Mudge traces the emergence of transnational finance economists and political strategists in the 1990s to intraparty struggles over the interpretation of stagflation in the 70s and what New Left movements meant for party demographics, showing that global financialization trends took off after these neoliberals came to dominate center-left parties, depressing voter turnout. Anxiety over “stagflation” was in fact a political and professional interpretation of economic indicators, based on attacks on center-left parties and their economist theoreticians. Thus, the alliance of center-left parties and professional economists produced a contradiction between political and professional logics, driving cross-field effects. These dynamics were present in each country, but the transnational influence of American economics and political consultants also played a role.