historical analysis — What happened in the 1970s? A Macro-Historical Perspective

We can better understand the political-economic transformations of the 1970s if we approach these transformations from a macro-historical perspective. We can benefit from developing a framework for understanding the significance of war, debt, and liquidity relative to the cyclical transformations and recurrent crises that have characterized global capitalism from the nineteenth century to the present. By identifying and evaluating macro- level cycles, we can shed light on non-cyclical developments that make the political economics of the 1970s unique.

I want to focus on the state and state-backed finance, specifically on the expansion and transformation of internationally hegemonic governments in their price-stabilizing and employment-stabilizing capacities as lenders, borrowers, spenders, and, most recently, dealers of last resort1. Highly significant developments in the means of hegemonic price stabilization occurred in the 1970s and 1980s. Rejecting some standard interpretations, I argue that the 1970s is not a failure, but a great success, perhaps the greatest to date, of Keynesian policy in maintaining status quo hegemony.

historical analysis — social, economic and ideological Inquiry
What happened in the 1970s? A Macro-Historical Perspective