Introduction

This book is about events and ideas and their interrelationships. Its focus is on the dramatic shifts in economic policy across the globe brought about by the greater recognition by governments of economic realities as seen through the lens of mainstream economic analysis. The most visible of the “victories” for mainstream economics and the market-oriented policies that it recommends are the fall of the command-and-control system of the former Soviet Union and the rapid shift toward greater use of the market in China. But the shifts are more widespread than this. Many governments of the left on many continents have adopted more market-oriented approaches and given greater weight to longer-run macroeconomic stability in their policies. Tony Blair in the UK, Bill Clinton in the United States, and Lula in Brazil are prominent examples.