Wolff Responds: Wolff Critiques Krugman on the US Economy 

Thank you Dr. Wolff for keeping the focus on the real problem that is afflicting us.

It is like when the kids are left home alone. The parents come back, look around, and ask, "Who broke the window?" The answer comes back, "I don't know. It just broke."

When system economic defenders need to use words instead of facts to make a "defense", you know the time for that systems is almost up....

Dr Wolff, I would love to hear your take on the short squeeze on the Gamestop stock, wall street, Robinhood, and cryptocurrencies

Krugman is one of those people who's ALMOST correct when he talks. Every time I hear him make an argument, I end up agree with his premises... then his argument falls off a cliff near the end. I'm like... "Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, nope..."

Paul Krugman is a classic example of elite journalists who are incapable of understanding intellectually or emotionally the plight of others. "We don't see things as they are, we see things as we are." -Anaïs Nin

Here we have Wolff teaching America how to think critically, thank you for your service

Someone needs to send Krugman a copy of Wolff's new book

The Wolff howls

Excellent info Dr. Wolff!!

Please discuss the recent amc/gme bubble Dr. Wolff

New Zealand displayed excellent leadership by Identifying transmission chains at the outset before they spill over into vulnerable populations, relying on detecting new importations, finding transmission chains through widespread testing and contact tracing, isolating new cases and quarantining their contacts. It takes responsible leadership and foresight to take these actions.

I was just daydreaming about watching Prof Wolff annihilate Krugman in a debate

We have two economics Speculative and productive The USA economy is based in speculation Germany economy is based in productivity

The one thumbs down is from the New York Times

To think I used to like Krugman. But then, I used to think highly of Pelosi, Obama, Maddow and others I now detest.

Let's sum it up this way. STUPID PEOPLE FALL FOR MISDIRECTION. Or, evil thrives when good people stand by and DO NOTHING.

I love how the 5 minute screen saver gets Prof Wolff every time 😂

"The further a society drifts from truth the more it will hate those that speak it" . George Orwell.

Professor Wolff , as usual you nailed it , with your eloquent response.

Could there ever be such a thing as "benign capitalism"? If the economic "machinery" worked as it does, with a progressive tax system that provided the necessary education and healthcare benefits for all, with a guaranteed living wage? Pardon my naiveté. But I am sure this is a question that the majority of "everyday" Americans are asking themselves.We live in an era of unfettered predatory Capitalism which benefits the few and bypasses the many. It seems a no-brainer that a healthy, educated and confident citizenry would be good for EVERYBODY and for the faltering entity we call America

Bravo, Prof. Krugman! Krugman, like Thomas Friedman, outlived his usefulness decades ago.

I appreciate you speaking out.

"HEAR,HEAR,HEAR" YES,YES,YES......

The government should fire all their public service economists and just hire Prof Wolff. He may save them but, time is of the essence.

I appreciate your attention as well...thank you sir...

Long term planning is not a capitalist strength. No extra beds in the hospital? Not a stockpile of medical supplies? The Capitalist says we can't have them because the inventory cost hurts the bottom line. We all gotta go to just in time delivery. If we let the capitalists decide, then what else could we expect?

I appreciate hearing a take that doesn't make the silly mistake to forget that we live in a capitalist system, and that is has negative effects on all our lives, instead of thinking of it as something inexplicable and natural that has always been with us. ABSURDITY! We can do better! Also, that shirt looks great on you Professor!

Thank you.

What does the wolff think about GME?

Thank you!

Excellent!

Thank you Richard Wolff!!!

Keep on kicking ass Mr. Wolff, thanks

Great piece. The truth of the current situation in 7.5 minutes. WOW. Love to hear what part Bitcoin plays in Prof Wolff's outlook.

Well said, Professor Wolff!

This is all very nice, but I would like to see some specific recommendations on what should be done to cure the situation in the U.S.. We have a covid economy right now. We need a huge stimulus package. How do we proceed?

Professor Dr. Wolff ALWAYS schools the nincompoop nabobs...😏👏👍😉

Imagine thinking that capitalism is natural lol

Make sense absolutely

The man has found his niche with corporate media economic analysis and is thereby intellectually dishonest. You can see it on his face at times. On the other hand, Prof. Wolff is brutally honest sometimes.

Very good

I keep seeing Bane at the NYSE.

Ezra is part of defending the status quo.

if we need employees and not employers i wonder how much damage we would find in the west if we seriously studied this relationship?

