Economic Update: Pandemic Capitalism:: A View From Asia

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Economic Update: Pandemic Capitalism:: A View From Asia
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Democracy At Work
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[S10 E30] Pandemic Capitalism:: A View From Asia

**Economic Update is a @Democracy At Work  production. We make it a point to provide the show free of ads. Please consider supporting our work. Donate one time or become a monthly donor by visiting us at democracyatwork.info/donate or become a patron of Economic Update on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/economicupdate. Your contributions help keep this content free and accessible to all. Now more than ever, sharing Prof. Wolff's message is critical.

On this week's show, Prof. Wolff discusses corruption of public workers' pensions, capitalist contracts displaced by legal fights, Canada's COVID-19 record vs US, retail apocalypse deepens, and Bezos vs 50 homeless people in Pittsfield. On the second half of the show, Prof. Wolff interviews economist and former UN Assistant Secretary General, Jomo Kwame Sundaram.
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240 Comments
Auggie Giuseppe
Add a public comment...
Deep Thought
Deep Thought
9 hours ago
Mr Bezos could be the worlds greatest humanitarian if he wanted.

39


Arch ibald
Arch ibald
9 hours ago (edited)
Considering he made $13 BILLION in ONE DAY during the pandemic I think $20 billion is rather conservative.

28


Kooi Seng Chng
Kooi Seng Chng
8 hours ago
America is a conflicted country.  It began with the arrival of Europeans.  Genocide followed, then slavery and racism.  Not satisfied with local conflicts, America started to have conflicts with other countries in every continent.  All the above have continued up to today.  What a slander to democracy and freedom of speech. etc.  The rest of the world is watching with fear as Pompei lets off tirade after tirade against America's "enemies", namely China, Russia, Iran Venezuela. America has become a huge gangster enclave and Trump the chief gangster, although a rather stupid one.

24


Rabishankar Pal
Rabishankar Pal
9 hours ago
25 bn USD earned amidst Global Pandemic 2019 shows how capitalism has become the one sided game. The game played by a handful at the cost of many is very very disturbing.

31


Dave A.
Dave A.
9 hours ago
We here in the USA must rid ourselves of corrupt plutocracy or our nation will fall further into ruin!

37


puffcrusader696
puffcrusader696
9 hours ago
We love that Brooksian internationalism!

22


Amy Dalzell
Amy Dalzell
8 hours ago
Good for you! AOC danced successfully around every possible third rail  and, in doing so, spoke for multitudes.

11


Bradley Popoff
Bradley Popoff
8 hours ago
The FIRE (Finance, Insurance, Real Estate) are the biggest scam going. They are a drain on any economy.

6


Cheryl Brandon
Cheryl Brandon
5 hours ago
NB.
President Xi Xing Ping had much more sick people to sort out than and, billions to keep safe. He and his medical people and citizen were able to handle, without any outside help. So, why is US finding it so difficult to handle a virus which can give you a long sore throat to a hard to treat viral type pnuemonia which is not responding to certain antibiotics??? CLUE; PRESIDENT XI XING PING IS ACTUALLY INTERESTED IN TREANTING AND CURING PEOPLE, AS FAST A POSSIBLE. HE WAS INTERESTED IN THEIR HEALTH.CHUMP AND HIS BILLIONAIRES IN CONGRE$$ CARE NOTHING FOR AMERICANS. THAT IS THE DIFFERENCE.

4


uopdon
uopdon
8 hours ago (edited)
4:21 uop: The People are The Goverment ~ Put your idea in the Crowd Fund but, this is how we should decide, democratically, what to do with the 20 million we just got from appling the first mechanism to Jef ... This is how democracy works:

1. The first mechanism is a fair tax levied on all business. Tax should never be a burden, if you pay more tax it's because you're earning more money. There only needs to be one tax on a willing exchange of goods or services, including employment.

 2. The second mechanism is the distribution of this fund, proportioally and entirely, to the people, who can spend in The People's Congress, which is administered through a Public Crowd Fund, where Public Campaigns are run as Public Businesses. People who participate in spending their allocation of money are The Government, the involved members of the society, and the entirety of that money is spent according to the filter of The Government.

You can spend your money/vote however you please in The Congress (the crowd fund) but it has to be spent (the money is real time an must reenter the economy through this distribution). Individually you can choose any campaign you like, or even start your own. You could give it to a political party (who are themselves campaigns in The Congress, basically a business) or charity or agent to manage on your behalf, or you can abstain entirely in which case your part is spent acording to The Filter of The Government, which is those that did participate that month, ie The Democracy is The Government who are The People. How people choose to spend money is a brilliant way of interpreting democracy, the problem becomes that not everyone has an equal vote. The People's Crowd Fund, The Congress, achieves this. I believe with a tool such as this, we could change the world acording to the will of the people ~ it might help us mobilise the power of the will of the people ~ because it not only asks what you buy in to, but gives you the power to do it. If Extinction Rebellion were in the crowd fund, in The Congress, they would get my money.

