Ep 374 - Escape From Capitalism with Clara Mattei

About this episode

Clara Mattei joins Steven D Grumbine to discuss her book 'Escape from Capitalism' and the critique of the capitalist system.

Join our community on Tuesday evening as we listen to and discuss this episode. April 7th at 8pm ET/5pm PT. Use this link to register: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/nkkVRy2JQbW2Eh4VDtcNHQ Clara Mattei and her first book, The Capital Order , were hugely important to Real Progressives as we began to expand our focus from Modern Monetary Theory and investigate the political economy of the capitalist system. Now she joins Steve to talk about her new book, Escape from Capitalism . They discuss how capitalism maintains itself through market dependence, exploitation, and austerity, and why escaping it requires building alternative institutions rather than relying on elections or reforms within the capitalist state. Steve and Clara are largely aligned in their critique of the system, but there are some disagreements. They debate aspects of MMT, including how interest rates, state spending, and monetary sovereignty function across different contexts. Their differences open up a deeper discussion about the limits of reform, the state's role, and what meaningful change would require. There is a reason elections cannot deliver emancipation. The capitalist state is structurally…

People in this episode

Host: Steven D Grumbine

Guest: Clara Mattei

Topics covered

• capitalism
• political economy
• Modern Monetary Theory
• alternative institutions
• community organizing
• austerity
• reform

Keywords

• capitalism
• Modern Monetary Theory
• political economy
• community organizing
• austerity
• reform
• horizontal assemblies
• participatory budgeting
• mutual aid

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: FREE

Books & works: The Capital Order, Escape from Capitalism

Places: Tulsa

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