In his book "Mrs Thatcher's Economic Experiment" William Keegan won acclaim even from critics for the virulence of his attack on the government's monetarist policies of the early 1980s. These, in his opinion, produced an unnecessarily severe recession and much social damage. His new book, "Mr Osborne's Economic Experiment " is a conscious echo of that earlier work. Keegan believes that, although the circumstances are different, there are parallels in the way that unnecessarily deflationary policies aggravated the recession that was initially brought on by the financial crisis,and have caused needless social hardship. William Keegan has been the Senior Economics Commentator of The Observer for many years, having previously worked at the Bank of England and the Financial Times. He is the author of many books, including 'Mrs Thatcher Economic Experiment', (1984) and 'The Prudence of Mr Gordon Brown' (2003). This is his second work for Searching Finance, the first being''Saving the world?'' Gordon Brown Reconsidered (2012). Acknowledgements Introduction Part i Postwar Austerity Chapter 1 Attlee and Cripps - A Personal Loan that led to a Premiership Chapter 2 Grants and Loans to finance War and Recovery Chapter 3 Years of Shortages and Rationing Notes: chapters 1-3 Part ii Austerity in the Twenty First Century Chapter 4 Enter Mr Osborne and Governor Carney Notes Chapter 5 Treasury and Bank Policy at Odds Notes Chapter 6 The Limits to Monetary Policy Notes Chapter 7 Panic Stations Notes Chapter 8 How to Delay a Recovery Notes Chapter 9 Economies Recover - Eventually Notes Part iii Austerity - The Osborne Experiment Chapter 10 An Obsession with Deficits Notes Chapter 11 A Crisis Aggravated by Housing Shortages Notes Chapter 12 What About the Workers? Notes Chapter 13 The Importance of the Exchange Rate Notes Chapter 14 Keynesians versus The Rest Notes Chapter 15 Bubbling House Prices Notes Chapter 16 Interest Rate Dilemmas Notes Conclusion Notes Index