Abstract
The paralysis of financial institutions and credit flows in the United States and United Kingdom during the second half of 2008 ushered in an economic-political crisis unmatched in severity since the Great Depression. The crisis discredited the neo-liberal thesis of a nexus between free markets and unending economic growth; it created much public hostility toward governments; and it reversed the shift of power from political to economic elites that occurred during pre-crisis decades. A bottom-up view of the crisis depicts it as stemming from publics grown accustomed to living beyond their means on the basis of ever- increasing debt. A top-down view sees it as resulting from political and economic elites pursuing fanciful shibboleths and the chimera of a currency union unaccompanied by fiscal union.
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© 2014 Heinrich Best and John Higley
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Best, H., Higley, J. (2014). Introduction. In: Best, H., Higley, J. (eds) Political Elites in the Transatlantic Crisis. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137345752_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137345752_1
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