The German left endorsed hard-core austerity, seeing crisis as necessary correction

Evidence

The SPD’s main economic theorist Rudolph Hilferding argued that not only was the WTB plan un-Marxist, it “threatened the very foundations of our program.” As Berman put it, the SPD, as good Marxists, still saw letting the business cycle run its course as the only possible policy. Like the Austrians that they opposed in every other way, the SPD thought that intervention would simply delay the inevitable and make matters even worse. This was hard-core austerity thinking, except it came from the heart of the putatively democratic left. As Union leader Fritz Naphtali, who sided against the WTB plan, argued, “The crisis, with all of its changes and shifts of purchasing power, is a means of correction which must necessarily be accepted.” — Mark Blyth, Austerity, 531

Categorization

• XREF: Directly parallels today’s austerity debates where the mainstream left often accepts fiscal orthodoxy — connects to Mattei’s core argument about austerity as a political strategy masquerading as economic necessity. — connects to: Europe’s Social Democrats and Christian Democrats embraced austerity as crisis policy — Mark Blyth, Austerity: The History of a Dangerous…, 168; Germany set Europe’s austerity agenda because Germans genuinely believed their ideas. — Mark Blyth, Austerity: The History of a Dangerous…, 379; Austerity spans party lines and is often wielded by nominally left governments (+4 more)
• SHARE: The line ‘The crisis…is a means of correction which must necessarily be accepted’ from a union leader opposing reflation is the kind of inverted-history detail a political economy colleague would love.

Broader Connections

• Europe’s Social Democrats and Christian Democrats embraced austerity as crisis policy #corroborates (0.92) — Mark Blyth, Austerity, 168
• Austerity spans party lines and is often wielded by nominally left governments #corroborates (0.85)
• Even avowedly socialist parties have embraced austerity at critical junctures #corroborates (0.82) — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 364
• Austrian economics frames recessions as necessary austerity after an interventionist party #corroborates (0.80) — Mark Blyth, Austerity, 316
• Germany set Europe’s austerity agenda because Germans genuinely believed their ideas. #expands (0.78) — Mark Blyth, Austerity, 379
• The 2008 crisis disoriented the left instead of vindicating its economic worldview #corroborates (0.75) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 46