Misreading Mises

The rise of right-wing populism has been arguably the most significant political phenomenon of the twenty-first century so far.It has taken many forms and lacks a clear definition, but as US Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart said of pornography, you know it when you see it.From Brazil and Italy to the USA and Hungary, national populism is widely regarded as a backlash against neoliberalism.In Hayek's Bastards, Quinn Slobodian, Professor of International History at Boston University, argues that it is better understood as a slightly mutated version of neoliberalism that he calls the 'new fusionism'.Essentially a form of racist, oligarchical capitalism, it is, he says, designed to "privatize, deregulate, slash taxes" (p.19).Of all the writers who are preoccupied with free market think tanks, Slobodian is the most interesting.Unlike George Monbiot, Naomi Klein and others who seem to rely on Wikipedia and vibes, he has done his reading.There seem to be no books, letters, blog posts, articles, pamphlets or transcripts he has not read.So long as it is in English or German and is in some way related to neoliberalism, Slobodian has read, watched or listened to it.It is almost cruel that rival authors who put in so few hours sell so many more books, although that could change with Hayek's Bastards.A more apposite title would be Mises's Bastards since it is Mises rather Hayek who is the focus of Slobodian's attention, but perhaps Hayek has greater name recognition in his target market of upper-middle-brow leftists. 2