How schools teach about capitalism is changing
Marketplace All-in-One
Marketplace
4.5 • 1.4K Ratings
🗓️ 30 January 2026
⏱️ 7 minutes
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Summary
An increasing number of states in the U.S. not only require high schools to teach financial literacy but also require them to incorporate the fundamentals of free-market capitalism into their lesson plans. We head back to the classroom to hear how these lessons are changing as a growing number of students voice skepticism about capitalism. (Need to head back to Econ 101? Take our quiz to find out.) Plus, following last week's economic blackout in Minneapolis, we examine the history of general strikes in the U.S.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | A man calling for, quote, regime change at the Federal Reserve appears on track to run it. |
| 0:07.4 | I'm David Brancaccio in Los Angeles. Just a couple seconds ago, I got a Reuters bulletin that says President Trump is nominating a new head for the Federal Reserve. |
| 0:17.7 | It will be Kevin Warsh, a former Fed governor who almost got the job last time back in 2017. |
| 0:23.8 | Warsh, in line with the president, thinks interest rates should be lower. Warsh is said to have |
| 0:28.8 | played a key role in the government's rescue of Wall Street during the 2008 mortgage crisis. |
| 0:34.4 | In a pushback against ICE and Border Patrol tactics, clergy unions and immigrant rights |
| 0:39.3 | activists mounted what they called a general strike and economic blackout in Minnesota last |
| 0:44.5 | week. Some businesses closed, employees stayed home with some participating in public protest. |
| 0:50.1 | For today, there are calls for a national shutdown in solidarity with people in Minnesota opposed to Trump administration immigration activities. |
| 0:57.7 | Marketplaces Mitchell Hartman has more on an American tradition that leverages the workplace. |
| 1:03.2 | Mass, work, slowdowns, and stoppages go back as early as the Civil War, says Peter Rackcliffe, a labor historian at McAllister College in St. Paul, Minnesota. |
| 1:12.9 | By refusing to work, destroying crops, escaping to join the Union Army, |
| 1:17.9 | enslaved men and women profoundly damaged the southern economy. |
| 1:23.8 | In 1886, a nationwide general strike called for the eight-hour workday. |
| 1:29.1 | 1984 was a year of general strikes, including in Minneapolis, where the Teamsters joined with unions across industries, supported by neighborhood businesses and residents, setting up. |
| 1:40.8 | Soup kitchens, health commissaries, mass meetings. Similar to what Minnesotans are doing to |
| 1:48.4 | support protesters today. There's another parallel with history, says you see Irvine |
| 1:53.6 | sociologist David Meyer. These general strikes come at times of economic privation and crisis. |
| 2:00.1 | Depression, recessions, shutdowns, slowdowns. |
| 2:03.6 | Remember, lots of Americans feel left out of the growing GDP right now. |
| 2:09.4 | Today's economic shutdowns aim to bring pressure on the system from consumers, even more than workers. |
| 2:15.0 | And while one day of not shopping might have limited impact, Wharton Marketing Professor |
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