The Consumer, Credit and Neoliberalism: Governing the Modern Economy

This timely and relevant book investigates the economic policy formulation and practice of neoliberalism in Britain from the 1950s through to the financial crisis and economic downturn that began in 2007-8. It demonstrates that influential economists, such as F.A. Hayek and Milton Friedman, authors at key think tanks such as the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) and the Centre for Policy Studies (CPS), and important political figures of the Thatcher and New Labour era all shared and referenced in their thinking and policy a similar image of the consumer. This figure was distinctive from the image of the consumer that Keynes, Keynesians and other progressive thinkers took for granted and, as a result, this later conception of the consumer required a completely different style of micro and macroeconomic policy. This book is unique in that it covers analysis of the policy formulation in think tanks from the 1950s to the 1970s, as well as actual economic policy after 1979 right up to the present day. Christopher Payne gives a detailed historical viewpoint on the current economic crisis and applies a Foucauldian perspective to his analysis of the primary material. This original study will be of interest to students across a range of disciplines, including economics, politics and history.