Recession, inequality and capitalism: A "soft landing" for who?
The Socialist Program with Brian Becker
The Socialist Program
4.7 • 587 Ratings
🗓️ 1 February 2023
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On today's episode Walter Smolarek and Prof. Richard Wolff discuss the state of the U.S. economy. With the Federal Reserve poised to slow down its rate hikes at least temporarily, is it true that the economy is headed for a so-called soft landing? How healthy or sick is US capitalism? Are mainstream economists missing the big picture?
Professor Richard Wolff is an author & co-founder of the organization Democracy at Work. You can find his work at rdwolff.com.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | With the Federal Reserve poised to slow down its rate hikes at least temporarily, is it |
| 0:07.0 | true that the economy is headed for a so-called soft landing? |
| 0:11.2 | How healthy or how sick is U.S. capitalism? |
| 0:15.6 | We need a new system. |
| 0:17.2 | We need a new society. |
| 0:19.1 | We need to demand that which may have sounded impossible even a few weeks ago, but is not only realizable, but an imperative necessity. The We are very excited to have Professor Richard Wolfe join us for a regular weekly segment |
| 0:54.9 | where we discuss the biggest stories relating to the economy, the state of the working class, |
| 0:59.3 | and the crimes of big business. |
| 1:01.1 | I'm Walter Smolerick, filling in for Brian Becker. |
| 1:03.7 | The Socialist Program brings you content three days a week thanks to the support of our patrons |
| 1:07.6 | at patreon.com slash the Social socialist program. We appreciate all of your |
| 1:12.5 | support and encourage you to become a patron today if you enjoy listening to the show. |
| 1:17.5 | Richard Wolfe is the co-founder of the organization Democracy at Work and the author of many books, |
| 1:23.0 | the latest being The Sickness is the System. When Capitalism fails to save us from pandemics or itself, |
| 1:29.7 | you can check out all of his work at rd.wolf.com. So Professor Wolf, let's take a big |
| 1:36.4 | picture look at the U.S. economy today. The business press, the economic news, has been |
| 1:42.5 | relatively upbeat lately. |
| 1:44.1 | Based on some recently released data, based on the pace of Federal Reserve rate hikes |
| 1:49.8 | or the anticipated pace of Federal Reserve rate hikes. |
| 1:53.2 | People are talking about the prospect of this soft landing, which is what Jerome Powell and |
| 1:58.1 | the managers of US capitalism have long been going for, |
| 2:01.5 | that there can be, you know, a recession, but a slight one. |
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