we are speaking with the author economist and professor a richard wolf about jobs. we see that help wanted sign everywhere. desperate employers are offering outlandish bonuses a year ago. the $15.00 minimum wage was very controversial. has the market place now mooted that conversation and have these relief payments, which were a lifeline a year ago now. backfired by making people lazy. i don't think so. let's, let's break this down. i do think there is obviously some truth to the surveys that show us that employers are unable to find workers for the jobs that they're offering. and that's an issue. and we have to explain it what the explanations offered range from the insulting to the providers. first, the insulting yes we did work as an extra $300.00 a week for a period of months. under extraordinary circumstances. let's all remember please. that from the month of march of 2020, basically to the president. we have had some thing that the united states has never suffered for we haven't had depressions before, and we have had viral tan damage before. but we have never

goods is rising and corporations are blaming this rise on the rise of minimum wage for better richard wolf join us to cut through all of that propaganda . so stay tuned for watching the whole i me the when i was wrong, when i was just don't any room to fill out the scene because of the after kid. an engagement equals the trail. when so many find themselves, well, the part we choose to look for common ground in the, in the moon the the, the me, while american instantly awaited cities reopening. what they didn't anticipate was the price tag where the u. s. largely shut down for over a year. social outings were a thing of the past. but now as americans with pent up energy rush out to restaurants, bars and other hangouts, they face a rude awakening. cough just keep rising from furniture and cars to be growth and chicken wings. consumer prices have grown rapidly since january 1. corporate could be the complicated supply chain structure that hasn't recovered from the panoramic supply shrinks the demand is exploding. consumer prices have grown 5 percent in the past month. that's the largest jumps

so there's a lot to discuss here and to do so, let's bring in professor richard wolf is the host of economic update and author of the sick. that is the system when capitalism fails to save us from pandemic, se or itself again, professor wolf. i feel like sometimes we get you the segments and it feels like that title, that book just really speaks directly to the conversation. so what do you make of this data? did the pandemic just increase the momentum of all that money moving to the top? absolutely, and if ever a system deserves the labels sick and of course that book was written before. all of this happened. it's that book. i feel like one of those folks who keep saying i told you so nobody wants to hear it, but i told you, so i'm not the only one to say the truth. but let's, let's look at it. started where i'm going to use the united states as my example, but i could use all those other countries you just listed. over the last 16 months . over $85000000.00 americans had to file for unemployment compensation somewhere only unemployed. a few weeks someone employed the entire 16 months, but t

so why is this aps, professor richard wolf is host of economic update and joins us now to discuss. professor glad that you're here. that's breakdown what's happening with these vaccines because it seems that the reason for such a profound inequality largely breaks down to 2 factors. here, rich nation stockpiling vaccines and the difficulties developing nations have faced in distributing them. how do you see it? well, i think it's, you're right, it's those things. but i would add a couple of pharmaceutical companies, many of which got public money in the form of subsidies to develop the vaccine. and all of which were promised enormous purchases by rich government, which took away the risk of doing it on their own. and so they went into that direction, they want to make money, and to make money, you gotta be able to sell these vaccines either to a governmental authority or some private system. poor countries don't have the money and it's very ugly. but it's very simple. they don't have the money. that's not where the money is. you're not going to get the prime prices there for it. that's why w

there's a lot to discuss here and to do so, let's bring in professor richard wolf is the host of economic update and author of the thickness is the system when capitalism fails to save us from pandemic or itself, professor wolf. i usually start these segments with a y or a how, but the truth is we already know the answer. these billionaires are able to work the tax system by moving money here. they're having teams of law, tax lawyers are accountants to work the system. and those who actually respond to the pro public, there were 3 of them, they maintain, they paid what they out. what do you make of all this? well, i would, i would choral if you brand only your language, they don't just work the system. they run the system, they are the ones who pay in the end. they're subsidiaries for the very politicians who write the tax laws this way. when they say we abide by the law, they neglect to tell us they're the folks who shape the law. you're all reporter a few minutes ago correctly pointed out the pages of the latest know and nobody really knows lobbyists right in the law. busy what their em

so joining me now to go further in depth on this is professor richard wolf, host of economic update, and author of the sickness is the system professor, despite warning like this one we're hearing from the federal reserve and the treasury department. they continue to say that they believe inflation will only be a transitory and they're not too worried. should there be more concerned that we could be facing a financial crisis that would be even worse than what we saw in 2008? absolutely. and then to basically use it with all due respect, we don't know the future. i don't know that you don't know it. j. powell doesn't know it. this notion that we can tell you all, don't worry. we will know what happens in the future. that is the most dangerous kind of confidence because it's obviously inappropriate, too many variables could change. we can predict that, and therefore we can predict what's going to happen to inflation number one, number 2, in the particular issue of housing. we now know that the inflation is very extreme in a number of countries so extreme that you're having price moveme

so joining me now to discuss the latest is professor richard wolf, post of economic update and author of the thickness is the system. now, professor, the plan seems to be to pass a traditional package with funding for public transportation, roads, water and power right now. but to keep fighting for what they call human infrastructure funding later on, why do you think we're seeing more? why do you think we're not seeing more of a fight from democrats on measures such as pe, leave childcare and climate change. when we know that they are the ones who hold the majority, well, i think you are seeing kind of political horse trading of the sort that is unfortunately, very common is levels of our government and you're seeing, it's tragic. the economy is in very serious trouble. it has been for the last decade, we had a crash in 2020. we've had the cold it disaster making our problems even greater. it was clear that even donald trump understood you have to spend massive amounts of government money to keep this economy going. i do not exaggerate when i say to people, this is a capitalist econo

joining me now is richard, professor of economics and international bears and co founder of democracy work. good to see you, professor. good to be here. thank you. well, professor wolf, america's broken infrastructure is no secret to anyone. and i know especially not to you. after decades of kicking the can down the road and stronger instances of natural disasters, we've reached crisis mode with 2 infrastructure bills in front of them. what is the democrats play now and can the, by the administration count on a bipartisan bill, actually getting the both it needs and the senate from republican well, what you have are 2 things that are clashing on the one hand, as you rightly say, we have been taking this 10 down the road, the convenient thing was to not spend money on infrastructure in the hopes that people wouldn't notice till the politician couldn't run around saying she didn't raise your taxes. and therefore, you should vote for me because he hoped, or she hoped that you wouldn't notice and couldn't see that the infrastructure that we all the end on the roads, the highways, the bridges, all of that wasn't being taken care of a little bit like what we're learning a

differences there, wolf, but also the potential for scotland and northern ireland to threaten the integrity of the u.k. itself. >> that's obviously really important. president biden, richard, he clearly wants to signal a clean break with the trump era, but there are still some serious issues on which the u.s. and its european allies clearly don't see eye to eye, right? >> oh, absolutely. they don't see eye to eye on how to deal with russia. they don't see eye to eye on how to deal with china. there has been the vaccine issue. a lot of europeans look at american society issues like guns and they shake their heads. there's enormous issues and trade and other things. let's be fair. this president has made the strategic decision he is going to approach the world not youtube unilaterally but from a foundation of america's relationship with its principal allies in europe and asia. >> this time we could say is decades in the making. president biden obviously was deeply involved in foreign policy as a senator for some 36 years, as vice president for 8 years. are we seeing that right now on display? >> absolutely. all those times he would go with john mccain to the munich security