The Real News

Discussing the roots of the economic crisis, economist and author Richard Wolff says, "we took on a level of debt that no working class in any country at any time in the history of this planet had ever did before, and the result is that you build an economy on a house of credit cards." He continues to say that, "the fundamental issue is that we've run out of ways to keep this going, the wages are not going up and the credit is now tapped out."

Will Obama's stimulus solve the crisis? Pt1

Wolff: Stimulus won't succeed if the structural changes that lowered wages are not addressed

A house of credit cards Pt2

Wolff: Low wages, weak unions and consumer culture led to an economy built on a house of credit cards.

Bio
Richard D. Wolff is an Economist, Author, and Professor Emeritus of Economics at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and New School University. He has also been a visiting professor at the University of Paris I (Sorbonne). He has authored or co-authored 10 books including The Economics of Colonialism, Bringing It All Back Home: Class, Gender and Power in the Modern Household, and Rethinking Marxism. His recent work has concentrated on analyzing the causes and alternative solutions to the current global economic crisis.