Austerity comprises fiscal, monetary, and industrial policies that jointly repress wages to benefit capital.

Evidence

European governments and their central banks enforced the “proper” (i.e., classappropriate) behavior on the working classes in order to rescue capital accumulation by the wealthy. Th e three forms of austerity policies— fi scal, monetary, and industrial— worked in unison to exert a downward pressure on wages among the rest of society. Th eir aim was to shift national wealth and resources toward the upper classes, who, the economic experts insisted, were the ones capable of saving and investing. Fiscal austerity comes in the form of regressive taxation and cuts to “unproductive” public expenditures, especially on social endeavors (health, education, etc.). While regressive taxation imposes thrift on the majority and exempts the saverinvestor minority, budget cuts indirectly do the same: public resources are diverted from the many to the saverinvestor few, in that budget cuts come with the stated priority of paying back the debt that rests in the hands of national or international creditors. Similarly, monetary austerity, meaning monetary revaluation policies (such as an increase in interest rates and reduction in money supply) directly protect creditors and increase the value of their savings. Meanwhile organized labor has its hands tied, since having less money in circulation depresses the economy and diminishes the bargaining power of the working class. Finally, industrial austerity, which takes the form of authoritarian industrial policies (layoff s of public employees, wage reductions, unionand strikebusting, etc.), further protects vertical wage relations between owners and workers, fostering wage repression in favor of the higher profi t of the few. Th is book will study these three forms of austerity— what I call the austerity trinity— and how they at once require and advance one another. — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 45

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines the ‘austerity trinity’ — fiscal, monetary, and industrial austerity working in unison.
• XREF: Connects to the reader’s framing of austerity as class weapon in this foundational book; trinity framework could be applied to current neoliberal policy debates. — connects to: Balancing budgets and curbing inflation primarily reasserts the wage relation and private property. — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order: How Economists…, 647; Austerity’s three policy forms work in unison to depress wages and shift wealth upward — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order: How Economists…, 45; Austerity is state intervention that transfers resources from workers to capital — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 195 (+6 more)

Broader Connections

• Austerity’s three policy forms work in unison to depress wages and shift wealth upward #corroborates (0.95) — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 45
• Austerity has three forms that jointly transfer wealth to creditors and employers. #corroborates (0.90) — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 46
• Monetary austerity deliberately manufactures unemployment to compress wages. #exemplifies (0.88) — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 284
• Austerity is state intervention that transfers resources from workers to capital #expands (0.85) — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 195
• Fiscal and monetary austerity jointly transfer capital accumulation costs onto working classes #expands (0.85) — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 774
• Austerity is a counteroffensive that shifts resources from workers to investors. #corroborates (0.85) — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 1467
• Monetary austerity deliberately induced recession to discipline workers. #exemplifies (0.85) — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 154
• Monetary and fiscal austerity reinforce each other reciprocally #expands (0.80) — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 773