Antifascist Economics

On the night of Donald Trump's second presidential victory, economist Isabella Weber tweeted: "Can we now finally have a serious conversation about an anti-fascist economics?" In her view, Democrats had missed the seriousness of the affordability crisis in the wake of pandemic-era inflation, leaving room for the resurgence of the politics of resentment that Trump and the right revelled in.

Her question was a bold one with implications that reached far beyond one election. Embedded within it were even more challenging ones: Why have most economists avoided overtly joining political debates, pretending instead to be wholly, scientifically objective? How have policy tools been limited by this refusal? And what would it mean to consider a broader range of options that pursued the greatest good for the greatest number of people?

In this paradigm-shifting book, Weber recalls a history of mid-twentieth-century economists who took seriously the threat of fascism and their field's role in preventing its return, and she demonstrates how the turn to neo-liberalism and an over-reliance on free markets buried the full scope of their ideas.

If we are serious about saving democracy, we need an economics that guarantees dignity for all. Here Weber explores what that would look like: a different kind of economics for the people.