The first world economic crisis of 1857-1858. Economic crises in the 20th century. Increasing political contradictions and struggle for power

Periodic economic crises began with the crisis of 1825 in Great Britain, the first country where capitalism became the dominant system, and where machine production reached quite a large development.

The next economic crisis occurred in 1836 and simultaneously affected Great Britain and the United States, which at that time were closely connected by trade and production ties.

The crisis of 1847 was close in nature to a global crisis and affected all countries of the European continent.

The first world economic crisis occurred in 1857. This was the deepest of all the crises that had taken place before it. It covered all European countries, as well as countries in North and South America. During the year and a half of the crisis in the UK, production volume in the textile industry decreased by 21%, in shipbuilding - by 26%. Iron production in France decreased by 13%, in the USA - by 20%, in Germany - by 25%. Cotton consumption fell in France by 13%, in the UK by 23%, and in the USA by 27%. Russia has experienced great crisis shocks. Iron smelting in Russia decreased by 17%, production of cotton fabrics - by 14%, woolen fabrics - by 11%.

The next economic crisis occurred in 1866 and affected Great Britain in its most acute form. The crisis of 1866 had a special specificity. The American Civil War (1861 - 1865) caused a severe cotton famine in Great Britain and a shock to the textile market on the eve of this crisis. In 1862, according to Marx, 58% of all looms and more than 60% of spindles in Great Britain were idle. A large number of small manufacturers went bankrupt. According to Marx, the cotton famine then prevented the onset of an economic crisis and led to the fact that the crisis of 1866 was predominantly financial in nature, since speculation in cotton caused a large overflow of capital in the money market.

The next global economic crisis began in 1873. In its duration, it surpassed all previous economic crises. Starting in Austria and Germany, it spread to most European countries and the United States, ending in 1878 in Great Britain. Economic crisis of 1873-78 marked the beginning of the transition to monopoly capitalism.

In 1882, another economic crisis occurred, affecting mainly the USA and France.

In 1890-93 The economic crisis hit Germany, the USA, France and Russia.

The economic crises of the period of transition to the monopoly stage of development of capitalism were seriously influenced by the global agrarian crisis, which lasted from the mid-70s. until the mid-90s.

World economic crisis 1900-03. accelerated the formation of monopoly capitalism, it was the first crisis of the era of imperialism. And although the drop in production during the crisis was insignificant (2-3%), it affected almost all European countries and the United States. The crisis was especially difficult in Russia, where it coincided with a bad harvest.

The next global economic crisis erupted in 1907. The overall drop in the level of industrial production in capitalist countries was about 5%, but the crisis affected the USA and Great Britain to the greatest extent, where output decreased by 15% and 6%, respectively. The crisis of 1907 showed the groundlessness of the hopes of bourgeois ideologists for the possibility of the disappearance of economic crises under the conditions of monopoly capitalism. In Art. “Marxism and Revisionism” V.I. Lenin convincingly showed that the crisis of 1907 became indisputable proof of the inevitability of crises as an integral part of the capitalist system. At the same time, Lenin emphasized that at the imperialist stage of development of capitalism “The forms, sequence, picture of individual crises have changed...».

The next global economic crisis began in mid-1920. Its course was greatly affected by the First World War of 1914-18. and its consequences. Almost all capitalist countries experienced serious economic difficulties. Industrial output during the crisis decreased in Western European countries as a whole by 11%, and in Great Britain by 33%. In the US, production fell by 18%, in Canada by 22%.

But all the economic crises listed above could not be compared with the global economic crisis of 1929-33. This crisis, which lasted more than four years and engulfed the entire capitalist world, all spheres of the economy, literally shook the entire system of capitalism to its core. The total volume of industrial production of the capitalist world decreased by 46%, steel production fell by 62%, coal production by 31%, shipbuilding production decreased by 83%, foreign trade turnover by 67%, the number of unemployed reached 26 million people, or 1/4 of all people employed in production, real incomes of the population decreased by an average of 58%. The price of securities on stock exchanges decreased by 60-75%. The crisis was marked by a large number of bankruptcies. In the USA alone, 109 thousand companies went bankrupt.

The severity of the contradictions between societies, the nature of production and the private capitalist form of appropriation, which emerged during the global economic crisis of 1929-33, showed that the transition to the monopolistic stage of development of capitalism did not lead, as theorists had hoped, to overcoming the spontaneity of capitalist reproduction. The monopolies were unable to cope with the market forces and the bourgeois state was forced to intervene in economic processes. Began development of monopoly capitalism into state-monopoly capitalism.

