Britain’s Economic Problem Revisited
Britain’s Economic Problem Revisited

Author: Robert Bacon

Publisher: Springer

Published: 1996-04-22

Total Pages: 320

ISBN-13: 1349246131

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This 1996 edition of Britain's Economic Problem opens with a substantial new chapter, 'Bacon and Eltis after 20 Years', in which the authors assess the impact of the policies of successive Conservative governments to bring British public expenditure under control. They also develop their theory and apply it to Sweden which has experienced the greatest increase in public expenditure of any European economy. This edition includes a complete reprint of the 1978 second edition of Britain's Economic Problem: Too Few Producers which Harry G. Johnson described as 'interesting, both for its explanation of 'the British disease' and for the economic-theoretical foundations on which its analysis is based'. The original book provided a new explanation of the decline of the British economy which showed how a growing shift of Britain's resources from the production of goods and services which can be marketed at home and overseas to the provision of unmarketed public services simultaneously:- reduced the rate of growth and weakened the balance of payments - reduced investment and the economy's ability to provide productive jobs - fuelled the accelerating inflation and obstructive trade union behaviour from which Britain suffered.

An Affluent Society?
An Affluent Society?

Author: Lawrence Black

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2017-07-28

Total Pages: 282

ISBN-13: 1351959174

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During an election speech in 1957 the Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan, famously remarked that 'most of our people have never had it so good'. Although taken out of context, this phrase soon came to epitomize the sense of increased affluence and social progress that was prevalent in Britain during the 1950s and 1960s. Yet, despite the recognition that Britain had moved away from an era of rationing and scarcity, to a new age of choice and plenty, there was simultaneously a parallel feeling that the nation was in decline and being economically outstripped by its international competitors. Whilst the study of Britain's postwar history is a well-trodden path, and the paradox of absolute growth versus relative decline much debated, it is here approached in a fresh and rewarding way. Rather than highlighting economic and industrial 'decline', this volume emphasizes the tremendous impact of rising affluence and consumerism on British society. It explores various expressions of affluence: new consumer goods; shifting social and cultural values; changes in popular expectations of policy; shifting popular political behaviour; changing attitudes of politicians towards the electorate; and the representation of affluence in popular culture and advertising. By focusing on the widespread cultural consequences of increasing levels of consumerism, emphasizing growth over decline and recognizing the rising standards of living enjoyed by most Britons, a new and intriguing window is opened on the complexities of this 'golden age'. Contrasting growing consumer expectations and demands against the anxieties of politicians and economists, this book offers all students of the period a new perspective from which to view post-imperial Britain and to question many conventional historical assumptions.

Britain's Productivity Problem, 1948-1990
Britain's Productivity Problem, 1948-1990

Author: M. Bufton

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2004-06-30

Total Pages: 260

ISBN-13: 0230508650

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This volume examines attempted changes to industrial relations in Britain during 1948-1990, designed to promote institutional reforms of management and trade unions. Specific focus is given to the Donovan Commission and other trade union reforms, and incomes policies to connect pay more tightly with productivity. International initiatives of the AACP, BPC, and EPA are also included.

The Impact of the English Civil War on the Economy of London, 1642–50
The Impact of the English Civil War on the Economy of London, 1642–50

Author: Ben Coates

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2017-03-02

Total Pages: 356

ISBN-13: 1351887890

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When the English Civil War broke out, London’s economy was diverse and dynamic, closely connected through commercial networks with the rest of England and with Europe, Asia and North America. As such it was uniquely vulnerable to hostile acts by supporters of the king, both those at large in the country and those within the capital. Yet despite numerous difficulties, the capital remained the economic powerhouse of the nation and was arguably the single most important element in Parliament’s eventual victory. For London’s wealth enabled Parliament to take up arms in 1642 and sustained it through the difficult first year and a half of the war, without which Parliament’s ultimate victory would not have been possible. In this book the various sectors of London’s economy are examined and compared, as the war progressed. It also looks closely at the impact of war on the major pillars of the London economy, namely London’s role in external and internal trade, and manufacturing in London. The impact of the increasing burden of taxation on the capital is another key area that is studied and which yields surprising conclusions. The Civil War caused a major economic crisis in the capital, not only because of the interrelationship between its economy and that of the rest of England, but also because of its function as the hub of the social and economic networks of the kingdom and of the rest of the world. The crisis was managed, however, and one of the strengths of this study is its revelation of the means by which the city’s government sought to understand and ameliorate the unique economic circumstances which afflicted it.

