Great interviews with and by Doug Henwood

Unraveling the Rot: Doug Henwood on America’s Economic Elites and the Fight for a Just Future (Scheer Post) was a fantastic interview. Highly, highly recommended. The summary from the show writes,

“[…] discuss the deep decay—“the rot”—within America’s ruling class. Henwood argues today’s political and economic elites are short-sighted, unimaginative, and corrupted by money. While Trump is an obvious symptom, Henwood stresses that the Democratic establishment, Ivy League elite, and corporate leaders are equally hollow and ineffective.

“Scheer pushes back by noting that the decline didn’t begin with Trump. He points to the Clinton era—especially figures like Lawrence Summers—as central architects of the neoliberal turn that dismantled New Deal regulations, empowered Wall Street, destroyed welfare protections, and fueled decades of inequality. Summers in particular is criticized as cynical, ethically compromised, and deeply connected to financial deregulation and predatory finance.

“Henwood agrees: Clinton-era Democrats were not passive—they aggressively advanced neoliberal policies pioneered by Reagan and Thatcher, transforming the Democratic Party into a pro-market, pro-finance machine. This shift was mirrored globally among center-left parties. The result: collapsing wages, financial crises, and widespread political alienation.

“Scheer emphasizes that inequality today—especially tech monopolies and billionaire dominance—directly traces back to Clinton’s dismantling of antitrust enforcement and financial rules.”

Doug HenwoodDoug actually has his own podcast: Behind the News by Doug Henwood (Left Business Observer). The following two shows were particularly good.

December 11, 2025

This show featured “Anatol Lieven analyz[ing] the Trump national security strategy” and a really knockout interview with “Susannah Glickman on the transformation of the US government into a private equity firm.” See also another interview: Runaway Short-Termism by Susannah Glickman and Nic Johnson (The New York Review) (“How has the Trump administration broken from the past century of American political economy?”)

December 18, 2025

This show featured excellent, informative, and eye-opening interviews with “Thea Riofrancos, author of Extraction: The Frontiers of Green Capitalism, on the complications of using lithium batteries to green our future and Alyssa Battistoni, author of Free Gifts, on the weird relationship between capitalism and Nature.”