FREE with Clara Mattei
The FREE podcast is hosted by economist Clara Mattei, author of The Capital Order & Escape from Capitalism, and Professor of Economics at the University of Tulsa. FREE stands for the Forum for Real Economic Emancipation. The podcast discusses economic topics and promotes the Patreon for the forum.
Episodes
Disproportionate Force: The long history of anti-colonial resistance.
Hamza Hamouchene on French colonialism in Algeria, Frantz Fanon, Dien Bien Phu, and the anti-colonial history linking Vietnam, Algeria, and Palestine today.He is co-editor of the recently published book Towards Palestinian Liberation: Global Perspectives on Anti-Colonial Resistance and Solidarity, https://tinyurl.com/Towards-Palestinian-Liberation, a collection praised by a wide ranging group of i
David Adler: The Freedom Flotilla, Peter Thiel & the New Colonial Order
David Adler sailed on the Freedom flotilla to deliver aid through Israel's blockade, was intercepted at sea, and detained for days. Political economist Clara Mattei talks with him about what that experience opens onto: the shape of a new international disorder.David Adler is a political economist and co-General Coordinator of the Progressive International. With Clara, he argues that colonizati
$50 Trillion Moved From the Working Class to the 1% | Ben Johnson, Inequality by Design
$50 trillion has moved from the working class to the top 1% of Americans over the past four decades. Clara Mattei talks with Ben Johnson, co-author of Inequality by Design, about how the rules were written to make that happen.Drawing on four decades of public data, Ben Johnson and economist Dr. Ryan Mattson trace the widening gap between what the economy produces and what working people take home.
The Alternative to Capitalism Nobody Talks About | Eleanor Finley & Camila Vergara
War, austerity, and a political class that offers no way out. What does an actual alternative look like — one that's already being built?Dr. Camila Vergara sits down with Eleanor Finley, author of Practicing Social Ecology (Pluto Press), to trace how democratic, ecological alternatives to capitalism move from theory into practice — from the commons of New England to the municipalities of Burli
What the American Left Got Wrong | An Indigenous Elder's Diagnosis
Why does the American left keep losing? Roberto Mendoza — 82 years old, six decades of organizing from Alcatraz in 1969 to Standing Rock in 2016 — sits down with economist Clara Mattei to name what he thinks went wrong, and why it keeps going wrong.His answer isn't strategy or messaging. It's values. And Marxism, he argues, still shares too many of them with capitalism.Materialism. Industr
Why the Dollar Gets Stronger as the Bombs Fall | Iran War, Oil Prices, and the New Imperialism
Oil just crossed $100 a barrel. The Strait of Hormuz is effectively closed. Gas prices are surging. And the dollar? It's getting stronger — not weaker. That's not a paradox. It's by design.In this episode of the FREE Podcast, economist Clara Mattei sits down with Costas Lapavitsas (Professor of Economics, SOAS University of London) to explain what no mainstream outlet will: the Iran wa
Why Economics Can't Explain Poverty — It Was Designed Not To | Ingrid Harvold Kvangraven
Oxfam reports the super rich in the Global North extracted over $30 million per hour from the Global South in 2024. So why does mainstream economics keep telling these countries they just need better institutions?Ingrid Harvold Kvangraven (Senior Lecturer in International Development, King's College London; co-author of Decolonizing Economics) explains how the economics discipline systematical
Why the Wealth Tax Debate Misses the Real Problem | Bob Lord, Patriotic Millionaires
Economist Clara Mattei and tax attorney Bob Lord expose how the US tax code was engineered to build the billionaire oligarchy — and why wealth taxes alone won't fix it.Bob Lord, senior vice president for tax policy at the Patriotic Millionaires and 35-year tax attorney, joins Clara Mattei to break down the mechanics of wealth inequality hiding inside the US tax code — from capital gains and un
Sudan War Profits: UAE Gold, US Weapons
Sudan’s war is being framed as “tribal conflict,” while a profit system extracts gold and moves US weapons through regional pipelines.Human rights lawyer Suad Abdel Aziz (Executive Director, Decolonizing Sudan) explains who benefits, how it works, and what people in the US can do now.In this episode:• UAE gold extraction, smuggling networks, and conflict, resource supply chains• US weapons exports
The AI Data Center Gold Rush: The Bailout State Behind It