I am full of respect for you Dr Wolff. To reply to the "natural disaster" tripe without once resorting to profanity is very impressive. I could never have done it. Well don sir. On a side note the comments did not load until I rewatched this video. Could have been just me but I wanted to let you know.

Our social system should help us get through these things, not fall apart and grind us into the dust. This is the case whether COVID is a scapegoat or rightfully blamed.

Paul Krugman's Nobel Prize in Economics is as much deserved as Obama's Nobel Peace Prize.

You explained perfectly

Completely agree about the economic aspect. However, how much of the cases/deaths can be attributed to cultural issues? Not all societies value the rights/liberties of the individual over "social harmony" the way many Americans do, plus there is a deep distrust of the government, partly derived from the very nature of how this country was founded. We're not the only ones with these issues, but many societies wouldn't have such a high number of their citizens claiming that personal liberty is a valid reason to refuse to wear a mask.

Damn this hitta spittin!!!

Preach!

Yup.

I am starting to believe that we haven’t heard Dr. Wolff speak about the GME situation because he believes it may well result in the huge market crash he has been predicting and he’s now making his own preparations.

Would love you to have a discussion with the proponents of Modern Monetary Theory.

Get em Sir.

What the COVID pandemic has shown the world is that some countries as to how they are run were dangerously unprepared for this particular global health crisis. As a result, I'm now very concerned about our problematic future in that the complex challenge of climate catastrophe that is now happening to all of humankind will be dealt with in much the same fashion. This upcoming existential event will likely collapse certain economies much sooner than necessary due to particular leaders who lack serious concern for the well-being of the common people, compounded by a lack of self-discipline by their citizenry, again causing much unnecessary human suffering and death.

Haha so Krugman thinks that the corporate socialism -version of capitalism in the US is a result of some natural law? That is pretty funny .

Truth be told

Richard, I would like you to argue with my mother, she is a staunch supporter of the market and a professor of philosophy at a university in Siberia) it's a pity it's impossible) and unfortunately, I love my mom too much)

Please cover what's going on with the military coup in Myanmar.

Comon dawg, you haaave to speak about Gamestop, right? I'm sure you have something to say about GME shorts

... this man Wolff speaks like my high school "political economy" teacher, during the dark years of the Communist regime... I had to turn him off after a couple of minutes. These people come in waves... scary...

Still waiting for Prof Wolff to weigh in on the Gamestop shorting David vs Goliath struggle - My manz over at Reddit doing some fine work taking jabs at the corporatocracy. Would love The Wolff of Main Street's take on this.

Richard Wolff!! 😍😘

Creativity with flexibility is used at capitalism.

SALUTE 💯👍

I like the stock.

I heard we had warehouses full of stuff all across America..

King and Queen Capitalism bow down to thee.

Personally, I skeptical about statistics from the government of China. But that doesn't vitiate your point. The democracies that have done well have governments that "meddled" in the economy in ways that capitalists abhor.

The demise of the US started with St. Ronnie of Reagan who tripled the national debt, encouraged companies to move jobs overseas, enabled the crippling of the unions, helped start the astonishing increase in the wealth of the already wealthy and told people if they didn't have work where they lived they should basically abandon their largest asset, their home. by having to sell out at crappy prices. A man who had never really worked a day in his life told the working men and women to get stuffed. He had more people indicted, found guilty and sent to prison than any other president in history. We can only wonder what the real record for Trump would have been had he managed to get elected a second time. I'm guessing he would have beaten Reagan by a huuuge margin. And by the way, of the wealthy people in this country 60% of them inherited their money, including Mr. Drumpf. They made money the old fashioned way, they waited for Mommy and Daddy to die, and in Trump's case cooked the books so he got the largest percentage of Daddy's wealth. They did NOT earn it.

