FREE with Clara Mattei

Economist Clara Mattei and tax attorney Bob Lord expose how the US tax code was engineered to build the billionaire oligarchy — and why wealth taxes alone won't fix it.Bob Lord, senior vice president for tax policy at the Patriotic Millionaires and 35-year tax attorney, joins Clara Mattei to break down the mechanics of wealth inequality hiding inside the US tax code — from capital gains and unrealized income to regressive taxation, Social Security caps, and how billionaires legally avoid taxes for decades.The top 0.00001% of Americans — just 19 people — made nearly $1 trillion per year for the past two years. That's not just asset values rising. It's a tax system designed to let billionaire wealth compound tax-free while workers get taxed every two weeks.In this episode of FREE, Bob Lord explains:• How capital gains and unrealized wealth allow billionaires to avoid income tax indefinitely• Why Jeff Bezos paid ~2.4% effective tax rate while his Amazon stock grew 50%+ per year for 32 years• How regressive taxation — Social Security caps, sales taxes, property taxes, fines — extracts wealth from workers while protecting the top• Why eliminating state income and property taxes is the next phase of the wealth transfer• The difference between a wealth tax and fixing the real structural problem• What local organizing and ballot initiatives have accomplished — and what's possible in Tulsa and beyondBob Lord is senior vice president for tax policy at the Patriotic Millionaires and associate fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies. Find out more:  @PatrioticMillionaires  FREE is hosted by Clara Mattei, economist and author of The Capital Order, as seen on Channel 4, Breaking Points, and more.#ClaraMattei #WealthInequality #BillionaireTax #CapitalGains #TaxTheRich #Oligarchy #RegressiveTax #WealthTax #PatrioticMillionaires #BobLord #UnrealizedGains #freepodcast 🔔 Subscribe to FREE (Forum for Real Economic Emancipation) @FreeFreeForum⁩❤️ Watch, learn more, and join the FREE Forum: https://freefreeforum.org🌱 Support FREE & Help Us Grow: https://www.freefreeforum.org/donateOur Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/freefreeforum▶ Connect with FREELinktree: https://linktr.ee/FreeFreeForumSubstack: https://freefreeforum.substack.com/X: https://x.com/freefreeforumBluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/freefreeforum.bsky.socialInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/freefreeforum/TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@freefreeforumFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/FreeFreeForum00:00:00 - Introduction00:01:30 - Guest Introduction and Discussion on Tax System00:05:40 - The Flaw of the U.S. Tax System00:06:48 - Disproportionate Taxation and Class Differences00:10:39 - The Role of Tax System in Wealth Inequality00:14:24 - Understanding Regressive Taxation00:16:53 - Impact of Regressive Taxation on Consumption00:22:02 - State Income Tax and the Impact on Middle Class00:27:55 - The Case of Jeff Bezos: Understanding Effective Annual Rate of Income Tax00:31:33 - Rationality of Regressive Taxation and its Impact00:37:02 - Exploring Corporate Taxes, Inheritance Taxation and Offshoring00:49:36 - Mobilizing the Population for Progressive Taxation

Sudan’s war is being framed as “tribal conflict,” while a profit system extracts gold and moves US weapons through regional pipelines.Human rights lawyer Suad Abdel Aziz (Executive Director, Decolonizing Sudan) explains who benefits, how it works, and what people in the US can do now.In this episode:• UAE gold extraction, smuggling networks, and conflict, resource supply chains• US weapons exports to the UAE and how they reach the RSF (Rapid Support Forces)• Red Sea ports, proxy warfare, and the geopolitical stakes• How sanctions and economic pressure helped set the stage• Practical next steps: UAE arms embargo pressure + boycott toolsGet involved:• Subscribe to FREE (Forum for Real Economic Emancipation) @FreeFreeForum• Watch, learn more, and join the FREE Forum: https://freefreeforum.org• Support FREE & Help Us Grow: https://www.freefreeforum.org/donateResources mentioned:• Decolonizing Sudan : https://decolonizesudan.org/• Boycott & Disrupt Toolkit: https://decolonizesudan.org/boycottuae• Support: https://givebutter.com/DecolonizesudanChapters:00:00 The “simple move” that could end this fast00:23 Sudan’s hidden catastrophe + the media frame01:19 Meet Suad Abdel Aziz (Decolonizing Sudan)02:18 Who profits, and why it’s covered up02:41 UAE gold: stolen resources + extraction04:37 US weapons manufacturers + the pipeline06:21 Boycott toolkit + No Thanks app07:28 Sudan–Palestine links + war economy logic08:14 Red Sea ports + regional proxy strategy10:13 Abraham Accords + foreign policy control11:41 Diaspora dilemma: reform vs intervention13:53 RSF, mercenaries, accountability + command chain19:00 UAE’s proxy-militia playbook beyond Sudan20:13 Uprising roots, sanctions strategy, RSF crackdown25:19 What people in the US can do now (arms embargo + pressure)27:53 Closing: reframe Sudan + solidarity▶ Connect with FREELinktree: https://linktr.ee/FreeFreeForumSubstack: https://freefreeforum.substack.com/X: https://x.com/freefreeforumBluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/freefreeforum.bsky.socialInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/freefreeforum/TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@freefreeforumFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/FreeFreeForum#Sudan #UAE #WarProfits

