How Economists Invented Austerity & Paved the Way to Fascism

Clara Mattei discusses her new book "The Capital Order: How Economists Invented Austerity and Paved the Way to Fascism"
Find the book:
press.uchicago...
Learn more about modern austerity:
www.theguardia...
Explore Professor Mattei's other research:
www.newschool....
Follow her on Twitter:
/ claraemattei

[@bgoodfella7413]

Strict Austerity for the working class, Generous Socialism for billionaires.

[@leni4179]

Wtf you want to say with "socialism for billionaires" 💀?

[@SergipeCycling]

@@leni4179 State money and tax cuts for the 1% richest people, while fewer social investment and higher taxes for the poorer.

[@kyriakizafeiriadou7681]

You are absolutely on point !!!

[@kyriakizafeiriadou7681]

@@leni4179 it's is socialism for billionaires!!!! They take more than generous help from the state !!! If they are so much for free markets they should take responsibility for their own business ( as they preach for working class) and pull themselves out of their problem. But getting tax payers money ( which are mostly paid from middle class,) and on top if ithat huge tax cuts it's absolutely OUTRAGEOUS!!!

[@ThePowerflake]

Robert Reich has been saying that for some time. He’s brilliant, and I can’t understand why he isn’t in charge of the economy.

[@hybridepigenes]

Austerity is a tool to maintain the established economic order. Absolutely right. Thank you professor. Let's also remind ourselves that austerity is always accompanied by tax cuts. The burden must always fall on the lower and middle classes. This is the very core of neoliberal feudalism.

[@kalasmournrex1470]

Eff you and all the other commies expecting free handouts to lay around doing nothing

[@christian2i]

I feel you, but careful... When feudalism was done for, the first capitalist order was unrestrained industrialists forming society to their will. What u identify as feudalism is actually the consequence of capitalist dynamics

[@benghiskahn3673]

Which is why in nations like the UK and US 1% of the population own c. 50% of the wealth and power. That figure was lower before 2008 austerity and it will be much higher after 2022 austerity.

[@termitreter6545]

Tax cuts are literally the opposite of Austerity. Increasing tax, limit spending, is what austerity means. Lowering tax and welfare at the same time is more in the range of post 70s neoliberalism. Should be clear if you look at Germany, which has employed austerity on itself, usually with success. What this video really does, is completely redefining "austerity" as a concept to some ideological monstrosity oppressing the working class. Its ridiculous, its pure left wing populism and trying to redefine a useful term that people react emotionally too. Even if youre left wing, you shouldnt buy into this manipulative narrative. If she was actually honest, then she would talk about how austerity has been a tool, which has some uses, but can hurt the working class. Like shes pretending that "cutting spending" means you have to cut welfare benefits. It can also cutting subsidies for succesful companies, at which case austerity is in a good thing for the working class.

[@user-ox2mz8ds7g]

Class war

[@kevnar]

All the fictional superheroes in comics, TV, and movies were always fighting petty crime in the streets. But the real evil was the system itself. The world needs a superhero who actually shut down the supervillains at the top who impoverish entire nations for their own gain. Now that would be a compelling story.

[@randomchannel-px6ho]

You're pretty much describing Mr. Robot.

[@kevnar]

@@randomchannel-px6ho I'll have to check it out.

[@daciogutierrez4132]

The current Billionaires and celebrities cult is a byproduct of this logic, where we are made to believe that this individuals, and not the workers create value. Fascism goes hand in hand with personality cult.... This book sounds great, looking forward to read it.

[@kalasmournrex1470]

Ok commie

[@The80sWolf_]

Yup, and how this western liberal order are projecting their own faults on others.

[@bovineavenger734]

But Fascism is actually about the government taking control of the economy, cults of personality have nothing to do with it.

[@Vhlathanosh]

@@MathGPT "It is those great individuals who solve meaningful problems and develop useful technologies" No, they don't. It's the workers who solve the problems while your so-called "great individuals" take the credit. You must be very deluded if you think someone like Musk is a scientist/inventor.

[@Eyesayah]

@@MathGPT It seems to me that laborers are still finding employment, filling some kind of need. At our southern border many pass on their way to labor here. Top of the hierarchy naturally tries to manage these forces. 'Let them eat cake' signals one view of their effort. Very possibly, along with their great accomplishments, these leaders have visited curses on humanity. Cutting edge advances play out long term as well. One book has it that the meek will inherit the earth.

[@ML6103]

'oh I'm not yelling. I'm Italian, it's how we speak' What an exceptional, intelligent and passionate woman.

[@qwerty69600]

Cringe.

[@antoniousai1989]

She's applying Gramsci's theory of how ideology is made to the actual mainstream economic and social zeitgeist. It never fails. I'll read the book for sure.

[@LetsGoGetThem]

Only two "ideologies" are allowed, The classicist Austrian school and the psuedo-Keynesians, neither challenge capitalism. I wonder why that is, hehe.

[@sharongillesp]

K.I.S.S. Austerity is simply the vast majority (99%) tighten their belts so a small minority (1%) don’t have to tighten theirs at all.

[@PaulThronson]

@@sharongillesp Don't forget there is no reason to tighten belts OTHER THAN so the small minority can become mega billionaires.

[@lloydgush]

So, she's just copying hitler?

[@antoniousai1989]

@@LetsGoGetThem That's an economic theory. Gramsci wrote about cultural ideology. It's more connected to the way capitalism as an idea is enforced more than the capitalistic theories on government intervention.

[@jakecarlo9950]

I simply love Prof. Mattei’s energy and acuity in sharing their findings. ❤

[@nagillim7915]

The question that no one ever seems to ask is "what is economics for?" It's become so engrained in human society that we no longer question its purpose but treat it as if its fundamental to the structure of reality and not something our ancestors invented as a solution to a social problem. And thus without a focus on its purpose we enable it to express all its self-destructive tendencies as though they're unavoidable and intrinsic, then throw our hands up and wonder how it happened. When really the problem is we have forgotten why we invented it and therefore it has become purposeless.

[@willrichardson519]

Money is a good servant, but a poor master. Also old school economics and business.

[@enemyofYTemployees]

“If printing money can end poverty, then printing diplomas end stupidity”. This woman took that to heart and didn’t realize it was sarcasm.

[@rappakalja5295]

"Printing money is bad, but it's brilliant when banks do it." - you

[@Rob-fx2dw]

But she already has a diploma in idiocy - she doesn't need any more !