(Part 1)PRACTICAL WAY TO CREATE JOBS, AND REDUCE LOCAL TAXES , WITHOUT PRINTING MONEY. An economy based, on speculation and not on productivity, will never fix grave problems that affect people's live. This is why the USA, have been failing, to create well paying jobs, reduce the cost of living, attract money from abroad and cut local taxes etc In this context, we shall consider.GDP growth and stock market amazing performance, does not mean the real economy is working. Instead it shows how the speculative economy and wealthy people is doing well. Do not forget, The 95% of the remaining ones will improve their lives , only when the competition in the labor market, will determine companies to pay better wages and Concomitant,the market in sectors where people have been paying high prices for certain products and services , must work. Like that, folks will pay less for rent, house, energy , transportation, utilities, education , health care, etc Therefore, the metrics that shows if people are living better or no, is not given by GDP and stock market , as Trump beleaves. Citizen's lives shall improve , only when they receive better wages, and pay less for rent, house, food, utilities, energy, education, healt care, transportation. The good news is that, if they are paying high prices,for a given product or service, that means the respective sectors, offer viable businesses opportunities. However, if companies are applying high prices for given products or services and yet, authorities, do not stimulate other players, to compete in the market, that means we have corruption or incompetence. Unfortunatly, instead the FED and authorities, apply what proved science recommend, to fix the respective problems, they commit always the same destructive mistake. Printing money, applying abusive local taxes, etc Why they use to proceed like that? Because, by printing money, in less than a minute, they shall manipulate, both GDP, Stock marked and claimed that they solve the problem. How is that possible? After the cash is printed, it will be budgeted as governing spending and the stupid GDP , will demonstrate, that the Nation, benefited from economic growth.Unfortunately, people will beleave, they solved the problem, and politicians will obtain their vote . To better understand the matter I will invite you to Admmit, the FED printed money and the GOV, budgeted 3 trillions as GOV spending. Suppose, they send all the cash outside the Nation , without using any dollar in the USA. Did you see the manipulative picture? The GDP will growth, just because they wrote in the paper, that the money, will be used as GOV spending.That means, in less than a minute, a Nation is capable to generate a fictive GDP, even if the money is not used in the economy .The only thing that have to be done, is to write it, on the paper, as GOV spending. Therefore, the stupid GDP , does not improve, due to economic activities, but because the money, is written on the paper, as GOV SPENDING.From that moment, no matter how it shall be utilized, GDP will increase and politicians will foolish people, saying that the economy is doing great. To descourage that 70% of printed or borrowed, money, budgeted as Gov spending, supposed to be included in the GDP equation, with the minus signal. Otherwise , Gov will continue to use the same method, to manipulate the GDP, Stock market and hide a profound economic crisis. Even Donald Trump , use it to manipulate the GDP and stock market and claimed that under his administration, the USA had the best economy in the world, and that was not true. If the economy, was doing well, under Donald Trump admnistration, people supposed to pay in every month, less for rent, food, house, energy, utilities, health care, education and transportation. That is evident. When an economy is working well, it is able to generate competition in the market and determine companies to apply fair and correct prices. That means more players are involved in the competition and more jobs are create. As a positive fact the labor market, will face a beneficial competition and be determined, to pay better wages. Unfortunately, that did not occur during Trump admnistration. Folks have the bills, they paid since 2017. Since , instead they started to pay less for them, they even support high costs, that means, the economy was not working, instead it was helping monopolies, to apply high prices and obtain more money from the people. In addition, Trump did not recommend states, to implement certain projects, designed to obtain enough money from abroad. Like that states could had reduced local taxes. Did you see the beneficial picture? By reducing costs, with rent, transportation, house , energy, local taxes, food, education, healt care, people could had lived decently and saved money. Unfortunately that did not happen.By the contrary, statistics published in 2018 showed that more than 70 % employees were living from pay check to pay check. That demonstrates , the USA was facing a tough crisis Therefore, IF JOE BIDEN WANT TO FIX THE PROBLEMS, THAT TRUMP, FAILED TO, HE MUST AVOID COMMITING THE SAME MISTAKES In addition if he intend to build back and better while fixing climate change problems he shall start, by recommending the states, to pass bills, designed to attract billions from other Nations and create millions of jobs. The good news is that, Educations institutes are able to obtain billions, through endowments. Therefore, grave problems that affect the USA, shall be fixed without any FED and financial opperation.That is obvious. Remember Educations institutes, have already billions obtained thought endowments and they can any time attract more resources.Because of that we do not need to print money to fix the problems because what Educations institutes have and can attract are . enough to finance activities that will permit them to bring trillions of dollars, from other Nations. The procedure is simple Joe Biden shall, cut funds to all the states and recommend them to pass a bill, designed to oblige Educations institutes, to implement specific projects designed to attract trillions from other Nations and create dozens millions of well paid jobs. Like that, every state, while receiving less money from the GOV, they will contribute, to help the Nation to reduce its DEBT, deficit and negative trade balance . In terms of good governance, this is what have to be done. There is no other effective alternative to fix the problems.I Alberto Rodrigues I shall challanged any Harvard Stanford PhD POS doctorals or even Nobel prices winners, and demonstrate them, that they can not find a better solution to fix the problems.In fact they know that and they are also conscious that the procedure to print money, is used only to manipulate GDP and the Stock market. Given that creating jobs in every state, while reducing the Nation's DEBT, DEFICIT and negative trade balance, is extremely importante, States, must established severe punishment, for Educations institutes, that may fail to reach established goals. For example If Educations institutes, that deals with pupils over 14 and students, are not able, to attract enough revenues from abroad, both the professors and admnistration stuff, must, go to jail. Until then, as a soft punishment, they can be sent in the first step, to work in agriculture fields. That is evident.If they do not have academic competence , that shall help the nations to reach such importante objectives, they must try new skills, in Agriculture. In a next doc , I will present a list of objectives and projects that Educations institutes , shall implement. The good news is that, several of them are based on activities, where money invested Monday, shall start to bring high profit Friday , and create a relative huge number of jobs in every state. This mean that is less than 70 days a relative huge number of jobs shall be created in all the states In a next doc I will explain how that is possible. Until then you have to consider The USA economy is based on speculative activities and not on productive ones. Since Speculative businesses does not create jobs, and neither motivate people to open new business, it does not help the economy Furthermore, print money to stimulate consumption is profound harmful.That is understandable.Remenber the USA consumption is based on China products.Therefore ,printing money to stimulate consumption, will bring more benefit to China than to the USA. In addition, printing money to encourage investments, is not the best solution, because the money shall be used to finance, unviable activities, or sectors that create pollution. Because of that, the FED, Banks, and financial institutes opperation, does not offer effective solutions, to fix grave problems, that affect the USA This is why, I Alberto Rodrigues as an experienced academic I decided to present an effective , and practical solution to fix the problems.

