In this interview with Professor of Economics Emeritus (University of Massachusetts), Marxist economist and founder of Democracy at Work, Richard D. Wolff, we talk to him about bankruptcy protection, debt jubilee, students debt and the function that a credit system serves in our society today.
- Why are individuals guaranteed bankruptcy protection and nation states aren’t?
- What is debt jubilee? What relevance does debt jubilee have in today’s day and age?
- Why are students and working class people taking on more and more debt?
- Why are students particularly vulnerable to predatory lending?
- Are banks using debt as a mechanism of control?
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We’ve borne witness to a chaotic first few months in Trump’s presidency.
Over the last months, each executive order has delivered shock and bewilderment — a core part of a strategy to make the right-wing turn feel inevitable and overwhelming. But, as organizer Sandra Avalos implored us to remember in Truthout last November, “Together, we are more powerful than Trump.”
Indeed, the Trump administration is pushing through executive orders, but — as we’ve reported at Truthout — many are in legal limbo and face court challenges from unions and civil rights groups. Efforts to quash anti-racist teaching and DEI programs are stalled by education faculty, staff, and students refusing to comply. And communities across the country are coming together to raise the alarm on ICE raids, inform neighbors of their civil rights, and protect each other in moving shows of solidarity.
It will be a long fight ahead. And as nonprofit movement media, Truthout plans to be there documenting and uplifting resistance.
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