Economics departments across the United States slavishly adhere to the mainstream consensus on austerity and the free market. The Center for Heterodox Economics thinks there’s a better way.
The Donald Trump administration’s early weeks marked a rapid escalation of authoritarian austerity — call it “austeritarianism,” a defining feature of our epoch. The preceding Biden administration also played its part, pouring billions into the war economy while allowing vital federal aid for the most vulnerable to lapse — resulting in a staggering rise in child poverty, almost tripling the number of children in absolute poverty between 2021 and 2023.
Trump is on a mission to dismantle what little remains of the US social safety net: slash Medicaid, gut food stamps, and axe federal aid programs — guided by Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation–backed plan to eliminate support for the poorest Americans. School meals? Gone. Head Start? On the chopping block.
Then came Tuesday, January 28. With the stroke of a pen, Trump froze crucial federal aid, blindsiding state governments, nonprofits, and millions of struggling Americans. The cuts hit everything from heating assistance for low-income families to childhood-development grants, health care, and university funding. A federal judge has temporarily blocked the order, but the message is clear: this administration is determined to defund working-class families, no matter the fallout.
These cuts aren’t happening in isolation. They’re part of a full-scale assault on public infrastructure, with pressure currently mounting on two million federal workers to walk away from their jobs with a promised “buyout” from Trump. Meanwhile, the White House is rolling out the red carpet for corporations and the ultrawealthy, planning new tax breaks for capital while tightening the noose on workers.
Austerity ensures that the rich get richer — at breakneck speed. According to Oxfam, billionaire wealth ballooned by $2 trillion in 2024 alone, tripling the pace of the previous year. Meanwhile, more than half of American households (52 percent) struggle to cover basic needs, let alone save for emergencies. The divide isn’t just widening. It’s gaping.
In the past, austerity was dressed up as a necessary evil in times of financial crisis. But now? The mask is off. No excuses, no justifications. Just raw, unfiltered class warfare, propped up by outdated economic dogma.
The Center for Heterodox Economics (CHE), located at the University of Tulsa in deep-red Oklahoma, aims to challenge that dogma.
CHE’s official launch on February 6–8 at our inaugural conference in Tulsa marks the start of our attempt to reshape economic thinking from the ground up. We aim to rethink the role of economists — no longer complicit in detached technocratic exercises but active agents of economic knowledge. And we aim to reclaim economics as a tool to reimagine a future beyond austerity and exploitation.
The neoclassical tradition, which dominates university curricula and public debate, must be understood as one paradigm among many. That paradigm is challenged by more robust approaches: institutionalist, Marxian, Sraffian, post-Keynesian, and more. Starting from the first undergraduate minor in Heterodox Economics in the country, CHE’s ambition is to grow into a graduate and postgraduate program to empower a new generation of economists who refuse to ideologically sponsor a system that serves the few at the expense of the many.
For CHE, true innovation in economic knowledge emerges through engagement with social struggles and the lived experiences of those who shape the economy: workers. In March, we will kick off our series by exploring workers’ self-management with economist Richard Wolff and Kali Akuno, organizer of Cooperative Jackson in Mississippi, followed by discussions on housing rights, food sovereignty, and other topics.
Austerity measures are an ingrained feature of capitalism: they stabilize class relations by disciplining the majority into greater market dependence. For markets to exist, a key precondition is a docile population with no alternative but to work for a wage. When most of our day is spent struggling to make ends meet, who has time to reflect on the bigger picture, yet alone alternatives?
Elites’ relentless efforts to increase market dependence through governmental action expose what neoclassical economics seeks to conceal: the inherently historical and political nature of our economy. Far from being spontaneous or self-sustaining, capitalism is deeply fragile, as it is built on the systematic oppression of the majority
By fostering rigorous economic knowledge that is unafraid to challenge power, our hope is that CHE can help break the tight hold of our unequal and violent economic status quo and move us toward something better.