AI data centers are swallowing trillions, and many are calling it an AI bubble. This episode asks a sharper question: who absorbs the risk, and who pays when the bet breaks?We follow the engine underneath the hype, the state, the Federal Reserve, tech monopolies, and finance, working together to turn a risky AI bet into protected wins, while shifting the costs onto workers, retirees, communities,
Who Profits From Climate Solutions? Green Colonialism Explained
Green colonialism is when “climate solutions” become a new extraction economy, land grabs, debt, and profit, dressed in green. Who profits, who pays, and what does climate justice require?In this episode, Clara Mattei speaks with Hamza Hamouchene, North Africa Programme Coordinator at the Transnational Institute and editor of Dismantling Green Colonialism.Together, they unpack how colonialism, imp
Escape from Capitalism | Clara Mattei & Richard Wolff
Economics is political. The “neutral” rules of the economy shape who has power, who gets protected, You can vote, work hard, do everything “right”, and still feel stuck. That’s not a personal failure, it’s how the system is built.In this special episode, economist Clara E. Mattei joins Richard D. Wolff to discuss her new book Escape from Capitalism, and how power hides inside “normal” economic rul
Vulture Capitalism: Empire, Bailouts, Monopoly Power | Grace Blakeley
Grace Blakeley joins Clara Mattei to break down how capitalism is actually organized: corporate planning, state power, backdoor bailouts, and imperial extraction that protects profitability.In this conversation, we unpack:• How corporations plan production, labor, and supply chains• How governments enforce the capital order through policy, bailouts, and rules• Why competition gets harsher for ever
Hunger Is the Point: The Capitalist Food System Explained | Raj Patel
We grow enough food to feed everyone, yet hunger keeps rising. Raj Patel explains how the capitalist food system produces “cheap food”, making hunger predictable, and profitable.In this conversation, we start with one unforgettable symbol, the chicken nugget, and use it to expose the “nugget economy”, how costs get pushed onto workers, land, health, and the climate so corporations can sell food th
Inflation & the Cost of Living Crisis: Who Pays, Who’s Protected?
Inflation & the cost of living crisis are not just numbers on a chart, they are political choices about who gets squeezed and who is protected.In this SAPE lecture, economists Paulo dos Santos (The New School for Social Research) and Ramaa Vasudevan (Colorado State University) unpack today’s inflation as a social and political phenomenon. They trace how supply shocks, corporate profits, and ce
Housing Crisis: Why Wall Street Keeps Homes Empty & Rents High
Wall Street, banks, and corporate landlords have found a way to make more money from empty homes than from housing people. That’s why your rent keeps going up while whole buildings sit dark.In this conversation, economist Clara Mattei and urbanist Miguel Robles-Durán unpack how the modern housing crisis is driven by the financialization of housing. They explain how banks, asset managers, and corpo
Why the Climate Crisis Still Makes Sense Under Capitalism | Andreas Malm
In this full interview on the climate crisis, capitalism, and fossil fuels, journalist and academic Andreas Malm (How to Blow Up a Pipeline, Overshoot) joins economist Clara Mattei on the FREE Podcast to explain why capitalism keeps expanding fossil fuels, war, and risky climate “tech fixes” even as global warming passes critical limits.In this video, you’ll learn:• Why fossil fuel expansion keeps
Mass Incarceration: What You’re Not Supposed to Know
America didn’t stumble into mass incarceration: it starved security (housing, healthcare, income support, childcare, mental health care) and funded punishment (policing, surveillance, prosecution, long sentences) to keep people insecure, compliant, and controllable — and to protect wealth & power.In the United States, poverty, trauma, and even basic survival are treated as crimes and the respo
The Business of Poverty: How the System Profits from Homelessness
“It’s not a crime to be poor — but in America, it’s becoming one.”Economist Clara Mattei sits down with housing organizer Rob Robinson to expose how poverty has been turned into a business model — and why capitalism depends on keeping people poor.From unaffordable rents and the “shelter industry” to laws that criminalize homelessness, this conversation reveals a system that punishes people for bei
Capitalism, War & Reconstruction: An Adam Tooze Analysis
