Austerity and Neoliberalism in Greece with Richard Wolff and Barry Herman | The New School

Development, Thought and Policy Lecture Series: Austerity and Neoliberalism in Greece, sponsored by the Julien J. Studley Graduate Program in International Affairs (www.newschool.edu/public-engag..., at the Milano School of International Affairs, Management, and Urban Policy (www.newschool.edu/milano). GPIA Professors Richard Wolff and Barry Herman share their insights, led by chair and moderator Achilles Kallergie, PhD Candidate in the GPIA program.
What austerity is about is shifting the burden of an economic crisis from one part of the population to another. The mass of Greek people did not force Andreas Papandreou to borrow money. The mass of the Greek people didn't know about or have much to do with fiscal policy at the national level. In fact, governments, bankers, leading industrialists, ship builders, the major players of the Greek economy, got together, as their counterparts did elsewhere, to produce the decisions that then, in the wake of the international collapse of capitalism, became unsustainable, producing a crisis in Greece. Once that had happened, there was only one question left: Who was going to pay the cost of all the debt Greece has run up or all the production decisions made that have left Greece without the capacity to export, with a dependence on imports etc.? And at that point, as has happened in every country - Greece is in no way unique - the wealthy and the business community went to work, with their resources and their business connections, to make sure that they didn't pay the price.
THE NEW SCHOOL | www.newschool.edu
Location: Room A404, Alvin Johnson/J.M. Kaplan Hall
Wednesday, May 6, 2015 at 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm

[@joanmeijer]

I am a HUGE Richard Wolff fan.....

[@fiddleferme]

I really enjoyed the lucid brilliance of Wolf. His level of understanding here is so great that he can explain the terrible mess in which we find ourselves with simple language and logic. Didn't Einstein have a saying about this ability?

[@dragonslayer7627]

That was Great.Richard Wolff is a phenomenon. He sees everything.

[@storyspice974]

Richard wolff talks as if he's telling a story. I think that's why i was so engaged

[@SuSchindlervegantrucker]

1:01:00 Great endorsement for visiting Camden, NJ. Don't skip Atlanta Ave. Take plenty of food.

[@jeffantonson5353]

I was there. Professor Wolff sees what many cannot grasp in their psyche

[@mickygarcia4251]

Jeff Oden Agreed. It's hard to see something when it means you'll have to change the way you live if you see it.

[@finalfrontier001]

Jeff Oden Say Hello to Detroit

[@nlsupernovaable]

Don't you think this is strange? I saw this happening 20 years ago. Thats why i didn't go to school anymore and never bothered with a career or children. Or tv for that matter. But sadly enough how much you try to open peoples eyes, people treat you like your from another planet. To me this is nothing else then logic and finding corelations. It makes you feel like you're living in some kind of matrix. Causing depressions and doubting your own sanity. I always wonder how it would be to live the naive life the rest of the world does. How do you deal with that? I still have a general hate for sheeple who just followthe rest of the pack. In other words, 90% of the population.

[@garybsg]

Jeff Oden THIS IS MAN IS A 100% LEFT WING HACK. HERE IS THE TRUTH HE IS HIDING: 1. LEFT WING GOVERNMENTS BUILD BIG WELFARE STATES (LIKE GREECE) 2. EACH YEAR, THE WELFARE GROWS AND EACH YEAR THEY BORROW MORE 3 NEVER LIVING WITHIN THEIR MEANS BUT JUST KEEP BORROWING 4 WHEN BANKRUPTCY COMES, BLAME CAPITALISM, GERMANY, THE EU,.....

[@mickygarcia4251]

How is it that you do not see the logical fallacies within your own argument? 1) Dr. Richard Wolff is a Marxian economist. He states that clearly. It is the basis of everything he talks about. How does that equate to him "hiding" anything? 2) Greece's economy is not the result of Marxism, it is the result of capitalism. 3) Greece doesn't live within its means and it keeps borrowing to finance an unsustainable economy, which is becoming impossible hence the "Grexit." 4) Have you ever played "Monopoly?" The very idea of the game to is bankrupt the other players. It is the model of capitalism we use to teach children how it works.

[@scin3759]

Great speakers, and so clear. One point, should the fact that financial organizations like Goldman Sachs deceitfully lied about the credit worthiness of Greece and let them to think they were solvent enough to join the E. U. not be a point of discussion? Thanks.