AI data centers are swallowing trillions, and many are calling it an AI bubble. This episode asks a sharper question: who absorbs the risk, and who pays when the bet breaks?We follow the engine underneath the hype, the state, the Federal Reserve, tech monopolies, and finance, working together to turn a risky AI bet into protected wins, while shifting the costs onto workers, retirees, communities, and the climate.In this conversation, Clara Mattei is joined by Irai Regmi (writer of Radical Transitions; former researcher at the Roosevelt Institute) to map the machinery behind the boom:• What AI data centers actually are and why they’re treated like a new “asset class”• Why state “intervention” isn’t a rescue. It’s the foundation of accumulation• How the Federal Reserve anchors the financial architecture powering the bailout• How “financial stability” language legitimizes protection for the biggest players• Where the costs hit daily life: layoffs, higher electricity bills, water + grid strain, local damage• The hidden gamble: pensions, retirement security, and the austerity cycle that follows bailouts• AI infrastructure, militarism, and the global alliances forming around profit + power• A vital detour to Nepal: what a youth-led uprising reveals about systemic corruption, state violence, and radicalizationAre AI data centers popping up in your area? Where are you seeing the costs show up first? Power bills, water, layoffs, public budgets, or something else?Get involved:• Irai Regmi’s writing Radical Transitions: https://radicaltransitions.substack.com/• Subscribe to FREE (Forum for Real Economic Emancipation) @FreeFreeForum• Watch, learn more, and join the FREE Forum: https://freefreeforum.org• Support FREE & Help Us Grow: https://www.freefreeforum.org/donate🎧 Listen as a PodcastApple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/free-with-clara-mattei/id1828302105Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5m5xbrPzTSmdGZFQuZP7ZC▶ Connect with FREELinktree: https://linktr.ee/FreeFreeForumSubstack: https://freefreeforum.substack.com/X: https://x.com/freefreeforumBluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/freefreeforum.bsky.socialInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/freefreeforum/TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@freefreeforumFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/FreeFreeForum#AIBubble #DataCenters #FederalReserve

Hamza Hamouchene, researcher and activist with the Transnational Institute and Algeria Solidarity Campaign coordinator, unpacks green colonialism and who profits from climate solutions. He discusses green grabbing, debt and dependency, why market fixes fail, links between liberation and climate justice, and strategies like delinking and sovereignty. Short, sharp, and sharply political.

Richard Wolff, Marxian economist and founder of Democracy at Work, brings sharp, public-facing analysis. He and Clara Mattei discuss how “freedom” masks coercion, how wages, debt, taxes and budgets shape what feels possible. They unpack austerity’s role in protecting elites, imperialism’s extraction, and why building democratic alternatives requires both theory and hands-on organizing.

Grace Blakeley, author and journalist who critiques modern capitalism, explains corporate planning, state-backed bailouts, and imperial extraction. She unpacks how concentrated firms shape policy, why competition gets harsher for everyone else, and how democratic planning and local organizing can rebuild agency. Short, sharp, and provocative takes on monopoly power and financialized ownership.

We grow enough food to feed everyone, yet hunger keeps rising. Raj Patel explains how the capitalist food system produces “cheap food”, making hunger predictable, and profitable.In this conversation, we start with one unforgettable symbol, the chicken nugget, and use it to expose the “nugget economy”, how costs get pushed onto workers, land, health, and the climate so corporations can sell food that looks “cheap” at the register.If you have ever wondered how we can have full shelves and empty stomachs at the same time, this episode gives you the mechanism, clearly.🔔 Subscribe to FREE (Forum for Real Economic Emancipation) for more deep dives on capitalism, empire, austerity, climate, housing, work, and the struggles from below that change everything.#FoodInsecurity #AffordableFood #RajPatel #ClaraMattei #FoodSovereignty #FoodJustice #FoodDeserts #freeforum 📌 Watch, share, and join the FREE Forum: https://freefreeforum.org 🌱 Support FREE & Help Us Grow: https://freefreeforum.betterworld.org/campaigns/support-free🎧 Listen as a Podcast Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/free-with-clara-mattei/id1828302105Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5m5xbrPzTSmdGZFQuZP7ZCConnect with FREE: https://linktr.ee/FreeFreeForumSubstack: https://freefreeforum.substack.com/X: https://x.com/freefreeforum Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/freefreeforum.bsky.socialInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/freefreeforum/TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@freefreeforumFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/FreeFreeForum

