‘Survival Capitalism’ and the Big Bang

Survival Capitalism is a cultural history of the 1980s financial revolution. It ranges in scope across the Thatcher government, the Bank of England, London Stock Exchange and member firms, and Lloyd’s of London. It offers timely new perspectives on the City of London’s Big Bang reforms as the Conservatives contemplate Big Bang 2.0 in the 2020s. -- .

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This book about the Thatcher government and the City of London tells the compelling human story of the people and processes that made Britain’s 1980s financial revolution. Fusing insider testimony with new archival discoveries, it examines high stakes and networked solutions, and uncovers new objectives that drove reforms. In so doing it demystifies a major shift in capitalism. This has implications for our understandings of government and capitalism, from the way we think about the origins of subsequent financial crises to today’s growing inequalities.
Survival Capitalism offers new insights into the last major restructuring of the City, disrupts myths surrounding the logics of the market, and pays attention to people and processes at a time when the City of London again faces major change as Britain seeks to find its place outside the European Union in the wake of Brexit. -- .