[@robertmccuiston1535]

Great Work everyone to educate the public

[@mycellbiz]

The poor give to the rich and the rich say it's not enough. Reminds me of a scene in SG1, when the peasants brought gifts to Ra he grew angry an said how dare you insult your god then had one of them shot for their insolence. When you live in a country where you have to pay $100 per month to watch TV, same thing!

[@thenewschool]

Listen to Richard Wolff on the dire prospects for Greece in the absence of debt forgiveness: kzbin.info/www/bejne/rZ-9lIisnLhros0

[@Ryan-nr8ip]

Mr Herman, please acquire some tips from Mr Wolff about how to make an effective presentation. Sorry, no disrespect is meant, however, there are lots of lessons to be learnt when facing an audience. To begin with, one stands up unless your shoulder problem has affected your spine.

[@denisethuman8153]

Wow, wow, wow! So very comprehensive, thank you for your knowledge and grasp of this world situation.

[@totonow6955]

"Unspeakably obscene" there you have it global citizens.

[@tomgreg2008]

Very interesting. Thanks for posting this!

[@sallanne123rt]

Surely jobs are the one thing that will not be available to human beings due to a preference for cheaper and more effective robotic labour. Even doctoring can be rendered to a software platform. All white collar work is eventually threatened. Drivers of all kinds, warehouse work, till operators, counter staff, telephone staff. The whole lot is cheaper to automate. The profit principle of business will force these decisions to use the best and cheapest labour. I see no alternative to a basic guaranteed income or the capitalists go broke because there is no waged customer, plus no tax to divert to them either.

[@anapego62]

He Knows so well what we are dealing with.Disruption, and a great mess.The chaos is going on and on consuming debt.

[@thenewschool]

Listen to Richard Wolff on the irony of the German opposition to offering debt forgiveness for Greece: kzbin.info/www/bejne/sKSvnYCVnpyFndE

[@thenewschool]

Thanks for your viewership. The event date is listed at the bottom of the video description, click on "SHOW MORE" to access the full body of text.

[@jessejames4960]

The New School

[@anonymousee716]

no, governments who are monetarily sovereign choose to engage in loans and debt. there is no real reason they can't just create the money that they need to spend on the things that the people want, except custom. the limiting factor is: what services do the People want and what resources do we have? not money. for places (NOT Greece) whose governments create the money, money is not a limiting factor. so here in the U.S., we should all be asking our politicians why they have been giving the military, the corporations and the rich owning classes everything that they want, and the common people they simply cut the programs and then say "and you are responsible for this debt". it's a snowjob, an political con. the politicians don't WANT to give us the services our resource base could provide for everyone. and they get away with it because all of the common people are at each other's throats over "you got a free lunch, and i worked and you don't deserve a free lunch" while the rich laugh all the way to their investment bankers and estate planners.

[@Mike-xn8yt]

It's so painful to watch Barry Herman speak. Richard Wolff is brilliant but I worry he is before his time. I guess time will tell.

[@certaindeed]

Brilliant to why governments build up debt. Perfect...simple...truthful.

[@Byzantios1]

The European Uninion, Eurozone have been a disaster in concept as well as in ractice, both politically and economically.

[@SermonsSubtitled]

11:00 "How are you going to deliver to the 2 groups: the one that gives you the votes and the one that gives you the money? Both don't want to pay (high) taxes" --> his answer: the only possible solution to stay in power: Let none of both groups pay (high) taxes and instead borrow the money from somewhere else! --> My question: Why? Why can't you tax the rich "corporation"-people? They are not the majority of voters, so you will still stay in power if you don't lower the taxes for corporations

[@Lobos222]

Linda B He didnt say "let no one pay taxes" is the solution. He said its the politicians "solution" if they want to stay in power, which might be seen as a thing for Greece, but not every other European nation. Its a short term solution for *THEM*, the politicians, because they needed rich money for campaigning and Citizens vote to get elected. How you actually fix that aspect is to *FORCE* the public as a whole, aka the nation, to pay for its own political process and not have it based on private funds. Because then politicians wouldnt be or feel "forced" to do the wrong thing in order to have a chance at getting reelected the next time. Then they would put up decent taxes for everyone and get a surplus, if they were economically responsible. Which, ironically, is not a given regarding Greece. Several other nations have managed to do this, but Greece has a long tradition of taking the easy short sighted way out. Which they are ironically also doing now by acting like everybody else should pay their bill while they never took any interest in reforming their own economy or collecting taxes in a meaningful way. *Not paying taxes is a very Greek thing.* They are in a tough spot, clearly pointing out why Capitalism has to be regulated, but its not correct to act like Greece is a victim.

