“When Capitalism Fails to Save Us from Pandemics or Itself”

FEATURING RICHARD WOLFF – If you believe President Donald Trump, he was set to sail to reelection this November until the coronavirus pandemic stuck the nation and caused an economic collapse. Millions of Americans have been thrown out of work and Congress cannot even agree on resuming modest unemployment benefits. If our economic and political system was so fragile that a pandemic of the sort that government officials knew was coming was enough to throw the nation into disarray, then perhaps the problem is the system and not the virus. That is at the heart of a new book by my guest Richard Wolff.

Richard Wolff, Professor of Economics Emeritus, University of Massachusetts, Amherst. He has taught at Yale University and at the City College of the City University of New York. He is currently a Visiting Professor in the Graduate Program in International Affairs of the New School University in New York City and the host of the weekly radio and TV program Economic Update. His previous books published include Understanding Socialism (2019) and Understanding Marxism (2018). His latest book is called The Sickness is the System: When Capitalism Fails to Save Us from Pandemics or Itself.

** This segment originally aired on September 23, 2020.