 From a neoliberal point of view which promotes small government, balanced budgets and inflation targeting, the economic policy of successive governments had left the domestic economy sheltered and unresponsive to consumers; inflation, which was more than ten per cent a year throughout the 1970s, was high by the standards of the country's major trading partners; and there was a persistent fiscal deficit.It was thought a large part of the economy was controlled by regulation, some arbitrary or inconsistent.The post-war political consensus had produced stability but Douglas viewed this as being at the cost of innovation.