Lord Roberthall was economic adviser to a succession of Labour and Conservative governments from 1947 to 1961. During that time, he served under eight Chancellors and exercised more influence on economic policy than perhaps any other official. Fortunately - though it was contrary to Civil Service rules - he kept a diary in which he documented and reflected on day-to-day events. This first volume, published in 1989, deals with the years between 1947 and 1953, in which Robert Hall acted as Director of the Economic Section and was faced with a variety of lingering uncertainties. This is a highly readable and fascinating account of what went on inside government in the post-war years. The book provides a unique picture of the relationship between Whitehall and Downing Street, and those people who shaped this challenging period in British economic history. Edited by Sir Alec Cairncross, who succeeded Lord Roberthall as Economic Adviser to HM Government in 1961, this reissue will interest any student researching policy and decision-making in the post-war period.

Lord Roberthall was economic adviser to a succession of Labour and Conservative governments from 1947 to 1961. During that time, he served under eight Chancellors and exercised more influence on economic policy than perhaps any other official. Fortunately - though it was contrary to Civil Service rules - he kept a diary in which he documented and reflected on day-to-day events. This second volume, published in 1991, covers the years between 1954 and 1961, after Robert Hall's appointment as Economic Adviser to HM Government. The book includes details of conferences and negotiations in Australia, the United States and Canada, as well as accounts dealing with the struggles to contain inflation and moderate wages. This is a highly readable and fascinating account of what went on inside government in the post-war years. The book provides a unique picture of the relationship between Whitehall and Downing Street, and those people who shaped this challenging period in British economic history. Edited by Sir Alec Cairncross, who succeeded Lord Roberthall as Economic Adviser to HM Government in 1961, this reissue will interest any student researching policy and decision-making in the post-war period.

Lord Roberthall was economic adviser to a succession of Labour and Conservative governments from 1947 to 1961. During that time, he served under eight Chancellors and exercised more influence on economic policy than perhaps any other official. Fortunately - though it was contrary to Civil Service rules - he kept a diary in which he documented and reflected on day-to-day events. This first volume, published in 1989, deals with the years between 1947 and 1953, in which Robert Hall acted as Director of the Economic Section and was faced with a variety of lingering uncertainties. This is a highly readable and fascinating account of what went on inside government in the post-war years. The book provides a unique picture of the relationship between Whitehall and Downing Street, and those people who shaped this challenging period in British economic history. Edited by Sir Alec Cairncross, who succeeded Lord Roberthall as Economic Adviser to HM Government in 1961, this reissue will interest any student researching policy and decision-making in the post-war period.

This book is a sequal to "Britain's Economic Prospects, "the report issued in 1968 by the Brookings Institution and universally accepted as the most thorough and comprehensive study of the British Economy to have ever appeared.
Two years later, just after the British General election, six fo the American economists who prepared the Brookings Report met with a number of other leading economists from Britain and the United States, at a weekend conference at Ditchley Park, to review the findings of the report. Papers submitted to the conference by four of the British Economists (R.C.C. Matthews, G.D.N. Worswick, E.H. Phelps Brown and M.V. Posner) covered the same ground as the Brookings Report - the role of demand management, trade and balance-of-payments problems, labour policies, and industrial policies. The conference also had before it a fifth paper, on fiscal policy and stabilization, which took issue with some of the views expressed in the Brookings report.
These papers form the coreof this book, which also contains an account of the conference discussions and concluding reflections by its Chairman, Sir Alec Cairncross, formerly Chief Economic Adviser to H.M. Government.
"Britain's Economic Prospects Reconsidered "is neither a detailed critique of the Brookings Report nor a rejoinder to it, but rather an attempt to reassess British performance and policies in the light of experience since devaluation. Its central concern is the question of why economic growth in Britain since the war has been slower than in other countries.
This book was first published in 1971.

Years of Recovery was the first comprehensive study of the transition from war to peace in the British economy under the Labour government of 194551. It includes a full account of the successive crises and turning-points in those hectic years the coal and convertibility crises of 1947, devaluation in 1949 and rearmament in 1951. These episodes, apart from their dramatic interest, light up the dilemmas of policy and the underlying economic trends and pressures in a country delicately poised between economic disaster and full recovery. Many of the debates on economic policy that are still in progress on incomes policy, demand management, the welfare state and relations with Europe, for example have their roots in those years. Many of the trends originating then persisted long afterwards.
The book also examines the interaction between events and policy and the role in a managed economy of the policy-making machine. Now that the public records are open to 1954, it has been possible to make use of official documents to review the possibilities of action that were canvassed and the thinking and differences of opinion that underlay ministerial decisions. Combining personal involvement with thorough research, this fascinating study will be a major contribution to our understanding of post-war economic policy.
Alec Cairncross was Chancellor of the University of Glasgow and a former Master of St Peters College, Oxford. He spent the years covered by this volume as a civil servant in London, Berlin and Paris before moving to Glasgow as Professor of Applied Economics. This classic book of some of his most brilliant research was first published in 1985.

