In 1979, Margaret Thatcher’s new government was faced with rampant double-digit inflation, rising unemployment and flatlining economic growth. In response, Thatcher pursued an economic policy which rejected the old orthodoxies and was promoted by only a minority of economists: a policy based on the doctrine of monetarism.Tim Lankester was the private secretary for economic affairs to Thatcher during the early years of her government. His insider’s account explains her attitudes and...

The Pergau dam in Malaysia was the most controversial project in the history of British aid. Because of its high cost, it was a poor candidate for aid funding. It was provided in part to honour a highly irregular promise of civil aid in connection with a major arms deal. After two parliamentary inquiries and intense media coverage, in a landmark judgement the aid for Pergau was declared unlawful.Tim Lankester offers a detailed case study of this major aid project and of government ...

A blueprint for the nation after the boom.Australians have just lived through a period of exceptional prosperity, but, says influential economist Ross Garnaut, the Dog Days are on their way. Are we ready for the challenges ahead?In Dog Days, Garnaut explains how we got here, what we can expect next and the tough choices we need to make to survive the new economic conditions. Are we clever enough – and our leaders courageous enough – to change what ...

'Free of jargon, obfuscation and interminable subordinate clauses, his prose is just the job' The TimesA fully updated and revised edition of the classic guide.The economy has never been so relevant to so many people as it is now. 'There's no such thing as a free lunch' is the one phrase everyone has heard from economics. But why not? What does economics tell us about the price of lunch - and everything else?Set out like a ...

You have been had.MARKETS ARE NOT MAGIC.DEBT IS NOT FREEDOM.THE GODS HAVE FAILED.A risk-prone, privatised profit-driven economic model overseen by a largely unaccountable, greedy and arrogant elite has resulted in one of the worst financial crises in history.The over-paid heroes of Wall Street and the City worshipped the gods of globalisation, financialisation and speculation, and duri...

The performance of the British economy over the past fifty-odd years does not make for comforting reading. Indeed, the story is a depressing catalogue of misapprehensions, missteps, wasted opportunities, crises and humiliations, with all-too-familiar problems arising time and again and yet never being satisfactorily addressed. All nations and their economic policymakers are to a certain extent prisoners of their history, but this seems to apply more to the UK than to other countries. Nosta...

After decades of prosperity Australians are now worried about their jobs, their incomes and their future. The mining boom, said to explain Australia's past success, is declared to be over. Unemployment has increased, carmakers have folded, the government is running a huge deficit.In a striking analysis, economist John Edwards challenges the prevailing pessimism. Cutting through the confusion, Edwards shows that the mining boom is far from over – and that it hasn't been as important...

Britain in 2011 is in the grip of debt hysteria. If the current coalition government is going to be remembered for one thing it is the cuts: the most severe that this country has seen for decades. Cuts to university funding, libraries and public sector workplaces have seen the most high profile resistance, with the type of protest on the streets not seen since the Poll Tax riots and the Thatcher years.In this ebook, Mehdi Hasan exposes ten myths about the debt, deficits and spendin...

Could Australia become a full-employment, renewable-energy superpower? Ross Garnaut says yes, and it starts with taxing carbon. A levy on the big polluters will help fund Australia to become a carbon-free energy giant, lower the cost of living and assist the world to cut emissions. In this path-breaking book, Garnaut focuses on the underpinnings of successful social democracy. He traces when economic policy has worked for Australia and when it hasn't, and critiques the Albanese government'...

The questions surrounding how the Irish economy was brought to the brink – who was to blame, and who should pay for these mistakes – have been rightly debated at length. But beyond this very legitimate exercise, there are deeper questions that need to be answered.These questions relate to why we made the decisions we did, not just in the last 10 years, but over the last 80. How did certain industries become prominent at the expense of others, banking as opposed to ...

A fully revised and updated edition of Nigel Lawson's extraordinary autobiography. A key minister for a full decade and Chancellor of the Exchequer, from 1983 to 1989, Nigel Lawson was one of the most powerful and effective of Margaret Thatcher's colleagues, and among the chief architects of Thatcherism. This abridged edition of Lord Lawson's memoirs - first published as The View from No.11 in 1992 and acclaimed as one of the best political memoirs of the period - goes straight to the hear...

The Treasury is one of Britain’s oldest, most powerful and secretive institutions, one that has played a central role in shaping the country's economic system. But all too often it has escaped public scrutiny when it comes to investigating the ups and downs of the UK economy.When portrayed, it is usually as a bedrock of government stability in times of crisis, repeatedly rescuing the nation’s finances from the hands of posturing politicians and the combustions of world financial ma...