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Capitalism's Crisis Deepens: Essays on the Global Economic Meltdown
Praise for Richard Wolff and Democracy at Work : "Richard Wolff's constructive and innovative ideas suggest new and promising foundations for much more authentic democracy and sustainable and equitable development, ideas that can be implemented directly and carried forward. A very valuable contribution in troubled times."—Noam Chomsky "Richard Wolff is the leading socialist economist in the country. This book is required reading for anyone concerned about a fundamental transformation of the ailing capitalist economy!"—Cornel West "Bold, thoughtful, transformative-a powerful and challenging vision that takes us beyond both corporate capitalism and state socialism. Richard Wolff at his best!"—Gar Alperovitz While most mainstream commentators view the crisis that provoked the Great Recession as having passed, these essays from Richard Wolff paint a far less rosy picture. Drawing attention to the extreme downturn in most of capitalism's old centers, the unequal growth in its new centers, and the resurgence of a global speculative bubble, Wolff—in his uniquely accessible style—makes the case that the crisis should be grasped not as a passing moment, but as an evolving stage in capitalism's history. Richard Wolff is Professor of Economics Emeritus, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and a Visiting Professor at the New School in New York. Wolff's recent work has concentrated on analyzing the causes and alternative solutions to the global economic crisis. His groundbreaking book Democracy at A Cure for Capitalism inspired the creation of Democracy at Work, a nonprofit organization dedicated to showing how and why to make democratic workplaces real.
318 pages, Paperback
First published April 12, 2016
107 people are currently reading
872 people want to read
About the author
Richard D. Wolff
46 books849 followersRichard D. Wolff is an American economist, well-known for his work on Marxian economics, economic methodology, and class analysis. He is Professor of Economics Emeritus, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and currently a Visiting Professor in the Graduate Program in International Affairs of the New School University in New York. Wolff has also taught economics at Yale University, City University of New York, University of Paris I (Sorbonne), and The Brecht Forum in New York City. In 2010, Wolff published Capitalism Hits the Fan: The Global Economic Meltdown and What to Do About It, also released as a DVD. He will release three new books in 2012: Occupy the Economy: Challenging Capitalism, with David Barsamian (San Francisco: City Lights Books), Contending Economic Theories: Neoclassical, Keynesian, and Marxian, with Stephen Resnick (Cambridge, MA, and London: MIT University Press), and Democracy at Work (Chicago: Haymarket Books).
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
July 18, 2016
If you're familiar with Wolff's writings or lectures, this book will be a snappy recap of his core concepts. It will also be a bit redundant. If you're new to Wolff, or Socialism in general, this is an essential work to start with. It answers many questions, and dispels plenty of myths regarding Marx, Socialism, Communism, and Capitalism. Our future in a post-capitalist world is clearly laid out here like an instruction manual. We should all be learning and discussing how to participate in that future.
December 11, 2016
Another brilliant and lucid analysis of Capitalism and alternative responses from Professor Richard Wolff.
Wolff has an easy flowing writing style that is engaging.
Highly recommended.
Wolff has an easy flowing writing style that is engaging.
Highly recommended.
March 5, 2018
A collection of essays on the Meltdown from a Marxist perspective. Activists writers such as Noam Chomsky and Cornel West are fans of Wollf, and I would think progressive politicians like Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren have read him. They say some of the same things, e.g. the evils of income inequality, wage stagnation, globalization (NAFTA and TPP), Austerity Programs, privatized medicine, taxing the middle and working classes while giving the rich a break. Part polemic and part textbook with graphs, table, facts and figures, this work convinced me my support of President Oabama's bailout of 2008 was ill founded. Wollf argues an FDR-type New Deal was badly needed, and he has the statistics to buttress his claims. FDR let inefficient corporations go under and had the government put millions to work. He also created several social programs. Obama ran as a progressive but turned out to be a neoliberal.
The weakness of this book is Wolf's repetitive writing, for example one essay on Austerity instead of few would suffice. And he insists on driving home WSDE's, worker self-directed enterprises that are found in socialists industries. One or two essays would've done the job.
But all things considered, the collection is challenging and will make you think hard and long.
The weakness of this book is Wolf's repetitive writing, for example one essay on Austerity instead of few would suffice. And he insists on driving home WSDE's, worker self-directed enterprises that are found in socialists industries. One or two essays would've done the job.
But all things considered, the collection is challenging and will make you think hard and long.
Read
February 22, 2017This is a great book that articulates the reasons for capitalisms rise, and now troubled condition. While there is a certain repetitive nature to the book (as the essays overlap subject matter and sources) I found it useful to ingrain and understand the same issue from different perspectives. It has a very easy-to-read flow, but I sometimes found it lacking in more immediate and authentic evidence or references which pertained to each essays theme or subject matter. Overall it's a great read for anyone trying to understand how politics, economics, and ideology have constructed the contemporary neo-liberal landscape.
February 5, 2021
Richard Wolff is great, his analysis is very good and he keeps things simple. However, this book as a collection of articles is too long and too repetitive, it should have been 200 pages instead of 400.
