Unexpectedly high inflation, wars in key commodity-producing regions, declining real wages, slowing economic growth, fears of tightening monetary policy and turbulence in stock markets — we see all of these things in today’s world economy. These were also the dominant features of the world economy in the 1970s. That period ended in the early 1980s, with a brutal monetary tightening in the US, a sharp reduction in inflation and a wave of debt crises in developing countries, especially in those of Latin America. It was also followed by huge changes in economic policy: conventional Keynesian economics was buried, labour markets were liberalised, state-owned enterprises were privatised and economies were opened up to trade.
通脹高得出乎意料，關鍵的大宗商品生產地區爆發戰爭，實際工資水平下降，經濟增長放緩，人們擔心貨幣政策收緊，股市動蕩，所有這些都是我們在當今世界經濟中看到的現象。這些也是上世紀70年代世界經濟的主要特征。那段時期結束于80年代初。其間，美國冷酷地收緊了貨幣政策，通脹大幅下降，發展中國家爆發了一波債務危機，特別是在拉美國家。其后經濟政策也發生了巨大變化：傳統凱恩斯經濟學(Keynesian economics)被埋葬，勞動力市場自由化，國有企業被私有化，各經濟體放開貿易限制。