Economic Update: Government Deficits; Why They Happen, Who Benefits From Them, and MMT

This episode was recorded in June this year and Professor Wolff explains what deficits are and why the capitalist system enables and invites employers to cause them. He then proceeds to explain how deficits both solve specific problems of capitalism while also causing others. Over time, problems accumulate to undermine the credit of the US and bring economic crisis. Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) is shown to offer one way out of the crisis by changing how money is created. 

Economic Update with Richard D. Wolff is a DemocracyatWork.info Inc. production. This video was produced by Democracy at Work and published on their YouTube channel on the 25th of August, 2025.

To read the transcript of the interview: Economic Update: Government Deficits; Why They Happen, Who Benefits From Them, and MMT

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ABOUT RICHARD D. WOLFF

Richard D. Wolff is the founder of Democracy at Work and hosts the show Economic Update there. He is Professor of Economics Emeritus, University of Massachusetts, Amherst where he taught economics from 1973 to 2008. Earlier he taught economics at Yale University and at the City College of the City University of New York. Wolff was also a regular lecturer at the Brecht Forum in New York City. He is currently a Visiting Professor in the Graduate Program in International Affairs of the New School University in New York City.