For more information, visit the Center for Heterodox Economics' website.
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BEN ABRAMS:
Clara Mattei is a professor of economics at the University of Tulsa and the author of The Capital Order: How Economists Invented Austerity and Paved the Way to Fascism. Professor Mattei, thank you for joining us and you are here to talk a little bit about a new initiative out of the university: the Center for Heterodox Economics. What is heterodox economics? I'm not even sure what that is. Can you explain that to me?
CLARA MATTEI:
Thank you. Yes. The center's launching actually on [the] 6th, 7th and 8th of February with an amazing conference. And heterodox economics is really a term that tries to indicate how we shouldn't think of economics as just, like, a dogmatic, only one-sided discipline, but how actually the way we are normally taught to understand economics is quite narrow and abstract. Economists have a hard time grasping the real-life problems people face, and face even more harshly lately, like job precarity. How many of us have to do multiple jobs to pay our bill? Like the fact that half of American families, over half of American families, have a hard time getting to the end of the month meeting their basic necessities, and in the meantime the inequality gap is skyrocketing, [it] has never been so high. We have billionaire wealth ballooning by 2 trillion just in 2024. So these are realities that very often we feel, but we don't have the space to think about. And the center is really offering sturdy theories that people can embrace to understand how economics can serve a better world, a world that is not about one in six children being in absolute poverty like it is right now in the United States, but it's a world in which people can actually thrive and be humans. And this is the idea. We're opening both a minor in heterodox economics for students who understand that they would like to learn things that can be useful to exploring a way to actually give back in this society. And at the same time, we are offering monthly events, starting from our conference this coming week, as well as [the] first Friday of every month to talk about real stuff like the right to housing, like austerity, like workers empowerment and more and more.
BA:
And so much of that is so relevant to the times we're living in now, such as, you mentioned housing and housing in Tulsa being such a crucial issue. So, I'm wondering, is that the topics that the center is going to focus on and some of the things that the speakers at this conference are going to focus on to really connect economics with people and what they're going through?
CM:
Absolutely. So, in Tulsa, homelessness is up 20% just last year. I come from New York City in which 44,000 children are living public shelters because they can't afford a home. So, yes, these are topics that are speakers will discuss. We have the biggest names in economics coming to us, in critical economics, as well as organizers to discuss issues like the crisis of care. The austerity—so, austerity is the curtailment of social expenditures and other necessities for people. And also how to build a better world. So, how community organizing can actually fill our lives with purpose. And these will be all topics that the conference will bring to the table. Again with scholars, students, and people in town. There's going to be great free food. It's completely free of charge and it's a way to start up a point of reference, I hope, that will give some sense of empowerment to citizens in Tulsa beyond.
BA:
And for people who may want to attend or just know more about the center, where would you point for them to go?
CM:
Please go to our website, Center for Heterodox Economics, University of Tulsa, Oklahoma. You can find everything. Registration is not required to stop over. It's going to be downtown in 101 Archer Street. We really all welcome everyone who might want to get involved and attend.
BA:
Well, professor, thanks so much for joining us and telling us a little bit about this new center and this exciting event coming up.
CM:
Thank you so much for having me.
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