As inflation rises and pressure mounts on the Federal Reserve to pull back its extraordinary support for big business, is a recession on the horizon.

We need a new system. We need a new society. We need to demand that which may have sounded impossible even a few weeks ago,

but is not only realizable, but an imperative necessity. We are excited to have Professor Richard Wolfe join us again for our regular weekly segment

where we talk about the biggest stories related to the economy, the state of the working class,

the crimes of big business. I'm your host, Brian Becker. The Socialist Program brings you content

three days a week thanks to the support of our patrons at patreon.com forward slash the socialist program. We appreciate

all of your support and encourage you to become a patron today if you enjoy listening to this show.

Richard Wolfe is the co-founder of the Organization Democracy at Work. He's the author of many

books, the latest being the sickness is the system

when capitalism fails to save us from pandemics or itself. He also has a new hard copy edition

of his book, Understanding Marxism, which has been released recently. The new book features a lengthy

introduction, a lengthy introduction,

a new introduction,

strengthening the case for why Marxism is indeed worth understanding.

You can check out all of his work at R-D-Wolf.com.

That's R-D-W-O-L-F-F.com.

Professor Wolf, welcome back.

Thank you. Glad to be here. Professor Wolf, I'm looking at the

Wall Street Journal. Inflation accelerated to 8.5% in March as oil prices soared. Again, the story goes on.

It's the biggest spike of unrelenting increase in U.S. prices since, well,

since the early 1980s or late 1970s, 40 years ago. I mean, we have a lot going on in the world.

There was COVID. There was supply shortages, apparently, or we are so told we need to sort of understand how that is happening.

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