On today’s show, host Allen Ruff talks about the state of the US in the world economy with economist Richard D. Wolff. They discuss the sweeping cuts in the federal workforce, how the US is isolating itself through Trump’s tariffs, the value of the dollar, Trump’s threat to Social Security, and the 2017 tax cuts to the rich that lead to the US government’s borrowing from corporations and the wealthy.
Wolff says that we’re seeing the end of the American Empire. From WWII to the early twenty-first century, the US enjoyed global dominance. But all empires fall, though Americans have a bad habit of pretending this isn’t true, says Wolff. Now, China is in ascendance in the Global South, and other countries are rethinking the financial standing of the US. Wolff says that this doesn’t mean the world is coming to an end, but it is a powerful reality that we have to face.

Richard D. Wolff is Professor of Economics Emeritus, University of Massachusetts, Amherst where he taught economics from 1973 to 2008. He is currently a Visiting Professor at the New School University, New York City. Wolff is the co-founder of Democracy at Work and host of their nationally syndicated show “Economic Update.” His most recent book is Understanding Capitalism.
Featured image remix of photo of Richard D. Wolff from 2025 via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 3.0).
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