Short-termism and economic restructuring in Britain

During the last century, Britain's ranking among the leading economic powers has declined steadily, with indigenous manufacturing capacity declining particularly rapidly in the 1980s. This paper argues that the root causes have been in place for much longer, making that decline both predictable and inevitable. I draw on the work of those who argue that Britain has always had a greater concern for wealth preservation than for wealth creation. The period since 1979-80 has been a particularly difficult one in which to reinstitute industrial growth. Present conditions have, to an unprecedented degree, favored speculation over investment, short-termism over long-termism.