Jamie Smith

On the idiocy of austerity, and so much more. I’ve spent the last few months, when I wasn’t looking after my newborn daughter (!), profiling economist Mariana Mazzucato. Her ideas influence how millions of people are governed: Starmer’s Missions, Biden’s CHIPS Act, Trump’s stake in Intel. It’s all Mazzonomics. For nearly two decades the Western centre left has existed in an oddly depleted intellectual condition. The old neoliberal settlement lost legitimacy after the 2008 financial crisis, but no consensus ever fully arrived to replace it. A politics once organised around redistribution increasingly found itself reduced to management: fiscal rules, institutions, process. This, in part, explains Mazzucato’s rise. She offers something contemporary centre left politics badly craves - not just policies, but a story about what governments are for. She offers a theory of capitalism that is moral, managerial, and patriotic. Radical enough to sound transformative, pragmatic enough to sit comfortably within state institutions. Whether that synthesis can survive contact with increasingly volatile politics, a worsening economy, and human self-interest is an open question. She also fed me wine at 11am. Listen to our conversation on The Exchange now, link below.