[@Rob-fx2dw]

@@rappakalja5295 You failed the knowledge test of what banks do and what their credit ends up as. Go read up on the subject so you understand it rather than seize on one point and end up in a wrong conclusion.

[@rappakalja5295]

@@Rob-fx2dw Banks create money out of thin air. This is a fact. I suggest you educate yourself instead of bending over.

[@carycunningham9510]

"The economics profession is a cartel invented to defend error." - Thomas Frank

[@alexuvarov7441]

The economics profession studies how capital flows in a free market uninterrupted/with government intervention. It is a study of what is, whereas communism is a theory of how things "should" be... like a cat "should" eat vegetables instead of meat.

[@carycunningham9510]

@@alexuvarov7441 Just missed the point entirely.

[@alexuvarov7441]

@@carycunningham9510 Please enlighten me with your vast wisdom.

[@carycunningham9510]

@@alexuvarov7441 Nope, just not important.

[@alexuvarov7441]

@@carycunningham9510 thought so.

[@williamzondersen]

This is so apropos to the World swing to neo- fascism, and is multi-faceted in explanation.

[@roughhabit9085]

Strange how the quintessential fascist Hitler always denounced Capitalism as a Western evil isn’t it? You could almost be forgiven for thinking this woman is State sponsored.

[@caiomh7605]

Michael Hudson writes a lot about this subject. I'm happy to see more people willing to expose the insanity of austerity, debt, and the darkest sides of capitalism.

[@that_heretic]

Is there a light side of capitalism? Most goods, arguably all goods, have some level of exploitation happening in their supply chain. And the unjustifiable economic and political authority capitalism creates for the upper class is always a net negative for the majority. But agreed otherwise. Glad to see the intellectual push-back. Hopefully it foreshadows a working class push-back in the future.

[@caiomh7605]

@@that_heretic Capitalism started as a push-back against feudalism so, in a weird way, it has "good" things about it. Although I prefer socialism. I would rather live under a Keynesian industrial capitalism, than our current rentier capitalism.

[@FSVR54]

@@that_heretic there's many good sides. In fact it's the best system so far. Unwash your brain lol

[@06rtm]

@@that_heretic What do you propose an an alternative?

[@LuisAldamiz]

But Hudson is rather neo-Keynesian, she's not: she's disingenuous and thus undeclaredly communist.

[@quaaase]

As a Brazilian, I witness my country increasing government spending on non-essential areas year after year. There is a lot of corruption behind the scenes, tax incentives for friends of the rulers, impediment of foreign companies to compete in the national market and defend the national industry even today we pay 50%+ of import taxes and 34% in the consumption tax of 100 % of products traded nationally, which ends up preventing the industrialization of the country along with our labor laws that generate the most number in % of labor lawsuits in the world, and this has a cost. The speech of first world scholars as in the video above is very beautiful, for underdeveloped countries like Brazil to show this type of video wins the support of 50% of the population, just the poorest who have never run a business and paid the taxes within the law . Today, we have over 90% of the annual budget locked in with old laws and expenses that do not generate returns for the population, and there is only close to 7% of the budget left for the Government to invest, with Bolsonaro being the only president to reduce the public machine since redemocratization to the end of the 80's. With the entry of Lula now, there will be no fiscal austerity, because he has the same opinion as the woman in the video, follow how our economy will be, how Argentina's is going and decide for yourself if austerity should be an obligation of those who do not know how to make an account, as is the case of the Government of South American countries such as these two. Personally, I have always only gathered dollars and bitcoin hoping my country will not have austerity, printing money year after year through the printing of public bonds paying today around 18% per year in Brazilian real and I can say that I am the richest in my social circle , family, and local in the city where I live and hearing everything said in the video makes me sick, since I live around misery, but having the contrary belief of the majority of the population and my Government. I advise you to visit a favela around here, if you still have doubts about the disgrace that public accounts without austerity, which generates a lack of focus on what is really essential, and prevents the country from growing since dollars do not enter the country through investments, for the first time in the last 4 years we had austerity through the Minister of Economy Paulo Guedes (Liberal graduated from the Chicago School) and made us the strongest currency of the year 2022 until the election where his candidate lost and the dollar already started to shoot in just 1 month after the election, and he hasn't even taken office yet. You who live in the first world need to get out of your box and start traveling the world to see how local problems are, and stop talking so much nonsense, I got really sick watching and couldn't even finish.

[@rafaeldossantos8646]

Every time I hear these marxists I have the sense that all they do is a lot of cherry picking and then they create a story that fits their narrative while in reality things are much more complicated, like you said the examples of socialism (the attempt of it or whatever the name you wanna call it) and fiscal irresponsability here in South America are atrocious.

[@suleymangabriel5250]

Cattle

[@suleymangabriel5250]

Você só esqueceu que no últimos seis meses seus lindos liberais paulo guedes e Bolsonaro rasgaram a cartilha de austeridade e queimaram o orçamento público e estouraram o teto de gasto em quase R$ 800 Bi, na tentativa de se reeleger. Inclusive tivemos alguns exemplos de liberalismo econômico no combate ao desmatamento com Sales sendo pego no maior roubo de madeira ilegal da história. Ou Milton Ribeiro negociando construção de escolas em troca de barras de ouro. Em suma. Perdeu mané, não amola.

[@quaaase]

​@@suleymangabriel5250 Esse papinho só cola com petista, já que não sabem somar nem analisar dados públicos e ficam tentando justificar as falas de um ladrão analfabeto condenado em todas instancias . Já saí do país financeiramente dia 30 junto com 134 clientes, difícil vai ser gastar esse tanto de bitcoin nessa roça agora, a Trezor ta até pesada :p

[@suleymangabriel5250]

Parabéns pra você, só deveria saber a esta altura que todo liberal e self made man brasileiro adora uma mamata na teta do estado, são raríssimas excessões. O que não cola é o papo de neo liberal da boca pra fora.

[@percy832]

A couple of observations. She talks at length about austerity but fails to define exactly what it is. And when I say define it, I mean a precise economic definition such as spending as a % of GDP. That might be a good start. Secondly, she fails to talk about globalisation, which is key to understanding austerity budgets. Capital has all the power in a global economy, which in turn effects govt revenue. This issue also needs to be considered in any discussion about austerity.

