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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 rules, wages, debt, taxes, and public budgets.This is a sharp, accessible conversation about why economics is political, how “freedom” can mask coercion, and what it takes to build real democratic power.In this conversation, Mattei and Wolff unpack:• How “freedom” can hide coercion in everyday life• Why wages, debt, taxes, and public budgets shape what feels possible• How “tight budgets” and cutbacks discipline the majority, while protecting the few• Why blaming “bad leaders” misses the deeper mechanics• Why organizing and new forms of democratic participation matter📚 Get Clara Mattei’s book Escape from Capitalism(US, Simon and Schuster): https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Escape-from-Capitalism/Clara-E-Mattei/9781668085141(UK, Penguin): https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/468201/escape-from-capitalism-by-mattei-clara-e/9780241742181📘 Richard Wolff’s book https://www.democracyatwork.info/understanding_capitalism🔗 Follow Democracy at Work  @democracyatwrk  https://www.democracyatwork.info/🔔 Subscribe to FREE (Forum for Real Economic Emancipation)  @FreeFreeForum ❤️ Watch, learn more, and join the FREE Forum: https://freefreeforum.org 🌱 Support FREE & Help Us Grow: https://www.freefreeforum.org/donate#EscapeFromCapitalism #ClaraMattei #RichardWolff #PoliticalEconomy #DemocracyAtWork #Economics #Capitalism 🎧 Listen as a Podcast Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/free-with-clara-mattei/id1828302105Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5m5xbrPzTSmdGZFQuZP7ZC▶ Connect with FREELinktree:: https://linktr.ee/FreeFreeForumSubstack: https://freefreeforum.substack.com/X: https://x.com/freefreeforumBluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/freefreeforum.bsky.socialInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/freefreeforum/TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@freefreeforumFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/FreeFreeForum

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 everyone without power• What democratic planning can look like, participatory budgeting, co ops, local organizing• How organizing rebuilds agency in a system built to produce disempowermentGrace Blakeley is the author of Vulture Capitalism: Corporate Crimes, Backdoor Bailouts, and the Death of Freedom.🔔 Subscribe to FREE (Forum for Real Economic Emancipation)#GraceBlakeley #Capitalism #Imperialism #PoliticalEconomy #MonopolyCapital #VultureCapitalism #claramattei 📌 Watch, share, and join the FREE Forum: https://freefreeforum.org 🌱 Support FREE & Help Us Grow: https://freefreeforum.betterworld.org/campaigns/support-freeConnect with FREE: https://linktr.ee/FreeFreeForumSubstack: https://freefreeforum.substack.com/X: https://x.com/freefreeforum Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/freefreeforum.bsky.socialInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/freefreeforum/TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@freefreeforumFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/FreeFreeForum

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 that looks “cheap” at the register.If you have ever wondered how we can have full shelves and empty stomachs at the same time, this episode gives you the mechanism, clearly.🔔 Subscribe to FREE (Forum for Real Economic Emancipation) for more deep dives on capitalism, empire, austerity, climate, housing, work, and the struggles from below that change everything.#FoodInsecurity #AffordableFood #RajPatel #ClaraMattei #FoodSovereignty #FoodJustice #FoodDeserts #freeforum 📌 Watch, share, and join the FREE Forum: https://freefreeforum.org 🌱 Support FREE & Help Us Grow: https://freefreeforum.betterworld.org/campaigns/support-free🎧 Listen as a Podcast Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/free-with-clara-mattei/id1828302105Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5m5xbrPzTSmdGZFQuZP7ZCConnect with FREE: https://linktr.ee/FreeFreeForumSubstack: https://freefreeforum.substack.com/X: https://x.com/freefreeforum Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/freefreeforum.bsky.socialInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/freefreeforum/TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@freefreeforumFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/FreeFreeForum

