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What is Money? Bitcoins and Cryptocurrency

Saison 2 · Épisode 15

samedi 11 octobre 2025 • Durée 43:28

Most things in life--- automobiles, lovers, cancer --- are essential only to those who have them. Money, in contrast, is equally important to those who have it and those who don't. Both accordingly have a concern for understanding it. Both should proceed in the complete confidence that they can.", so writes John Kenneth Galbraith in his famous book “Money: Whence It Came, Where It Went.”

But what is money? This question may seem obvious at first glance; however, as we discover in this episode, there is more to it than meets the eye. Some claim that we are now entering a new monetary world with cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. To make sense of all of this, this week the dialectic goes to work to explore the question of 'money' with Prof. Wolff.

About

The Dialectic at Work is a podcast hosted by Professor Shahram Azhar & Professor Richard Wolff. The show is dedicated to exploring Marxian theory. It utilizes the dialectical mode of reasoning, that is the method developed over the millennia by Plato and Aristotle, and continues to explore new dimensions of theory and praxis via a dialogue. The Marxist dialectic is a revolutionary dialectic that not only seeks to understand the world but rather to change it. In our discussions, the dialectic goes to work intending to solve the urgent life crises that we face as a global community.

Follow us on social media:

X: @DialecticAtWork
Instagram: @DialecticAtWork
Tiktok: @DialecticAtWork
Website: www.DemocracyAtWork.info
Patreon: www.patreon.com/democracyatwork

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No Risk, No Return: Capital VS Labor

Saison 2 · Épisode 14

vendredi 26 septembre 2025 • Durée 24:37

A popular myth propagated ad nauseam may begin to sound like the truth to some. It is no different for the “risk” theory of profit: the claim that capitalists “create” profits by assuming risk to capital. This theory was born out of the rise of the financial bourgeoisie as a dominant class; from the standpoint of this class, as Marx points out, “production is just an unavoidable middle”. For the financial bourgeoisie, it is a pure case of M to M”, the attempt to convert money into more money by buying and selling financial assets.
But the “modern portfolio theory” is an extension of the same ideas on risk theory that Frank Knight first posited in the 1920s. Its irrationality can be best understood by quoting the popular investor Charlie Munger, who famously remarked that “much of what is taught in corporate finance is, frankly, twaddle”.
In this episode, we explore the risk theory of profit with Prof. Wolff and ask: Is this theory a good representation of profits under capitalism?

About

The Dialectic at Work is a podcast hosted by Professor Shahram Azhar & Professor Richard Wolff. The show is dedicated to exploring Marxian theory. It utilizes the dialectical mode of reasoning, that is the method developed over the millennia by Plato and Aristotle, and continues to explore new dimensions of theory and praxis via a dialogue. The Marxist dialectic is a revolutionary dialectic that not only seeks to understand the world but rather to change it. In our discussions, the dialectic goes to work intending to solve the urgent life crises that we face as a global community.

Follow us on social media:

X: @DialecticAtWork
Instagram: @DialecticAtWork
Tiktok: @DialecticAtWork
Website: www.DemocracyAtWork.info
Patreon: www.patreon.com/democracyatwork

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Ideology and Economics: Bourgeois Theories of Value

Saison 2 · Épisode 13

vendredi 12 septembre 2025 • Durée 38:43

It is often argued, naively in our view, that “economics” is a science. Yet, it is easy to see that while discredited and unscientific theories, such as the Phlogiston theory in chemistry, can easily get replaced by better ideas, there has always been resistance to the development of revolutionary thought in Economics. This has earned the discipline the title of the “dismal science”.

In this episode, we argue that economics is “ideological” in the precise sense that different groups in society conceptualize economic value (and hence profit) from their respective standpoints: the merchant in the perspective of selling things, the industrialist from the standpoint of hiring labor power and buying means of production, and the financier in the perspective of “risk to capital”.

These ideological positions correspond to the class positions held by individuals within the capitalist circuit. In this episode, we discuss bourgeois theories of value with Prof Rick Wolff.