The cycle that followed the crisis of 1929-33 is characterized by the absence of a recovery phase. After a long depression and slight recovery, another global economic crisis broke out in mid-1937. It was no less acute than the crisis of 1929-33. The total volume of industrial production in the capitalist world decreased by 11%, including in the USA - by 21%. Steel production fell by an average of 23%, car production by 40%, merchant ships by 42%, etc. But this economic crisis did not fully develop; its course was interrupted by the Second World War of 1939-45.

After the 2nd World War 1939-45. The economic growth of capitalist countries did not last long. Already in 1948-49. The capitalist economy experienced its first crisis shock after the war. The economic crisis hit primarily the main capitalist country - the United States. The volume of production of American industry from October 1948 to July 1949 fell by 18.2%. The crisis in industry was complemented by overproduction in agriculture. The volume of US foreign trade has sharply decreased. In Canada, industrial production fell by 12%. The total volume of industrial output in developed capitalist countries decreased by almost 6% compared to the previous year. The commodity famine characteristic of the first post-war years was replaced by general difficulties of sales on the world capitalist market. Exports (by value) of many countries in Europe and Asia fell. World exports of wheat, coffee, rubber, wool, and coal decreased. All this dealt a blow to the already difficult currency situation of many countries, which caused a massive devaluation of capitalist currencies in the fall of 1949. Thus, the crisis of 1948-49. was not a local phenomenon, characteristic only of the USA and Canada, but had an essentially global character.

In the fall of 1957, a new global economic crisis began, which continued into 1958. It hit the United States with the greatest force. Industrial production fell here by 12.6%. The crisis also affected Japan, France, Canada, Great Britain, Belgium, the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, and Finland. The growth of industrial production in Germany and Italy has stopped. The rate of production growth in developing countries has sharply decreased. In the vast majority of light industry sectors, as well as in ferrous metallurgy, shipbuilding and the coal industry, production has completely decreased. In 1957-58 The crisis gripped countries that accounted for almost 2/3 of the industrial output of the capitalist world.

The crisis in industry was complemented by a crisis in international trade. For the first time in the post-war years, total exports of finished industrial products decreased. At the same time, long-term structural industrial crises began on the scale of the entire capitalist world: in the raw materials industries, the oil industry, shipbuilding, and merchant shipping. A US balance of payments crisis developed, caused mainly by huge military spending and the Cold War policy.

70s became a turning point in the economic development of capitalism. During this period, the general conditions of economic development of the capitalist world began to change rapidly. In the countries of Western Europe and Japan already by the mid-60s. The reconstruction of industry and other sectors of the economy was completed on a new technical basis, and new branches of production acquired key importance. In terms of their structure, technological equipment and productivity, the economies of these countries have come close to the level of the US economy. The convergence of the levels of economic development of the main competing centers of imperialism could not but affect the nature of the cycles of capitalist reproduction. In the 70s economic crises are becoming more widespread and more acute. In 1970-71 industrial production fell in 16 countries and was reflected in a fall in the aggregate production indicators of the industrialized capitalist world as a whole.

But a special place in post-war capitalist reproduction was occupied by the global economic crisis of 1974-75. He opened a qualitatively new period of development of capitalist reproduction. This crisis affected all developed capitalist countries without exception and led to the deepest decline in industrial production and capital investment since World War II. For the first time in the post-war years, consumer spending and the total volume of capitalist foreign trade decreased. The sharp increase in unemployment was accompanied by a fall in real incomes of the population.

Features of the global economic crisis of 1974-75.

The special nature of the economic crisis of 1974-75. was determined not only by its severity and simultaneous spread to all major capitalist countries, but also by its combination with a powerful wave of inflation. Prices for goods and services continued to rise rapidly even in the most acute phase of the crisis - a phenomenon unprecedented in the history of capitalism.

One of the features of the crisis of 1974-75. It became intertwined with deep structural crises that affected such important areas of the capitalist economy as energy, raw materials extraction, agriculture, and the monetary and financial system. It revealed the aggravation of the contradictions of the world capitalist economy with immeasurably greater force than in previous post-war crises.

