Escape From Capitalism: Economics is Political, and Other Liberating Truths
Jan 2026 · Random House
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'Capitalism seems invincible and inevitable. It is neither. Clara Mattei illustrates brilliantly its fragility and restores hope that everything could be different' Yanis Varoufakis
Economics is sold as pure and apolitical: scientific, neutral, exact. This urgent book exposes its true role: to convince us there’s no alternative to capitalism.
We live in a world dominated by the dogma that austerity is necessary, unemployment natural, endless wars inevitable and central banks all-powerful. It doesn’t have to be this way.
In her bold, ground-breaking manifesto, economist Clara E. Mattei tears the mask off our economic system. She unpacks key concepts like growth, inflation, unemployment and balanced budgets to show how they’re weaponized to enforce market dependence, not freedom, stripping us of the power to shape the democratic decisions that govern our daily lives. Enduring problems such as poverty and inequality are not accidents or bugs in the economy, but core features – justified with pseudoscientific models to support a system that unfairly rewards people with the most resources.
Why should we accept this? Capitalism, Mattei argues, isn’t inevitable, scientific, or natural – it's a relatively young system that can be replaced. Inspired by a lineage of political resistance, Escape from Capitalism calls for us to challenge the broken economics of our times, and pave the way towards liberation.
Economics is sold as pure and apolitical: scientific, neutral, exact. This urgent book exposes its true role: to convince us there’s no alternative to capitalism.
We live in a world dominated by the dogma that austerity is necessary, unemployment natural, endless wars inevitable and central banks all-powerful. It doesn’t have to be this way.
In her bold, ground-breaking manifesto, economist Clara E. Mattei tears the mask off our economic system. She unpacks key concepts like growth, inflation, unemployment and balanced budgets to show how they’re weaponized to enforce market dependence, not freedom, stripping us of the power to shape the democratic decisions that govern our daily lives. Enduring problems such as poverty and inequality are not accidents or bugs in the economy, but core features – justified with pseudoscientific models to support a system that unfairly rewards people with the most resources.
Why should we accept this? Capitalism, Mattei argues, isn’t inevitable, scientific, or natural – it's a relatively young system that can be replaced. Inspired by a lineage of political resistance, Escape from Capitalism calls for us to challenge the broken economics of our times, and pave the way towards liberation.
'Capitalism seems invincible and inevitable. It is neither. Clara Mattei illustrates brilliantly its fragility and restores hope that everything could be different' Yanis Varoufakis
Economics is sold as pure and apolitical: scientific, neutral, exact. This urgent book exposes its true role: to c...
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About the author
Clara E. Mattei is Professor of Economics at The University of Tulsa. She is the Founding President of FREE, the Forum for Real Economic Emancipation, and the author of The Capital Order (University of Chicago Press), which was praised by the Financial Times as one of the ten best economics books of 2022 and has been translated into over a dozen languages.
Clara E. Mattei is Professor of Economics at The University of Tulsa. She is the Founding President of FREE, the Forum for Real Economic Emancipation, and the author of The Capital Order (University of Chicago Press), which was praised by the Financial Times as one of the ten best economics books...
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