About

The Dialectic at Work is a podcast hosted by Professor Shahram Azhar & Professor Richard Wolff. The show is dedicated to exploring Marxian theory. It utilizes the dialectical mode of reasoning, that is the method developed over the millennia by Plato and Aristotle, and continues to explore new dimensions of theory and praxis via a dialogue. The Marxist dialectic is a revolutionary dialectic that not only seeks to understand the world but rather to change it. In our discussions, the dialectic goes to work intending to solve the urgent life crises that we face as a global community.

Follow us on social media:

X: @DialecticAtWork
Instagram: @DialecticAtWork
Tiktok: @DialecticAtWork
Website: www.DemocracyAtWork.info
Patreon: www.patreon.com/democracyatwork

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Marx: the Business Analyst

Saison 2 · Épisode 12

vendredi 1 août 2025 • Durée 55:32

Marx, an analyst of real businesses? You must be crazy.

Well, before you arrive at that conclusion, consider the following:

Procurement time, lead time, inventory management, freight costs, and supply chain management: these are terms commonly encountered by business analysts and participants alike on an everyday basis. Contemporary corporations, such as Amazon and Walmart, have developed elaborate interconnected networks of warehouses and logistics management systems that reduce the 'turnover time' (the two-day delivery method) and facilitate the circulation of capital. Any analyst of the world capitalist system cannot help but notice how geopolitical tensions over supply chains, semiconductors, GPUs, and rare earths tie into the circuits of contemporary global capitalism. A serious analyst of capitalism must, therefore, pay close attention to the "CIRCULATION" of Capital.

But what is the circulation of Capital? How does the world capitalist system connect retailers and financiers with networks of direct-producers ---- Marx's exploited classes in Volume 1--- and suppliers that are spread out across the entire planet? What does Marx's theory say about the 'subsumed classes', or the classes in society that do not directly participate in the production of surplus-value, but facilitate or provide conditions of existence to it? How do we incorporate bankers, merchants, and financiers into the circuit of capital?

Volume 1 of Capital deals with the PRODUCTION of surplus-value to demonstrate how MORE value is extracted from workers than they receive in wages. The core of capitalist accumulation is thus the stolen value of workers. But what happens once this value is stolen? Does the capitalist keep all of it? Does he make distributions out of it? To whom are these distributions made and why? These questions are at the heart of Capital Volume 2. With this aim, this week the dialectic goes to work to explore the amazing world of Marx's Capital, Volume II: The Circulation of Capital.

About

The Dialectic at Work is a podcast hosted by Professor Shahram Azhar & Professor Richard Wolff. The show is dedicated to exploring Marxian theory. It utilizes the dialectical mode of reasoning, that is the method developed over the millennia by Plato and Aristotle, and continues to explore new dimensions of theory and praxis via a dialogue. The Marxist dialectic is a revolutionary dialectic that not only seeks to understand the world but rather to change it. In our discussions, the dialectic goes to work intending to solve the urgent life crises that we face as a global community.

Value & Prices: The Transformation Problem

Saison 2 · Épisode 11

vendredi 18 juillet 2025 • Durée 01:06:27

This week, the dialectic sat down with Professor Richard Wolff again to discuss the relational interplay between value and prices.

About

The Dialectic at Work is a podcast hosted by Professor Shahram Azhar & Professor Richard Wolff. The show is dedicated to exploring Marxian theory. It utilizes the dialectical mode of reasoning, that is the method developed over the millennia by Plato and Aristotle, and continues to explore new dimensions of theory and praxis via a dialogue. The Marxist dialectic is a revolutionary dialectic that not only seeks to understand the world but rather to change it. In our discussions, the dialectic goes to work intending to solve the urgent life crises that we face as a global community.

Follow us on social media:

X: @DialecticAtWork
Instagram: @DialecticAtWork
Tiktok: @DialecticAtWork
Website: www.DemocracyAtWork.info
Patreon: www.patreon.com/democracyatwork

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Marx's Capital Volumes 2 & 3

Saison 2 · Épisode 10

vendredi 4 juillet 2025 • Durée 50:26

This week, the dialectic sat down with Professor Richard Wolff again to discuss Karl Marx's Capital, Volumes 2 and 3.

The Dialectic at Work is a podcast hosted by Professor Shahram Azhar & Professor Richard Wolff. The show is dedicated to exploring Marxist theory. It employs the dialectical mode of reasoning, a method developed over millennia by Plato and Aristotle, and continues to explore new dimensions of theory and praxis through dialogue. The Marxist dialectic is a revolutionary dialectic that not only seeks to understand the world but rather to change it. In our discussions, the dialectic goes to work, intending to solve the urgent life crises that we face as a global community.

