Government Deficits; Why They Happen, Who Benefits From Them, and MMT
Economic Update with Richard D. Wolff
Democracy at Work
4.8 • 2.1K Ratings
🗓️ 26 August 2025
⏱️ 35 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Economic Update returns next week to its regular schedule! This week's episode was recorded in June this year and covers topics our viewers have written to us and requested. Professor Wolff explains what deficits are and why the capitalist system enables and invites employers to cause them. He then proceeds to explain how deficits both solve specific problems of capitalism while also causing others. Over time, problems accumulate to undermine the credit of the US and bring economic crisis. Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) is shown to offer one way out of the crisis by changing how money is created.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Before we get into today's updates and discussion, there are some upcoming events, I think, |
| 0:26.3 | may interest you. |
| 0:28.1 | The first is a joint collaborative project between the Left Forum and Democracy at Work. |
| 0:33.8 | We are now partner organizations. |
| 0:36.4 | The Left Forum has a long history, going back at least 40 years of providing annual conferences, bringing together academics, activists, and others. |
| 0:47.3 | It really stopped functioning for a couple of years because of the pandemic, which gave it the time |
| 0:54.6 | to reorganize and rethink its progress in the world. |
| 0:59.4 | And it's come up with a new plan. |
| 1:02.2 | It's called the Left Educational Project, and I think you'll be hearing a lot about it |
| 1:08.1 | in the years to come. |
| 1:10.0 | But right away, one of their first activities |
| 1:13.0 | is a course. It's a four-session, four-week course, meeting every Monday, called critically |
| 1:21.5 | understanding capitalism. And it's designed to give interested people activists and others a deeper understanding |
| 1:30.9 | of the system and the critical situation it finds itself in now. |
| 1:36.6 | It will be taught by three collaborating professors of economics. |
| 1:43.4 | Clara Matte, who's a professor at the University of Tulsa, |
| 1:47.0 | Sharam Azar, who's a professor of economics at Bucknell University, and me. |
| 1:54.0 | We are collaborating because we want to do this kind of education, and I think you'll find it very, |
| 2:00.0 | very interesting. If you want |
| 2:02.5 | to register or find out more just go to www.leftforum.org LEP Left Educational |
| 2:12.1 | Project. Our second event has to do with a brand new book just released by OR publishers. |
| 2:21.4 | It's called From the Flag to the Cross, Fascism American Style. It's got a collection |
... |
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