Clara Mattei: capitalism is not natural - it’s enforced

Clara Mattei: capitalism is not natural - it’s enforced

From Ways to Change the World with Krishnan Guru-Murthy by Channel 4 News

February 13, 2026 · 38 min

About this episode

Clara Mattei discusses the enforced nature of capitalism and explores alternatives to the current economic system.

Clara Mattei is an economist who wants us to rethink the idea that capitalism is simply the natural order of things. She is an author and professor of economics whose work explores how economic ideas become tools of power, shaping policy while masking the political decisions beneath. Her new book, Escape from Capitalism, argues that many of the problems that we see as inevitable - poverty, unemployment, inflation - are built into the system and shored up by models and theories designed to convince us that there is no alternative. On this episode of Ways to Change the World, Krishnan Guru-Murthy speaks to Mattei about whether there is an alternative to capitalism.

People in this episode

Host: Krishnan Guru-Murthy

Guest: Clara Mattei

Topics covered

  • capitalism
  • economics
  • political power
  • poverty
  • unemployment
  • inflation
  • alternatives to capitalism

Keywords

  • capitalism
  • economics
  • poverty
  • unemployment
  • inflation
  • political decisions
  • economic ideas

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Channel 4 News

Books & works: Escape from Capitalism

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