August 19, 2018
A collection of Richard Wolff's essays, mostly regarding the current economic climate and possible alternatives. Some of the articles are very similar, I think that some should have been cut from the book as it becomes repetitive.
January 16, 2017
Critical and insightful essays that should be required reading for citizens living in modern democracies. Highly Recommended!
September 20, 2017
When I got this book I knew it was a few years old but thought it would be insightful anyway, given the slow-moving nature of the crisis and subsequent recovery. That proved to be the case but with the fact that it's made up of many short-form articles, they were really quite focused on the specifics of the day and were intent to highlight the lack of progress in the recovery up to those dates in 2012 and 2013. Things have moved on quite a bit since then, although much of what Wolff had to say does still ring true today and in fact foresaw the easing of resistance movements as a result of improvements to employment numbers, despite the fact that conditions and salaries continue to be eroded away little by little.
With the book consisting of a bunch of articles, there is also a lot of repetition, which gets tired at times. For example there are many similar references to the Occupy movement or to the idea of the Worker Self-Directed Enterprise. All in all, it's an interesting read but perhaps you'd be better off picking a selection of the articles to read thoroughly, while skimming the rest.
With the book consisting of a bunch of articles, there is also a lot of repetition, which gets tired at times. For example there are many similar references to the Occupy movement or to the idea of the Worker Self-Directed Enterprise. All in all, it's an interesting read but perhaps you'd be better off picking a selection of the articles to read thoroughly, while skimming the rest.
May 23, 2025
This is such a wonderful book but I'm rounding up from 4.5 stars just because it is SO incredibly repetitive. It took me forever to get through, because there's so much overlap in the arguments between the essays. I love Richard and hearing his thoughts on YouTube, so reading this book was a must for me. His arguments really are timeless, and are arguably more relevant now in the era of DOGE and whatnot. If this book was half as long, it would be an easy 5 stars from me.
November 5, 2019
I've always enjoyed watching and listening to Richard Wolff on YouTube as he has some very interesting things to say about the current economy from a Marxist point of view. I was excited to find this book in a used bookstore. I do prefer listening to Professor Wolff, but this book had some interesting essays.
April 6, 2018
If you have seen Wolff's videos, then some it will sound a bit redundant, but that does not take away from the solid thrust of his ideas and commentary. He is essentially a practical Marxist, which is seemingly rare in any age or era.
Read
September 25, 2017Wolff asserts the current crisis began in the 1970s, when a century of steady increases in the average US real worker wage permanently ceased.
As a result, consumers over-expanded household debt while corporate profits flourished.
What Wolff said about wage stagnation, a crucial element in his overall criticism of capitalism, cannot be supported.
When benefits are added to wages, worker compensation shows steady expansion in nearly every year since 1973.
A record of failure never appears whenever and wherever socialist economies prevailed.
Just as an economic crisis of 1848 helped provoke and shape Marx's original insights, today's crisis helps renew interest in Marxism.
In the century before the 1970s, the victims of capitalism's recurring crises and it's critics increasingly turned toward the work of Marx and other Marxists.
A resurgent capitalism celebrated its renewed strength and the weaknesses of its enemies. In the United States the New Deal already compromised from 1945 to 1970 was systematically undermined.
In the 1970s, a new world of investment opportunities also opened up for multinational capitaliststic enterprises.
Technological changes drove up the productivity of labor and real wages are prevented from rising resulting in an explosion of the capitalist surplus.
1978 to 2008, the United States experienced one of the greatest profit booms in capitalist history.
Capitalism's admirers celebrated while labor, socialism and Marxism weakened and shrank--- unevenly but everywhere.
By the late 1990s, a "New Economy" is a substitute title.
Marxism was becoming a historic relic.
This 'new economy' of Alan Greenspan collapsed in 2008 and people began turning to the old Marx and Marxian tradition for help in understanding the causes for the crisis and in finding solutions.
Anticapitalist impulses shared by nearly all Marxists inform multiple, different and sometimes incompatible theories and arguments.
The author is clear that he uses a particular interpretation of Marxian theory with a focus on the United States, to explain the current crisis.
Starting in the mid 1970s, Real Wages in the United States stopped rising while productivity per workers continued to rise.
Capitalists' employers appropriated surpluses exploded since the workers no longer shared in the rewards of their productivity gains.
It was a time when the Computer revolution displaced U S workers and European and Japanese competitions influenced the shifting of U S corporations to other countries for reduced wages. This resulted in a slowing of demand for workers inside the United States.
Labor market changed. Employers no longer had to raise wages.--- The response was husbands, teenagers and retired workers sought more hours of paid labor. Millions of housewives and mothers entered the labor market.
The total household debt increased from $734 million in 1975 --to $12, 817 billion in 2006.
(I looked up the U. S. population in 1975 = 216 million; U. S. Population in 2006 = 298.4 million)
The post 1970 squeezing of the American worker financed unprecedented prosperity for the U S capitalists, who enjoyed a new "gilded" age.
