And the Welcome friends to another edition of Economic Update, a weekly program devoted to the economic dimensions of our lives and those of our children.

I'm your host, Richard Wolf. Let me quickly remind you that Charlie Fabian is

ready and willing to take whatever suggestions, ideas, documents you might want to

send our way to help us plan future programs.

You can reach him at Charlie. info438 at gmail.com.

I want also to take a moment to tease you a bit.

We have finished a new book.

It's called understanding capitalism.

It is, if you like, a kind of final piece of a trilogy.

We've already produced understanding Marxism and

understanding socialism, which many of you have kindly ordered. So this is

understanding capitalism. It's a completion of that three-part

project, but it is also a culmination of 12 years of doing this program every week, plus 40 years

before that of teaching economics at half a dozen universities.

I think you'll find it an extraordinary summary and

compilation of capitalism's problems,

the myths that support it, the crisis it now faces, and what comes afterwards

in a way that is readable, accessible, and above all interesting.

Look for it, it's coming soon.

Today's program is devoted to a particular topic, global and importance crucial in many, many parts of the world, including the United States.

It's called the problem of

of deficits, the problem of the national debt. It's all about why countries borrow money from whom they borrow. Who benefits from all that

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