Ricci and Einaudi— celebrated as Italy’s most authentic ambassadors of liberalism— had one priority during the postwar crisis: deploying austerity to guard the market economy against an imminent collapse. Such austerity was embodied in the Fascist policies of the 1920s, with repressive politics as an integral component. Ricci and Einaudi didn't have to declare loyalty to Fascism to be of service to it; austerity weaved Fascism and liberalism together in a shared, coercive pursuit.

Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, loc. 1070