Jacobin Radio: Robert Brenner on the State of the Economy

Jacobin Radio

Jacobin

Socialism, History, News, Left, Jacobin, Alternative, Socialist, Politics

4.7 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 12 February 2019

⏱️ 53 minutes

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Summary

The state of the economy is, despite assertions to the contrary, not strong; it is being plundered by the alliance of top corporate managers, leading financiers and political leaders from both parties. Suzi talks to Robert Brenner on politics and the state of the economy — matters of great confusion if you only pay attention to the business press and politicians, who say the economy is robust, with record low unemployment, rising wages, and the recovery of the stock market. But the Fed stopped raising interest rates, wages are stagnant, precarity and insecurity are the norm, homelessness has exploded, student debt is staggering and suffocating — and teachers are striking to force states to reinvest (stop under-investing) to save public education. So what is the real story, and if the economists and pundits are getting it wrong — why is that the case? Is it cheerleading for the status quo? We get Brenner’s analysis.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Jackman Radio, I'm Susie Weisman.
0:07.0	I'm Susie Weisman.
0:11.0	Today we're going to do the state of the economy.
0:14.0	I've invited Robert Brenner back for the hour in another
0:18.0	extended conversation on politics and the economy.
0:22.0	Matters of great confusion if you read the business pages and hear the politicians,
0:27.0	all touting how robust the economy is with record low unemployment,
0:31.0	rising wages, the recovery of the stock market, and yet the Fed
0:35.3	has stopped raising interest rates, wages are stagnant, precarity and insecurity are the norm,
0:41.3	homelessness has exploded, student debt is staggering and are the under investing and save public education.
0:53.0	So what's the real story?
0:54.4	And if the economists and pundits are getting it wrong,
0:57.0	why is that the case?
0:58.9	Is it cheerleading for the status quo?
1:01.2	We'll get Robert Brenner's analysis when we return in just a moment. Welcome to Jackman Radio, I'm Susie Wiseman and as I said in the intro we're going to be spending the hour with Robert Brenner discussing the state of politics and the economy.
1:29.0	Robert Brenner is professor of history at UCLA.
1:32.0	He's the director of the Sistitch. That's impossible. It's the Center for Social Theory and Comparative History. Most of us just call it the Brenner Center. And he's the author of many books, including the economics of global turbulence, boom and bubble,
1:45.6	the Brenner debates, and merchants and revolution, and, you know, thousands of articles.
1:50.9	Some of the ideas that we're discussing here today were laid out in his
1:54.9	introductory editorial to the very first issue of Catalyst Journal. So welcome
2:01.6	Robert Brenner.
2:03.0	Thanks so much, Susie.
	...

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