Introduction

2018 ◽  
pp. 1-19
Author(s):  
Stuart Aveyard ◽  
Paul Corthorn ◽  
Sean O’Connell
Keyword(s):  
Housing Market ◽  
Consumer Credit ◽  
Credit Market ◽  
Credit Crunch ◽  
Modern Britain ◽  
Historical Investigation

A decade on from the ‘credit crunch’, with repeated warnings of the potential for a repeat of that financial trauma, this is an appropriate moment to offer a historical investigation of the politics of consumer credit in modern Britain. By the 1980s, Britain had the most diverse and liberalized consumer credit sector in Europe. From one perspective, the element of risk in the British credit market was a strength, but it made the nation more vulnerable to severe economic jolts caused by events such as the housing market correction of the early 1990s and the credit crunch of 2008. ...

The Politics of Consumer Credit in the UK, 1938-1992

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stuart Aveyard ◽  
Paul Corthorn ◽  
Sean O'Connell
Keyword(s):  
Home Ownership ◽  
Consumer Credit ◽  
British History ◽  
Consumer Society ◽  
Modern Britain ◽  
Historical Investigation ◽  
Consumer Durable ◽  
Post War ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Impact

Over a decade on from the ‘credit crunch’ and with recurring warnings of the potential for a repeat of that financial trauma, this book offers the first sustained historical investigation of the politics of consumer credit in modern Britain. It explains why, by the 1980s, Britain had the most diverse and liberalized consumer credit sector in Europe. This was the result of myriad factors and was not simply the product of a shift to neo-liberal thinking. The Politics of Consumer Credit in the UK explores how the UK government often struggled to manage the burgeoning consumer credit sector between the 1930s and the 1990s. Also inspected are the important role of actors with varying degrees of influence on policymaking, ranging from the Bank of England, the representatives of consumer finance associations and consumer durable manufacturers, and consumers and their spokespersons. The book’s central focus is on consumer credit, but it also provides a case study through which a number of important areas of British history can be re-examined. Issues discussed here include: the ‘post-war consensus’ and its demise; the impact of rising home ownership and its consumer credit; the rise of affluence and the responses to this of the major political parties; the management of consumer society from both a consumer protection perspective as well as in terms of macroeconomic policy; class, gender, and race and equitable access to personal financial products; and the place of consumer credit in Keynesianism, neo-liberalism, and privatized Keynesianism.

scholarly journals Origins and Resolution of Financial Crises: Lessons from the Current and Northern European Crises

2009 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 178-220 ◽  
Author(s):  
Finn Østrup ◽  
Lars Oxelheim ◽  
Clas Wihlborg
Keyword(s):  
Financial Crisis ◽  
Housing Market ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
Financial Crises ◽  
World Economy ◽  
Credit Crunch ◽  
Original Strain ◽  
Northern European ◽  
The World ◽  
The U.S

Since July 2007, the world economy has experienced a severe financial crisis that originated in the U.S. housing market. Subsequently, the crisis has spread to financial sectors in European and Asian economies and led to a severe worldwide recession. The existing literature on financial crises rarely distinguishes between factors that create the original strain on the financial sector and factors that explain why these strains lead to system-wide contagion and a possible credit crunch. Most of the literature on financial crises refers to factors that cause an original disruption in the financial system. We argue that a financial crisis with its contagion within the system is caused by failures of legal, regulatory, and political institutions.

Consumer Credit on the Eve of Affluence

2018 ◽  
pp. 20-47
Author(s):  
Stuart Aveyard ◽  
Paul Corthorn ◽  
Sean O’Connell
Keyword(s):  
Consumer Protection ◽  
Free Market ◽  
Demand Management ◽  
Consumer Credit ◽  
Credit Market ◽  
Balance Of Payments ◽  
Consumer Durables ◽  
Keynesian Theory ◽  
Election Victory

The chapter begins with an examination of debates around consumer protection and hire purchase in the 1930s. It explains the emergence and significance of the Hire Purchase Act, 1938. It explores radical (but thwarted) Labour plans to reshape important sectors of the consumer credit market during the 1940s. The chapter then explains the influence of Keynesian theory and its role in generating new policy on economic demand management. The Conservative election victory of 1951 owed much to the party’s courtship of voters with free market rhetoric, but this government instigated hire purchase controls to improve the balance of payments and combat inflation. Labour dubbed the measures ‘a very vicious piece of class legislation’. This policy created long-standing disagreement between the Treasury and the Board of Trade (and consumer durables manufacturers) about the damage to UK manufacturing. The chapter outlines developments up until the Radcliffe Committee was tasked to examine the issue.

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