[@franktatom1837]

And her premise is looking backwards. In the present, automation has caused a great loss of numbers of people she would define as "workers", which then dilutes the political power of such people - but only in western countries. Automation and the relocation "workers" in totalitarian countries have also impacted the power of "workers" more than "austerity". She also ignores the growth of government regulation of the workplace for safety, wages, hours worked, benefits, etc., which have made worker organization, politically or otherwise, unnecessary or less valuable in many western countries. And, she didn't mention that the end of WWI was accompanied with the introduction of the income tax in the U.S., which has never been about austerity for the government, although one could argue it has caused austerity for those paying it at the lower end of the income brackets (along with sales tax on necessaries). Finally, no fascist government was austere (nor have any communist or socialist governments been austere, either). Power does not create austerity for those with power, despite their statements in favor of austerity. Those in power live lavishly.

[@percy832]

@@franktatom1837 What is also apparent is that politics is now primarily about supporting your team, rather than analyzing arguments and facts. Until this changes any so called expert will be supported as long as they are wearing your colours.

[@robertamoyaw1979]

Now that it's getting harder for even the upper middle class to pay their bills we are about to be schooled PROPER!!! 🤓 Thank you Professor! I will most certainly buy your Book!!! 🤓

[@abhinandanbanerjee5471]

Haha well said

[@lk7496]

I'm not convinced she could make a bowl of cereal without screwing it up.

[@RichardEricThompson]

Laughing hard!

[@guardrailbiter]

It wouldn't be _her_ failure. She'd blame it on austerity. 😉

[@Stratahoovius]

I think austerity can be summed up in two words - class warfare.

[@randomchannel-px6ho]

"Perserving the capital order" makes that explicit Its quite tell econ grads will proudly say how wrong marx was when it he actually predicted our current age of diminishing producticity (they try really hard to obfuscste it but these things like nanotech just by their complex nature won't progress at light speed like transitors, which also moores law is dead.

[@shyman3000]

In laymen's terms, Capitalism is a game, and when the game is approaching its end, the winners step on the losers so the losers can't reset the game.

[@bigbillhaywood1415]

Time for a new game.

[@Brian-os9qj]

New game for sure. This presentation doesn’t bring anything new to that need. Just selling a book from my pov.

[@catherinehamer5653]

@@bigbillhaywood1415 oh do you mean like a Nouveau French Revolution…..off wiv their ‘eads? Pardon my French but plus ça change plus c’est le même chose

[@jonathanaliff6121]

More like, within capitalism, austerity is the cost paid by the voter, for asking for the things that destroy capitalism.

[@shyman3000]

@@jonathanaliff6121 The cost paid by the voter for asking for things that they need. There i fixed it.

[@michaelwolfe7105]

Someone desperately needs to ask this woman one question. "Does your train of thought have a CABOOSE? W. Edwards Deming would tear this lady to shreds. Every other thought turns back to CAPITAL, NOT PEOPLE.

[@woodspriteful]

When we learn history, we emphasize the wars, but never talk about what was happening in the homeland during those wars. Whenever there's a war, such as WWI, the women protesting for the right to vote, for example, are criticized for breaking national unity during a time of war. Internal demands are crushed in the context of an external war, which is the justification for austerity at home.

[@paladinsorcerer67]

The wars that the US is pulled in to are instigated by capitalist leaders who maneuver for limited resources and land grabs. While doing this they clamor for worker alliegance, at the same time that workers are sent to die for the capitalist agenda. Often times they even make up from whole cloth the reason to start the war (Gulf of Tonkin incident in Vietnam, WMD in Iraq). If workers were in control of the country they could stop this from happening, and then the people wouldn't have to die in pointless wars, and protests could flourish. Austerity needs to be seen as a form of economic warfare against your own people.

[@ryanfitzalan8634]

She uses a lot of different terminology, that really focuses on the word capitalism, but another way of saying it perhaps a bit more plainly, is that historically- society has been Aristocratic. As we moved closer into the modern era, social liberalism continued to expand culturally and it influenced and enhanced movements of liberal and democratic populism. There has been a persistent invisible war between contemporary aristocracy doing everything within their power to subvert growing liberal populism. Aristocratic political and economic elites are heavily invested in maintaining the social order in their favor, and if they don't manipulate centralized financial systems through market political policies(like that of austerity) than the centralized fiat currency/stock market systems will implode or collapse after these huge growth periods. Collapse would demolish their aristocratic order and force smaller socio-geographic localities to rebuild new marketplaces and political entities from scratch, new economies from scratch. Today that means global economic collapse if it were to happen, and probably a mini-Dark age for a few decades.

[@lazywallstreetnews7234]

I've always said that we have the money to make everything work for the most people, we just misuse it. Instead of re-evaluating our budget and increasing equity, the evil brilliance of industry and economic policy is convincing us, the public at large, that this austerity is for our own good and survival when it's the very thing that's most driving us apart and into extremes.

[@mikemcaulay9507]

When one is convinced that one's personal well being is inextricably bound to the success of one economic model to the exclusion of all others, one will fight tooth and nail to preserve it no matter how poorly one is treated under that model. As an American who was fortunate enough to spend a decade abroad, I've realized how much of my country's perspective is driven by the lack of knowledge and experience of other country's systems that actually work. Without exposure to these other models, it's easy to conclude one's own way is the only "natural" way to do things. No place or practice is perfect but not being able to really see the alternatives means you have nothing by which to truly compare.

[@lazywallstreetnews7234]

@@mikemcaulay9507 I'm an immigrant. Spent my first 25 years abroad and honestly I couldn't agree more. 👏

[@zdave6083]

Maybe we all get the economic system we deserve. Maybe we like to wallow in the mire of ignorance. Just sayin.

[@mikemcaulay9507]

@@zdave6083 I grew up very conservative and one of the things I found that makes this so difficult is the lack of exposure. I was sheltered like many not to mention the way the media tends to tell us only one really works. I guess what I'm saying is there are a lot of people who don't know any better and haven't been reasonably exposed to other ideas. I think one of the main reasons I got out of that mindset was living outside the US for a number of years. That, and I've always been curious and loved science. That was the door I walked through to get it. Most people don't have those things. At least not in my experience within conservative circles. There are those who are aggressive in their defense of ignorance but there are also a lot who just haven't been able to overcome the propaganda of their youth. But for the grace of God go I, and all of that.

