Indeed, the austere experts displayed a constant anxiety for the potential disruption of the orderly basis of capital accumulation. To them, “debtfi nanced increases of public employment, wages of public sector employees, unemployment benefi ts and labor taxes put pressure on unions’ wage claims, leading to higher private sector wages, lower employment, capital and output” (Alesina and Ardagna 2013).

Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, loc. 1738