"these are LAME" 😂

my favorite critique of Paul Krugman: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-QaGLqklh-4A.html

I am a fan of socialism and Dr. Wolff--I always look forward to his videos--and I am no fan of capitalism. But I have to suggest that America's poor covid-19 response, and the subsequent economic debacle it created, were not specifically due (though probably made worse by) the problems of capitalism, but primarily due to the lack of constructive leadership in the Executive Branch of the U.S. government (i.e. Traitor Trump). I arrive at this hypothesis by simple political algebra: Would these two disasters have been one tenth as bad if we had a different president (say, Joe Biden, for example)? The answer I give myself is No.

Some capitalist economies were able to succesfully face the crisis. So, more than an intrinsic capitalist failure, it's the particular brand of capitalism that is prevalent in the USA, the real problem.

Paul Krugman: professional economics misunderstander.

It aint even a black swan, could have been identified, and planned for. But . . . . n . . . o. . . .

We were in decline prior to the covid actual..The Responsibility for this is lost on the joke of economic because of the zero trades and shut down of manufacturing company.. That trump walk away from.

American capitalism is particularly dysfunctional.

Event201, tell all of us the disaster of Capitalism and corporate state, and more than incapacity is the sh...t mentality corporate and employer has, do nothing with the incomes from State for the folks and for employees. Greed + incapacity YES

Prof Wolff's silence on the Gamestop short squeeze doesn't sit right with me. Does he not see that this is a big moment with revolutionary potential? I thought he would be all over this issue. But he's not. Any guesses as to why?

blame games

Wolff critiques Krugman. Alternate title: can two wrongs make a right?

In capitalism we do not have monopolies The USA economy is controlled by monopolies.

Every video always in between two lamps not lit and books in background he never picks up or references

Left must lead the people!. go DR WOLF! GO DR HEDGES! GO MR SECRETARY!.

An economy resulting from a natural disaster is a bad excuse for human failure!

Everything we eat and drink or houses and cars all comes from capitalism capitalism can get very harsh

I AGREE FOR THE MOST PART, BUT THIS CV 19 WAS CREATED BY SUB-HUMANS, ETC ETC...

@#:$$ Krugman and NYT.

They even have a special term for this: an "Act of God" ;)

IM getting all these so called new videos that ive already seen unless hes just going over what hes already said in a past video

The Wolff needs to debate Shapiro!

Beefcake.

I often wonder how your Nobel winning colleague and classmate this is so so wrong about this.

