Is the world economy going back to the 1970s?
Despite some eerie echoes, the past is not the best guide to the present
IT IS NEARLY half a century since the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries imposed an oil embargo on America, turning a modest inflation problem into a protracted bout of soaring prices and economic misery. But the stagflation of the 1970s is back on economists’ minds today, as they confront strengthening inflation and disappointing economic activity. The voices warning of unsettling echoes with the past are influential ones, including Larry Summers and Kenneth Rogoff of Harvard University and Mohamed El-Erian of Cambridge University and previously of PIMCO, a bond-fund manager.
This article appeared in the Finance & economics section of the print edition under the headline “Stagflation sensation”
Finance & economics October 9th 2021
- Is the world economy going back to the 1970s?
- The age of fossil-fuel abundance is dead
- Companies cast off their reluctance to invest
- Could a $1trn coin end America’s debt-ceiling showdown?
- A wave of green government bonds is flooding markets
- A different approach to investing in developing countries
- Does anyone actually understand inflation?
From the October 9th 2021 edition
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