The papers in this volume cover the following areas: Government and Industry, the Managed Economy, Monetary Policy, Fiscal Policy, Economic Forecasting and Economic Planning, and Economists in Government.

This collection, by an economist who participated in many of the events described, sketches the more important economic developments from the end of the Second World War to the early 1980s. In so doing, it brings together a series of papers which were produced by Sir Alec Cairncross during this period. The topics covered include: economic development in the immediate post-war period, including some long neglected issues, such as the role of economists in the wartime government of Britain; sterling crises and devaluation during the 1960s and 1970s; the wider view and long-term issues involved, including a review of some of the economic ideas that have influenced the British government since the war. The importance of ecomomic history as an intellectual discipline is central and sets the context for the entire work. This study is intended to be of use for all those seeking to understand the course of post-1945 economics.

First published in 1989, The Economic Section 1939-1961 is a rare study of economic policymaking as seen from the inside. The Economic Section, formed in 1939-1940, was the first group of professional economists to operate full-time at the centre of government in the United Kingdom and its views on many issues of economic policy were frequently decisive. In this volume, two former members of the Section draw on their memories and on the public records to trace the history of the Section from the early days of the war to the end of the 1950s. Alec Cairncross and Nita Watts discuss the advice offered by the Section, the controversies that followed advisers, and how Ministers responded. They present a picture of the day-to-day working of the Section, but inevitably focus on the more dramatic episodes, when major issues of policy were in dispute or important new issues were posed. Separate chapters are devoted to the Section's role in four main areas: fiscal, monetary, incomes and external economic policy. In illuminating influence on policy exercised by officials and the place of expert advice in economic management, this work will appeal to a wide range of readers. It offers the student of economics or politics a picture of what, in practice, goes to the making of economic policy.

This book, originally published in 1975, deals with the sources of economic growth, inflation and the prospects of bringing it under control, floating exchange rates and restrictions on international capital movements. Although aimed at the non-specialist, professional economists willa slo find the book stimulating.

This book is a sequal to Britain's Economic Prospects, the report issued in 1968 by the Brookings Institution and universally accepted as the most thorough and comprehensive study of the British Economy to have ever appeared. Two years later, just after the British General election, six fo the American economists who prepared the Brookings Report met with a number of other leading economists from Britain and the United States, at a weekend conference at Ditchley Park, to review the findings of the report. Papers submitted to the conference by four of the British Economists (R.C.C. Matthews, G.D.N. Worswick, E.H. Phelps Brown and M.V. Posner) covered the same ground as the Brookings Report - the role of demand management, trade and balance-of-payments problems, labour policies, and industrial policies. The conference also had before it a fifth paper, on fiscal policy and stabilization, which took issue with some of the views expressed in the Brookings report. These papers form the core of this book, which also contains an account of the conference discussions and concluding reflections by its Chairman, Sir Alec Cairncross, formerly Chief Economic Adviser to H.M. Government. Britain's Economic Prospects Reconsidered is neither a detailed critique of the Brookings Report nor a rejoinder to it, but rather an attempt to reassess British performance and policies in the light of experience since devaluation. Its central concern is the question of why economic growth in Britain since the war has been slower than in other countries. This book was first published in 1971.

Years of Recovery was the first comprehensive study of the transition from war to peace in the British economy under the Labour government of 1945-51. It includes a full account of the successive crises and turning-points in those hectic years - the coal and convertibility crises of 1947, devaluation in 1949 and rearmament in 1951. These episodes, apart from their dramatic interest, light up the dilemmas of policy and the underlying economic trends and pressures in a country delicately poised between economic disaster and full recovery. Many of the debates on economic policy that are still in progress - on incomes policy, demand management, the welfare state and relations with Europe, for example - have their roots in those years. Many of the trends originating then persisted long afterwards. The book also examines the interaction between events and policy and the role in a managed economy of the policy-making machine. Now that the public records are open to 1954, it has been possible to make use of official documents to review the possibilities of action that were canvassed and the thinking and differences of opinion that underlay ministerial decisions. Combining personal involvement with thorough research, this fascinating study will be a major contribution to our understanding of post-war economic policy. Alec Cairncross was Chancellor of the University of Glasgow and a former Master of St Peter's College, Oxford. He spent the years covered by this volume as a civil servant in London, Berlin and Paris before moving to Glasgow as Professor of Applied Economics. This classic book of some of his most brilliant research was first published in 1985.