The unusual nature of the economic crisis of 1974-75. was primarily due to the explosion of contradictions in the international division of labor that developed in the capitalist world in the post-war years. The crisis disrupted the system of world relations, caused an even greater intensification of inter-imperialist rivalry and qualitative changes in relations between the imperialist powers and developing countries. A characteristic feature of the economic crisis of 1974-75. There was a sharp violation of the cost proportions of capital reproduction as a result of the rapid rise in world prices for oil, raw materials and agricultural products. From 1972 to the first half of 1974, the price index for raw materials increased 2.4 times (including 4 times for oil), for agricultural goods - almost 2 times (including grain almost 3 times).

The energy, raw materials and food structural crises literally blew up the course of capitalist reproduction. At the heart of these crises lies a deep disproportionality in the development of individual parts and spheres of the world capitalist economy, which itself is the inevitable result of new forms of exploitation of developing countries by imperialism, a system of domination over the production and export of raw materials, founded by international monopolies with the help of concessions and monopoly-low purchasing prices for raw materials. The political and economic essence of the raw materials and energy crises, as well as the food crisis, is rooted in the aggravation of economic and political relations between imperialist countries and young national states. The intense political struggle over the prices of oil and other raw materials is only a reflection of the strengthening of the general struggle of developing countries against neo-colonialism. Never before in the history of capitalism have structural crises simultaneously affected such critical areas of production as the energy and raw materials complexes and agriculture. Having an independent character, these structural crises influenced the course of capitalist reproduction after the crisis of 1970-1971. and deformed the cycle.

The raw materials, energy and food crises arose during the long accumulation of contradictions of capitalist reproduction throughout the post-war period. Conditions for the reproduction of capital in industries producing raw materials and primary energy carriers, as well as in the electric power industry, were unfavorable in developed capitalist countries already in the first post-war years. The rate of return on invested capital in these industries was significantly lower than in most manufacturing industries.

Bourgeois states tried to mitigate the disproportionality in the industrial structure by providing tax incentives to mining companies (USA, Canada) or by nationalizing these industries and developing the public sector (Great Britain, France, Italy). As for the monopolies of the leading capitalist states, in the development of many raw materials industries, especially oil production, they focused on the exploitation of the resources of developing countries. The relatively rapid economic development of monopoly capitalism after World War II until the 70s. The 20th century was largely based on low prices for raw materials and oil and thus relied on neo-colonialist forms of pumping out profits from developing countries. At the same time, the economic conditions in which the extractive industries found themselves in the countries of developed capitalism themselves led to either stagnation or the curtailment of the production of raw materials and fuel on their own territory and to an increased focus on the import of these products from developing countries. So, for 1950-72. Imports of crude oil to the United States increased more than 9 times, to Western European countries - 17 times, to Japan - 193 times.

The huge increase in oil production in developing countries could not compensate for the general slowdown in the growth of production of primary energy carriers and other types of raw materials in the capitalist world. The deep disproportionality of the sectoral structure of the capitalist economy was clearly evident already during the cyclical rise of the 60s, but in the crisis form of relative “underproduction” it appeared only during the rise of 1972-73. The particular severity of the energy crisis is associated with the new balance of power between oil-producing countries and oil monopolies, whose power has been sharply undermined. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), which unites the main oil-producing developing countries, was able to take control of its own natural resources and implement independent price policies in the oil market.

As for the food crisis, its occurrence is associated with the aggravation of the food problem in developing countries in the 70s, when in many of them the already low level of food production per capita dropped significantly. The immediate causes of this crisis are rooted not only in the significant lag in the growth rate of agriculture in developing countries from the growth rate of their population, but also in the relatively low growth rate of agricultural production in industrial capitalist countries in the 50-60s. The crop failures of 1972-74 played a significant role in the aggravation of the food problem.

Rising food prices in 1972-74. on the world market by 5 times led to an aggravation of contradictions both between the main capitalist countries and between developed capitalist states and developing countries. Rising food prices in the United States contributed to increased inflation and undermined the purchasing power of the American population. But as a major exporter of agricultural products, the United States benefited from rising prices on the world capitalist market. The countries of Western Europe, where domestic prices for agricultural products were significantly higher than world prices before 1974, suffered less from rising world prices. Japan, Great Britain and the vast majority of developing countries find themselves in the most difficult situation, where domestic food prices have increased and the cost of imported agricultural goods has increased significantly.

Thus, the raw materials and food crises led in 1973-74. to a sharp increase in world prices for oil, raw materials and agricultural products and thereby became a serious factor in the violation of the cost proportions of capital reproduction. These crises of relative underproduction played a major role in the onset of the global crisis of the capitalist economy of 1974-75.

