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The Profligate Colonial: How the US Exported Austerity to the Philippines
In
The Profligate Colonial
, Lisandro E. Claudio reveals how austerity, long before it became a buzzword of modern technocracy, was a tool of US empire.
Austerity 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.
Focusing 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.
As austerity politics rise once more in response to global inflation, The Profligate Colonial 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.
Austerity 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.
Focusing 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.
As austerity politics rise once more in response to global inflation, The Profligate Colonial 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.
- GenresHistory
228 pages, Hardcover
Published November 15, 2025
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
March 10, 2026
Alongside the US’s obsession with democracy (whilst increasingly eroding itself from within), the biggest scam and hypocrisy they ever pulled was stigmatizing debt-driven development, whilst simultaneously being one of the most interventionist states in the world in promoting the growth of its own industry through currency manipulation and low-interest rates.
This is an outstanding piece of economic history that synthesizes a measured critique and defense of colonial-era sources by tracing the unfortunate and tragic means by which the disease of austerity was imposed yet embraced (some would say, even contracted) by the contradictions of Filipino nationalist, post-colonial, and anti-authoritarian and anti-corruption discourses. One of the many insights I think a lot of scholars would find most interesting is the way the author integrates the work of Hau (on intellectualism), of Tadem (on technocracy), and of Scalice (on the Filipino left) to show how this obsession with a tight monetary policy finds its easiest scapegoat in producing a racist politics (on both sides of the political aisle) that which distracts from pursuing a better industrial policy.
While this book found its right timing with the perennial corruption and good governance discourses of the modern day, it will be timeless because it raises many good questions on Philippine development for the next decades: Should the Central Bank continue to focus solely on price stability? On what grounds should we evaluate development initiatives (like the Maharlika Investment Fund, which was highly criticized for being an avenue for corruption)? And most importantly, with the long overdue collapse of the dollar standard, under what conditions will the peso be supported?
Last thought: this book contains the beginnings of what could be a more extensive account of the internal conflicts and discourses within the UP School of Economics (UPSE), an elite technocratic institution inseparable from, yet sometimes critical of, government. The jukebox economists will certainly return for Avengers Doomsday! Hopefully, we’ll get to read something about this in the future.
This is an outstanding piece of economic history that synthesizes a measured critique and defense of colonial-era sources by tracing the unfortunate and tragic means by which the disease of austerity was imposed yet embraced (some would say, even contracted) by the contradictions of Filipino nationalist, post-colonial, and anti-authoritarian and anti-corruption discourses. One of the many insights I think a lot of scholars would find most interesting is the way the author integrates the work of Hau (on intellectualism), of Tadem (on technocracy), and of Scalice (on the Filipino left) to show how this obsession with a tight monetary policy finds its easiest scapegoat in producing a racist politics (on both sides of the political aisle) that which distracts from pursuing a better industrial policy.
While this book found its right timing with the perennial corruption and good governance discourses of the modern day, it will be timeless because it raises many good questions on Philippine development for the next decades: Should the Central Bank continue to focus solely on price stability? On what grounds should we evaluate development initiatives (like the Maharlika Investment Fund, which was highly criticized for being an avenue for corruption)? And most importantly, with the long overdue collapse of the dollar standard, under what conditions will the peso be supported?
Last thought: this book contains the beginnings of what could be a more extensive account of the internal conflicts and discourses within the UP School of Economics (UPSE), an elite technocratic institution inseparable from, yet sometimes critical of, government. The jukebox economists will certainly return for Avengers Doomsday! Hopefully, we’ll get to read something about this in the future.
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September 19, 2026Enjoyed reading this one. It is the biography of an an idea: that the Philippines should support tight monetary policy to keep the peso strong even at the expense of national growth and development. It convincingly makes its core argument that austerity's dominance has roots in institutions formed during American colonial times, and was strengthened by the liberal opposition to Martial Law--explaining why Filipinos of all political colors care so much about the USD FX as the be-all and end-all of the country's prosperity!
In general I like this sort of historical political discussion, especially of what I feel is the underdiscussed post-war, pre-Martial Law period. People often harken back to a supposedly more civilized era of statesmen without questioning the consequential decisions these people made in building the independent Philippines. I enjoy seeing how these political debates were viewed at the time, as well as the synthesis of policy analysis, biography, and history without the moralizing tone often present in these kinds of works. Goes to show how much the outcome of quickly forgotten, under-the-radar political battles can change the course of history!
However, I think the conclusion over-explains recent political phenomena. This section trying to link austerity to the rise of the Dutertes and the Marcos resurgence felt hastily tacked onto the end of the book, especially since one of my primary takeaways of this book is how the issue of austerity and development spending does not neatly map onto political lines in the Philippines. A "weird" country indeed.
In general I like this sort of historical political discussion, especially of what I feel is the underdiscussed post-war, pre-Martial Law period. People often harken back to a supposedly more civilized era of statesmen without questioning the consequential decisions these people made in building the independent Philippines. I enjoy seeing how these political debates were viewed at the time, as well as the synthesis of policy analysis, biography, and history without the moralizing tone often present in these kinds of works. Goes to show how much the outcome of quickly forgotten, under-the-radar political battles can change the course of history!
However, I think the conclusion over-explains recent political phenomena. This section trying to link austerity to the rise of the Dutertes and the Marcos resurgence felt hastily tacked onto the end of the book, especially since one of my primary takeaways of this book is how the issue of austerity and development spending does not neatly map onto political lines in the Philippines. A "weird" country indeed.
September 26, 2026
The book makes its argument with conviction and manages to approach tricky topics (in the Marcos era chapter especially) with nuance. I’ve had the feeling for some time that PH is a “good student” in a lot of its policy and approach to global rules (sometimes to its disadvantage), so I was primed to agree with most of the book. Certainly a couple points that could be discussed further or even challenged and I would be interested to see a defense of central bank policy with an equally strong empirical base. It also serves as a good springboard for other discussions on political economy. Overall, it is also very readable and entertaining for a book that could very easily be a dense record of macroeconomic history.
August 5, 2026
This is not a topic I would normally gravitate toward, so The Profligate Colonial was well outside my usual reading comfort zone. But it hooked me. Claudio’s discussion of austerity, inflation, debt-to-GDP ratios, fiscal restraint, and monetary discipline made me question how easily these indicators become synonymous with “sound economics,” while other measures of economic life are pushed to the margins. The book left me wondering: what are we not measuring while we obsess over these numbers? What about employment, wages, productive capacity, industrial development, inequality, poverty, or the actual quality of people’s lives? And how much of our economic “common sense” is genuinely ours, and how much of it is inherited from a colonial framework we rarely examine? A rewarding read, not because it settles the questions, but because it leaves you asking better ones.
August 19, 2026
Official review to follow.
Thank you to Cornell UP and the LSE for the reviewer’s copy🙇🏻♂️🙇🏻♂️
Thank you to Cornell UP and the LSE for the reviewer’s copy🙇🏻♂️🙇🏻♂️
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews