Britain’s gold-standard austerity doubled unemployment from 10.4 to 22.1 percent

Evidence

Britain stayed on the gold standard thereafter, pursuing, as we saw previously, austere policies under the watchful eyes of the Treasury, which refused virtually all efforts and initiatives to reflate the economy. Unemployment rose from 10.4 percent in 1929 to 22.1 percent in early 1932 as a result of the combined effect of the Treasury’s austerity policies and the contractionary effect of being on gold, which demanded, of course, ever-more austerity. — Mark Blyth, Austerity, 514

Categorization

• XREF: The 1925 return to gold and five years of prior austerity were established in chapter 4; this paragraph quantifies the wage in unemployment terms. — connects to: Thatcher-era austerity nearly doubled exploitation while raising profit rates by half — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order: How Economists…, 1557; Monetary austerity deliberately manufactures unemployment to compress wages. — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism: An Intervention, 284; Interwar Treasury officials directly linked monetary austerity to unemployment — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order: How Economists…, 1670 (+5 more)

Broader Connections

• Pound revaluation in the 1920s forced down wages through mass unemployment #corroborates (0.90) — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 1683
• British austerity culminated in forced departure from the gold standard in 1931 #expands (0.85) — Mark Blyth, Austerity, 517
• Interwar Treasury officials directly linked monetary austerity to unemployment #expands (0.82) — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 1670
• Bank of England reclaimed monetary control to evade accountability for austerity’s unemployment costs #expands (0.80) — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 1018
• Monetary austerity deliberately manufactures unemployment to compress wages. #complicates (0.78) — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 284
• Austerity-driven unemployment stripped organized labor of its political power in Britain. #expands (0.78) — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 1503
• Monetary austerity, by raising sterling, crushed British exports and unions #corroborates (0.73) — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 414
• Thatcher-era austerity nearly doubled exploitation while raising profit rates by half #corroborates (0.72) — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 1557