Debt politics functions as a morality play shifting blame from banks to the state

Evidence

Why, then, are we so worried about US government debt if it is still the best of all the bad options; the deficits that generate it are mainly cyclical; and, as we shall see later in the book, its level pales in comparison to the private debt carried by the citizens and banks of many other states? The answer is that we have turned the politics of debt into a morality play, one that has shifted the blame from the banks to the state. Austerity is the penance—the virtuous pain after the immoral party—except it is not going to be a diet of pain that we shall all share. Few of us were invited to the party, but we are all being asked to pay the bill. — Mark Blyth, Austerity, 56

Categorization

• XREF: Core thesis line — aligns closely with Mattei’s account of austerity as a political doctrine transferring costs from bankers to publics. — connects to: Neoliberalism’s crisis strategy redirected blame from banks onto state debt — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 475; Bank debt transformed into state debt through lost revenue, not profligate spending — Mark Blyth, Austerity: The History of a Dangerous…, 139; Redistributive politics were framed as selfishness by foreign financial observers — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order: How Economists…, 1348 (+8 more)
• SEED: ‘Few of us were invited to the party, but we are all being asked to pay the bill’ — essay angle on austerity as regressive cost-shifting from private bailouts to public austerity.

Broader Connections

• Neoliberalism’s crisis strategy redirected blame from banks onto state debt #corroborates (0.95) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 475
• Bank debt transformed into state debt through lost revenue, not profligate spending #expands (0.80) — Mark Blyth, Austerity, 139
• Redistributive politics were framed as selfishness by foreign financial observers #exemplifies (0.75) — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 1348
• Blaming individual borrowers hides a systemic precariousness produced by finance #expands (0.75) — Max Haiven, Cultures of Financialization, 208