ABSTRACT
This chapter shows many factors have contributed to depressed economic conditions in the developed countries and some developing countries since 1973. It reviews that trade protectionism has reappeared in developed countries, to the disadvantage of developing countries and the growth of the world economy as a whole. Inflation and unemployment have been much higher than in the 1960s, while economic growth rates have been much lower. The chapter examines some of the major aspects of the 1970s world economic malaise. Economic conditions in the world economy are to a large extent governed by the performance of the industrial economies of North America, Western Europe and Japan. The breakdown of the international monetary system in the early 1970s was an event of major importance for the industrial countries' economic affairs. Monetary and oil price factors are by no means the only explanations of economic depression in the OECD area since about 1973.