[uop: recap here:

option 1: let Jeff dedide to do with it ~ let him keep it.
option 2: let Richard Wolff spend it on our behalf.
option 3: distribute the money equally amongst the people of the world, but they have to spend it on public campaigns such as charity, foreign aid, infrastructrue, health, education.... etc

option 3 is an implementation of ... Democracy ... not the fish and chips Tweedist democracy we have now.

4


Alexandro Botelho
Alexandro Botelho
8 hours ago
So what happens schools reopening when the teachers realize their pensions are gone?
What side will the police choose when they realize their pensions are gone?
Me Me Me vs We the People
We haven't united thus far, so maybe if we keep tipping the scale to make more and more people equally broke and homeless, then we'll get it through our heads.

4


Steve Neubeck
Steve Neubeck
18 hours ago
If you took one fourth of his salary it would end homelessness in the U.S. Also many people in housing for the disabled who can live on their own would be moved into zombie housing paid for by Mr.Bezos after being commandeered by municipalities under eminent domain.

7


amrit bansal
amrit bansal
9 hours ago
More of such internationalism needed professor 🙏

30


nuwavghost
nuwavghost
6 hours ago
The theme music for this show sounds like an Eminem Rap song 🤔

2


z0e
z0e
8 hours ago
It's nice when Prof Wolff is telling bad news but it ends up being good news for us Canadians... sorry america

2


Hans Jørgen Furfjord
Hans Jørgen Furfjord
1 hour ago
AOC is a fraud like Bernie. He sees through Bernie but not her?

2


Bisquick
Bisquick
7 hours ago
Haha I knew Mitch was going to be involved...the suspense made me question myself, and then of course , there he is!

Wasn't that guy saved from polio by public health efforts? Paying it forward (to himself).

1


UtubeAW
UtubeAW
1 hour ago
Excellent show!!! 👍

2


Kevin Law
Kevin Law
4 hours ago
two civil intelligent men having a meaningful in depth dialogue, rare sight at this time

1


Keith WOLF Hoskin
Keith WOLF Hoskin
8 hours ago
SALUTE 💪🏿💯👍🏾❤️

2


Konstantin
Konstantin
1 hour ago
I'm looking forward to the interview with Konstantin Semin



Intedujag
Intedujag
7 hours ago
why are you giving praise to liberal turncoats?

1


uopdon
uopdon
7 hours ago
“As, afterall was the wish of, the sun looked down and smiled x the virus that was nineteen had removed a sense of taste and smell, but the next virus ~ the next prime virus, that was twentythree, was set to be a hoot, as c23’s principle effect was going to be to make right handed people left handed and left handed people right handed, at least until they recovered or died from it.” “Graffiti. Scrap from YouTube on YouTube comments. The sun, as afterall was it’s wish, on 2012.10.31 at 4:36 p.m. EDT did this:

https://youtu.be/-9zeRUlUpXs

and let loose a dragon,.. not at the earth directly, but more with intent. Deadly intent. Ejected at near light speeds in her astral form, from her more hermaphroditic incubatory form within the sun, she rode on her wings an enormous magnetic swell to the edge of that egg and as that wave crested, crashing on the shores of that particular dimension of the sun’s heliosphere, she hatched. Later, when she had finished exploring her new space, that part of the mother sun that stretched to the furthest edges of the spectrum of mother’s infulence, and to see the universe beyond, stretching out to other solarsystems, other galaxies, other nows other whens, other what why where’s other hows, untill finally she, sublimely after a fashion, and as only a dragon perhaps could, condensed into something more Dragon. A collection of scraps from her travels, dust from a nebulae in Eriphurides, beetlejuice mushrooms from the shores of Erpland, dark matter from a spice market in Nasqueron, he took on a new form, and with that form direction, back to mother Sun and the troubled planet 3, to deliver the cure.

“https://youtu.be/9BV8X76iLF8



GODrules555
GODrules555
3 hours ago (edited)
0:45  GOD created man and woman equally with each possessing the equality of "The Image Of GOD" that is called "intelligence" that can discover the "Mathematical Equations" that is the language of GOD; therefore, when one enters an empty room and sees a new math formula written on the chalkboard such as two plus two equals four the knowledge is acceptable that it could have been a male or a female that wrote the mathematical equation, and this proves the equality that GOD had intended for man and woman.

