Fascist Italy’s wage cuts were justified using manipulated statistics

Evidence

Favero (2010) stresses that the decision of the Fascist state to fi x a 20 percent generalized reduction in the country’s nominal wages was based on a calculation of the consumer price index (CPI) by ISTAT (Italian National Institute of Statistics) that was manipulated downward. — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 1716

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the modern pattern of statistical manipulation to justify austerity — echoes Soviet Gosplan-style data distortion and contemporary debates over how inflation data legitimizes policy. — connects to: Regressive fare hikes forced Italian workers to cut other consumption — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order: How Economists…, 1247; Fascist Italy gave economists the rare chance to enforce their models on society — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order: How Economists…, 1303; The US Federal Reserve demanded wage cuts as loan conditions for Italy — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order: How Economists…, 1444 (+4 more)
• ADDENDUM: Could support the argument in ‘Complaints About Immodesty’ only loosely, but far more relevant to the austerity-as-class-weapon theme via the ‘On Sacrifice’ article’s treatment of how elites legitimize action — actually best connected to Mattei’s own central thesis.
• SEED: Angle: ‘the fabricated number behind austerity’ — a piece on how governments manufacture the statistics that justify wage cuts, from Fascist ISTAT to modern inflation targeting.