International economic conference ‘consensus’ was really a consensus on austerity

Evidence

Stanford economics professor Joseph S. Davis commended Brussels as a “conference of specialists in fi nancial disease.” Th eir assembly “for diagnosis of the acute illness of the nations” was a victory, Davis argued, in that the attendees reached “unanimous agreement upon the main points of a diagnosis and upon the mode of treatment appropriate to the present stages of the disease” (Davis 1920, 350). Davis’s claim of a unanimous agreement was centered less on international cooperation than on austerity. Or better, international cooperation found useful expression in austerity, with the latter silencing the powerful enemies of capital accumulation and foreclosing any noncapitalist alternatives of postwar reconstruction, including projects for economic democracy. — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 672

Categorization

• XREF: Austerity foreclosing ‘economic democracy’ connects to modern critiques of technocratic consensus and the reader’s austerity-as-class-weapon frame. — connects to: Austerity-bred consensus sustains further austerity in a self-reinforcing loop — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism: An Intervention, 235; Austerity is a permanent structural rule, not a 1970s anomaly — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 162; Early austerity had to overcome public outrage, requiring both consensus and coercion — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order: How Economists…, 43 (+4 more)

Broader Connections

• Neoliberal meetings expected contestation rather than consensus #contradicts (0.90) — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 371
• Austerity-bred consensus sustains further austerity in a self-reinforcing loop #expands (0.85) — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 235
• Early austerity had to overcome public outrage, requiring both consensus and coercion #expands (0.80) — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 43
• Broader neoliberal shifts enabled austerity’s return to economic common sense #expands (0.78) — Mark Blyth, Austerity, 406
• Williamson reframed the Washington Consensus as core economic science rather than OECD practice #contradicts (0.78)
• Austerity is a permanent structural rule, not a 1970s anomaly #qualifies (0.75) — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 162