[@SermonsSubtitled]

Lobos222 Thanx for taking the time and clearing that up! I didn't know why politicians needed the rich at all to stay in power. But you gave me the missing link: they need their money for election campaigns. I didn't know that election campaigns were so expensive to begin with, now I know. Thanx!

[@b8bpattson]

It is ironic than in 1952, Germany begged the Allies for debt relief. The Allies wanted the Germans to recover and be a buffer to the USSR.. So the German debt was 50% forgiven and better terms for the remainder.

[@Lobos222]

b8bpattson *Germany didnt beg because they had leverage.* A Soviet expansion, via Soviet German Alliance, would have been disastrous for the West and Europe as a whole. Greece does not have similar leverage. However what happens to them might happen to other larger nations in Europe (Spain, Portugal, Italy etc) and building on that with them might give Greece some leverage if they can gain support from them.

[@b8bpattson]

b8bpattson It is unusual that in all its troubles, as a NATO country, Greece was not allowed to reduce military expenditures, although it proposed to do so.

[@rrbeats2004]

I hear varoufakis 1:27:27

[@MusicalDudeMayhem]

The info is brilliant, but these guy need to stop drifting from the microphone.

[@sallanne123rt]

Maybe the European central banks should proclaim a lack of insight in that debt should only have been issued with a "shadow" entry accompanying it that would act as a safety valve in the event of impossible return for and on behalf of the lender. A prudent act I would have thought. Where is the hit as a loss anyway when the money is an IOU in its initial state. Shadow safety valve interest? uhmmm.

[@robway888]

Great Ideas

[@StephenSchleis]

Wolff is way smarter than the other “economist”

[@grevberg]

Varuofakis have been saying the same things for years.

[@logicreasonandevidence]

At 17:00, I'm not certain if he's making an argument against technology or that people in poor countries shouldn't have jobs.

[@mattandersen2786]

Wow I had to shut it off after the speakers were finished. They basically said go ahead and ask however many questions you want in one long run on sentence and do not worry about concision.

[@sallanne123rt]

How can taxes be paid by an unwaged community? I really think the old system of debt is the system that is meeting its own end. It needs to be modified completely. Where does money come from? How is it created.? Fractionally out of thin air so why not create money as is? for a basic income. It cannot be more inflationary than money created as debt which is just an IOU of money that did not previously exist. Surely we should all recognise that there is never likely to be full employment ever again.

[@normalizedinsanity4873]

I cannot imagine the Prof Wolfe does not realize this, however, a money-less society is a concept not easy to grasp and I believe he is working in baby steps.

[@Crescendotron]

President of USA ? القرآن - سورۃ نمبر 4 النساء آیت نمبر 23 أَعـوذُ بِاللهِ مِنَ الشَّيْـطانِ الرَّجيـم بِسْمِ اللّٰهِ الرَّحْمٰنِ الرَّحِيْمِ حُرِّمَتۡ عَلَيۡكُمۡ اُمَّهٰتُكُمۡ وَبَنٰتُكُمۡ وَاَخَوٰتُكُمۡ وَعَمّٰتُكُمۡ وَخٰلٰتُكُمۡ وَبَنٰتُ الۡاٰخِ وَبَنٰتُ الۡاُخۡتِ وَاُمَّهٰتُكُمُ الّٰتِىۡۤ اَرۡضَعۡنَكُمۡ وَاَخَوٰتُكُمۡ مِّنَ الرَّضَاعَةِ وَ اُمَّهٰتُ نِسَآئِكُمۡ وَرَبَآئِبُكُمُ الّٰتِىۡ فِىۡ حُجُوۡرِكُمۡ مِّنۡ نِّسَآئِكُمُ الّٰتِىۡ دَخَلۡتُمۡ بِهِنَّ فَاِنۡ لَّمۡ تَكُوۡنُوۡا دَخَلۡتُمۡ بِهِنَّ فَلَا جُنَاحَ عَلَيۡكُمۡ وَحَلَاۤئِلُ اَبۡنَآئِكُمُ الَّذِيۡنَ مِنۡ اَصۡلَابِكُمۡۙ وَاَنۡ تَجۡمَعُوۡا بَيۡنَ الۡاُخۡتَيۡنِ اِلَّا مَا قَدۡ سَلَفَ‌ؕ اِنَّ اللّٰهَ كَانَ غَفُوۡرًا رَّحِيۡمًا ۙ‏ ۞ Translation: Prohibited to you [for marriage] are your mothers, your daughters, your sisters, your father's sisters, your mother's sisters, your brother's daughters, your sister's daughters, your [milk] mothers who nursed you, your sisters through nursing, your wives' mothers, and your step-daughters under your guardianship [born] of your wives unto whom you have gone in. But if you have not gone in unto them, there is no sin upon you. And [also prohibited are] the wives of your sons who are from your [own] loins, and that you take [in marriage] two sisters simultaneously, except for what has already occurred. Indeed, Allah is ever Forgiving and Merciful.

