Richard Wolff: End of Free Trade & Return of Empire

Overview

Political economist Richard Wolff argues that crises in the United States and Europe are not merely partisan failures or policy disagreements. Instead, they reflect a deeper breakdown in political legitimacy and democratic functioning. He suggests that public anger about corruption, wealth concentration, media control, and governance failures signals a broader demand for major systemic reforms, not just electoral turnover.

Core thesis: “Rise of empire” followed by decline and reaction

Wolff provides a historical explanation intended to connect current events across countries:

• Modern capitalism created a global world economy, but in an extremely uneven and exploitative way.
• A small number of imperial powers (Western Europe, North America, Japan) became wealthy, while much of the rest of the world was impoverished through colonial extraction and coerced global hierarchies.
• He argues that imperial rivalry culminated in the two world wars—“wars of empire”—which largely destroyed European empires.
• The United States is portrayed as emerging comparatively intact due to geographic advantages.

After this shift, Wolff says the U.S. inherited the global imperial framework and became the dominant power, but that dominance cannot endure. He frames the present as the culmination of an anti-colonial reaction: as colonial rule declines, empire tries to reassert itself, and the backlash often appears as political polarization, scapegoating, and aggressive geopolitical fantasies.

Europe and the U.S. as different stages of the same decline

Wolff claims:

• Europe is further along in the “loss of empire.”
• The U.S. is losing the “totality” of its colonial-era project.

As dominance weakens and alternatives rise, he argues elites respond with fear and attempts to preserve wealth and control, often via:

• Political manipulation (buying influence and isolating the powerful)
• Escalating inequality
• Shifting blame toward groups or foreign rivals

He compares contemporary rhetoric and geopolitical ambitions—such as talk of re-drawing spheres of influence—to historical imperial “maps” like the 1884 Berlin Conference, arguing these are illusions of a dying empire attempting to revive colonial-style control. He also connects current U.S. hostility toward rivals (especially China) to psychological “projection,” where elites treat external threats as the cause of their own loss of dominance.

Energy crisis used to reveal elite factional conflict

Wolff discusses the diesel fuel/energy squeeze as a practical example of how policy is shaped by competing powerful industries rather than coherent national strategy. He argues that:

• Farmers and agribusiness want diesel export restrictions to lower costs and protect margins.
• Oil and gas refiners oppose those restrictions because controlling diesel supply affects profitability and market outcomes.
• The Trump administration functions as an arena where business factions negotiate and influence policy, comparable to labor unions—except the “bargainers” are capital groups.

He claims that consideration of diesel export bans illustrates how market outcomes are treated as political levers. Threats to release reserves and reserve use (especially aimed at Europe) are presented as “market fixes,” but Wolff argues they disguise oligopoly-style manipulation—constraining supply to sustain high prices.

How the “end of free trade” fits the story

Wolff argues that globalization and free-trade ideology are no longer stable. He suggests the era of “free trade under U.S. control” has ended because U.S. dominance in:

• industry,
• technology,
• and sea/financial corridors

has structurally weakened relative to China and other initiatives (including BRICS efforts to reduce dollar dependence).

However, he rejects a simple ideological shift framed as “free trade vs. nationalism.” Instead, he emphasizes that today’s policy swings reflect factional battles among capitalist blocs and their influence over the state.

Final implications

Overall, Wolff portrays interconnected outcomes:

• a legitimacy crisis in Western democracies,
• intensifying inequality and scapegoating,
• and geopolitical attempts to preserve declining imperial advantages,

all driven by imperial decline combined with anti-colonial historical momentum. He also argues analysts focus too much on international relations and too little on psychological and political-institutional dynamics behind elite panic and misaligned rhetoric.

Presenters / contributors

• Richard Wolff
• Glenn (interviewer / host; name not provided in subtitles)
• Mentioned in discussion:
  • Jamie Dimon (JP Morgan Chase)
  • “Mr. Trump” (Donald Trump)
  • Elisabeth / “Kaia” Kallas
  • Angela Merkel
  • Macron
  • Xi Jinping
  • Vladimir Putin
  • Others referenced as public figures (not present as presenters in the conversation)