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 central bank decisions turn wages, debt, and rising prices into a cost of living crisis and what a fairer response could look like. 📘 Organized by SOAS/School of London in partnership with the New School for Social Research, FREE (Forum for Real Economic Emancipation), and the General Federation of Trade Unions.⏰ All SAPE sessions are completely free and open to all.Wednesdays, 6–8 PM UK, 1–3 PM ET, 12–2 PM CT📩 Sign up to join upcoming SAPE events live:https://tinyurl.com/sape-registration#Inflation #CostOfLivingCrisis #PoliticalEconomy❤️ Subscribe for more conversations on democracy, justice, and economic emancipation:https://youtube.com/@FreeFreeForum📌 Watch, share, and join the FREE Forum: https://freefreeforum.org 🌱 Support FREE & Help Us Grow: https://freefreeforum.betterworld.org/campaigns/support-free

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 corporate landlords turned homes into collateral and global investment vehicles, why empty apartments can be more profitable than housing people, and why the usual answers like “just build more supply” do not fix a system that keeps rents high.• How changes in banking let investors use homes as collateral and build huge portfolios• Why vacancy, speculation, and ghost apartments are baked into the model• How this affects tenants, communities, and entire cities• Real alternatives, from cooperative housing and social rent to public and non speculative models that already exist in places like Mexico and UruguayIf you have ever wondered why your rent goes up while so many homes stay empty, this conversation opens up the bigger story behind the housing crisis.#affordablehousing #HousingCrisis #Rent #WallStreet #Financialization #housingjustice #Landlord #CooperativeHousing #PublicHousing #ClaraMattei #MiguelRoblesDuran #FREEForum

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 growing in the US, Europe, and the Global North after 1.5°C• How banks, asset managers, and sunk costs lock us into “business as usual” fossil fuel infrastructure• How the fossil economy is tied to militarism, colonialism, Gaza, and Palestine• Why geoengineering (solar radiation management, “parasol” schemes) is so dangerous, including the risk of “termination shock”• Two clashing “realisms”: one that protects capital, one that protects life and the climate• What climate justice movements in Colombia, Ecuador, Indigenous struggles, and Palestine are already doing to fight backThis is not a doom scroll. It’s a clear map of the madness — and of the people trying to shut it down at the root.#AndreasMalm #ClimateCrisis #Capitalism #FossilFuels #Geoengineering #stardust #Overshoot #claramattei #freepodcast ❤️ Subscribe for more conversations on democracy, justice, and economic emancipation:https://youtube.com/@FreeFreeForum📌 Watch, share, and join the FREE Forum: https://freefreeforum.org 🌱 Support FREE & Help Us Grow: https://freefreeforum.betterworld.org/campaigns/support-free🎧 Listen as a Podcast Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/free-with-clara-mattei/id1828302105Connect with FREE: https://linktr.ee/FreeFreeForumSubstack: https://freefreeforum.substack.com/X: https://x.com/freefreeforum Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/freefreeforum.bsky.socialInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/freefreeforum/TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@freefreeforumFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/FreeFreeForum00:00:00 - Introduction00:01:09 - Capitalism and Climate Change00:02:03 - State of Affairs00:02:11 - Investment in Fossil Fuels00:03:51 - Breaking with Mitigation00:04:54 - Sunk Costs00:05:24 - Structural Inertia00:08:55 - Militarism and Climate Change00:10:06 - Colonial Fossil Fuel Expansion00:13:49 - Need for Radical Action00:14:27 - Contrasting Realism00:20:00 - Solar Geoengineering Technology00:20:42 - Solar Geoengineering Technology and Its Dangers00:23:26 - Role of Grassroots Opposition00:25:04 - Colombia: A Beacon of Hope00:28:30 - International Solidarity and Future Actions00:31:42 - Conclusion

