Sam hosts Clara Mattei, Assistant Professor of Economics at the New School for Social Research, to discuss her recent book The Capital Order: How Economists Invented Austerity and Paved the Way to Fascism. Professor Mattei turns specifically to the policy of austerity, parsing through how it came to be viewed as a necessary party of our inevitable system of capitalism, disciplining the labor market into its position of exploitation while undermining the possibility of alternative social models. They then tackle the trinity of austerity policies, outlining fiscal austerity’s dismantling of social welfare, monetary austerity reinforcing reliance on wage labor by taking away credit and employment, and industrial austerity’s emphasis on privatization and deregulation to dismantle labor power. After expanding the discussion of undermining labor as a tactic to protect capital, Professor Mattei walks through the role of World War I in inspiring the political elites’ shift to favor austerity, as belligerent nations had been forced to nationalize in the face of war, incidentally exposing wageexploitation to be a political choice while highlighting the thriving (if smallerscale) alternative economies – from guilds to coops and councils – and a postwar clamor to relegitimize their system of capitalist exploitation. This brings them to the pivotal postwar financial conferences in Brussels and Genoa where the capitalist states brought in economic experts touting this new tactic of austerity, framing taking from the many and giving to the few as a mass sacrifice for mass benefits, taking off in European states like the UK and Italy, and setting the stage for a rising fascism that was legitimized by the liberal establishment, and a deeper and deeper acceptance of capitalism via fiscal, monetary, and industrial austerity. Wrapping up, they tie the revelations of the Great War to the revelations we saw in capitalist societies in the wake of the COVID19 pandemic, and the parallels to the ongoing attempt to use inflation to discipline labor, before Professor Mattei walks through the role of Capital Order in helping us unpack our current political moment.

Watch the Majority Report live Monday–Friday at 12 p.m. EST on YouTube OR listen via daily podcast at http://www.Majority.FM

https://www.house.gov/representatives...
https://www.senate.gov/senators/senat...

#SamSeder #MajorityReport #politics #progressive #leftist #democrats #liberal #Austerity #Fascism #History #economics

SUPPORT the show by becoming a member: http://www.jointhemajorityreport.com/

Download TMR's FREE app: http://www.majorityapp.com

TMR MERCH: http://www.shop.majorityreportradio.com

CHECK OUT MORE from the MR crew:
Matt Binder DOOMED    / mattbinder  
Brandon Sutton DISCOURSE   / expandthediscourse  
Emma Vigeland ESVN    / esvnshow  
Matt Lech LEFT RECKONING    / leftreckoning  

OTHER LINKS:
Twitch:   / themajorityreport  
Facebook:   / majorityreport  
Twitter:   / majorityfm  
Instagram:   / majorityreport.fm  

Check out more from the MR crew:
Matt Binder DOOMED    / mattbinder  
Brandon Sutton THE DISCOURSE   / expandthediscourse  
Emma Vigeland ESVN    / esvnshow  
Matt Lech LEFT RECKONING    / leftreckoning