About

The Dialectic at Work is a podcast hosted by Professor Shahram Azhar & Professor Richard Wolff. The show is dedicated to exploring Marxian theory. It utilizes the dialectical mode of reasoning, that is the method developed over the millennia by Plato and Aristotle, and continues to explore new dimensions of theory and praxis via a dialogue. The Marxist dialectic is a revolutionary dialectic that not only seeks to understand the world but rather to change it. In our discussions, the dialectic goes to work intending to solve the urgent life crises that we face as a global community.

Follow us on social media:

X: @DialecticAtWork
Instagram: @DialecticAtWork
Tiktok: @DialecticAtWork
Website: www.DemocracyAtWork.info
Patreon: www.patreon.com/democracyatwork

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Karl Marx In America With Andrew Hartman

Saison 2 · Épisode 9

vendredi 20 juin 2025 • Durée 58:02

To read Karl Marx is to contemplate a world created by capitalism. People have long viewed the United States as the quintessential anti-Marxist nation, but Marx’s ideas have inspired a wide range of individuals to formulate a more nuanced understanding of the stakes of the American project. Historians have highlighted the imprint made on the United States by Enlightenment thinkers such as Adam Smith, John Locke, and Thomas Paine, but Marx is rarely considered alongside these figures. Yet his ideas are the most relevant today because of capitalism’s centrality to American life.

In "Karl Marx in America", historian Andrew Hartman argues that, although Karl Marx never visited America, the country has been profoundly influenced, shaped, and transformed by his ideas. Since the beginning of the Civil War, Marx has been a specter in the American machine. During the Gilded Age, socialists read Marx as a remedy for the unchecked power of corporations. During the Great Depression, communists turned to Marx in the hope of transcending the destructive capitalist economy. Marx inspired the young activists of the 1960s as they gathered to protest a war overseas. Marx’s influence is also evident today, as Americans have become increasingly attuned to issues of inequality, labor, and power.

After decades of being pushed to the far-left corner of intellectual thought, Marx’s ideologies have crossed over into the mainstream and are more alive than ever. Working-class consciousness is on the rise, and, as Marx argued, the future of a capitalist society rests in the hands of the people who work at the point of production. A valuable resource for anyone interested in Marx’s influence on American political discourse, Karl Marx in America is a thought-provoking account of the past, present, and future of his philosophies in American society.

This week, the dialectic sat down with the author, Andrew Hartman, to chat about this new book.

About

The Dialectic at Work is a podcast hosted by Professor Shahram Azhar & Professor Richard Wolff. The show is dedicated to exploring Marxian theory. It utilizes the dialectical mode of reasoning, that is the method developed over the millennia by Plato and Aristotle, and continues to explore new dimensions of theory and praxis via a dialogue. The Marxist dialectic is a revolutionary dialectic that not only seeks to understand the world but rather to change it. In our discussions, the dialectic goes to work intending to solve the urgent life crises that we face as a global community.

The Mystery of Marx’s Capital Volume 2

Saison 2 · Épisode 8

vendredi 6 juin 2025 • Durée 50:24

In the last episode, we discussed the importance of Capital Volume 2 to the project of Das Kapital. In this episode, we delve deeper into the first four chapters of the book, starting with the three circuits. We observe how the world of finance is interconnected with production and retail, and how these three circuits, in turn, interact to form the totality known as the world capitalist system.

The capitalist system comprises financiers, managers, bankers, and a host of non-producing members who benefit from the exploitation of productive workers, as they receive a share of their surplus value. With volumes 2 and 3, Marx has opened the analytical door to an appreciation of the complexity of class struggles in contemporary societies, and the struggles between the “RECEIEVERS OF DISTRIBUTED SHARES”. These struggles, which are extremely important for the real world, are a critical part of the toolkit of Capital Volume 2.