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 response our government funds is punishment, not care. This live forum brings together economist John Clegg, organizer aurelius miles francisco, and Lacreshia Jackson a mother who survived incarceration to explain how that happened, who benefits, and what real safety could look like instead.Economist John Clegg, organizer aurelius miles francisco, and advocate Lacreshia Jackson What you’ll learnWhy U.S. mass incarceration = austerity policy and social controlHow local vs. state incentives + prosecutorial power turbocharged prison growthWhere private profit fits (and doesn’t) in the punishment ecosystemWhy LWOP = death by incarcerationTransformative justice strategies that create real securityIf this challenged what you thought you knew, subscribe, share, and join the conversation.❤️ Subscribe for more conversations on democracy, justice, and economic emancipation:https://youtube.com/@FreeFreeForum📌 Watch, share, and join the FREE Forum: https://freefreeforum.org 🌱 Support FREE & Help Us Grow: https://freefreeforum.betterworld.org/campaigns/support-free🎧 Listen as a Podcast Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/free-with-clara-mattei/id1828302105Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5m5xbrPzTSmdGZFQuZP7ZC#MassIncarceration #Justice #EconomicJustice #RestorativeJustice #MutualAid #FREEForum #ClaraMattei #JohnClegg Connect with FREE: https://linktr.ee/FreeFreeForumSubstack: https://freefreeforum.substack.com/X: https://x.com/freefreeforum Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/freefreeforum.bsky.socialInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/freefreeforum/TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@freefreeforumFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/FreeFreeForum

“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 being poor while rewarding those who profit from their suffering.🔹 How the U.S. made homelessness a business worth billions🔹 The truth behind “shelter non-profits” and poverty profiteering🔹 Why public housing was dismantled — and what could replace it🔹 The Supreme Court’s ruling that made poverty a crime🔹 How communities are reclaiming land, housing, and dignity“You’re homeless because you don’t have a home,” says Robinson. “Not because you failed.”❤️ Subscribe for more conversations on democracy, justice, and economic emancipation:https://youtube.com/@FreeFreeForum📌 Watch, share, and join the FREE Forum: https://freefreeforum.org 🌱 Support FREE & Help Us Grow: https://freefreeforum.betterworld.org/campaigns/support-free#Poverty #Homelessness #Capitalism #EconomicJustice #ClaraMattei #RobRobinson #freeforum Connect with FREE: https://linktr.ee/FreeFreeForumSubstack: https://freefreeforum.substack.com/X: https://x.com/freefreeforum Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/freefreeforum.bsky.socialInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/freefreeforum/TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@freefreeforumFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/FreeFreeForum

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 reconstruction and "peace plans."• How profit models can be built into both destruction and rebuilding.• The growing role of technocracy, AI governance, and the illusion of expertise.• The intersection of austerity, militarism, and the global cycle of profit through catastrophe. About the SpeakersAdam Tooze: Author of Crashed, Shutdown, and The Wages of Destruction.Clara Mattei: Economist and author, joining to provide further analysis.❤️ Support our mission for democracy, justice, and economic emancipation by subscribing to the Free Free Forum: https://youtube.com/@FreeFreeForum📖 Read Adam Tooze's Chartbook: https://adamtooze.substack.com/🎧 Listen to the Ones & Tooze podcast - https://www.youtube.com/@Foreign-Policyhttps://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ones-and-tooze/id1584397047foreignpolicy.com📌 Watch, share, and join the FREE Forum: https://freefreeforum.org 🌱 Support FREE & Help Us Grow: https://freefreeforum.betterworld.org/campaigns/support-free

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 explore:• Slavery as modern business, the roots of today’s exploitation• Enslaved people’s stolen labor as the engine of modern wealth• Why “innovation” means faster extraction of unpaid labor• Austerity as state-enforced market dependence• Militarism as permanent demand (and profit)• Resistance from below, freedom won, not givenThis conversation breaks the Lincoln myth, centers enslaved people’s self-emancipation, and asks what real freedom requires now.❤️ Subscribe for more conversations on democracy, justice, and economic emancipation:   / @freefreeforum  📌 Watch, share, and join the FREE Forum: https://freefreeforum.org 📖 Learn more in David McNally’s new book Slavery and Capitalism: A New Marxist History:https://www.ucpress.edu/books/slavery...🌱 Support FREE & Help Us Grow: https://freefreeforum.betterworld.org🎧 Listen as a Podcast Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast... Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5m5xbrP...#Slavery #Capitalism #Exploitation #Resistance #Austerity #Militarism #DavidMcNally #ClaraMattei #FreeForum🌍 Connect with FREE Substack: https://substack.com/@freefreeforum X: https://x.com/freefreeforum Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/freefreeforu... Instagram: / freefreeforum TikTok: / freefreeforum Facebook: / freefreeforum

