The Capital Order: How Economists Invented Austerity and Paved the Way to Fascism

In this talk, Dr Clara E. Mattei discussed her new book The Capital Order, published in November 2022. For more than a century, governments have resorted to the economic policies of austerity—rise in interest rates, privatisation, cuts to wages and public benefits. 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 favoured policy among troubled states, an important question remains: What if solvency was never really the goal? In The Capital Order, Clara E. Mattei explored the origins of austerity to uncovered its core function: the protection of capital—and indeed capitalism—in times of social upheaval from below. Drawing on newly uncovered archival material from Britain and Italy, much of it translated for the first time, The 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.