ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book describes the main changes in the international economy witnessed in the 1960s and early 1970s. It describes the performance of the world economy in the 1960s and then moves on to explain why these patterns faltered and changed in the 1970s. The significance of higher oil prices, the collapse of the international monetary system and governments' policy reactions to higher inflation and unemployment than had hitherto been normal are assessed in turn. The book looks at the net payments impact for non-oil ldcs of their oil imports since 1973. It reviews the Middle Eastern countries' influx of labour from neighbouring ldcs, but also assesses a rather different case. Western observers have persistently been surprised at the ability of OPEC countries to spend the money they have earned from oil exports.
