{"product_id":"the-profligate-colonial-how-the-us-exported-austerity-to-the-philippines-hardcover","title":"The Profligate Colonial: How the Us Exported Austerity to the Philippines - Hardcover","description":"\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cp style=\"text-align: right;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/reportcopyrightinfringement.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eReport copyright infringement\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eLisandro E. Claudio\u003c\/b\u003e (Author)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eIn \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Profligate Colonial\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e, Lisandro E. Claudio reveals how austerity, long before it became a buzzword of modern technocracy, was a tool of US empire.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAusterity is often praised as prudence in hard times, a responsible response to crisis. In the Philippines today, it is treated as common sense, an unquestioned commitment to a strong currency, low inflation, and fiscal restraint. Claudio argues that this orthodoxy is in fact a colonial inheritance--a legacy of American rule that cast Filipinos as reckless spenders and imposed monetary discipline as a civilizing force. At the center of this logic is the \"profligate colonial,\" a feminized, racialized figure who wastes public funds and so requires the steady hand of imperial governance. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFocusing on key moments in Philippine economic history across the twentieth century, Claudio charts how austerity was first exported through empire, then domesticated in line with nationalist ambitions. He shows that generations of Filipino policymakers, central bankers, and intellectuals absorbed the lessons of American \"money doctors,\" transforming what was a means to build a colonial state on the cheap into a postcolonial moral imperative. Austerity became not just policy, but an ideology that transcended political divides and reshaped the boundaries of the Philippine economic imagination. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAs austerity politics rise once more in response to global inflation, \u003ci\u003eThe Profligate Colonial\u003c\/i\u003e is a vital, incisive reminder of how austerity's appeal is less about economics than about a deep-rooted politics of control--one born in empire and still alive in policy today.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eLisandro E. Claudio is an associate professor in the Department of South and Southeast Asian Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. He is the author of\u003ci\u003e Liberalism and the Postcolony\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 228\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 0.69 x 9 x 6 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e November 15, 2025\u003c\/div\u003e\n            ","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51978175381805,"sku":"9781501784071","price":66.84,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0938\/3185\/6429\/files\/3v59HKkdaf9781501784071.webp?v=1775800840","url":"https:\/\/ishookbooks.com\/products\/the-profligate-colonial-how-the-us-exported-austerity-to-the-philippines-hardcover","provider":"iShook Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}