Th e economic experts at the Brussels and Genoa conferences would not have envisioned themselves as subordinating the will of the majority as such. Rather, in the dissonance that is common among economists, they would have seen their reforms as grounded in an elevated understanding of how the world works. Th ese fathers of today's mainstream economics presented austerity policies as the outcome of theory that was objective and neutral, a worldview that transcended class relations. Th eir stated urge to "tame men," in turn, was not domination, but rather a necessity for an organized society— something above mere politics or class. Such is the manner of depoliticization: it served (and still serves) to conceal economic coercion under the guise of building consensus— in this case, as elsewhere, for the disempowerment of the many.

Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, loc. 1569