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Two Hundred Years of Muddling Through: The surprising story of Britain's economy – Duncan Weldon, Abacus (2021) & Shattered Nation – Danny Dorling, Verso (2023)
Duncan Weldon outlines the contours of British economy history since the early 1800s. Since I can barely remember what I had for breakfast, I’ll focus on the years following WWII. From the 1940s-1970s, Weldon suggests there was a “great deal of economic continuity”.
The most notable policy consistency was
America: the Farewell Tour - Chris Hedges, Simon & Schuster (2018) & The Changing World Order - Ray Dalio, Simon & Schuster (2021)
These books examine a similar theme. The end of empire. Though ruling civilisations – the Dutch, French, British, etc. – collapse in unique ways, they exhibit similar patterns of breakdown which characterize the USA today.
Hedges begins his book by describing the outsized role of America’s military. The US, he contends,
Ravenous – Henry Dimbleby, Profile Books (2023)
Occasionally, economists come up with good ideas. A ‘policy trilemma’ states that, at any given time, governments can only achieve two of three competing goals. Owing to mutual exclusivity, one of the sovereign’s aims must be dropped.
The UK is currently facing a policy trilemma – to make food cheaply