A deep drop in production during the economic crisis of 1974-75. combined with increasing inflation, the origins of which were rooted in the enormous unproductive spending of bourgeois governments, as well as in monopolistic pricing practices. Monopolistic pricing practice is characterized primarily by the fact that companies create a system of relatively uniform and fixed prices for homogeneous products. For this purpose, the so-called mechanism is widely used. price leadership, when leading companies in monopolized industries focus on prices set by the most powerful of them in order to obtain high and sustainable profits. This practice inevitably leads to an increase in the general price level and intensification of inflationary processes.

An additional factor in the increase in the general price level is also the fact that, even in the face of a reduction in aggregate demand, companies now prefer to reduce production rather than reduce prices for goods in the interests of preserving profits.

A powerful increase in inflation in developed capitalist countries is government consumption, which is one of the main levers of constant pressure on commodity prices. The expansion of the functions of bourgeois states to regulate the economy in the interests of monopolies (government spending in the main capitalist countries absorbs from 25% to 45% of GDP) has led to the fact that capitalist states experience a constant lack of financial resources, which is manifested in chronic deficits of state budgets.

In just 33 post-war years from 1946 to 1978, the United States experienced a slight excess of revenue over expenditure 12 times. The total deficit of the US federal budget for this period amounted to (minus the positive balance in some years) about 254 billion dollars. Moreover, for the first 25 post-war years (1946-70) this deficit amounted to 8.6 billion dollars. The remaining 245 billion . dollars fall in the 70s (1971 - 78). In Great Britain for 1960-78. The state budget was reduced without a deficit only twice. This trend is also characteristic of other capitalist countries. Huge government budget deficits are financed with the help of additional emission of means of payment, and this makes price increases stable and long-lasting.

The combination of the economic crisis and inflation led to a sharp deterioration in the financial sector, shook the credit system, causing numerous stock exchange crashes, and an increase in the number of bankrupt industrial and trading companies and banks. Inflationary pressure did not allow discount rates on loans to be reduced sufficiently and made it difficult for many capitalist countries to recover from the crisis.

Economic crisis of 1974-75 clearly revealed the failure of the system of state-monopoly regulation that had developed in the post-war years. In conditions of inflation, the previous recipes for the anti-crisis policies of bourgeois states, with the help of which they tried to influence the course of business activity (lowering the discount rate, increasing government spending, etc.), turned out to be untenable.

Economic crisis of 1974-75 once again showed the extreme limitations of state-monopoly capitalism’s ability to influence the mechanism for regulating economic cycles. Anti-crisis measures affected only national economies, while in the conditions of increased internationalization of production, capitalism is experiencing increasingly acute shocks on the scale of the entire capitalist world economy. The activities of international monopolies, which played an active role in the disorganization of the world market and in the emergence of financial and currency crises, also turned out to be beyond the control of bourgeois states.

Moreover, the bourgeois states themselves, to a certain extent, contributed to the development of the economic crisis. Faced with unprecedented levels of inflation, they tried to combat it by curbing consumer demand and the pace of economic development, resorting to cutting government purchases of industrial goods and increasing the cost of credit, while companies were in dire need of capital. This deflationary policy of bourgeois states largely predetermined the severity of the situation that developed in 1974-75. a situation where inflation was combined with an economic crisis and high unemployment. Deflationary policies contributed to the aggravation of the global economic crisis and a sharp increase in unemployment in these years, but to a very small extent restrained price increases, since they almost did not affect the main sources of modern inflation - monopolistic pricing and huge government spending. The calculations of bourgeois economists that a significant increase in unemployment and restriction of aggregate demand would sharply reduce inflation did not come true; the combination of inflation and high unemployment further increased socio-economic tension in the world of capitalism.

Economic crisis of 1974-75 led to an exacerbation of the social contradictions of capitalism, unprecedented in the post-war period. In addition to rising prices for consumer goods and a significant rise in the cost of living, the army of unemployed has sharply increased. At the height of the crisis (1st half of 1975), according to official data from the UN and OECD, the number of completely unemployed in developed capitalist countries exceeded 18 million people.

The main force opposing both the monopolies and the bourgeois state in the world of capital has been and remains the working class. The strike struggle of the workers did not subside even during the difficult period for the capitalist economy in the first half of the 70s. According to the International Labor Organization, in 1975-77. the working class held about 100 thousand strikes, in which over 150 million people took part.