[@zdave6083]

@@mikemcaulay9507"there but for the grace of God and all that." How bout none of that? More " scientific " don't you think?

[@happyfuture6515]

Wow, she has uncovered the evil in the system! Brava!

[@muha0644]

Well, the evil in the system has already been uncovered for quite a while by a funny bearded man name Karl....

[@stankrajewski8255]

I find her inflection point of the Great War to be interesting. The Great War also had a pandemic, as we have recently experienced. The austerity notion was relaxed during the second pandemic. How do the masters get the peasantry back in their yokes? The unquestionable virtue of market inflation vs. the terror of inflation setting upon the workers is a cudgel that will be repaired to keep building the whole-world-third-world model.

[@jcrockett870]

Actually I think the inflection point was during the reformation and the end of the monastic period. but it would take me a video to explain.

[@Anthony-dy5cq]

Hard to believe time is not cyclical after that, that where history doesn't repeat it often rhymes

[@andreroy8141]

It was this recent pandemic that demonstrated the power of the working class. It exposed newer generations to that power. Now the Rich are afraid and they what to use the cudgel again. I don't think it will work the same. The Baby Boomers are leaving the work force and the population difference is noticeable. So, they will need to import labor or crash the economy. Take your pick.

[@roughhabit9085]

Hey don’t forget inflation defeated the Roman Empire

[@mathewhill5556]

@@jcrockett870 Have you heard of Dr. John Vervaeke from the university of Toronto? If not, check out his KZbin channel and lecture series. He has a whole thing about how the reformations lead to WW1, WW2, and the current cultural Nexus we find ourselves.

[@mrcead]

Even as a highschooler I thought moving an economy at the speed of what a roomful of people could process was backwards, then I learned about corruption and the other shoe dropped

[@Dorian_sapiens]

This explanation took a lot of facts I already understood on their own and tied them together very effectively. And that's where true understanding comes from: understanding the relationships among seemingly separate phenomena. Great talk by Clara Mattei!

[@krcalder]

We never did get to the bottom of 2008. Something this big must mean something is fundamentally wrong, and it is, at the lowest level, a general confusion over money and wealth. There is no real understanding of the monetary system, and how private banks create the money supply. Austerity is often the wrong answer. The IMF predicted Greek GDP would have recovered by 2015 with austerity. By 2015 Greek GDP was down 27% and still falling. The money supply ≈ public debt + private debt The “private debt” component was going down with deleveraging from a debt fuelled boom. The Troika then wrecked the Greek economy by cutting the “public debt” component and pushed the economy into debt deflation (a shrinking money supply). Greece was pushed into a Great Depression type event by the Troika.

[@krcalder]

@@ThomasVWorm The banking and monetary systems do seem to be a complete mystery to mainstream economists.

[@krcalder]

@@ThomasVWorm You might like this. kzbin.info/www/bejne/q5bPl5WraaqWfpI Mark Blyth - The Liberalism Scam

[@paularnoldus1877]

to show you the claptrap: 1) Clara Mattei makes much of the role of the expert as non-classist technocrat coming with "neutral" advice. Yet, in a planned economy, the expert is suddenly the hero working to achieve a better society seeing through "bourgeois" bias (there is no marxis bias apparently). 2) And as regards the paving the way for fascism: in that political philosophy there is in the end no objectivity and expert knowledge, as political will takes primary place (hence the autocrat can instruct companies and armies and artists and ....)

[@reesetorwad8346]

No.

[@wisdomsdoorstep]

@@reesetorwad8346 you don’t know how to read? You don’t understand basic conversation? Can you tie your shoes on your own? Still thinking of the questions you must be answering with these comments.

[@sharongillesp]

Summary of austerity: the “many” (99%) tighten their belts so the “few” (1%) don’t have to tighten theirs.

[@andresmiguelcervantes5496]

I think we all knew something was up when economists started saying that giving people affordable housing was not the solution, that more unaffordable housing was.

[@mikebastiat]

Government destroyed housing, not the market.

[@kateoneal4215]

She's great! Gets right to the core of our rot, misery and crumbling empire.

[@samuelliotta9437]

I seem to remember there was also a minor event in 1917 in Russia that wasn"t mentioned here. :P

[@Justin_Beaver564]

Not having austerity leads to authoritarianism

[@vebdaklu]

Having austerity leads to poverty, which leads to corporate oligarchy, which is also a form of authoritarianism.

[@Rob-fx2dw]

It is ironic and hypocritical that the leftist Marxist professors insist on dissmissing what they call 'austerity ' for government but insist on enforcing it for everyone else who is made to balance their accounts and prohibited from doing what they preach the federal should do with excessive budget deficits. It seems in their mind it is only good exclusively when government politicians do it.

[@JordanSullivanadventures]

Brilliant argument. You've blown my mind. It seems so obvious in hindsight, but I didn't realize what a stabilizing force to maintaining capitalism austerity was.

[@PumpkinSpicePretzels]

I hope you realize that she's not saying austerity is good, nor that capitalism is the ultimate answer to economy.

[@kensmechanicalaffair]

There is no capitalism, if the Government prints money to keep companies alive. You guys slow or what?

[@Ryuujinv01]

Uh, it's been the single biggest destabilizing agent of capitalism. Keeping labor well compensated and happy is what created the American golden age. it's the reason we didn't slide into fascism like the rest of the world did. Boomers, while working entry level jobs that "don't deserve money" controlled more than triple the total economic pie that the millennial generation did on their entry into the work force. When more people have more money to spend, the more opportunities there are for capitalists to capitalize on. Social or government spending, or recognizing the value of labor in society, are all not communism.

[@cinemaipswich4636]

Prosperity = It's mine and don't tax me. Privatize the Profits. Austerity = The banks need a bail out of $30 Trillion in new T-Bonds. Socialize the Losses.

[@lukedornon960]

Nobody "invented" austerity, that's just the name people give to the phenomenon of running out of willing lenders to fund deficit spending...

[@johnwright9372]

When economists began to be treated like gurus who had the answer to everything, unscrupulously greedy businesses and crooked politicians ran away with it.

[@fubaralakbar6800]

"Take the rich peoples' stuff and give it to the poor!" But then all the rich people will leave, and you will have no one to tax...

