The 1970s economic crash – a familiar story?
Margaret Drabble could be writing about 2008
Without books The Nurse would go mental. She devours books. Locked up in here, they are her only glimpse into the outside world. Which she hasn’t seen for a very, very long time.
Today The Nurse is re-reading a tattered copy of an old favourite by Margaret Drabble, written in 1979 and set in the mid ’70s. Running across the following, she was staggered at the parallels with today’s economic situation:
Margaret Drabble: The Ice Age. First published 1979
“The collapse had been dramatic… What had happened to those days of easy money in the early seventies? What had happened to the boom, to all those spectacular profits? Why had all the confident experts been taken by surprise? Go for growth, had been the slogan, and everyone had gone for it. Now some were bankrupt, some were in jail… and only the biggest had survived unscathed. Casualties of the slump and recession strewed the business pages of the newspapers…. banks collapsed and shares fell to nothing.”
And a few pages on:
“Meanwhile the radio was informing him that there was to be a 25% increase in the price of gas…”
It appears that nobody learned from the 1970s recession. Nobody learned from the recession of the ’80s either, or from the 1990s’ property crash. Unless The Nurse is missing something.
Does anyone else sense a pattern? Even The Nurse, behind bars in solitary confinement, can see that the economy is cyclical. So why’s everyone so surprised when it falls over every decade or two, regular as clockwork?
Deja vu, anyone?
Stats Boy wrote,
Lots of really good information here – greatly appreciated. Keep it up
Link | December 14th, 2008 at 3:44 pm
Joanne wrote,
The comparison between today and the economic crisis of the 1970s is eerily familiar, but it shouldn’t be a surprise since most economies go in cycles. Hopefully the new administration learns from the Carter administration or else sky high inflation and gas rationing will be in our near future.
Link | January 23rd, 2009 at 11:23 pm
Candice Smith wrote,
hi there is alot common between the economic status of the 1970′s and the present situation and we have to learn a lot out of these in oreder to come out of this economic downturns.
Regards
Candice Smith
Optical Migraines
Link | February 3rd, 2009 at 10:39 am
Prepare For A Recesion wrote,
You are right it is pretty obvious that the economy is cyclical. What most people are usually surprised about is why the economy went into recession. This time the economy going intop a recession could be seen a mile away. Anyone that says they did not see it coming is lieing to themselves. People by nature are greedy and fool themselves into believing that boom times will never end. We can be so foolish sometimes.
Link | February 22nd, 2009 at 10:57 pm
Movie Man wrote,
I think the escalating violence in the protests are a sign that this economic crisis is much worse then that of the 70′s. In fact, most of the government’s policies are to preserve large financial institutions while men, women, and children lose their homes and ability to eat. This is fueling a growing anger towards politicians and executives and may get much worse.
Link | April 4th, 2009 at 8:02 pm
Ryan from Pacific Beach real estate wrote,
You guys are so true about it. Yes thats an Economy cycle that after every Boom period, there comes a recession. As the person said, we get greedy and foolish, we forgot everything and started to think that this period will last for years. We didn’t consider saving, we squandered our earnings. I think this recession is worse because of the media as well, watching news daily sorts of feeds fear in people about what will happen, so many people are losing their jobs etc. This recession is a kick for everyone, now learn some lessons and make sure you spend wisely and save intelligently.
Link | September 15th, 2009 at 4:46 pm