Monetary austerity was designed to moralize and discipline economic behavior toward thrift

Evidence

Like fi scal austerity, monetary austerity fundamentally worked to shape the behavior of economic agents in a way that was favorable to capital accumulation. If depreciation “leads to a spirit of reckless extravagance and a determination to spend at once what in any case is likely to be lost” (R. H. Brand, Verbatim Record, Brussels 1920, vol. 2, 18), then revaluation incentivized savings— the most virtuous economic behavior— on the part of those who have the means to save. Th e former governor of the Bank of England, Brien Cokayne, under his new title as fi rst Baron Cullen of Ashbourne, sat as a member of the Commission on Currency and Exchange. He was adamant that “the last rise in money rates in Great Britain appears to have acted, as it naturally should, as a considerable stimulus to thrift . Bankers now receive numerous enquiries as to the terms on which they will accept deposits now that rates are so high” (Verbatim Record, Brussels 1920, vol. 2, 71). — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 759

Categorization

• XREF: The moralizing of thrift vs. recklessness echoes the ‘deserving poor’ discourse and Judith Shklar’s and later work on economic moralism; connects to the reader’s broader austerity-as-discipline thesis. — connects to: Moralistic narratives are flexibly deployed to justify diverse austerity outcomes. — Mark Blyth, Austerity: The History of a Dangerous…, 695; Finance is promoted to the poor as a moral rather than merely economic good — Max Haiven, Cultures of Financialization, 161; Moral framing of recessions as punishment blocks public acceptance of stimulus — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 562 (+15 more)
• QUESTION: Cokayne’s ‘as it naturally should’ reveals how the expert class naturalized the transfer of wealth through interest rates. Worth tracing how this moral-economics framing persists in contemporary central bank discourse.

Broader Connections

• Monetary austerity deliberately induced recession to discipline workers. #expands (0.78) — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 154
• Austerity economists framed finance as natural law punishing disobedience #expands (0.75) — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 1173
• Austerity transforms neoliberal rationality from freedom toward sacrifice. #expands (0.72) — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos, 135
• Economic theory gives austerity legitimacy that complements raw state coercion #complicates (0.70) — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 861