[@Grimenoughtomaketherobotcry]

I find it amazing that she doesn't mention the word, "imperialism" even once in a discussion of early 20th century economic history. World War I was essentially the death clash of the political and economic empires established over the previous two centuries paralleling the rise of industrial capitalism, and resulting in, among other things, the Bolshevik revolution in Russia, the collapse of Germany in Europe along with the rise of Japan in Asia, and Britain becoming a debtor to the United States. Much of what she talks about concerning the working class following WWI is applicable to Europe but less so to North America, where the 1920's, far from being a time of austerity, were a decade of unprecedented prosperity and "mass consumption", so much so that many workers came to see themselves, with the help of the new electronic media, as part of a dominant middle-class. Set back during the early years of the Depression, it rebounded through intensive union organization in the later 1930's, further strengthened during and after WWII, when the US replaced Britain as the dominant empire. With Bretton Woods and US military preeminence ensuring international "free trade", the post-WWII "Pax Americana" primarily benefitted US manufacturers and those who worked for them, at least until Nixon and his corporate supporters decided it was far more profitable and strategically advantageous to scrap Bretton Woods, bludgeoning an increasingly politically powerful US working class by off-shoring manufacturing jobs to Mao's China, and thereby giving the Soviet Union a hot-foot from which it never recovered.

[@the_famous_reply_guy]

All wealth is generated by the lower working classes from mechanical effort and time, like Honey bees collecting nectar, All austerity and recessions are the transfer of wealth to the upper class, each time the depression and wealth transfer gets larger. This isn't part of academic dialogue but it is apart of nature, a purely phycological issue, its benefits the few, its not a dominance hierarchy as Jordan Peterson claims, its a game of exploitation.

[@benhiggins900]

She never defined austerity or fascism, nor explained how austerity leads to fascism

[@donaldramsey1288]

The professor has really done her homework. Well done!

[@gdiwolverinemale2745]

By selling the lazy approach to life scheme? The more we apply such ideas, the poorer we will become.

[@Zerradable]

Yeah, her homework as any communist/socialist lunatic was well done: convert a bunch of gen Z and millennials orphans into believing that the cancer of the XX century is a good idea. It's baffling that people still believes in collectivist ideas in 2022... No wonder these new generations have a bunch of depressed narcisists.

[@joshismyhandle]

Please present an audiobook with the author reading. I love her passion

[@seamusmcfitz913]

Economists are winning Nobel prizes now adays for using equations first-year physics students use on a daily basis.

[@reesetorwad8346]

If you please, point me to a source for that interesting thought.

[@seamusmcfitz913]

@@reesetorwad8346 not too bright eh?

[@Wonzling0815]

They had to invent their own Nobel Prize too, with blackjack and hookers

[@reneeseance5367]

@@seamusmcfitz913 wtf is wrong with you? If you can’t offer a single source and instead respond with a flagrant insult to deflect… it makes you look like the dim one

[@jtowensbyiii6018]

@@seamusmcfitz913 too stupid to answer the question eh?

[@leandromentucci2767]

As an argentinian who lives in Brazil I have to say that this sounds great, but doesn’t work at all. If you doesnt have austerity in a country you have rising inflation and a rise in corruption. People from US should listen people that used to live in country with no austerity economic policies. Argentina used to be a rich country a century ago. Now is a place really bad to invest, with high taxes for everyone, from the rich that are now not so rich and the rising poor.

[@constantinchatzopoulos]

I can't help but underline the linguistic register used by our brilliant teacher in this case which I would describe as pure international English without americanisms or anglicismes of any short. Great work.

[@kevinwilkins7851]

Her English is superior.

[@qc6265]

That's called an accent

[@someyoungguyjohnson7239]

She sounds like a Quebecor.

[@zdave6083]

Umm..kinda coming off as grammar snob. Just sayin.

[@watching99134]

Wouldn't a "pure" international English have some of its own pecularities though? (Like how she pronounces Chicago "Tchicago" instead of "Sheh-cago")

[@timelwell7002]

Very interesting analysis. It ties in with what *Gary Stevenson* is saying (Gary's Economics - You Tube channel) and what *Naomi Klein,* and *Professor Richard Wolff* are all saying. I would say that Neoliberalism is a logical - albeit iniquitous development of the austerity agenda we see so clearly in countries such as the UK, the USA, India, France, The Philippines, etc.

[@gayathridevi7460]

WOW! She gave a blurb of this book so eloquently. Can't wait to read the book.

[@emeral311]

Agreed. I've never been so excited to read a book from an author like this!

[@midlander8186]

How long can war economies persist, and how long can they persist without the perception of an existential threat?

[@gnoelalexmay]

I too was thinking along these lines. Unfortunately, from the little I understand, the great concern over capitalism's ability to support the great war, was replaced by the realisation that the war was incredibly good for business. We now have huge corporations whose business models are not only based on war, but now also illness and infectious disease. Bailing out the banks due to them being "too big to fail" has given terrible incentives for financial risk of economic disaster too. I see these as problems of monopolies and corruption rather than being of capitalism per sé though. Does that make sense? 🤔 🙏🙏🙏

[@midlander8186]

@@gnoelalexmay The phenomena you perceive seem indisputable. The speculation you present in your last paragraph is sensible. I guess neither of us knows whether this speculation is definitive.

[@gnoelalexmay]

@@midlander8186 Thanks for the reply. With these observations, I'd say the last thing we should even entertain is a technocracy built around the 'experts' we've experienced in recent years.

[@peterhorton9063]

It hard coded in our brains because acting like that in a tribe or village would of gotten you exiled or killed. Imagine being in a tribe picking all the berries then denying others the right to pick and forcing them to give you something to get berries.

[@blu0065]

I am a simple person. I see Clara Mattei, I click "like."

[@hectorreyesLIVE]

Thank you for speaking truth in a society based on lies.

[@p5rsona]

really is based on lies, so sad...

[@paularnoldus1877]

nutty marxist reasoning: economic theory assumes workers input amounts to "value added" just as capital input. All ways to improve productivity, by cleverer method of workers using better performing machines focussing on what people decide to buy, and not the "worker" as central place (always in the abstract of course because the marxist decides what the real worker is). No wonder that Italian academic economic contributions have been in steep decline.

[@reesetorwad8346]

No. Every single thing you wrote on this page is garbage. If you're trying to sound intelligent, you're failing.

