Austerity Politics and UK Economic Policy [Hardcover]

Craig Berry assesses UK economic policy in the wake of the financialcrisis through the lens of the austerity agenda, focusing on monetary policy,economic rebalancing, industrial and regional policy, the labour market,welfare reform and budgetary management. He argues that austerity is gearedtowards a resurrection of financialisation and the UKs pre-crisis economic model,through the transformation of individual behaviour and demonisation of thestate. Cutting public spending and debt in the short term is, at most, asecondary concern for the UK policy elite. However, the underlying purpose ofausterity is frequently misunderstood due to its conflation with a narrowdeficit reduction agenda, not least by its Keynesian critics. Berry alsodemonstrates how austerity has effectively dismantled the prospect of acentre-left alternative to neoliberalism.

Acknowledgements

List of Abbreviations

1

Introduction: Austerity and Growth

Growthand growth models

Therediscovery of austerity

Chapteroutline and main arguments

2

Financialisation and the Property-Owning Democracy

Austerityand the housing market

Themeaning of monetary activism

Financialisationand everyday discipline

Conclusion

3

Industrial Decline and the Myth of Rebalancing

Rebalancingand austerity

Industrialpolicy and manufacturing since the crisis

Powerhousepolitics

Conclusion

4

Welfare Retrenchment and the Pervl³