This volume collects together Sir Alec Cairncross' most important contributions to the economic history of the post-1939 period. They address such major issues as the role of economists in the 2nd World War, the significance of the Marshall plan and Britain's relative economic decline. Together they demonstrate a keen insight into the changing role of the economist in government and the gradual transformation of the economic landscape.

This book, originally published in 1975, deals with the sources of economic growth, inflation and the prospects of bringing it under control, floating exchange rates and restrictions on international capital movements. Although aimed at the non-specialist, professional economists willa slo find the book stimulating.

Lord Roberthall was economic adviser to a succession of Labour and Conservative governments from 1947 to 1961. During that time, he served under eight Chancellors and exercised more influence on economic policy than perhaps any other official. Fortunately - though it was contrary to Civil Service rules - he kept a diary in which he documented and reflected on day-to-day events. This second volume, published in 1991, covers the years between 1954 and 1961, after Robert Hall's appointment as Economic Adviser to HM Government. The book includes details of conferences and negotiations in Australia, the United States and Canada, as well as accounts dealing with the struggles to contain inflation and moderate wages. This is a highly readable and fascinating account of what went on inside government in the post-war years. The book provides a unique picture of the relationship between Whitehall and Downing Street, and those people who shaped this challenging period in British economic history. Edited by Sir Alec Cairncross, who succeeded Lord Roberthall as Economic Adviser to HM Government in 1961, this reissue will interest any student researching policy and decision-making in the post-war period.

The papers in this volume cover the following areas:
* Government and Industry
* The Managed Economy
* Monetary Policy
* Fiscal Policy
* Economic Forecasting and Economic Planning
* Economists in Government

In Managing the British Economy in the 1960s Sir Alec Cairncross, who was Economic Adviser to HMG in 1961-64 and Head of the newly-created Government Economic Service in 1964-69, tells the inside story of the making of economic policy under four Chancellors of the Exchequer between 1960 and 1970, first under a Conservative government then under a Labour government. He describes how the Treasury dealt with a whole succession of crises and experimented with many new departures of policy over the decade: for example, the efforts to engage in long-term planning, form a workable incomes policy, make use of new taxes for new purposes and enter the European Community. In parallel with the 1990s, the story is dominated by the effort to avoid devaluation followed by the struggle to make it work and keep the pound from sliding further.

The first study of the British Ministry of Aircraft Production, this book examines the war-time policy and operation of the planning department. Topics covered include the organization of the department, production planning and specific programmes.

In March 1976 the value of the British pound began to slide. The slide turned into a rout and triggered an economic and political trauma. By September confidence in the pound had collapsed. In April 1975 the Wall Street Journal had run the headline 'Goodbye, Great Britain, ' advising investors to get out of sterling. Now the British Labour government under its new Prime Minister James Callaghan was forced to seek help from the International Monetary Fund, a familiar option for Third World countries but highly unusual for a developed western economy. This expert new study uncovers the roots of the most searing economic crisis of postwar Britain. The weakness and instability of the British economy in the mid-1970s, the consequence in part of the 1973 rise in oil prices, raised international alarm. The US government in particular feared economic crisis would drive Britain into a left-wing siege economy, endangering NATO and the EEC. Anticipating the danger, the US Treasury set out to force Britain to make major domestic policy changes. The sterling crisis provided the opportunity. The IMF provided the weapon. Arriving in London in November 1976, the IMF mission announced that the price for the loan included deep cuts in public expenditure. The consequent political crisis was fought out in private and in public, amongst members of the British Cabinet, the Labour Party, the Treasury and the Bank of England. It involved the US President, Treasury and State Department, the Federal Reserve, the German Chancellor and the Bundesbank. Burk and Cairncross uncover the efforts of the Labour government to escape IMF conditions. They also examine the political agenda, the loss of economic control, therise of monetarist ideas and the change in the climate of opinion. Juxtaposing gripping narrative with expert analysis, the book provides surprising answers to critical questions and reveals how the breakdown of the postwar consensus on macro-economic management paved the way for the triumph of Thatcherism.