[@marcelqueiroz8613]

Vejo que você não sabe nada sobre Marx. E seu comentário está ideologicamente comprometido.

[@rygarisfun8164]

Karl Marx’s ideas have failed over and over again.

[@reesetorwad8346]

@@marcelqueiroz8613 No.

[@mdaronco]

As a Brazilian, i experienced inflationary cycles enough to say, with total respect, that she's wrong. Fiscal Responsibility and Social Responsibility walks side by side. Rise of public spending pushes public debt higher, increasing in future fees, and, consequently, rising prices and causing inflation. The poorest are always the ones who suffer the most in a nation where the government rises its debts. A fascist state is way more closer of a irresponsible than an austere government.

[@dads-weekend]

Wow - I wish everyone could hear and understand the importance of this analysis and see where the world is going. This doesn't end well for humanity as a whole.

[@dezh81guy93]

yup. if we keep prioritizing profit over need, how will we ever solve global warming? the United Nations tried 3 times in 50 years and failed at each junction.

[@hdufort]

It's interesting that in Canada, austerity has been used by parties both left and right. The Haperer conservatives at the federal level, for example, used it to shutdown social services, to try to destroy the postal service, to stop climate monitoring in the Arctic, and to close research centers (especially those working in French). They closed entire scientific libraries and had the books destroyed in containers... probably fearing that somehow, the books would come back to haunt them. But at the provincial level, austerity has been used by parties on the left. In Québec, the left-leaning parti Québécois applied severe austerity principles under Lucien Bouchard and Bernard Landry, causing structural issues in the healthcare system that we are still feeling today. And the liberal party (center-right, ironically) under Philippe Couillard applied severe reforms and used the word "austerity" in every sentence.

[@veritas2222]

Surely I’m not the only one to note the irony that her exquisite antidote to our malignant financial distortions derive from Chicago, whence it all began. If only what went around would actually come back around! Yes, if only …

[@scambammer6102]

isn't it amazing that the most "efficient" use of money is to concentrate it in the hands of those who already have it?

[@sichelgaito]

I was thinking the exact same thing!

[@kevino.7348]

@@scambammer6102 Perhaps it flows to those who know how to use it best? How do you respond to that?

[@scambammer6102]

@@kevino.7348 what do you mean by “best”? That’s the exact same problem as efficiency. You are assuming you know what “best” means. But the “best” use of the money is precisely the issue to be determined. Is it “best” for Elon musk to have another billion $, or would it be better to do something else with it?

[@socratesagain7822]

@@kevino.7348 A talent for accumulating and hoarding wealth seldom equates to knowing how to use it best. They belong to separate categories or dimensions of thought or feeling. Hoarding derives from a pathological deformation of our simian evolutionary brain's acquisitive or territorial impulse. Birds, for example, collect enough scattered pieces of debris till their nest is secure, not so man. "The more he has, the more, etc." Best use derives from our superior, _ethical_ dimension of feeling toward our fellows in our community. Read "Beowulf" and other sagas, wherein the group chieftain was the "poorest" man in the group for he shared his booty with his tribe/clan! In return he earned respect and undying loyalty, as befits a true monarch... The noxious ideology, Capitalism, has much to answer for. Be well.

[@LegendsLit]

"Then the Gods of the Market tumbled, and their smooth-tongued wizards withdrew, And the hearts of the meanest were humbled and began to believe it was true That All is not Gold that Glitters, and Two and Two make Four- And the Gods of the Copybook Headings limped up to explain it once more." -Rudyard Kipling 1920

[@PerteTotale]

congrats for this researcher to explore and explain what happened in 1914-1922 to have repercussions up till now. But still I think that the seeds for this were already sown in the previous great war(s). As that Gen. Humphree? - forgot his name- after 1945 called it: "every war is a racket(eering)".

[@JENTHINKSO]

War is a Racket is the title of a speech by retired Gen. Smedley Butler in 1935. (My computer is named Smedley after him. 😆)

[@Brian-os9qj]

She seems more a ‘prognosticator’ than researcher. She is just selling a book.

[@nixpkwy]

I watched this video one year ago and it saved me from the alt-right pipeline descent into Daily Wire and Neoliberal BS. My country's economy suffered a lot after the government cut healthcare, education, and infrastructure investment. Thankfully we are changing course and the economy AND people's welfare are both improving.

[@theageofgoddess]

Brilliant explanation! Thank you for this great work 🙏🏼

[@GaminHasard]

It was indeed very good

[@markg.7865]

Just compare her brilliance to clowns like Trump, MTG and Lauren Boebert.

[@programking655]

You mean stupid work?

[@Benjamin.365]

I will forever be indebted to you you've changed my whole life continue to preach about your name for the world to hear you've saved me froma huge financial debt with just little investment, thanks so much Mrs. Sophia

[@humphreygeo]

That's true

[@humphreygeo]

So you guys still know her too

[@akpoebijasmine]

Bitcion investment is what people should be going into all thanks to her for my successful withdraw ❤️.

[@greatffgyv]

My first investment with Mrs Sophia gave me profit of over $24,000 Us dollars and ever since then she has never failed to deliver and I can even say she's the most sincere broker I have known

[@beniza7788]

I invested £5000 pounds I I received £54,000 thousand pounds within 7 days working

[@wolfiefink]

In a truly competitive market, profit is a cost (or waste of capital). In a perfectly competitive market, profit can’t exist because all means of production have to be maximized. Austerity measures essentially exist to maximize waste (profit) by undercutting the means of production themselves.

[@adtiamzon3663]

Interesting title of your book. Love to know more about the results of research. 👏👍💪

[@louisaparker]

I don't think the book includes any original empirical results. It's a theory.

[@levmoses742]

Wonderful!! Thank you. I learned so much in just this little bit. Too many of us don’t understand how the economy works. What you’re saying ties in to what I already suspected. *It’s all happening on purpose!! From the housing crisis, to the COVID bailout checks, to the extremely high profits and stagnant wages.* Thank you!!

[@atomsk1972]

I don't take her meaning to be that it's happening on purpose. These are reactions to crises that were not predicted but place the burden on the worker and not on the owners.

[@GaJiarg]

If you read economics and history, you will see that she is wrong.

[@kensmechanicalaffair]

@@atomsk1972 The crisis was predicted.

[@kitsiewr]

@@GaJiarg On the contrary, history shows pretty clearly that the 1% use every planned and unplanned world event to increase their power and wealth, then use that power and wealth to control policy.