In this illuminating conversation, renowned historian Adam Tooze joins economist Clara Mattei to dissect the complex political economy of war and reconstruction. They explore how cycles of destruction and rebuilding can create profitable opportunities, moving beyond any single conflict to analyze broader patterns of capitalism. In this conversation:• The economic dynamics of post-conflict reconstr
Capitalism Didn’t Replace Slavery, It Scaled It | David McNally
What if slavery wasn’t America’s past, but capitalism’s business model?Historian David McNally (author of Slavery and Capitalism: A New Marxist History) joins economist Clara Mattei to uncover how plantation slavery powered global capitalism, why coercion (not “free markets”) is the system’s core, and how exploitation survives today through austerity and war, from the shop floor to Gaza. We explor
Capitalism & Slavery: The Truth They Don’t Teach You | David McNally & Clara Mattei
What if capitalism didn’t replace slavery, what if it scaled it? This talk uncovers how plantation slavery powered global capitalism, why “legal corruption” is written into the rules, and how austerity and militarism keep exploitation alive today. Economist David McNally, Clara Mattei, and Rep. Michelle McCane reveal why the system is rotten at its core, and why freedom has always been won from be
Legal Corruption: How Power Really Works | Camila Vergara & Clara Mattei
Corruption isn’t a scandal, it’s the law.Economist Clara Mattei and political theorist Camila Vergara expose how our democracy is designed to protect the wealthy. The constitution itself sets the rules of the game, rules that funnel power upward, reproduce inequality, and leave people powerless.This is legal corruption: not against the law, but because of the law. From elections that don’t change
Democracy from Below: How to Defeat Oligarchy | Camila Vergara & Clara Mattei
Why does democracy feel powerless against billionaires, war, and corruption?We all feel it: democracy doesn’t work the way it’s supposed to. The wealth of the few grows, while the majority struggles to survive. Wars rage, children starve, and our voices barely register.In this first FREE Forum event, political theorist Camila Vergara and economist Clara Mattei expose how oligarchy isn’t an acciden
Militarism, Capitalism & Austerity: The Hidden Trinity of Power
Why do endless wars, austerity, and genocide continue — even when people everywhere demand peace and justice? This video explains the deep economic logic behind militarism, showing how capitalism and austerity are structurally tied to war spending.Drawing on Antonio Gramsci’s warning against indifference, the talk reveals how profit motives fuel violence in Gaza, Sudan, and beyond, while governmen
Richard Wolff: Why Capitalism Can’t Give Us Equality
Economists Clara Mattei and Richard D. Wolff break down why capitalism has failed to deliver on its promises of liberty, equality, and democracy. From the hidden coercion of the labor market to the politics of inflation and unemployment, they expose how the system sustains inequality — and explore how worker cooperatives could offer a real path to economic emancipation.📚 Richard Wolff’s latest boo
Weaponizing Economics: A Critical Look at the Political Economy of Palestine
In this episode of the FREE (Forum for Real Economic Emancipation) podcast, hosts Claire and Professor Ibrahim Shikaki, an associate professor of economics at Trinity College and an expert on the political economy of Palestine, delve into the economic dimensions of the crisis in the region. They discuss Professor Shikaki's paper, "Weaponizing Economics Against Palestine," and explore how economics
Austerity: What They Don't Want You to Know About Our Economy | a FREE Explainer
Why is austerity always the answer, and who does it really serve?In this explainer, economist Clara Mattei, executive director of the Forum for Real Economic Emancipation (FREE), breaks down the political logic of austerity, not as a budgeting mistake, but as a tool of systemic control. From slashed food stamps to rising interest rates, from military expansion to mass unemployment, austerity isn’t
The Free Market Is a Myth | FREE Podcast with Clara Mattei
Welcome to FREE: The Forum for Real Economic Emancipation.In our first episode, Clara Mattei dismantles one of the biggest myths in economics: the idea of a “free market.”We dive deep into:✔ Why the free market is a myth and what really sustains it✔ How inequality isn’t an accident, but part of the system’s design✔ Why mainstream economics keeps us powerlessClara also reflects on her conversation
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