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 below, not gifted from above.❤️ Subscribe for more conversations on democracy, justice, and economic emancipation: https://youtube.com/@FreeFreeForum 📌 Watch, share, and join the FREE Forum: https://freefreeforum.org 📖 Learn more in David McNally’s new book Slavery and Capitalism: A New Marxist History🌱 Support FREE & Help Us Grow: https://freefreeforum.betterworld.org/campaigns/support-free-today Watch on Youtube: https://youtu.be/RcE-4GT7C_o#slavery #Capitalism #Exploitation #Corruption #Austerity #Militarism #Democracy #FreeForum 🌍 Connect with FREE Substack: https://substack.com/@freefreeforum X: https://x.com/freefreeforum Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/freefreeforum.bsky.social Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/freefreeforum TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@freefreeforum Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FreeFreeForum.

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 power to laws that put profit over people, they show why inequality isn’t an accident, it’s intentional.👉 If you’ve ever wondered why democracy feels broken, why the 1% keeps winning, and why real change feels impossible, this conversation makes it clear.Topics we cover:What “systemic corruption” really meansWhy elections deepen inequality instead of fixing itHow the constitution was designed to keep people from powerWhy democracy in practice is an oligarchic democracyWhat breaking the narrative could mean for the futureClara Mattei • Camila VergaraForum for Real Economic Emancipation (FREE)❤️ Subscribe for more conversations on democracy, justice, and economic emancipation:https://youtube.com/@FreeFreeForum📌 Watch, share, and join the FREE Forum: https://freefreeforum.org🌱 Support FREE & Help Us Grow: https://freefreeforum.betterworld.org/campaigns/support-free-today 🌍 Connect with FREESubstack: https://substack.com/@freefreeforumX: https://x.com/freefreeforumBluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/freefreeforum.bsky.socialInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/freefreeforumTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@freefreeforumFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/FreeFreeForum

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 accident, it’s built into the rules of our system.From famine in Gaza to the concentration of wealth in the U.S., they show why oligarchy thrives, and how democracy from below can defeat it. This conversation is about reclaiming power from the few, and building people-led alternatives from the ground up.👉This isn’t about left vs. right. It’s about power: who has it, how they keep it, and how we take it back.❤️ Subscribe for more conversations on democracy, justice, and economic emancipation:https://youtube.com/@FreeFreeForum📌 Watch, share, and join the FREE Forum: https://freefreeforum.org🌱 Support FREE & Help Us Grow: https://freefreeforum.betterworld.org/campaigns/support-free-today#Oligarchy #Democracy #ClaraMattei #CamilaVergara #FREEForum #SystemicCorruption #peoplepowerPODCAST LINKS:Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/free-with-clara-mattei/id1828302105Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5m5xbrPzTSmdGZFQuZP7ZCSOCIAL LINKS:Substack: https://substack.com/@freefreeforumX: https://x.com/freefreeforumBluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/freefreeforum.bsky.socialInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/freefreeforumTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@freefreeforumFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/FreeFreeForum

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 governments prioritize arms industries and surveillance over human needs. From record-breaking military budgets to soaring weapons stock prices, we connect the dots between economic structures and systemic violence — and why young generations are demanding divestment.This is part of FREE: The Forum for Real Economic Emancipation, a space for confronting the truths about how our economic system really works — and how we can change it.#Militarism #Capitalism #Austerity #Gaza #Sudan #AntiWar #Gramsci #FREEForum #Divestment #WarEconomy

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 book: Understanding CapitalismCheck out:  @democracyatwrk  & https://www.democracyatwork.info/🎙️ Learn more about FREE at: https://freefreeforum.org #richardwolff #democracyatwork #capitalism #marxism #inflation