[@GaJiarg]

@@kitsiewr all of the 1%?

[@GregoryWonderwheel]

She is spot on.

[@hereigoagain5050]

Great lecture! This neo-classical, marginalist economist enjoyed Clara's perspective on austerity. I too took it as part of the natural order and not as a social construct. Very interesting ideas.

[@filipedandalo]

Maybe it’s time to drop neo-classicism then. It’s never too late to make peace with old Marx

[@scambammer6102]

this amateur history buff understood all of this when I read Marx in junior high school

[@immortalnightbody]

It is insane that anyone's brain could accept it as natural order. I was 18 when I figured out it was obviously not - I dropped out of economics and I don't regret it. Shady stuff this society is built on. Even shadier reason for it.

[@xB0505]

Wym natural order? nature is not this ugly, stop making things up. This was mainly about the flawed nature of capitalism

[@Misaki.Manifestation]

Clara's passion and obsessive curiosity to understand why is wonderful to watch.

[@Ozrictentacles87]

My guess is she’s on the spectrum and doesn’t realize how loud her voice is when she talks

[@daniel.lopresti]

@@Ozrictentacles87 She's Italian. They always yell as their normal conversational voice.

[@Ozrictentacles87]

@@daniel.lopresti Oh this is true. My bad lol.

[@silvarace]

Austerity does nothing to stabilize the economy, it does maintain the current economic hierarchy

[@sandwipsen9821]

The entrepreneur in reality does drive the economy. Like it or not. 😊 Without the entrepreneur, no enterprise starts.

[@sharpienate]

Now imagine a roomful of entrepreneurs with good ideas but that's as far as they get. How long before they begin to grow hungry with nothing but ideas and "risk" between them? How many calories are in an investment opportunity?

[@Poochessence]

"Without the entrepreneur, no enterprise starts." True only insofar as the entrepreneur is the only one with the financial means to start an enterprise. A group of workers *could* also get together to start an enterprise, but banks won't lend to them, they can't afford to go without a paycheck or health insurance, and the whole damn regulatory and fiscal system is against them. Just think about this: how many businesses has Trump started? Do you think of him as an "entrepreneur"? Do you think he's smarter or in any way better than his workers?

[@ricardoams]

Austerity was successful because it's obvious. First, you have to spend less than what you earn. Second, you need to spend well. All governments on earth didn't do both.

[@joshmuehlendorf8153]

Sounds intelligent if it’s what you already want to hear. At bottom I think it’s a whirlwind of conspiracy theory spin. I’ve searched and haven’t found Clare defending her thesis against opposition. I rather enjoy debates because the opponents raise questions I wouldn’t think to. I’m not convinced by her argument. Economic austerity sounds like a simple phenomenon that a progressive has attached undo premeditated motivation on.

[@jhonklan3794]

Its just a fact that the entrepreneur drive economic growth. The worker is only valuable if their labor is directed. Sorry.

[@erocrush]

I failed economics twice but I understood every word this woman said. I want to sue my University for educational malpractice.

[@programking655]

Maybe that’s because what she’s saying is stupid and so are you. So you could understand this but couldn’t understand real economic theory.

[@blakeward7982]

Austerity makes cynical assumptions about the role of government, but also seems to be a self-fulfilling prophecy about the rise of expert advisors to government officials.

[@artfulalias3984]

Thank you for your brilliant insight and informed summation.

[@TomRivieremusic]

“The comfort of the rich depends upon an abundant supply of the poor” Voltaire._

[@Aleakwe]

the teacher / language I wish I knew when i was younger. at least i have you now and it empowers my/our shared experience(s) as one of society's and medias' scapegoats. Thank you for this. Shared and subscribed

[@JaneRakali]

There's a huge overlap with religion and eugenics thinking and the narrative that supports neoliberalism. Romanticising the grind and the hustle, making this out to be god ordained living, and condemning the poor and vulnerable as rejects who want a free handout rather than people who need access to resources in order to participate in the community.

[@daniel.lopresti]

Funny that it seems to be an innate trait of humans to derive satisfaction, accomplishment, confidence, and a sense of meaning through that strangest of activities - hard work. That some would desire to instead romanticise the dependency on a central hierarchical structure which ensures their continued societal marginalisation, disenfranchisement, and immobility, I find quite baffling.

[@ace625]

I am very curious: is there an alternative method to dealing with inflation proposed within this theory? One that doesn't include interest rate hikes?

[@catocall7323]

And the abolishment of capitalism.

[@presterjack9764]

As I understand it, the argument here is that inflation is part of the process that take power away from capitalists and gives it to the goverment, i.e. socialism. The "austerity" being argued against is the very idea that inflation can be and should be prevented, and the alternative to austerity is socialism. It's pretty much a new framing on the same old debate, though perhaps an interesting one.

[@Acid31337]

Yes. just stop issuing new money. It is secret knowledge solialists don't want you to know. They will tell you why it is impossible, or why it is sooo destructive. They did it for 50 years and look what happened. They talking about imaginary austerity, gaslighting everyone. Do you want more of this?

[@catocall7323]

@@Acid31337 her whole discourse is just Marxism with some updated terms. Austerity instead of capitalism because austerity has a negative ring to it. And so on.

[@Ross123able]

What austerity? It has been talked about in the West, but not actually practiced. Government spending has been growing out of control for years.

[@wolfsden3]

Quite brilliant...I need this book 💯

[@marcosdoyter7460]

Brazil had a fascist president called Bolsonaro. He augmented public expenses into very dangerous levels, threatening Brazilian economy. He wanted the vote of the masses. They increased public debt and now Brazil is in crisis. The most successful Brazilian president was FHC. He was a social democrat. By means of austerity, Brazil improved its stability. Therefore, I would be very cautious with labels.

[@kentgorrell]

Austerity is never applied equally. Austerity is only ever imposed on the poor, never the rich. The primary economic responsibilty of any government should be to prevent the over concentration of wealth.

[@williamzondersen]

Keep it at the top.

[@deanallen7235]

The austerity attitude can be traced back to the influence of Ayn Rand's philosophy in Ivy league business schools. It allowed for rationalizing greed and selfishness and all around boorish behavior towards our fellow man.

[@gabrielmarceloecheverriadi2286]

Austerity is an axiom. It can not be discussed, criticized or even questioned.

