<a href="https://scheerpost.com/2025/12/07/unraveling-the-rot-doug-henwood-on-americas-economic-elites-and-the-fight-for-a-just-future/" author="" source="Scheer Post">Unraveling the Rot: Doug Henwood on America’s Economic Elites and the Fight for a Just Future</a> was a fantastic interview. Highly, highly recommended. The summary from the show writes, <bq>[...] discuss the deep decay—“the rot”—within America’s ruling class. Henwood argues <b>today’s political and economic elites are short-sighted, unimaginative, and corrupted by money.</b> While Trump is an obvious symptom, Henwood stresses that <b>the Democratic establishment, Ivy League elite, and corporate leaders are equally hollow and ineffective.</b> 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 <b>dismantled New Deal regulations, empowered Wall Street, destroyed welfare protections, and fueled decades of inequality.</b> 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. <b>The result: collapsing wages, financial crises, and widespread political alienation.</b> Scheer emphasizes that <b>inequality today—especially tech monopolies and billionaire dominance—directly traces back to Clinton’s dismantling of antitrust enforcement and financial rules.</b></bq> <img attachment="doug_henwood.webp" align="right" caption="Doug Henwood">Doug actually has his own podcast: <a href="https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Radio.html" author="Doug Henwood" source="Left Business Observer">Behind the News</a>. The following two shows were particularly good. <dl dt_class="field"> <a href="https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Radio.html#S251211" author="" source="">December 11, 2025</a> This show featured <iq>Anatol Lieven analyz[ing] the Trump national security strategy</iq> and a really knockout interview with <iq>Susannah Glickman on the transformation of the US government into a private equity firm.</iq> See also another interview: <a href="https://www.nybooks.com/online/2025/11/21/runaway-short-termism-trump-political-economy/" author="Susannah Glickman and Nic Johnson" source="The New York Review">Runaway Short-Termism</a> (<iq>How has the Trump administration broken from the past century of American political economy?</iq>) <a href="https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Radio.html#S251218" author="" source="">December 18, 2025</a> This show featured excellent, informative, and eye-opening interviews with <iq>Thea Riofrancos, author of <a href="https://wwnorton.com/books/9781324036760/about-the-book">Extraction: The Frontiers of Green Capitalism</a>, on the complications of using lithium batteries to green our future and Alyssa Battistoni, author of <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691263465/free-gifts?srsltid=AfmBOorlcXbnn9Hiyg9TQVf1Ibc96NregjLlnSn8XyIUhcP02Zei5_BX">Free Gifts</a>, on the weird relationship between capitalism and Nature.</iq> </dl>