However, the system of "MAN" is a narcissistic system that opposes the system of GOD like the growing of free food as far as the eye can see and eat for free from the system of GOD, but the system of "MAN" took that away, and now the Human Beings eat in slavery from "The Tree Of Knowledge Of Good And Evil" called Governments that require you to have the number of man called money in order that you can eat from the tree, and the Human Beings believe eating from this tree will open the Human Beings' eyes and make them wise with knowledge and they will know good and evil and they will now be like GOD; thus, Holy because "The Talking Serpent" called Religions say so, and Religions are "split tongue" speaking in two different directions mixing truth with lies; thus, "The Talking Serpent."

And this makes the system of "MAN" to be called "The Devil" that is the craftiest beast in the garden that cast the Human Beings out of their free garden of Eden of eating for free from the system of GOD, and now the system of "MAN enslaves woman and now she serves man in slavery, and man is enslaved to the system of "MAN" and now man serves Religions and Governments, and Religions and Governments deceive the Human Beings in saying that it is written that woman must serve man, but Human Beings refuse to accept that it is written about what the system of "MAN" does to woman and it is not what GOD has done to woman because GOD created her equal and the system of "MAN" took it away.

And the Human Beings also blame an ANGEL Lucifer for the Human Beings' enslavement, but in truth the ANGEL simply quit representing a species that refuses to eat for free from the system of GOD, and truthfully a species is simply a waste of time if that species does not change and eat for free from the system of GOD, and because the ANGEL quit it was required to replace him with a higher ranked ANGEL in order to replace the ANGEL that quit, and the system of "MAN" murdered that  higher ranked ANGEL revealing that in truth it is the system of "MAN" that opposes the system of GOD and it never has been an ANGEL that opposes the system of GOD just as "Mathematicians" do not oppose mathematics.

And the Human Beings could simply come together as "one united species" of the image of GOD and grow free food as far as the eye can see and eat for free from the system of GOD and the Human Beings will see with their own eyes that absolutely no ANGEL will stop them; however, it is the system of "MAN" that will stop them because the system of "MAN" opposes the system of GOD, and the system of "MAN" thought that his system would make him happy but his system has been unfruitful in that, and now the "Mathematics" have out evolved the system of "MAN" and now the system of "MAN" can bring extinction upon the Human Being species as the list of ways begin to grow and out evolve the foolishness and the failures of the system of "MAN."

And what this Congresswoman named "Ms. Cortez" went through proves just how evil spirited the system of "MAN" truly is and it also exposes the darkness of the evil spirit of narcissism that needs to camouflage itself in Religion, and this makes Religions and Governments "The Great Deceivers" that prostitute out the name of GOD and the name of Christ in order that "The Great Deceivers" can get what they want in life, but in the end it does "not" even bring them to eternal happiness for they are in darkness and they are lost in the evil spirit of "narcissism;" therefore, they require religion in order to convince themselves that they are found in the light of GOD, and because of this they end up deceiving their own heart in truly fulfilling their identity as "The Great Deceivers," and this is the hell that they choose freely with their GOD given freedom of choice, and they have chosen freely their own hell that is the system of "MAN" that is death; thus, the day that you eat from "The Tree Of Knowledge Of Good And Evil" you shall surly die, and now the system of "MAN" can extinct the Human Being species in a numerous number of ways with the list growing longer each day that continues to prove the foolishness and the failure of the system of "MAN" that has been out evolved simply by the successful language of GOD "Itself" called "Mathematics."  For the Word is with GOD and GOD is the Word as "Mathematics" is the language that becomes the voice of GOD it what is called "Mathematical Equations" that the "Image Of GOD" can discover and use freely with their own GOD given freedom of choice, and it is this thing called "MAN" that chose foolishly and created the system of "MAN" with many names of his failure called "The False Prophet" which is the creation of Religion, and "The Devil" which is the creation of a Religious Government, and "The Babylonian Harlot" which is the creation of a Religious Empire, and "Satan" which is the murder of the ANGEL by the system of "MAN" that now evolves the system of "MAN" into "The Antichrist" which is the creation of the "New World Order" of "The Christian Government Roman Empire" that "prostitutes" out the name of Christ in order that the "Christian Government" gets what it wants in life, and "The Dragon" when the system of "MAN" goes to war with himself as the mathematics has out evolved him, and if those days are not cut short all flesh will perish and the Human Being species will be extinct at the hand of the system of "MAN;" proving the words to be true that the day you eat from "The Tree Of Knowledge Of Good And Evil" you shall surly die.