[@spiritofgoldfish]

Austrian Economics, a Libertarian kind of thinking, is becoming more popular because it is an ideology of feudalism dressed up as liberty, and that is where we are headed. Free market is a term Adam Smith invented, coming out of feudalism, meaning to be free from the landlord rentier class. Today, the rentier class is monopolies and the banks (FIRE, finance, insurance and real estate). Adam Smith meant for a market free FROM economic rents, and by not addressing this issue at all, the Austrians and Libertarians leave the market free FOR economic rents. To actively free the market from economic rents is the classical role of government, where the Austrians and Libertarians have no such role for the government in the economy. Because the economy does not stay out of government, the result is rule by the rentier oligarchy, otherwise called feudalism. As it is today, "the government" is a synonym for "the corporations" already.

[@dannyarcher6370]

What do you mean by "as it is today". Corporations were franchised governments from their inception and I'd rather have a bunch of governments to choose from than a monopoly of one which would be called the state.

[@nathanfielure4305]

@@dannyarcher6370 You want to be ruled by corporations like amazon so you can crap in bags and pee in bottles? Ambitious.

[@bigbillhaywood1415]

@@dannyarcher6370 private governments that have no chance of being accountable to you? They'll all have the same class interests and act accordingly. How bout a govt truly of the ppl? With officials subject to immediate recall and paid the median wage of their area. Produce for use, not for profit.

[@reesetorwad8346]

@@dannyarcher6370 Were you drunk when you wrote that, or just stupid? YOU don't get to choose between THEM, they choose you. Before you're even born.

[@dannyarcher6370]

@@bigbillhaywood1415 You mean representative democracy? You've already got that. How is that working for you? And as for accountability of private governments, you have the ULTIMATE accountability. 💵💵💵

[@dkblack1289]

She is brilliant and I am so excited to hear someone sharing my thoughts. When the Ukraine war started, and I saw the entire wesern capitalist gang up with Nazis, I was intrigued and forced to think, in a philosophical manner, the meaning of it. In other circumstances, we have been made to believe that Nazism and Satanism are one and the same sams thing. How could capitalism team up with Satan? It then I dawned on me that capitalism, at its leading edge is Nazism. How then could the teaming up happen unless they share ideolgies? What capitalism has done is to formalize, through academia and all, its Nazi-like tendencies, to soften and launder its effects. But at the hour of need, the two merges. Even though she arrived at her conclusion by a different route, I felt vindicated when she said that capiltalism is some sort of Nazism.

[@benghiskahn3673]

Nazis in Ukraine? Please elaborate.

[@BasicLib]

@@benghiskahn3673 don’t bother. This person is obviously very challenged.

[@Leiska86]

Oh dear... Nobody has ever conflated nazism with satanism (any definition of it), nor does capitalism have anything at all in common with nazism. I mean it's in the word: nazism = national socialism. The Nazi party undermined private ownership of the means of production in Germany.

[@marcelqueiroz8613]

@@benghiskahn3673 - Just research the Azov Battalion history.

[@marcelqueiroz8613]

@@BasicLib - E logicamente você se acha tão superior que, por não conseguir dar uma resposta, passa a desqualificar o outro.

[@evbuzzi6749]

let's get rid of dollar dictatorship

[@angelmarauder5647]

Her explanations are great. Far more spoken about than austerity.

[@walterjohnson6357]

It's easy to see education is not improving minds if austerity is labeled a problem.

[@shazamshazamshazam696]

We didn't fail to notice that, austerity, never included increasing taxes on the rich nor demanding that the rich pay the costs of the U.S. Military and Diplomatic Crew along with the World Bank and other organizations that supports their wealth and wealth generation via exploitation of labor and the environment. Austerity, like ancient feudalism decreed that the peasants must do without, not the wealthy the tax system supports.

[@jasonlynn1017]

Austerity is hypnotic suggestion based on various shaming morals to create artificial, strategic scarcity. Of course there is real scarcity, but rarely is it real as set by usury, " financialization," and price- gouging.

[@EricRosenfield]

This is excellent and well done. Pre-ordered the book can’t wait to read it.

[@mikebastiat]

This is commie bullshit.

[@brain0nfire]

Austerity is how they steer taxes; but the real head roller is debt, inflation and quantative easing.

[@coreylefou]

goddamn!! this woman is off the rope......i never considered the situation from that angle before....BRAVO!

[@TheONE10X]

From a young age I found it exceedingly stupid that companies would sacrifice taking care of their employees so they could take care of their greed. That puts me solidly 40 years ahead of today's economists. Imagine a world where companies had a realistic idea of how high they could fly and how big they could grow before bust. One in which the owner celebrates the win along with their employees to different degrees of course but everybody goes home happy to their families who they are able to support.

[@TomisaLami]

Maybe not necessarily the Fascism part but I remember thinking this stuff like as soon as I ever even heard about what an economy is as a kid like I never understood how one person who takes so much from so many people would actually help the economy. It's really hard for me to picture and understand why this is such a hard concept for people to understand.

[@GaigeGrosskreutzGunClub]

Because so many people feel like they have a chance to be that one person (they don't)

[@TomisaLami]

@@GaigeGrosskreutzGunClub Yes they might think that they’ll become that one person but that still doesn’t mean that even if they do they would be helping the economy they would be a detriment a parasite the thing that makes the economy awful for everyone else it’s just so painfully obvious even to children

[@toforgetisagem8145]

Fascism because in USA the power classes are hitching religion to their political wagon and attacking women through it, to curtail their rights and bodily autonomy. Church, Children and Kitchen.

[@TomisaLami]

@@toforgetisagem8145 i was not saying that fascism does not rely on capitalism. I was saying that I didn’t even know about Fascism when I was younger. But I still knew that taking options out of an economy damages it.

[@toforgetisagem8145]

@@TomisaLami Ah! Sorry. I was cross talking. I mistakenly thought you were asking how Fascism was supported and becomes apparent in Capitalism run riot.

[@drez13]

I’m glad that dedicated scholars are pursuing rigorously the ideas that I have started to develop but lack the energy time and experience to pursue currently.

[@fimanu]

Summary: Any policy (including the economic ones) is a response to a problem. The question is: to what problem is austerity the solution? The answer: Saving the capitalist order.

[@anthonycesario4056]

Clara Mattei is 100 percent correct.