Say “monetarism” to anyone who was around in the early 80s and watch the chill run down their spine. Margaret Thatcher tried to conquer inflation by using a fringe economic credo of slashing the money supply. The result was a collapsed economy and unemployment on a colossal scale. What was monetarism? Did it work, even in its own terms? And where are its echoes today?

Tim Lankester – then the PM’s private secretary for economic affairs, now author of Inside Thatcher’s Monetarism Experiment – takes Andrew Harrison back to an age of scorched earth economics.  

• “She set out to get inflation down, but it didn’t work out well at all. There was a massive deflation of the economy and unemployment almost doubled.” – Sir Tim Lankester

• “Manufacturing suffered enormously. Output went down by almost 20%. These were pretty bad years for the economy.” – Sir Tim Lankester

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Written and presented by Andrew Harrison. Audio production by Simon Williams. Produced by Eliza Davis-Beard. Music by Kenny Dickinson. Art by Jim Perrett. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. The Bunker is a Podmasters production 

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