Thus, proving that GOD is "Mathematics with a 'Conscious'" that speaks the five words "I AM WHAT I AM" and the five words "I AM ALPHA AND OMEGA" and the five words "I AM INFINITY TO INFINITY"  EYE 555

Therefore, the sadness truly does fall upon the system of "MAN" in the end for he is a failure to the system of GOD where the system of GOD is freedom with love throughout the Universe(s) that is called "The Tree Of Life."  EYE 5



Cat April Watters
Cat April Watters
5 hours ago
Richard,, make the point about the Fact that we Don't Need the Debt $ to live, That $$ IS Debt, then Jeff Bozo won't be worth Spit.

1


Domingo De Anda
Domingo De Anda
5 hours ago
Good luck with that, most billionaires have EVIL intentions along with most of the do good foundations



Paulo H
Paulo H
3 hours ago
pff, marxism existed for 200 years, thats your "spontaneous system" thats "no alternative"



Mr. Guzman
Mr. Guzman
4 hours ago
Excellent professor.
keep it up! 👍👍👍



Bernard Heathaway
Bernard Heathaway
4 hours ago
Thanks!



Josh Parrott
Josh Parrott
7 hours ago
The Oligarchs have completely removed themselves and their offspring from the food chain from which the rest of U.S. are left to toil; then we are sold this idea that it is a matter of putting in work.  How to succeed individually when blocked by the very socio-economic conditions of the environment?

1


Jack Bradford
Jack Bradford
8 hours ago
And Besos gets a big chunk of money from the taxpayers from the CIA.!!!

3


kate reynaud
kate reynaud
4 hours ago
you are dangerous

1


Red Joe
Red Joe
8 hours ago
I appreciate the information on Jeff Bezos but I’d like to point out that he’s one person with that much money. There’s no way he doesn’t have some kind of group that manages that money and makes the decisions of what to do with it.



Matej Erjavec
Matej Erjavec
6 hours ago
Top



GODrules555
GODrules555
2 hours ago
10:45  On August 3, 2020 you can see why the United States has become such a failure just by comparing the United States with Canada two questions, and the approach will first be simple question of a petty commodity, and the next approach is a question of a dangerous virus; therefore, the failures of the United States can be seen when comparing the answers from the Nation of Canada:

Question One:  "What is 'Recreational Marijuana" United States?"
Question Two:  "What is COVID-19 Coronavirus United States?"

And the United States' response is that marijuana is a dangerous substance comparable to heroin and is a gateway drug to harder drugs and is the devil, and COVID-19 Coronavirus is just like the average flu virus.  And this is the United State in the year of 2020 for the whole World to see.

And now Canada's response to the two questions is that marijuana is a safe commodity that adult Canadians enjoy for recreational purposes and even for medically purposes, and COVID-19 Coronavirus is a very highly contagious virus with a very concerning death ratio.

Now when we leave these two Nations to their answers we go to the mathematics and we see "zero" deaths in "recreational marijuana" proving Canada to be "Mathematically Accurate" and we see the United States approaching 160,000 deaths just from the COVID-19 Coronavirus proving Canada to be "Mathematically Accurate" as well, and we see the United States in complete and utter failure "Mathematically" just in two questions, and this failure will increase even more with more questions, and what is being witnessed it the cowardliness and "Treason" of the United States to allow "Christian Rule" to rule the United States beginning with "Christian Rule" of "Marijuana" in 1937 that simply replaced the "Christian Rule" of "Tea" in 1773 where the true Americans revolted against being ruled by "Christian Rule" where "Christian Rule" demands its words to be worshiped as though the words of "Christian Rule" are words are truths of Christ from GOD which is the "axis of evil" that the United States brought into power to rule the United States, and then the "Treason" in 1937 allowing "Christian Rule" of the United States grew into "Christian Rule" of "The Monetary System" of the United States in 1971 that is called "The Christian '666' Petrodollar" that is the "666" that "enslaved" the United States where the six letters "Dollar" that is the number of man from the six letters "United" and the six letters "States" is "The Christian '666' Petrodollar" claiming it is for Peace under "Christian Rule" of "Petroleum" worldwide, and now to enforce the "666" the United States must get the World on the "666" in order for it to have "value" and this is how the "666" has "enslaved" the United States.

And now the wealth has been taken "away" from the commonwealth to be absorbed by "The Christian Crusades Warmongering Machine" that is to be "prostituted" out to be the Police of the World enforcing and reinforcing and protecting the investments of "Christian Rule" starting with "Petroleum" worldwide, and now the "Treason" of 1937 in just 83 years in the year of 2020 has utterly devastated the United States as the United States "painfully" learns that "Christian Rule" eats its own Empires "inside-out" caused by all the wealth being absorbed by the war machine.

