[T]he British economy began its long boom, combining economic growth with price stability. Loss-making industries were closed down or reduced in size. Manufacturing industries shed labor, often while increasing output, as they restructured to meet foreign competition. New companies or entrepreneurs from academic and non-industrial backgrounds established new industries in the financial services, information, and high-tech sectors. Privatization transformed inefficient state-owned industries into dynamic private sector enterprises. New financial instruments allowed entrepreneurs to take over sluggish low-earning companies and put their assets to more profitable uses.
In general, Thatcher’s British economy, like Reagan’s revived U.S. economy, was characterized by change, profitability, growth, the better allocation of resources (including labor), and the emergence of new industries—indeed of an entirely new economy—based on the information revolution.
John O’Sullivan. RTWT.
We are so far into the era of the Big Lie about Mrs. Thatcher and what she accomplished, that it is good to refresh our recollections from time to time.
We face the rewriting combined with amnesia here when we see Obama et al resurrecting failed policies from the 70’s such as the windfall profits tax.
One is always taken aback by the venom directed at Thatcher by the British political class and inteligentsia. How dare she empower money grubbing entrepreneurs!How unfair that these people who don’t have our lofty thoughts should make lots more money than we do. One earns that kind of hatred only from doing the right thing.
She is a great lady. Sadly, her daughter reports that at 82, she now suffers from dementia. It’s terrible to accomplish so much in life and lose the memory of it before dying.
It will be a sad day when Lady Thatcher goes. A truly great woman.
A great woman, indeed, but she gets part of the blame for global alarming. At the time, greenhouse warming was a handy cudgel to wield over the coal mining industry.
Yes, Renminbi, I’m shocked at the venom aimed at Thatcher by the Brits I know now. Evil incarnate, if you believe them. One of these days, I promise myself to write a long article on “Why the US doesn’t — and shouldn’t — listen to Europe”.