Can Mrs. Thatcher Do It?

The British election in the spring of 1979 brought to power a Conservative government committed to a policy of reducing inflation and increasing the growth of real output and productivity. In the recent past, Britain even more than the United States experienced high inflation and slow growth of output and in common with the United States suffered from excessive regulation and scarce improvement in productivity. Between the sixties and seventies, inflation in Britain increased from an average of 4% to 13%, and the growth of output slowed from 3% to 2% or less.