Global recession and Argentina

[bigbadwolf]

You are right my error, but you cannot blame the miners alone for the inflation during the Heath period. My memory is a bit hazy now but as I recall the miners strike was towards the end of a year where we had monthly increments to keep up with the rising prices.

I'm not blaming anyone -- just making a statement of fact. All the industrialised countries had problems that year with inflation brought about by the quadrupling of oil prices, which brought to a shuddering halt the postwar era of growth from 1945 to 1973. The world was never the same again. The problems of stagflation -- inflation coupled with slow or even negative growth -- persisted throughout the '70s, and ushered in the neoliberal age of Thatcher and Reagan. We live in an age whose contours have been defined by such people, and the recession we are now in owes its exisence to the fell and untameable forces they unleashed: mountains of debt (governmental and individual), and unfettered and volatile financial markets. These forces are just as responsible for Argentina's woes in 2001 as the problems the moribund US economy is now facing.

 

[RWS]

Quoting "bigbadwolf":
". . . . nflation brought about by the quadrupling of oil prices, which brought to a shuddering halt the postwar era of growth from 1945 to 1973. . . . The problems of stagflation -- inflation coupled with slow or even negative growth -- persisted throughout the '70s, and ushered in the neoliberal age of Thatcher and Reagan. We live in an age whose contours have been defined by such people, and the recession we are now in owes its exisence to the fell and untameable forces they unleashed: mountains of debt (governmental and individual), and unfettered and volatile financial markets. These forces are just as responsible for Argentina's woes in 2001 as the problems the moribund US economy is now facing."
Excellent insight. That the prospect gained from this is of a darkened future should not turn the observer to an unsubstantiated (and unsustainable) optimism.