Since 1945 British governments have played an active role in managing the economy in the interests of securing high employment, economic growth and low inflation with their approach evolving in response to changing economic circumstances, intellectual shifts and past policy failures. This book provides an overview of economic management, particularly financial management, and addresses how it has changed and why it has not always been successful. It examines the actual policies that were introduced, the problems that various governments faced in implementing them and how the approach to policymaking changed. It also examines the main phases of economic policymaking and the conduct of policymaking, as there is a widespread consensus that until recently, short-run economic management could have been more successful than it was.