The efficient markets hypothesis is politically prescriptive, declaring markets the only legitimate organizing principle

Evidence

As John Eatwell noted a long time ago, these ideas, formalized as the efficient markets hypothesis (EMH) and the rational expectations hypothesis (RATEX), are just as important politically as they are theoretically, for taken together they hold that free and integrated markets are not merely a good way to organize financial markets, they are the only way. Any other way is pathology. Indeed, you may have noticed in this account that the state, along with the business cycle, booms, slumps, unemployment, and financial regulation, is nowhere to be seen. To the extent that the state has a role, it devolves to “doing nothing” since doing something will only produce price distortions that will upset market efficiency. — Mark Blyth, Austerity, 128

Categorization

• XREF: Core connection to Mattei and the austerity literature: EMH/RATEX as the intellectual foundation that makes state intervention illegitimate by definition. — connects to: The efficient-markets hypothesis simultaneously justifies state failure and enabled the financial crisis — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 150; Market ideology’s appeal rests on a metaphysical equation of markets with human nature itself — Fredric Jameson, Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic…, 587
• SEED: Angle on how economic theory smuggles political prescription through apparently positive claims — ‘the only way is pathology’ framing as rhetorical bridge from descriptive to normative.

Broader Connections

• The efficient-markets hypothesis simultaneously justifies state failure and enabled the financial crisis #expands (0.78) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 150
• Market ideology’s appeal rests on a metaphysical equation of markets with human nature itself #qualifies (0.70) — Fredric Jameson, Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic…, 587