"We had to dispel the notion that the way to economic success lies through a sort of fiscal levitation. That was the abiding post-war delusion—that governments could spend and borrow their way to prosperity, and fine-tune the performance of the economy through something known pretentiously as demand management... It used to be an establishment nostrum that you need a budget deficit to get economic growth. That was the belief which lay behind the notorious letter by 364 economists in March 1981. We have given the lie to that, decisively. There can no longer be any argument about it. Everyone—or almost everyone—now accepts that the proper role of macro-economic policy is to keep downward pressure on inflation and to maintain a stable framework in which the private sector can expand."
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Members of the Parliament of the United KingdomJews from the United KingdomJournalists from EnglandEditorsMemoirists from the United Kingdom
Original Language: English
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Sources
Tax Reform: The Government's Record (Conservative Political Centre, June 1988)
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Nigel_Lawson
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Nigel Lawson
Nigel Lawson, Baron Lawson of Blaby PC (11 March 1932 – 3 April 2023) was a British politician. Originally a financial journalist, he was editor of The Spectator from 1966 to 1970. He was Chancellor of the Exchequer between June 1983 and October 1989 during the government of Margaret Thatcher and oversaw a sizable reduction in taxes as well as the privatization of many state-owned companies. He fell out with Mrs Thatcher over the issue of European monetary co-operation and resigned suddenly over
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