Topics:
Today's Haunting Specter, or What Needs Doing p. 35
Twenty Years of Widening Inequality p. 40
Neoliberalism in Globalized Trouble p. 44
Evading Taxes, Legally p. 48
Consumerism: Curses and Causes p. 51
Nominating Palin Makes Sense p. 54
Part II Economics of the Crisis
1 Capitalism as a Crisis-Prone System p. 59
Capitalism's Three Oscillations and the US Today p. 60
Financial Panics, Then and Now p. 64
Neoliberal Globalization Is Not the Problem p. 68
Economic Blues p. 72
Capitalist Crisis, Marx's Shadow p. 75
Wall Street vs. Main Street: Finger Pointing vs. System Change p. 79
Quote:
“Elections outside the workplace stand in an ambivalent relation to capitalism’s exclusion of real democracy inside. On the one hand, elections distract people from their conscious and unconscious upsets with working conditions. Elections focus instead on political candidates, parties, and alternative policies around issues other than capitalism versus alternative economic systems and other than their respective working conditions. That is why supporters of capitalism appreciate elections. Well-controlled elections do not question, let alone threaten, capitalism.”
As a result, consumers over-expanded household debt while corporate profits flourished.
What Wolff said about wage stagnation, a crucial element in his overall criticism of capitalism, cannot be supported.
When benefits are added to wages, worker compensation shows steady expansion in nearly every year since 1973.
A record of failure never appears whenever and wherever socialist economies prevailed.
Just as an economic crisis of 1848 helped provoke and shape Marx's original insights, today's crisis helps renew interest in Marxism.
In the century before the 1970s, the victims of capitalism's recurring crises and it's critics increasingly turned toward the work of Marx and other Marxists.
A resurgent capitalism celebrated its renewed strength and the weaknesses of its enemies. In the United States the New Deal already compromised from 1945 to 1970 was systematically undermined.
In the 1970s, a new world of investment opportunities also opened up for multinational capitaliststic enterprises.
Technological changes drove up the productivity of labor and real wages are prevented from rising resulting in an explosion of the capitalist surplus.
1978 to 2008, the United States experienced one of the greatest profit booms in capitalist history.
Capitalism's admirers celebrated while labor, socialism and Marxism weakened and shrank--- unevenly but everywhere.
By the late 1990s, a "New Economy" is a substitute title.
Marxism was becoming a historic relic.
This 'new economy' of Alan Greenspan collapsed in 2008 and people began turning to the old Marx and Marxian tradition for help in understanding the causes for the crisis and in finding solutions.
Anticapitalist impulses shared by nearly all Marxists inform multiple, different and sometimes incompatible theories and arguments.
The author is clear that he uses a particular interpretation of Marxian theory with a focus on the United States, to explain the current crisis.
Starting in the mid 1970s, Real Wages in the United States stopped rising while productivity per workers continued to rise.
Capitalists' employers appropriated surpluses exploded since the workers no longer shared in the rewards of their productivity gains.
It was a time when the Computer revolution displaced U S workers and European and Japanese competitions influenced the shifting of U S corporations to other countries for reduced wages. This resulted in a slowing of demand for workers inside the United States.
Labor market changed. Employers no longer had to raise wages.--- The response was husbands, teenagers and retired workers sought more hours of paid labor. Millions of housewives and mothers entered the labor market.
The total household debt increased from $734 million in 1975 --to $12, 817 billion in 2006.
(I looked up the U. S. population in 1975 = 216 million; U. S. Population in 2006 = 298.4 million)
The post 1970 squeezing of the American worker financed unprecedented prosperity for the U S capitalists, who enjoyed a new "gilded" age.
Topics:
Today's Haunting Specter, or What Needs Doing p. 35
Twenty Years of Widening Inequality p. 40
Neoliberalism in Globalized Trouble p. 44
Evading Taxes, Legally p. 48
Consumerism: Curses and Causes p. 51
Nominating Palin Makes Sense p. 54
Part II Economics of the Crisis
1 Capitalism as a Crisis-Prone System p. 59
Capitalism's Three Oscillations and the US Today p. 60
Financial Panics, Then and Now p. 64
Neoliberal Globalization Is Not the Problem p. 68
Economic Blues p. 72
Capitalist Crisis, Marx's Shadow p. 75
Wall Street vs. Main Street: Finger Pointing vs. System Change p. 79
Quote:
“Elections outside the workplace stand in an ambivalent relation to capitalism’s exclusion of real democracy inside. On the one hand, elections distract people from their conscious and unconscious upsets with working conditions. Elections focus instead on political candidates, parties, and alternative policies around issues other than capitalism versus alternative economic systems and other than their respective working conditions. That is why supporters of capitalism appreciate elections. Well-controlled elections do not question, let alone threaten, capitalism.”
September 22, 2017
Lots of good stuff said, but the format (short essays) were unnecessarily and agonizingly repetitive.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews