The Current Recession

Abstract

The breakdown of the post-war boom was symbolised, like the beginning of the Great Depression, by a dramatic event-the ‘energy crisis’, i.e. the restriction of supplies of oil followed by a massive increase in prices imposed by OPEC in late 1973. Since that date, the economic performance of the advanced capitalist countries has clearly deteriorated. Growth rates have fallen. The rate of unemployment has increased and stayed high. The threat to industries and jobs has revived protectionist pressures reminiscent of the 1930s, whilst the debts hanging over a number of sizeable nations have caused tension and strain in the international financial system. There is a pervasive atmosphere of depression and crisis. Many underdeveloped countries are suffering badly from the combination of high oil prices and depressed export markets, and even the socialist bloc, seemingly less dependent on events in the major capitalist countries than any other part of the world, has experienced these difficulties.