[@polygamous1]

sadly Robin Hood is no more the sheriffs now rule supreme with iron shackles, the world is going back to the "good old days" welcome the upstairs downstairs the masters and the slaves people's greediness apathy n corruption allowed it to happen now its too late humanity

[@Jpom22]

Takis Sozou never too late - it's only over when people give up. FIGHT THE FEAR! RECLAIM OUR POWER!

[@ranger14809]

Mr Herman is all the reason I need to never study economics.

[@carrstone01]

Well, listening to this master bloviator took almost 2 hours out of my life I'll never get back. It's an interesting thought that capitalism has no popes but socialism is something that requires management so that conformity can be assured, a task much volunteered for by its defenders/proponents.

[@zoupzupancic2796]

Uh......uhhhhhh.........uhhhhhhh........uhhhhhh

[@shadowhog777]

scott zupancic omg! yes, he was driving me crazy.

[@DarkSparkDemon]

after it stops being annoying it's just funny

[@Auron_24]

***** oh man... thank you

[@LoneMaquis]

scott zupancic This from a compatriot of Demosthenes.

[@KznnyL]

How many languages can you speak in at a near doctorate level? Other than the pauses the diction syntax and composition seemed pretty good...

[@Crescendotron]

????? Female command is 🚫

[@certaindeed]

Lost on his argument on Detroit. Wages and pensions are too high so of course you have to try to get higher profits...even if it means moving. Add to that gov regulations and another country willing to overlook them...sold! done deal

[@pjamesbda]

eddie telleed Uh, not so fast...do you think higher wages and pensions have been the primary cause prices have gone up. If so, you miss what all this means....really. It's astounding, if you think that such a case can be made. It'd be a hoot to hear how you distort reality into that. It's ... it's... economic contortion-ism.

[@certaindeed]

pjamesbda With pleasure my friend, here's the hoot for you... Take a spin and test drive on this for my supposed distortion of reality: $1900 overhead added to the cost per vehicle..during the bailout and discount prices to keep the line going...and this is after the taxpayer bailout that we will never recover $11 billion of the money. www.roadandtrack.com/car-culture/a9590/pension-costs-drive-gms-discount-prices/ These were old numbers...the cost per vehicle for pension and benefits was in excess of $2100 last I checked. This is not included in the actual labor cost to build the damn thing. www.roadandtrack.com/car-culture/a9590/pension-costs-drive-gms-discount-prices/ www.forbes.com/fdc/welcome_mjx.shtml Combined with the fact we are in an open market for energy and resources, steel etc to build the vehicles are going up while you can open a shop in Brazil, South America...and perhaps China If you are still in doubt as to the crushing nature of pensions and labor cost that add to soaring costs...look at the US Postal Service and see what percentage overhead that must be for funding their pensions. Better yet, in one of his videos this guy actually praises Amtrak! The poster child of a government run takeover of private industry and now a losing enterprise. Insane. He has some -excellent- points as to the problems with each system, but his examples of what supposedly works is so blatantly uninformed I cannot understand why he says them to his discredit.

