In other words, when economists peddle austerity as a means to "fi x the economy" their goal is something more insidious. In describing the austerityinduced economic downturn of 1921, the British economist G. D. H. Cole (who did not favor austerity) captures the essence of how austerity moves and shapes a society: "Th e big workingclass offensive had been successfully stalled off ; and British capitalism, though threatened with economic adversity, felt itself once more safely in the saddle and well able to cope, both industrially and politically, with any attempt that might still be made from the labour side to unseat it" (Cole 1958, 419). Far from irrational, austerity was a wily counteroff ensive that protected capitalism and its relations of production against the inroads of democracy. To be sure, austerity successfully disempowered the majority.

Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, loc. 1547