The Capital order : how economists invented austerity and paved the way to fascism / Clara E. Mattei.

By:

Mattei, Clara E

Publisher: Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 2022Description: 452 pages : illustrations ; 24 cmContent type:

text

Media type:

unmediated

Carrier type:

volume

ISBN:

9780226818399

Subject(s):

LOC classification:

HB501 .M38 2022

Contents:

The Great War and the economy -- "A wholly new school of thought" -- The struggle for economic democracy -- The new order -- International technocrats and the making of austerity -- Austerity, a British story -- Austerity, an Italian story -- Italian austerity and fascism through British eyes -- Austerity and its "successes" -- Austerity forever.

Summary: "For more than a century, governments facing financial crisis have resorted to the economic policies of austerity-cuts to wages, fiscal spending, and public benefits-as a means to regain solvency. While these policies have been successful in appeasing creditors, they've had devastating effects on social and economic welfare in countries all over the world. Today, as austerity remains a favored policy among troubled states, an important question remains: what if solvency was never really the goal? In Capital Order, political economist Clara E. Mattei traces the intellectual origins of austerity to uncover its originating motives: the protection of capital-and indeed capitalism-in times of social upheaval from below. Mattei traces modern austerity to its origins in interwar Britain and Italy, revealing how the threat of working-class power in the years after World War I animated a set of top-down economic policies that elevated owners, smothered workers, and imposed a rigid economic hierarchy across their societies. Where these policies "succeeded," relatively speaking, was in their enrichment of certain parties, including employers and foreign-trade interests, who accumulated power and capital at the expense of labor. Here, Mattei argues, is where the true value of austerity can be observed: its insulation of entrenched privilege and its elimination of all alternatives to capitalism. Drawing on newly uncovered archival material from Britain and Italy, much of it translated for the first time, Capital Order offers a damning and essential new account of the rise of austerity-and of modern economics-at the levers of contemporary political power"-- Provided by publisher.

Holdings ( 1 )
Title notes ( 3 )

Holdings
Item type	Current library	Shelving location	Call number	Copy number	Status	Date due	Barcode
Book	NMC Library	Stacks	HB501 .M38 2022 (Browse shelf(Opens below))	1	Available		33039001510220

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Previous	HB501 .L585 2018 On the private and public virtues of an honorable entrepreneur : preventing a separation of the honorable and the useful /	HB501 .M356 1999 Das Kapital, a critique of political economy /	HB501 .M378 2020 When more is not better : overcoming America's obsession with economic efficiency /	HB501 .M38 2022 The Capital order : how economists invented austerity and paved the way to fascism /	HB501 .P43613 2014 Capital in the twenty-first century /	HB501 .R555 2014 The zero marginal cost society : the internet of things, the collaborative commons, and the eclipse of capitalism /	HB501 .T67 2013 Anti-capitalism : a beginner's guide /	Next

Includes bibliographical references (pages 409-437) and index.

"For more than a century, governments facing financial crisis have resorted to the economic policies of austerity-cuts to wages, fiscal spending, and public benefits-as a means to regain solvency. While these policies have been successful in appeasing creditors, they've had devastating effects on social and economic welfare in countries all over the world. Today, as austerity remains a favored policy among troubled states, an important question remains: what if solvency was never really the goal? In Capital Order, political economist Clara E. Mattei traces the intellectual origins of austerity to uncover its originating motives: the protection of capital-and indeed capitalism-in times of social upheaval from below. Mattei traces modern austerity to its origins in interwar Britain and Italy, revealing how the threat of working-class power in the years after World War I animated a set of top-down economic policies that elevated owners, smothered workers, and imposed a rigid economic hierarchy across their societies. Where these policies "succeeded," relatively speaking, was in their enrichment of certain parties, including employers and foreign-trade interests, who accumulated power and capital at the expense of labor. Here, Mattei argues, is where the true value of austerity can be observed: its insulation of entrenched privilege and its elimination of all alternatives to capitalism. Drawing on newly uncovered archival material from Britain and Italy, much of it translated for the first time, Capital Order offers a damning and essential new account of the rise of austerity-and of modern economics-at the levers of contemporary political power"-- Provided by publisher.