Is there an economic recovery underway?  Was there one that has now stopped?  Will our current recession, partly recovered from, now tumble downward again in a second or "double" dip?  Mainstream politicians, journalists, and academics are engaged in hot and heavy debates about recoveries and double dips.  Yet the economic reality for most Americans is altogether different.

Total nonfarm payroll employment declined by 131,000 in July, and the unemployment rate was unchanged at 9.5 percent. Federal government employment fell, as 143,000 temporary workers hired for the decennial census completed their work. Private-sector payroll employment edged up by 71,000. US Dept of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Press Release, August 6, 2010.

 

Host Per Fagereng interviews Professor Wolff, author of the book "Capitalism Hits the Fan: The Global Economic Meltdown and What to Do About It." He recently wrote the piece "Austerity: Why and for Whom?"

Where is this elusive recovery?  The banks, some say, have "recovered."  Yet they remain dependent on Washington, they do not make the loans needed for a general recovery, and many medium and small banks keep collapsing.  The stock market shows no recovery.  The Dow index was 14,000 in late 2007 when capitalism hit the fan, and it is around 10,000 now.  The Nasdaq market index was 2800 then and is 2300 now.  Everywhere else -- unemployment, foreclosures, bankruptcies, depressed housing market, and so on -- no recovery in sight.

Professor Wolff joins Michael Smith on WBAI's Law and Disorder radio show along with National Lawyers Guild Attorney Eric Poulos.  Both have recently returned from Greece. Rick Wolff’s recent articles outline an economic theater playing out in Greece and across the globe. There is no alternative and this is all the worker’s fault, is the mantra from rulers who are cutting wages and pensions in Greece. It’s deceptive and false says Rick Wolff,  and the economic conditions in Greece is an old pattern that is replicating everywhere.

Συνέντευξη του Ρίτσαρντ Γουλφ στον Χάρη Κωνσταντινίδη

At the end of May, Professor Wolff spoke at University in Athens, Greece. There, he was interviewed for the popular daily paper Avgi.

Η Ελλάδα βρίσκεται σήμερα μέσα σε ένα  πολιτικό θεατρικό δράμα.

Political theater now grips Greece.  As with ancient Greek plays, today's drama also reaches and touches everyone else.  We sense Greece's dilemmas becoming our own.   Her rulers declare that a crisis now threatens Greece.  They blame it on the masses.  To overcome it, they must impose great suffering on the masses.  The rulers' chorus intones the absolute necessity, the utter unavoidability of that suffering as the only solution.  There is, it insists, no other option.  The masses waver.

卡尔·马克思的《资本论》在美国的新解读 [美]理查德·沃尔夫*   [内容提要]从1975年到2008年，理查德·沃尔夫（Richard Wolff）参与到一项旨在反思和发展马克思主义经济学的集体研究中。在马萨诸塞大学阿默赫斯特分校，这项研究工作取得了一些成果，产生了许多博士学位论文、学术专著和学术论文，催生了一个新的学术期刊《反思马克思主义》及其出版机构“经济与社会分析协会”。该集体研究的中心内容之一，就是对马克思的《资本论》进行新的解读。本文将简要概述这种新的解读方式，以揭示马克思如何依据剩余价值的生产、占有和分配关系来诠释其独特的社会阶级理论。我们认为，马克思的理论并不是机械还原论，而是多元决定论。艾伦·奥克利（Allen Oakley）在《澳大利亚的马克思主义理论家纪念文集》上运用这种解读方式发表了研究成果。后来有关成果被收入到沃尔夫等人编辑的论文集并以德文发表。 [关键词]马克思《资本论》美国新解读   一、引言 艾伦·奥克利对政治经济学史的首要贡献，是其对卡尔·马克思（1818-1883）剩余价值理论演进和发展过程的独到理解。