British Economic Growth, 1270–1870
British Economic Growth, 1270–1870

Author: Stephen Broadberry

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2015-01-22

Total Pages: 503

ISBN-13: 1107070783

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This is the first systematic quantitative account of British economic growth from the thirteenth century to the Industrial Revolution.

The Chicago Plan Revisited
The Chicago Plan Revisited

Author: Mr.Jaromir Benes

Publisher: International Monetary Fund

Published: 2012-08-01

Total Pages: 71

ISBN-13: 1475505523

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At the height of the Great Depression a number of leading U.S. economists advanced a proposal for monetary reform that became known as the Chicago Plan. It envisaged the separation of the monetary and credit functions of the banking system, by requiring 100% reserve backing for deposits. Irving Fisher (1936) claimed the following advantages for this plan: (1) Much better control of a major source of business cycle fluctuations, sudden increases and contractions of bank credit and of the supply of bank-created money. (2) Complete elimination of bank runs. (3) Dramatic reduction of the (net) public debt. (4) Dramatic reduction of private debt, as money creation no longer requires simultaneous debt creation. We study these claims by embedding a comprehensive and carefully calibrated model of the banking system in a DSGE model of the U.S. economy. We find support for all four of Fisher's claims. Furthermore, output gains approach 10 percent, and steady state inflation can drop to zero without posing problems for the conduct of monetary policy.

Britain, Europe and EMU
Britain, Europe and EMU

Author: W. Eltis

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2000-04-07

Total Pages: 306

ISBN-13: 0333977556

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This book shows how the transformation of Britain's economic performance has been based on control of public expenditure, improving competitiveness, co-operative industrial relations and a large favourable contribution from inward investment. In contrast, Europe has suffered from rising unemployment, while misguided trade policies have obstructed the exploitation of the IT revolution. Europe's failures will undermine the EMU project. Britain will do well to keep clear. The book concludes with chapters on the modern relevance of Locke on inflation, Ricardo on public debt and Condillac on the creation of competitive market economies.

20th Century Britain
20th Century Britain

Author: Francesca Carneval

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2014-06-11

Total Pages: 403

ISBN-13: 1317868374

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Written by leading international scholars, Twentieth Century Britain investigates key moments, themes and identities in the past century. Engaging with cutting-edge research and debate, the essays in the volume combine discussion of the major issues currently preoccupying historians of the twentieth century with clear guidance on new directions in the theories and methodologies of modern British social, cultural and economic history. Divided into three, the first section of the book addresses key concepts historians use to think about the century, notably, class, gender and national identity. Organised chronologically, the book then explores topical thematic issues, such as multicultural Britain, religion and citizenship. Representing changes in the field, some chapters represent more recent fields of historical inquiry, such as modernity and sexuality.

Britain's Economic Prospects Reconsidered
Britain's Economic Prospects Reconsidered

Author: Alec Cairncross

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2013-11-05

Total Pages: 249

ISBN-13: 1136589511

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This book is a sequal to Britain's Economic Prospects, the report issued in 1968 by the Brookings Institution and universally accepted as the most thorough and comprehensive study of the British Economy to have ever appeared. Two years later, just after the British General election, six fo the American economists who prepared the Brookings Report met with a number of other leading economists from Britain and the United States, at a weekend conference at Ditchley Park, to review the findings of the report. Papers submitted to the conference by four of the British Economists (R.C.C. Matthews, G.D.N. Worswick, E.H. Phelps Brown and M.V. Posner) covered the same ground as the Brookings Report - the role of demand management, trade and balance-of-payments problems, labour policies, and industrial policies. The conference also had before it a fifth paper, on fiscal policy and stabilization, which took issue with some of the views expressed in the Brookings report. These papers form the core of this book, which also contains an account of the conference discussions and concluding reflections by its Chairman, Sir Alec Cairncross, formerly Chief Economic Adviser to H.M. Government. Britain's Economic Prospects Reconsidered is neither a detailed critique of the Brookings Report nor a rejoinder to it, but rather an attempt to reassess British performance and policies in the light of experience since devaluation. Its central concern is the question of why economic growth in Britain since the war has been slower than in other countries. This book was first published in 1971.