The Capital Order
by Clara E. Mattei · first published 2022
86% recommend14% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Traces how economists and policymakers after WW1 built the case for austerity, with clear political economy arguments; praised as well written and useful for understanding today's austerity debates.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
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 path to 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 The Capital Order, political economist Clara E. Mattei explores the intellectual origins of austerity
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There is an excellent interview with Clara Mattei on The Majority Report, about her book The Capital Order. She has a similar point, historically supported.
on “Amazon to Lay of 18k Workers” ↗An interesting recent book that traces the ideological tinges of neo-liberal, "austerity", politics back to WW1 is The Capital Order by Clara E Mattei [0]. It's a very well written (if also frequently depressing) example of political economy used to make a clear and distinct point about something like "austerity" which we often perceive…
on “The destructive new logic that threatens globalisation” ↗I'm going to guess this, because I am reading it also The Capital Order: How Economists Invented Austerity and Paved the Way to Fascism Clara E. Mattei It is excellent so far.
on “Mercedes-Benz workforce to receive record profit-sharing bonus” ↗I have really been enjoying listening to The Capital Order on Audible. Worth checking out. The Capital Order: How Economists Invented Austerity and Paved the Way to Fascism https://www.amazon.com/Capital-Order-Economists-Invented-Aus... I seriously doubt…
on “Economists Offer Fresh Takes on Inflation, Inequality, Technology” ↗The book "The Capital Order" by Clara Mattei is recommended. Subtitle is "How economists invented austerity and paved the way to fascism". It's a study of WW1 and the early 1920s from an economic and social POV.
on “Austerity Is an Antidemocratic Strategy to Boost Capital” ↗The title is linkbait-ish and the author is ideological, but the book reviewed in the OP, "The Capital Order: How Economists Invented Austerity and Paved the Way to Fascism," by Clara Mattei, is truly worth a read. Recommended by economists as different as Tyler Cowen and Thomas Pikkety, the book won Best Book…
on “Austerity Is an Antidemocratic Strategy to Boost Capital” ↗For a similar thesis, that the austerity policies are manufactured by the well-off, I recommend Clara Mattei's Capital Order (as well as her YT channel).
on “Modern wealth is a parlour game played by the well fed” ↗I just finished a book called the capital order which addressed an alternative theory that I thought was fairly compelling. https://www.amazon.com/Capital-Order-Economists-Invented-Aus... Here is the summary from the publisher: https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/C/bo181707...…
on “Nearly 25,000 tech workers were laid off in the first weeks of 2024.Why is that?” ↗…world, had an immense impact on the economy, and caused massive and needless suffering for hundreds of millions of people. [..] But they got a promotion for it. There is a book from Clara Mattei, The Capital Order (https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/C/bo181707...), which explains they were not the first, and probably are not the last.
on “Harvard professor Francesca Gino was accused of faking data” ↗The Capital Order lays out an argument that austerity measures are ultimately labor suppression, not necessary. Of course, that’s true of many pieces of policy wisdom: they start from an assumed good. In this case, the…
on “Intel CEO Letter to Employees” ↗