The upshot of growing inequality of income and wealth was that, to maintain the living standards they had enjoyed from the Second World War to the 1980s, workers had to shoulder an increasing debt burden from the 1980s onwards. Looking at the broader economic picture, without growing household debt, demand might have been weaker and sales by businesses lower. Finance bridged the gap, in the form of new forms of credit whose resultant interest flows and charges underpinned the sector’s expansion.