[@pjamesbda]

eddie telleed Ok Eddie, I'd like to thank you for the light (or semblance of it) and not the heat. However, you make the hoot part even better than expected; Apparently you believe workers are spoiled and that they are pampered by "big government". Even though ALL of the facts by both "sides" indicate the opposite by massive disparity in wages. The evidence, especially the Postal one, also points to this. Not worker corruption or laziness. The pensions were allocated...paid for, and then Congress raided them. But most disappointing is your reference to the Auto Industry...clearly, I agree they should have failed. And the actions, the metric by which they do business hasn't changed, it's gotten worse. Just like in housing. More upper management greed than every. Damn what does it take???...look at Detroit, look at the decimation of where the work force used to be. Honestly. Look at the wealth inequality which has been dissected into infinitum by economists and when you do, if you can come down on the side of the Corporate powers I extend my sympathy to you. You need help. The rest of us have to endure the oppression metted out since the Taft - Hartley Act. We have to recognize meeting power with equal power corrupted Union leaders too. We have to accept that as a result, now we pee in a cup and endure criminal and financial background checks, take performance exams and brandish a masters degree just to be considered for stocking potato chips at Target. We have to take this shit - - but you serve it up as the main course.

[@certaindeed]

pjamesbda My friend I see the following below. Aside from the daily rhetoric of standing atop a mountain and shouting: "Look at the rich! They are to blame. I want my government to make it fair!" I question what else you believe. 1) Since the 1970's technology has allowed 1 individual to do the work of at least 4 people. My job alone would have required a technician to help me with lab work, a secretary to type up the documents, and hardware expert. Now I have software to do all those tasks am expected to do so for my same salary. Those jobs are gone and in the meantime the population has increased with even more people needing jobs. 2) We are ***now*** in a world economy in which the cheapest bidder with the cheapest cost wins. Up until the 1980's the US economy had products such as garments (underwear is not even made in the US anymore!), manufactured items etc etc all do to a closed system in which jobs and industry were available after downturns. Now another country can do these jobs cheaper and produce them cheaper. Those jobs are gone. 3) The government is 50% of the problem since it passes laws that align with large corporations and crush out small business and innovation. Whenever the government takes over a commercial enterprise or service it is 2X as much and half as efficient. 4) Unions only work if they are in all countries and all work forces in a global economy, or they will simply kill the countries they operate in. 5) Workers are not lazy...but if they expect the government to solve their problems. This is just plain ignorance. It will not happen. Because it can do nothing except welfare programs and build up debt because of the points in this list. 6) There will be less and less people making more money...and even upper middle class with good salaries because of this list. DOW chemical laid off it's workforce near me 10 years ago and hired a dozen highly skilled engineers to run the plant. 7) If we as workers think that we can maintain the high standard of living we have previously in a global economy, we are mistaken. Large corporations do not need the US or it's workforce or even it's consumers as more and more third and second world countries step up and become workers with the latest efficient technology, and consume what they buy. 8) In summary, this is the 21st century.. 20th century thinking that there is plenty of material and prosperity for all is the past. Sorry, but that's the way it is. Be proactive and plan to try to get a part of it, or you will simply be part of the problem. Better yet, it's a race and a competition just like baseball or basketball. Get on a team and work to win, or you will be on the losing side. Those are the two choices.

[@pjamesbda]

