The Capital Order with Clara E. Mattei - Dec 10 2022

In her book 'The Capital Order' (Univ. Chicago Press, 2022), Clara E. Mattei explores the intellectual origins of austerity to uncover its originating motives: the protection of capital-and indeed capitalism – in times of social upheaval from below. Drawing on newly uncovered archival material from Britain and Italy, she offers a damning account of the rise of austerity – and of modern economics – at the levers of contemporary political power. Mattei reveals how the threat of working-class power in the years after World War I animated policies that elevated owners, smothered workers, and imposed a rigid economic hierarchy across societies. Where austerity “succeeded,” relatively speaking, was in their enrichment of ruling-class interests who accumulated power and capital at the expense of labor. Here is where the true value of austerity can be observed: its insulation of entrenched privilege and its elimination of all alternatives to capitalism.