ABSTRACT
The management of macroeconomic issues appears to dominate the pages of the national press. In the 1930s economists and politicians of the industrial world wrestled with the great depression, which led to millions being made unemployed. Forty years later, during the 1970s, the big problem was stagflation, a combination of stagnation (slow or zero growth) and inflation (rising prices). A further forty years on, the macroeconomic problems that were bring experienced stemmed from the global financial system, which had more or less collapsed under the strain of problematic debts. The so-called credit crunch unsettled the long-standing equilibrium in the financial markets and this led to a protracted economic downturn from 2008 to 2015 – characterised by low growth, low inflation and low interest rates. Against this background, governments struggled to deliver economic stability or, as it is sometimes expressed by politicians in the UK, to achieve high levels of growth that meets the needs of everyone.
