Tina Modotti, Workers Parade, 1926

workshop

In collaboration with the Centro Primo Levi, New York

Economics Is Political: Unpacking the Logic of Austerity:
A Workshop in Two Parts (Part I) 

Clara E. Mattei 

Saturday, April 24, 2027 • 10:00 AM – 1:00 PM

Part II will take place in the fall of 2027, date to be announced

Economics is sold as pure and apolitical: scientific, neutral, exact. Its true role is to convince us there’s no alternative to capitalism. We live under the dogma that austerity is necessary, unemployment natural, endless wars inevitable, central banks all-powerful, and those with most resources most worthy of rewards. Growth, inflation, unemployment are concepts to enforce market dependence, not freedom, disempowering us to shape the democratic decisions that govern our daily lives. Why should we accept this relatively young system that’s not scientific, natural, or inevitable — that is replaceable? 

Registration details, including location and fees, to follow. 

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Clara E. Mattei is Professor of Economics at The University of Tulsa and the Founding President, and weekly podcaster, of FREE: Forum for Real Economic Emancipation (freefreeforum.org). She has been a fellow at the Center for Advanced Studies, Princeton, and publishes in many international periodicals. Her books, widely translated, are Capital Order: How Economists Invented Austerity and Paved the Way to Fascism (2022) and Escape from Capitalism (2026); and her next will reassess capitalism’s Golden Age (1945-75) and its Keynesianism through the lens of austerity capitalism, which developed in the wake of WWI as a tool of reaction against emerging systemic alternatives.