Myths That Built Trickle-Down Economics: Austerity Politics (with Clara Mattei)

This week, we’re continuing our archive miniseries, Myths That Built Trickle-Down Economics, with the myth that austerity is responsible economic policy.

We’re revisiting this conversation now because the austerity playbook is still very much alive. The Trump administration and DOGE have cut federal agencies, pushed out public servants, and treated public infrastructure like waste — even though those are the systems we need most during a crisis. And if the economy turns downward, politicians will almost certainly reach for the same old answer: slash public support, make working people pay the price, and call it responsibility.

Nick and Goldy talk with professor and political economist Clara Mattei, author of The Capital Order: How Economists Invented Austerity and Paved the Way to Fascism, about how austerity became one of the most powerful myths of modern capitalism, how economists helped sell it as common sense, and why it has always been about more than budgets.

Clara Mattei is a professor of economics at the University of Tulsa, Founding President of FREE: Forum for Real Economic Emancipation, and author of The Capital Order: How Economists Invented Austerity and Paved the Way to Fascism and Escape from Capitalism: An Intervention.

This episode originally aired on December 12, 2023.

Social Media:

@claraemattei

Further reading:

The Capital Order: How Economists Invented Austerity and Paved the Way to Fascism

U.S. Treasury: The U.S. Economic Recovery in International Context

CBPP: Robust COVID Relief Bolstered Economy and Reduced Hardship for Millions

GAO: Federal Agency Workforce Changes

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