eddie telleed I'd like to start from the top. That is, the reference to liberals wanting the government to step in and make the rich pay...to "make it fair". Interestingly, this is exactly how the rich did it. What made them divinely right? What made the "vile maxim" the modius operandi? But wait, when the poor wake up and wield the same bludgeon suddenly they are primitive and spoiled. They think themselves somehow entitled. Well guess where they got that idea? The Taft-Hartley Act I reference crippled the Unions, because it, like unbridled corporate greed was seen as a threat to productivity. As stated in Section 1 (29 U.S.C. § 141), the purpose of the NLRA (National Labor Relations Act) is: [T]o promote the full flow of commerce, to prescribe the legitimate rights of both employees and employers in their relations affecting commerce, to provide orderly and peaceful procedures for preventing the interference by either with the legitimate rights of the other, to protect the rights of individual employees in their relations with labor organizations whose activities affect commerce, to define and proscribe practices on the part of labor and management which affect commerce and are inimical to the general welfare, and to protect the rights of the public in connection with labor disputes affecting commerce. >>> It all sounded very reasonable and even handed, professing to protect people from both unions and corporations. As if "people" had no part to do with either, and above all, to preserve commerce. However it cleanly ignores that it is the same people it is directed to as a whole, that make up both sides, inferring that somehow "commerce" was slated as the pure over riding force that would continue to exist without either of them. This implies it is intended to lay the ground work for transcending the condition causing the conflict, providing that neither would gain an upper hand, and that their power would be diminished unilaterally to allow "commerce" to emerge. It portends to achieve this by a subtle psycologicial slight of hand, in perpetuating the notion that at the core of both "sides" of the conflict, the same fundementals existed. The only problem with such an assertion is, they don't! The proof of this is in front of us. As it was in 1947, and more clearly today than ever. It is said the Taft-Hartley Act was created to break up the unions, and promote or preserve worker rights in it's wording. The evidence is now only too clear, it only accomplished one of these. You have pointed out very cleanly, and perfectly I might add in your 8 points everything that SHOULD have created a uniform prosperity...yes, mechanization destroyed jobs. But right behind that is the fact that it DID NOT destroy production. Quite the contrary, there literally are enough resources, and more of an opportunity than ever in recorded history to live in a civilized and benevolent society that cares enough not to hoard and manipulate the efforts of masses like cattle. We are not that...and ancient history has proven over and over people won't stand for it. I won't stand for it. And although I understand you think we should shut up and get in line, I'm here to tell you I won't be there. I'll starve first...and have, and I'll do it again, but I won't be a "player". I'm not here to WIN, or to get on any "team" interested in that. So if that's what it means to succeed, you can have it. Summary; I happen to think you don't hold the principle of power = truth. I think you see the injustice - and you deplore it as I do. But you say you are a realist, and conformity somehow justifies it as such. But when I see what I've seen, as you have, I will not be grooming my children to be good little consumers, prisoners to debt and serfdom, neither will I feel any shame in what may come to pass as a failure for not participating in that.

[@Liz73023]

Satanists like to cast spells using hand motions Be watchful and avoid satanists and their hand motions

[@georgekafantaris7807]

THE LENDERS WANT THEIR MONEY BACK...WHATS WRONG WITH THAT....

[@kennethchanSG]

Wolff ranting had shown his fallacies clearly in this video. Heres why he fails (1) Debt is non partisan regardless of being a Capitalist Country or otherwise. (2) Greece is not Detroit ,one is a country the other isnt. (3) Capitalist Economy evolves relative to the use of money(money was an ancient concept, to trade) its a stronger economic concept. (4) This video would be more useful had it been aired in between 2009~2011. (5) Greece is not DEAD because Greeks still have options available but you're being ignorant to say they have non! (6) You admitted in this video you have no solutions for Greece. (7) you had a field day just by playing the same old record yet again where is side B ?

[@bighands69]

This is very basic and I know that liberals can understand this. Greece as a country is spending more than what it is taking in. That is Greece problem. There is no such thing as austerity.

[@Jpom22]

bighands69 i agree that austerity is bullshit. but greece's debt is the problem. not ongoing "spending" an odd term for "borrowing". multinational corporations are the power behind govts all over the world. they are the problem because govts fear "losing their business" and the revenue they generate. and who are the people in those govts? shills/puppets for those corporations! the solution is for THE WORKING CLASS to rise up and throw out their non-leaders, create real representative "power structures" that serve the needs of the working class, locally, and not necessarily according to national (political) boundaries, created by "the rich and powerful" many years ago.

[@kennethchanSG]

Wolff ranting had shown his fallacies clearly in this video. Heres why he fails (1) Debt is non partisan regardless of being a Capitalist Country or otherwise. (2) Greece is not Detroit ,one is a country the other isnt. (3) Capitalist Economy evolves relative to the use of money(money was an ancient concept, to trade) its a stronger economic concept. (4) This video would be more useful had it been aired in between 2009~2011. (5) Greece is not DEAD because Greeks still have options available but you're being ignorant to say they have non! (6) You admitted in this video you have no solutions for Greece. (7) you had a field day just by playing the same old record yet again where is side B ?

[@seanafsar7688]

kenneth chan you're a hopeless moron and what claimed has no historical factual basis . In fact the events since 1970s contradict YOH . It's cool Rot in your ignorance