How were the experts capable of contending with such an onslaught stemming from the very heart of the establishment? Th e answer lay in an appeal to high economic theory. Indeed, the entwinement of economic theory and austerity policies— so crucial in a moment of high contestation— is the defi ning characteristic of austerity as we know it today, where consensus complements coercion.

Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, loc. 861