Skip to content Skip to footer

Economic Update: The Economic and Social Costs of Prisons

This episode discusses people forming co-ops in Detroit and Fridley, Minnesota.

Truthout Logo

As we produce journalism that combats authoritarianism, censorship, injustice, and misinformation, your support is urgently needed. Please make a year-end gift to Truthout today.

This week’s episode addresses people forming co-ops in Detroit and Minnesota, Volkswagen’s guilty plea and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s fake numbers, among other stories. The show also includes an interview with Dr. Kimberly Westcott on the history, economics and social costs of the US prison system.

To see more stories like this, visit Economic Update: Your Weekly Dose of Revolutionary Economics

To listen in live on Saturdays at noon, visit WBAI’s Live Stream

Economic Update is in partnership with Truthout.org

Your radio station needs Economic Update! If you are a radio station, check this out. If you want to hear Economic Update on your favorite local station, send them this.

Visit Professor Wolff’s social movement project, democracyatwork.info.

Permission to reprint Professor Wolff’s writing and videos is granted on an individual basis. Please contact p[email protected] to request permission. We reserve the right to refuse or rescind permission at any time.

Our most important fundraising appeal of the year

December is the most critical time of year for Truthout, because our nonprofit news is funded almost entirely by individual donations from readers like you. So before you navigate away, we ask that you take just a second to support Truthout with a tax-deductible donation.

This year is a little different. We are up against a far-reaching, wide-scale attack on press freedom coming from the Trump administration. 2025 was a year of frightening censorship, news industry corporate consolidation, and worsening financial conditions for progressive nonprofits across the board.

We can only resist Trump’s agenda by cultivating a strong base of support. The right-wing mediasphere is funded comfortably by billionaire owners and venture capitalist philanthropists. At Truthout, we have you.

We’ve set an ambitious target for our year-end campaign — a goal of $225,000 to keep up our fight against authoritarianism in 2026. Please take a meaningful action in this fight: make a one-time or monthly donation to Truthout before December 31. If you have the means, please dig deep.