BolnoyBratchny]

1:00

[MisterScottishPerson]

This is a brilliant video. It's gave me some advice to strengthen my arguments whenever I am opposed by a capitalist. Thanks.

[Christ724]

@y0uG0tpwned1 then technically we've never had 'capitalism'...ever

[Blazen1212]

I like thus guy but I promise you all to learn economics on your own and study it for yourself. I have a graduate degree in financial economics and I will tell you that this man is distorting the truth and making claims that are scientifically just wrong!!

[blinkfrog1]

Sadly, people can't understand that Marxism is a concept the Soviets of Russia couldn't truly comprehend. Marx and Engels truly wanted to see socialism prevail. What has happened are that the extremist forces led to different directions and despotism still prevailed. Even Engels had ideas of conservationism and ecology written into his work. There is none of that within our present form of Capitalism that encourages this. Look! BP oil spill, hydrofracking, and pollution exempted by our gov.

[jrizos]

Man, I can't tell you how many things I've been thinking about have been articulated in this video. Kudos.

[TheDano1947]

@GDplusEng Ideally but then profits would go down.