Product Description
With breathtaking clarity, renowned University of Massachusetts Economics Professor Richard Wolff breaks down the root causes of today’s economic crisis, showing how it was decades in the making and in fact reflects seismic failures within the structures of American-style capitalism itself. Wolff traces the source of the economic crisis to the 1970s, when wages began to stagnate and American workers were forced into a dysfunctional spiral of borrowing and debt that … More >>
Capitalism Hits the Fan: Richard Wolff on the Economic Meltdown
Tags: Capitalism, Economic, Hits, Meltdown, Richard, Wolff
#1 by Lee E. Kelly III on April 12, 2010 - 1:36 pm
Another leftist sociology professor claiming to know economics and, naturally, blaming a supposed free market–one which in reality, is so regulated that it’s half socialist. This guy has no idea what caused the crisis. He just says stuff to say it, but his arguments could not hold up under even light scrutiny. Why not argue that an evil being has put a voodoo curse on the world economy? It’s just as plausible as Wolff’s arguments.
Rating: 1 / 5
#2 by J D on April 12, 2010 - 4:10 pm
Professor Wolff certainly appears like a fascinating speaker and talks like a fire-and-brimstone Baptist preacher at first. He gives lots of interesting facts and thoughts on the current economic mess. However, he speaks with too much assurance that he KNOWS exactly why the economy is messed up. I don’t trust ANYONE who speaks like they have all the facts. He has some good points but no final point. After telling us how wages stalled in the 1970s (which I can believe) and how business’ took advantage of that to make higher profits (again I find his statements here plausable), he then tells us how business used the profits to make loans back to the workers (well, maybe). When I thought he was going to make a final concluding profound remark I was all ears but he just peters out and walks away. He came to the end saying some Silicon Valley groups are either Marxist and/or examples of the free market at work. There is no way to tell the difference he states. I disagree because these Silicon Valley business’ are not in a bubble. They are working in the US society and can get things our economy provides that Marxist groups would have little or no access to. Then he practically shuffles away muttering that basic changes in our system must occur. Well, duh! Even teabaggers, Glenn Beck, Republicans and Democrats would agree on that. So we are left with an interesting hypothesis how we got to where we are but no suggestions on what to do about it. Therefore, the speech is pointless. All we can take from this speech is the thought it was a fairly good Economics 101 class but the bell rang before he finished. In other words, he speaks like every economist: He can tell us what happened in the past, period, the rest is just guessing. In this case, he didn’t even give us a good guess what would work to fix our economy, just vague soapbox infomercial-type proclamations. Prozac is recommended to the viewer and the speaker.
Rating: 2 / 5
#3 by Duane Linstrom on April 12, 2010 - 5:59 pm
If you’re reasonably well versed in economics Dr. Wolf’s somewhat biased recitation of economic history is worth listening to, considering that it’s only 90 minutes long and what other information/entertainment is available. But his opinion is controversial and not universally held. Unfortunately Wolf’s portrayal of business is more than a little disingenuous. He portrays capitalistic businesses as the villain of his narrative and capitalism as the cause of our current economic woes. He doesn’t acknowledge that business people are only after profits and profits are the pony the pulls the economic cart.
According to Wolf, consumers are the victims of a conspiracy by businesses in which businesses maximized their profits by paying inadequate wages, then loaned those profits back to their employees at usurious interest rates. Wolf doesn’t mention the responsibility consumers have for their own economic well being. One might consider that if consumers for any reason choose to live beyond their means, that is an opportunity for profit from banking and money lending businesses to loan them money, and consumers need to act responsibly in the presence of money they can’t afford to borrow. It’s too much of a stretch to imagine businesses as a whole conspired to keep wages low so they could lend their surplus profits to their workers.
At the end of the lecture Wolf told a story about a group of entrepreneurs from Silicon Valley, where I live, that merrily pooled their resources and started a happy Marxist company where they are all in the process of living happily ever after. The story would be nice except 1) those start-up companies are usually after profit, and are an entrepreneurial throw of the dice with potentially large financial returns, 2) there is not an instance of communism succeeding anywhere at anytime under any circumstances as a long-term viable economic model.
Economics, like many other subjects, is highly subjective. Wolf’s is just one opinion. Other opinions worth listening to include Alan Greenspan in the second half of his book, The Age of Turbulence, and Walter Russell Mead in God and Gold, Britain, America and the Making of the Modern World. Both Greenspan and Mead require more than the 90 minutes Wolf’s lecture took, but are well worth the time spent on them.
Rating: 2 / 5
#4 by Eric M. Forte on April 12, 2010 - 7:41 pm
This was a very well thought out prospective as what has gone so terribly wrong with so much of our economy. Dr. Wolf makes some very compelling arguments that have changed some of my opinions. Although I must say I strongly disagree with his final conclusion at the end of it all.
Rating: 4 / 5
#5 by Marc Pilisuk on April 12, 2010 - 8:14 pm
Whether one is a free market worshiper or a democratic socialist, you will be amused, enlightened and informed about what global market capitalism has brought to the world, who has benefited and who has gotten hurt. Most important you will see why the game of growth and debt is over and will not be cured by a stimulus to create one more bubble that will get us back to the same economy that produced the meltdown. It ends with a remarkably engaging suggestion of what does work in some economic activities. I showed my copy to a group of colleagues and students and got more rave responses than I would have imagined. When I authored “Who Benefits from Global Violence and War: Uncovering a Destructive System” I never imagined that the underlying economy that fuels the system could be so clearly and persuasively described as in the DVD, Capitalism Hits the Fan. But Richard Wolff has really hit the button and his humor just adds spice to the message.
Rating: 5 / 5