The Economic Crisis
The consequences of our tax cowardice
Appeared in the Guardian "Comment is Free" on January 28th, 2011
Several hundred Camden, New Jersey firefighters and police officers were laid off, 18 January 2011: Renee Muhammad, who is one of four women firefighters in Camden, gets emotional while waiting to hand in her gear. Photograph: April Saul/Philadelphia Inquirer/MCT
Interview in "To Vima" Newspaper - Greek Publication
You say that a good way to balance the US budget and cut the national debt to zero, would be by applying a 10% tax on stocks and bonds of the ultra rich American population. Do you believe that the same could be applied in Greece as well, given that the two countries have huge differences in the rates of their economic growth and that Greece strives to attract investments?
Government Economic Intervention: For Whom?
No one in the US government campaigns these days for the direct government hiring of our many millions of unemployed and underemployed people. That is despite the fact that those millions suffer the resulting losses of income and self-esteem, despite the fact that they become burdens on their families, friends, and neighbors, and despite the fact that their reduced purchasing hurts countless others who work to produce what the unemployed and underemployed can no longer afford.Bonuses for bankers, bankruptcy for public services
Goldman Sachs sets aside $15bn for pay; the state of California cuts $1.5bn from education. What's wrong with this picture?Published on January 20, 2011So, now we know about the $15bn-plus 2010 pay package for Goldman Sachs partners and employees. The top rungs will get their many millions each, with lesser and lesser amounts going down the GS hierarchy. The mass of its more than 35,000 employees will, as usual, get much, much less than the top. In addition, the appreciation of Goldman's share prices likewise adds billions to employees who got stock options, which were likewise distributed very unequally throughout the firm.
The Myth of 'American Exceptionalism' Implodes
One aspect of "American exceptionalism" was always economic. US workers, so the story went, enjoyed a rising level of real wages that afforded their families a rising standard of living. Ever harder work paid off in rising consumption. The rich got richer faster than the rest, but almost no one got poorer. Nearly all citizens felt "middle class." A profitable US capitalism kept running ahead of labor supply. So it kept raising wages to attract waves of immigration and to retain employees across the 19th century until the 1970s.
KPFA Radio Interview in California -- (Jan 13, 2011)
Published on January 13, 2011AUDIOProfessor Wolff and Dr. Harriet Fraad spoke Austerity with Mitch Jesseritt's 'Letters and Politics' radio show on KPFA in California on Thursday January 13th.
The Economic Crisis & Left Responses
Published on January 13, 2011VIDEOProfessor Wolff spoke about the particular relationship between the Left and the current state of the world economy at the Marxist-Humanist Initiative Conference at Pace University in New York on November 6th, 2010.
A CONFERENCE CONVENED BY MARXIST-HUMANIST INITIATIVESaturday Nov. 6, 2010 - 9 am to 6 pm
Uprising Radio Interview with Alan Minsky on KFPK (January 3, 2011)
Published on January 3, 2011AUDIOAlan Minsky speaks with Professor Wolff about the possibilities for an economically healthy America at the end of this segment of Uprising Radio on KPFK in Los Angeles.
Attacking Public Employees: Will New York Lead?
As in other states, New York’s new governor has focused attention on the state’s budget woes: revenues insufficient to cover expenditures. His major response has been to blame public employees and their unions as if their pay, benefits, and especially pensions were chief causes of the problem. He loudly demands they “share the burden” of fixing the state’s budget crisis. Many political leaders across the states and in both major parties have been pushing the same agenda.Minimum Wage Outrages
There really is little to add to the facts about the six states who will be raising their minimum wages on Jan 1, 2011. The 647,000 workers affected in these six states will get increases of 9 to 12 cents per hour. If we assume that such workers get 1 week per year off (without pay), they will then earn from $15 to $18,000 per year before taxes and any other withholdings..
The federal minimum wage is $7.25 yielding a $15,000 annual full-time wage before taxes and any other withholding.
