From Boom to Bust

The long economic upswing that culminated in the financial crash of 2008 began in the 1980s in the United States and in the United Kingdom, and was underpinned by a new growth model, which had the financial markets at its core, and the ambition to make every citizen an independent financial subject. This model pinpointed the route out of the stagflation of the 1970s, which eventually was to give rise to a new prosperity and renew the economic ascendancy of the United States. It accompanied and helped make possible a major restructuring of the global economy, involving a shift in many of the leading economies from manufacturing to services, an acceleration of the trends towards globalization, the introduction of new information technologies, the adoption of neo-liberal ideas across the whole field of public policy and a reorganization of the state.