British Economic History, 1952-1963

The National Governments put in place several significant policies that were successful in bringing about economic recovery in Britain. In 1932 the decision was made to lower the bank rate to 2% which was beneficial to the

In comparison with other competitive countries, Britain’s economy was also lagging behind. One aspect was that Britain’s GDP growth rate was the lowest in Western

One economic policy was that “the Federal Reserve had raised interest rates in hopes of slowing the rapid rise in stock prices” (Romer, 3). At the time the “stock prices had risen more than fourfold from the low of 1920”

America experience a golden age in 1950 and early in 1960 results in two developments. One was a booming better balance and national Distributing of prosperity, which greatly changed the, social, economic, and even physical landscape of the United State. The second one was the continuing struggle against communism, a struggle that created considerable anxiety by that also encouraged many Americans to look more approvingly at their own society. (Brinkley 679)

The end of the Civil War brought a whole new era of economy, political control, and Presidential intervention. The economy emerged from its agriculturally based economy into a flourishing big business dominated world and eventually in 1929 came crashing down. I agree only partially with the quote " The Civil War saw the beginning of an 80-year decline of real individual economic opportunity; nonetheless, the vast majority of Americans continued to profess their belief in individualism as evidenced by the Presidents they elected. Thus, between 1865 and 1939, the majority of Americans accepted big business dominance and rejected all forms of government interference and regulation contrary to

Although the UK made several mistakes, resulting in their disappointing performance, Germany’s success in the Golden age is the main reason for such a difference in gross domestic product and therefore the main talking point when it comes to economic analysis.

As England was still recovering from a long war that had been fought with Spain, they wanted to boost their economy some way, some how. This was because of the massive war debts they had from the borrowing of money. A way to do this

One of the big aspects of Ronald Reagan’s tenure as President of the United States was his economic plan to combat inflation with the concept of Supply Side Economics (Brands, ch 31.5),

It widely recognized that the monetary policy within a country should be primarily concerned with the pursuit of price stability. However, it is still not clear how this objective can be achieved most effectively. This debate remains unsettled, but an increasing number of countries have adopted inflation targeting as their monetary policy framework. (Dr E J van der Merwe, 2002) This topic of Inflation targeting is a subject which immediately conjures different perceptions from different people. Many feel that low inflation should be a main aim of monetary policy, while others (such as trade union activists) believe that a higher growth rate to stimulate jobs should be the main concern.

The “Great Recession” is commonly used to explain the massive economic contraction that occurred in the United States during the fourth quarter of 2007. However, the actions of the United States spanned to other nations, leaving massive effect on the global economy. One nation that took on serious financial burden during this recession was the United Kingdom. This nation first faced the effects of the Great Recession beginning in the first quarter of 2008. Overall, the initial mass effects on the nation can be attributed to the nation’s reliance on the financial sector. In fact, after partially stabilizing in 2009, the country struggled with a double-dip recession between 2010-12, and continues to struggle with some of these effects.

In order to close this inflationary gap, the government should use deflationary FP. By decreeing government spending (G), (therefore decreasing injections into AD), or increasing taxes (T), (increasing withdrawals from the economy), disposable income of the population can be reduced, and in turn AD can be decreased. In figure 3 the inflationary gap is shown, with the gap a-b displaying E>Y and c-d displaying W>J at the full employment level of national income. Other uses of FP include changing the tax system to provide more incentives to increase AS, or to alter the distribution of income, again through increases in T. One major problem with FP is that it is severely affected by time lags. Inflation is difficult to forecast, and in order to smooth out the business cycle, policy must be implemented at the right time, and with the necessary magnitude. If the policies implemented fail to work within these two limits, they could extend a boom period of unstable growth, or deepen a recession further, and so must be carefully implemented. These policies all work to combat inflation; however they could all prove detrimental to the British economy in it’s present state.

However, even though UK spots a positive GDP annual growth rate since 2010, unemployment remained high. Please refer to Appendix F.

The outbreak of the First World War in August 1914 produced immediate changes. It is often said that war is the 'locomotive of history' - that is what drives it along. Certainly the First World War helped to produce major changes in Great Britain especially socially and economically.

The economic reforms initiated by Prime Minister Margret Thatcher since 1980’s has made the United Kingdom record steady economic growth in the 1990s. However, successive Labour governments increased government spending significantly. Since 2010, the government upheld austerity as the principal of its economic policy. In 2014, the country recorded its strongest economic growth since 2007 of 2.387 trillion dollars with GDP per capita at 39,350.64 dollars. The GDP increased significantly because of the enhanced performance of the construction, manufacturing, and services sectors. Retail sales also increased with unemployment relatively at lowest

| Advocates of active monetary and fiscal policy view the economy as inherently unstable and believe that policy can manage aggregate demand, and thereby, production and employment, to offset the inherent instability. When aggregate demand is inadequate to ensure full employment, policymakers should boost government spending, cut taxes, and expand money supply. However, when aggregate demand is excessive, risking higher inflation, policymakers should cut government spending, raise taxes, and reduce the money supply. Such policy actions put