ABSTRACT
With the 1970s, the leading economies entered a major crisis, marked above all by rising unemployment, stagnating investment, the crisis in industry, aggravated economic warfare, and increased domestic and foreign debt. While changes in volume ultimately remained fairly similar from one economy to another, trends in prices and foreign trade showed considerable differences. External constraint exerted very different pressures depending upon the countries, and in the economic war, the industrialized nations manifested varying strengths. Rather paradoxically, seen from Europe with a certain hindsight, the 1970s appear almost prosperous: the postwar growth model was indeed brought to a halt, but after the first oil crisis, most of the major industrialized countries maintained a rhythm of growth in volume of roughly 2 to 3 percent.