Inflation & the cost of living crisis are not just numbers on a chart, they are political choices about who gets squeezed and who is protected.In this SAPE lecture, economists Paulo dos Santos (The New School for Social Research) and Ramaa Vasudevan (Colorado State University) unpack today’s inflation as a social and political phenomenon. They trace how supply shocks, corporate profits, and central bank decisions turn wages, debt, and rising prices into a cost of living crisis and what a fairer response could look like.📘 Organized by SOAS/School of London in partnership with the New School for Social Research, FREE (Forum for Real Economic Emancipation), and the General Federation of Trade Unions.⏰ All SAPE sessions are completely free and open to all.Wednesdays, 6–8 PM UK, 1–3 PM ET, 12–2 PM CT📩 Sign up to join upcoming SAPE events live:https://tinyurl.com/sape-registration#Inflation #CostOfLivingCrisis #PoliticalEconomy❤️ Subscribe for more conversations on democracy, justice, and economic emancipation:https://youtube.com/@FreeFreeForum📌 Watch, share, and join the FREE Forum: https://freefreeforum.org 🌱 Support FREE & Help Us Grow: https://freefreeforum.betterworld.org/campaigns/support-free

Wall Street, banks, and corporate landlords have found a way to make more money from empty homes than from housing people. That’s why your rent keeps going up while whole buildings sit dark.In this conversation, economist Clara Mattei and urbanist Miguel Robles-Durán unpack how the modern housing crisis is driven by the financialization of housing. They explain how banks, asset managers, and corporate landlords turned homes into collateral and global investment vehicles, why empty apartments can be more profitable than housing people, and why the usual answers like “just build more supply” do not fix a system that keeps rents high.• How changes in banking let investors use homes as collateral and build huge portfolios• Why vacancy, speculation, and ghost apartments are baked into the model• How this affects tenants, communities, and entire cities• Real alternatives, from cooperative housing and social rent to public and non speculative models that already exist in places like Mexico and UruguayIf you have ever wondered why your rent goes up while so many homes stay empty, this conversation opens up the bigger story behind the housing crisis.#affordablehousing #HousingCrisis #Rent #WallStreet #Financialization #housingjustice #Landlord #CooperativeHousing #PublicHousing #ClaraMattei #MiguelRoblesDuran #FREEForum

In this full interview on the climate crisis, capitalism, and fossil fuels, journalist and academic Andreas Malm (How to Blow Up a Pipeline, Overshoot) joins economist Clara Mattei on the FREE Podcast to explain why capitalism keeps expanding fossil fuels, war, and risky climate “tech fixes” even as global warming passes critical limits.In this video, you’ll learn:• Why fossil fuel expansion keeps growing in the US, Europe, and the Global North after 1.5°C• How banks, asset managers, and sunk costs lock us into “business as usual” fossil fuel infrastructure• How the fossil economy is tied to militarism, colonialism, Gaza, and Palestine• Why geoengineering (solar radiation management, “parasol” schemes) is so dangerous, including the risk of “termination shock”• Two clashing “realisms”: one that protects capital, one that protects life and the climate• What climate justice movements in Colombia, Ecuador, Indigenous struggles, and Palestine are already doing to fight backThis is not a doom scroll. It’s a clear map of the madness — and of the people trying to shut it down at the root.#AndreasMalm #ClimateCrisis #Capitalism #FossilFuels #Geoengineering #stardust #Overshoot #claramattei #freepodcast ❤️ Subscribe for more conversations on democracy, justice, and economic emancipation:https://youtube.com/@FreeFreeForum📌 Watch, share, and join the FREE Forum: https://freefreeforum.org 🌱 Support FREE & Help Us Grow: https://freefreeforum.betterworld.org/campaigns/support-free🎧 Listen as a Podcast Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/free-with-clara-mattei/id1828302105Connect with FREE: https://linktr.ee/FreeFreeForumSubstack: https://freefreeforum.substack.com/X: https://x.com/freefreeforum Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/freefreeforum.bsky.socialInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/freefreeforum/TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@freefreeforumFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/FreeFreeForum00:00:00 - Introduction00:01:09 - Capitalism and Climate Change00:02:03 - State of Affairs00:02:11 - Investment in Fossil Fuels00:03:51 - Breaking with Mitigation00:04:54 - Sunk Costs00:05:24 - Structural Inertia00:08:55 - Militarism and Climate Change00:10:06 - Colonial Fossil Fuel Expansion00:13:49 - Need for Radical Action00:14:27 - Contrasting Realism00:20:00 - Solar Geoengineering Technology00:20:42 - Solar Geoengineering Technology and Its Dangers00:23:26 - Role of Grassroots Opposition00:25:04 - Colombia: A Beacon of Hope00:28:30 - International Solidarity and Future Actions00:31:42 - Conclusion