Therefore, "Christian Rule" does not produce much of anything other than the war machine and it charges other Countries for protection, and if Countries refuse "Christian Rule" then that Country is utterly destroyed, and then "Christian Rule" will take what it does like and "Christian Rule" will now turn it into "The Christian Roman Empire" perspective just as it has done with a book titled "The Bible," and just as "Christian Rule" did to the "Petroleum" in Iraq starting in the year of 2003, and book titled "The Bible" is about the bloodlines of Abraham called The Muslims in the lands of "The Bible" and The Jews in the lands of "The Bible" which "Christian Rule" subjugates as second class citizens of the World because "Christians" are a "supreme race" of "The Christian Roman Empire," and it once illegally ruled The Middle East with "Christian Rule" but it lost that power with the fall of Rome in the year of 476, and The Western Culture tried to bring "The Antichrist" called "The Christian Roman Empire" back alive around the year of 700 but the attempt failed; therefore, "The Antichrist" was dead from a fatal head wound and could not be brought back alive.

However, "The Antichrist" called "Christian Government of The Roman Empire" is back alive from the dead of its fatal head wound, and it is thriving from the "Treason" of the United States that began in the year of 1937 with "Christian Rule" of the United States starting with "Christian Rule" of "Marijuana" that simply replaced the "Christian Rule" of "Tea" of 1773 when the Americans revolted against "Christian Rule" and this gave the identity that Americans revolt against "Christian Rule" of anything, and that is why the American Constitution starts off with the words "We The People..." instead of "We Christian Rule...," and now the "666" is taking over the World as now "Christian Rule" is illegally ruling the lands of "The Bible" for the second time, but this time it is with a "666" and the sign of accomplishment was flown in the year of 2003 with the words "MISSION ACCOMPLISHED" which was from the illegal invasion of the lands of "The Bible" starting with Iraq, and now Iraq is also "enslaved" to the "666" in that Iraq has the "666" on Iraq's "forehead" in that Iraq "understands" its slavery to "Christian Rule" when Iraq chooses to "buy or sell," and Iraq has the "666" on Iraq's hand that is the "mark" called "The Christian '666' Petrodollar," and this is "The Mark Of The Beast," and now "The Antichrist" wants to enslave The Caspian Sea to the "666" through The Taliban in Afghanistan, but The Taliban has revolted, and "The Antichrist" wants to enslave Venezuela and Iran to the "666" but they both have revolted as well.

And now in the year of 2020 a Pandemic called COVID-19 Coronavirus has stricken the World and the World is using less of Petroleum than usual, and being that the United States is "enslaved" to the "666" the United States is beginning to plummet into desperation, and if a cure for the Pandemic of COVID-19 Coronavirus is not established the only thing left to increase the sales of "Petroleum" is a major war, and this is the irony in the claim that the "666" is for Peace.  EYE 5



Truly Michael Israel
Truly Michael Israel
1 hour ago
Please Mr. Wolff... please start calling Mr. Bezos what he actually is, "the greediest man on earth!" His every action only goes to prove my claim.



jonwerx
jonwerx
8 hours ago
Very interesting conversation.  Prof. Wolff, in light of your question regarding what possible outcomes could arise, I’m curious what your thoughts are about a potential single currency worldwide digital financial system.  What would you see as the pros and cons to this?  Thanks for your insights.



Jo Blow
Jo Blow
3 hours ago
20B? How bout 159B?



Josh Parrott
Josh Parrott
7 hours ago
The Oligarchs are betting on vaccine companies (like Kodak evidently?!) as if is were a horse race.  I'm full of confidence.



L Willy
L Willy
1 hour ago
LIKE THE  PASS, WHOM WILL WE USE THE TEST VACCINE ON,  PERHAPS  JEFF, BILL, AND ZUCKERBERG. TRUE HUMANITARIAN.  YES?



James Wisrik
James Wisrik
8 hours ago
Senator Mitch McConnell,  got a Gigantic few millions!



Brian Scott
Brian Scott
4 hours ago
Love Professor Wolff, and agree about the disparity between the super wealthy and everyone else. And yet, I wonder what this pandemic would be like without Amazon, UPS and Fedex, only the post office. Then I thought God forbid we couldn't shop and accumulate more possessions. 😁😁 When I go pickup groceries I see people out shopping, parking lots crowded. Seems this country can't slow down well. Too much debt and no rainy day funds. Runaway train? Ah, so many things we could've been. Perhaps we will learn from this and slowly repair the rule of gold and get back to the other golden rule.