ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the early economic policy of the Thatcher government. It looks at exchange control removal and enterprise zones as pro-market signals as well as the first step towards broader deregulation. The early economic policy of the Thatcher government, designed to squeeze inflation out of the economy, had a number of ideological interpretations. The Thatcher government did introduce some far-reaching economic reforms. Inflation was drastically reduced for much of the 1980s, this monetary climate provided a degree of economic stability and a basis for growth. The assault on inflation was ideologically-based and made a priority from the beginning of the Thatcher years. In ideological terms this was most closely linked with the neoliberalism of Milton Friedman and the Chicago School, using the state to create stable monetary conditions and incentives to promote markets and economic activity. Friedman was concerned with a shift towards more liberal societies and economies.