How did PRC solve the problem of recent wave of covid, in the countryside of Hebei province? They sent in police, rounded up the people of whole villages, then shuttled them by big bus, to quarantine camps, consisting of temporary tin houses, in freezing winter. Should the capitalist US follow the suit, sending people to camps, just in order to solve the problem of pandemic? Even Ethiopia has "done" better than US (if you use the criteria of death by the disease per million population), should US also imitate the anarchical example? On the contrary, Taiwan, another example of capitalist economy, has done much better than PRC (by the same criteria of death by the disease per million population), no lockdown, no quarantine camps. While Prof. Wolf's logic is a bit adolescent, the content of Professor's video sounds very similar to the PRC propaganda. We should remember all two SARS epidemics in history, have originated from PRC. Is that just a coincidence? I don't think so. The socialist central-planning economics has already been experimented, in the Soviet Union, East European countries, PRC, and even to certain extent in India. While the capitalist economies may have occasional crises, the socialist economies in history (the Soviet Union, East European countries, PRC before the open up), and in reality (North Korea) are constant disasters, leading to atrocious human tragedies, unprecedented in the history.

I would disagree. So we had a force to reduce cost. Its a constant. I was in farming. 100 years ago it was primary. Many lived well on a quarter. My grandfather grew the farm with small 8 foot implements a tiny yard tractor and horses. We have a video of them stooking wheat. He and the family grabbing piles tying them and making a teepee. Going along in the video they made it about 100 feet. Grandpa had 700 acres. Larger than a mile by a mile. That video was just prior to 1950. Grandpa had ambition and was a sizeable farm for the time. Today the large grain farmers have 30,000 acres. A square mile is 640 acres. I work for an international company and we have a local customer list. Customers over 10,000 acres go into a separate binder. What I am telling you is in 1940 many farmers were 160 acres with 20 acre fields. So today in 2021 fields are not smaller than 160 acres and big guys have 320 and 640 acre fields. The work force needed has dropped. Many big farmers have one steady employee. Back in 1940 to thresh grain required a crew. Even the combines required lots of people. So 1940 required at least 6 people to harvest where today almost no farmer hires anyone. Technology was announce last year to eliminate more people for the really big farmers. Fully automated tractors without any operator. Its already tested and models built. Automation made this change. Lets say you could harvest 160 acres with 4 people in 1950. Today you can harvest 5000 acres with 2 people. Up more than 30x productivity with half the labor. I worked at a cheese plant that closed its factory cause it built a new one. In the 80's it produced 10,000lbs max a day with 40 employees. In 2010 it produced 100,000lbs cheese max a day with less than 30 employees. The new plant has less than 20 employees producing 500,000lbs max cheese a day. A pound of cheese employees almost no one. So the first slow constant push has been automation. Its not destroying us rather it makes our lives much better. Less injuries and less fatigue. Covid was a tipping point. The problem is with all the services shut down people have come to realize its not needed. We've gone a year without fast food and now we don't miss it. Our disposable society was creating mindless work. Now people see that working a job to drop funds at restaurants and relentless toys doesn't produce gratification. We are happy enough at home. So now I check American unemployment and it seems very low considering covid. Why not have a public out cry for real numbers? Why don't they want to know how many are chronically unemployed and underemployed? They don't want to know and more importantly they don't want the rest of the world to know. Beyond unemployment is under paid. Many senior citizens supplement their income at the only place hiring fast food and discount box stores. Its not enough to live on though. I am told some are trying to maintain 60 hour work weeks between two jobs. The rest of the world is moving towards living well at 25 - 30 hours a week and USA is burning out their workforce at 60. America doesn't have a capitalist issue they have a moral issue. Why not have fast food people paid above utter poverty? Why not pay vacations out of company income? Why not allow sick and suffering free health care? What is the cost to free healthcare well what is the cost to not doing it? What is the cost to not having a workforce in health ready to work? The cost is crime. People unable to fit into the system and are forced for survival outside the system. Lets say out of sheer desperation a father mules drugs so his son gets medical treatment, do you realize after he begins breaking his moral ethics he has an easier time doing it in the future? The ethics of individualism says others don't matter just me and my world. That draws into the neighborhood and leaves society with less... American me issues and greed have lead down a one way path. Talked to a pastor who figures its their fault and helping increases their issue. Anyone can easily make it in America he says and thats why they want to come here. WRONG they come here cause they don't want to die and they risked death to get here. Anyway immigrants are not the issue rather greed and stubbornly doing the same thing without getting results is. Its not losing your income that is the issue its many American families are losing their status