ABSTRACT
This conclusion presents some closing thoughts on the key concepts discussed in the preceding chapters of this book. The book examines macroeconomic policy since 1979 and has suggested why, as the decade unfolded, certain policy instruments were abandoned and others were adopted. It suggests that the social learning model, it is possible to account for the shifts in macroeconomic policy during the 1980s. The book argues that some of the seemingly routine first-order changes in economic policy during the early 1980s were part of a wider dissatisfaction with the policy instruments, and this led to the adoption of alternative instruments. It outlines how the instruments themselves changed between 1981 and 1985 and discusses the introduction of MO, the greater emphasis put on the exchange rate by Chancellor Nigel Lawson and the ending of overfunding in 1985. Lawson intensely disliked the presence of Walters due to his ready access to the prime minister with his alternative views on economic policy.
