This article discusses common patterns—as well as differences—between the ‘new orthodoxy’ of monetarism applied in the United Kingdom and that of the Latin American Southern Cone. In both cases, it interprets this new orthodoxy as a conscious attempt to break out of the previous pattern of capitalist development, as well as the social and political framework which sustained it. This long‐term objective accounts for the huge and, in purely technical terms seemingly unnecessary, scale of social cuts. The experience of the United Kingdom, Argentina and Chile are examined from this perspective; the historical background for each of these monetarist experiences is described in some detail.