Monetarist anti-inflation doctrine is politically motivated moral condemnation of welfare-state demands

Evidence

In truth, the realities underpinning inflation were deeply political, as Friedman implicitly recognised. The correlate of the monetarist conviction that inflation is always caused by an increase in the supply of money is that it occurs because governments want to ‘provide “goodies” for their supporters and constituents’ without increasing taxes. … The Chicago economists also saw inflation as a ‘moral crisis’ bound up with heightened expectations and a failure of personal and familial responsibility among the working class in a context of victorious political struggles. — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, 337

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to core austerity/neoliberalism literature: inflation-fighting as a class-political project links to Harvey’s ‘accumulation by dispossession’ and the Volcker shock debates. — connects to: Independent conservative central bankers can credibly commit against inflation where politicians cannot — Mark Blyth, Austerity: The History of a Dangerous…, 423; Anti-inflation policies sparing workers require challenging capitalism’s foundations — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 278; Neoliberals opposed welfare for inflation fear, not moral reasons — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 228 (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• Monetary austerity was designed to moralize and discipline economic behavior toward thrift #corroborates (0.88) — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 759