About

The Dialectic at Work is a podcast hosted by Professor Shahram Azhar & Professor Richard Wolff. The show is dedicated to exploring Marxian theory. It utilizes the dialectical mode of reasoning, that is the method developed over the millennia by Plato and Aristotle, and continues to explore new dimensions of theory and praxis via a dialogue. The Marxist dialectic is a revolutionary dialectic that not only seeks to understand the world but rather to change it. In our discussions, the dialectic goes to work intending to solve the urgent life crises that we face as a global community.

Follow us on social media:

X: @DialecticAtWork
Instagram: @DialecticAtWork
Tiktok: @DialecticAtWork
Website: www.DemocracyAtWork.info
Patreon: www.patreon.com/democracyatwork

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But Marx Didn't Account For...

Saison 2 · Épisode 7

vendredi 23 mai 2025 • Durée 57:28

Most professionally trained neoclassical economists have never bothered to read Capital Volume 1—let alone know about the existence of its two companion theoretical volumes (2 and 3) and three historical volumes. While it’s generally advisable to refrain from speaking on topics one hasn’t deeply studied, bourgeois economics remains full of lively debates peppered with claims that begin: “But Marx didn’t account for [fill in the blank].”

This week on The Dialectic At Work, we examine these alleged “absences” in Marx’s Capital with Professor Richard Wolff. Since most such omissions stem from ignorance of Volumes 2 and 3, we’ll dedicate the next two to three episodes to these critical texts.

Recap: In our last discussion with Prof Wolff, we went over the structure of Capital Volume 1: the question of use-value, exchange-value, and Marx’s theory of surplus-value. We then zoomed into the site of the workplace and the working day, via an exploration of chapters 9 and 10 of the first volume. I also want to remind our audiences that in Season 1, we have already covered how Marx’s work in these chapters was extended and developed into a theory of class analysis by Richard Wolff and Stephen Resnick in their book Knowledge and Class.

About

The Dialectic at Work is a podcast hosted by Professor Shahram Azhar & Professor Richard Wolff. The show is dedicated to exploring Marxian theory. It utilizes the dialectical mode of reasoning, that is the method developed over the millennia by Plato and Aristotle, and continues to explore new dimensions of theory and praxis via a dialogue. The Marxist dialectic is a revolutionary dialectic that not only seeks to understand the world but rather to change it. In our discussions, the dialectic goes to work intending to solve the urgent life crises that we face as a global community.

Follow us on social media:

X: @DialecticAtWork
Instagram: @DialecticAtWork
Tiktok: @DialecticAtWork2:25
Website: www.DemocracyAtWork.info
Patreon: www.patreon.com/democracyatwork

The Late Marx's Revolutionary Roads

Saison 2 · Épisode 6

vendredi 25 avril 2025 • Durée 58:23

Was Marx a Eurocentric thinker? Is his work only pertinent to Western societies? What were his views on colonized societies? What about the question of gender? How did Marx’s views on non-Western societies change over his lifetime?

In this episode, Shahram meets Prof Kevin Anderson, author of “The Late Marx’s Revolutionary Roads”, a new book by Verso that analyzes Marx’s late works (1869-1882), some of which have only recently been published. These notebooks provide a new way of thinking about the Marxian project.

Professor Anderson explains that in his late writings, Marx went beyond the boundaries of capital and class in Western European and North American contexts. Kevin Anderson’s systematic analysis of Marx’s Ethnological Notebooks and related texts on Russia, India, Ireland, Algeria, Latin America, and Ancient Rome provides evidence for a change of perspective away from Eurocentric worldviews or unilinear theories of development. As Anderson shows, the late Marx elaborated a truly global, multilinear theory of modern society and its revolutionary possibilities.

About

The Dialectic at Work is a podcast hosted by Professor Shahram Azhar & Professor Richard Wolff. The show is dedicated to exploring Marxian theory. It utilizes the dialectical mode of reasoning, that is the method developed over the millennia by Plato and Aristotle, and continues to explore new dimensions of theory and praxis via a dialogue. The Marxist dialectic is a revolutionary dialectic that not only seeks to understand the world but rather to change it. In our discussions, the dialectic goes to work intending to solve the urgent life crises that we face as a global community.

Follow us on social media:

X: @DialecticAtWork
Instagram: @DialecticAtWork
Tiktok: @DialecticAtWork
Website: www.DemocracyAtWork.info
Patreon: www.patreon.com/democracyatwork

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