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Hayek, Thatcher, and the Muddle of the Middle

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Hayek: A Collaborative Biography

Part of the book series: Archival Insights into the Evolution of Economics ((AIEE))

Abstract

This chapter provides a detailed examination of one of Hayek’s rather less well-known forays into macroeconomic controversy: in particular, the policy advice which Hayek gave to Margaret Thatcher in early 1982. Hayek urged her to pay much heed to the way in which the Pinochet junta had speedily restructured the Chilean economy in the 1970s and early 1980s. There is much speculation about what particular aspects of Chilean social and economic policy Hayek may have urged Thatcher to adopt in Britain—this chapter addresses this aspect of Hayek and Thatcher’s early-1980s correspondence.

‘I am too much aware of my limited knowledge of political possibilities to presume to advise her [Margaret Thatcher] on particular decisions’ (F. A. Hayek—16 March 1981a ).

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dickinson College, Carlisle, PA, USA

    Andrew Farrant

  2. Dickinson College, Carlisle, CA, USA

    Edward McPhail

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  1. Andrew Farrant
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  2. Edward McPhail
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Economics, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA

    Robert Leeson

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Farrant, A., McPhail, E. (2017). Hayek, Thatcher, and the Muddle of the Middle. In: Leeson, R. (eds) Hayek: A Collaborative Biography. Archival Insights into the Evolution of Economics. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-60708-5_7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-60708-5_7

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-60707-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-60708-5

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