After World War II, another important trend of capitalist development emerged, once predicted by K. Marx - increased frequency of overproduction crises in the capitalist world.

It is most clearly visible in the world's largest economy - the United States, where crises occurred almost every 3-5 years throughout the post-war period and especially at the end of the 20th century.

1948-1949 – global economic crisis
1953-1954 – crisis of overproduction
1957-1958 – crisis of overproduction
1960-1961 – financial crisis, crisis of overproduction
1966-1967 – crisis of overproduction
1969-1971 – global economic crisis, financial crisis
1973-1975 – global economic crisis
1979-1982 – global economic crisis, oil crisis
1987 – “Black Monday”, financial crisis
1990-1992 – crisis of overproduction
1994-1995 – Mexican financial crisis (worldwide)
1997-1998 – Asian crisis (worldwide)
2000 – financial crisis, collapse in prices for shares of high-tech companies

If we take into account irregular crises - intermediate, partial, sectoral and structural, then in capitalist countries in the 19th and 20th centuries they occurred even more often, which further complicated the course of capitalist reproduction.

Thus, the entire post-war development of the capitalist economic system has completely proven the inconsistency of bourgeois and reformist concepts about the possibility of “crisis-free” development of modern capitalism and its “stabilization”, the ability to endlessly preserve the capitalist mode of production.

The world capitalist economy was not helped by militarization, on which in the middle of the 20th century bourgeois economists made a serious bet, presenting the military industry as the locomotive of the entire capitalist economy. World economic crises of 1957-58, 1970-71, 1974-75. broke out precisely under the conditions of militarization, on which, according to the most conservative estimates, capitalist countries spent more than 2 trillion dollars over 30 years (from 1946 to 1975). Militarization not only did not save capitalism from crises, but, on the contrary, further contributed to the strengthening of the contradictions of the capitalist economy. On the one hand, it led to an exorbitant expansion of production capacities, which, given the accelerated development of military equipment, always quickly become obsolete and depreciate. Excess production capacity created for military needs cannot be repurposed and fully used for peaceful purposes. On the other hand, such concomitants of militarization as taxes and inflationary price increases reduce the purchasing power of the masses. And this further aggravates the problem of markets, accelerating the maturation of general overproduction.

The 21st century for the world's largest economy, the USA, also did not start in the best way - in 2007 there was a serious mortgage crisis, which developed into the global economic and financial crisis of 2008-2014. Its consequences have not yet been overcome either in the United States or in other countries of the world.

A number of bourgeois economists quite reasonably believe that this latest crisis - 2008-2014. can quite be called global, so deeply has it affected the entire capitalist economic system, and there are all signs that without really emerging from this crisis, the world capitalist economy, and first of all, the US economy, is already plunging into a new economic crisis, after which it will completely the collapse of the entire system of capitalist production is possible.

The history of economic crises serves as clear and convincing evidence that the capitalist mode of production has long outlived itself and the collapse of capitalism is inevitable. It shows all the genetic vices of capitalism, convincing the working people of capitalist countries of the need to fight for a new social system - for socialism, free from crises of overproduction, class oppression, unemployment and giving unlimited scope for the development of the productive forces and man himself.

Prepared by KRD "Working Path"
__________
Literature:
1 V.I.Lenin, Complete. collection cit., 5th ed., vol. 17, p. 21
2. World economic crises, under general. ed. E. Varga, vol. 1, M., 1937;
3. Trakhtenberg I., Capitalist reproduction and economic crises, 2nd ed.. M., 1954;
4. Mendelson L., Theory and history of economic crises and cycles, vol. 1-3, M., 1959-64;
5. Modern cycles and crises. [Sat. articles], M., 1967;
6. Mileikovsky A.G., The current stage of the general crisis of capitalism, M., 1976;
7. “Economic encyclopedia “Political Economy”, vol. 4, M., 1979

Periodic economic crises began with the crisis of 1825 in Great Britain, the first country where capitalism became the dominant system, and where machine production reached quite a large development.

The next economic crisis occurred in 1836 and simultaneously affected Great Britain and the United States, which at that time were closely connected by trade and production ties.

The crisis of 1847 was close in nature to a global crisis and affected all countries of the European continent.

In 1882, another economic crisis occurred, affecting mainly the USA and France.

In 1890-93 The economic crisis hit Germany, the USA, France and Russia.

The cycle that followed the crisis of 1929-33 is characterized by the absence of a recovery phase. After a long depression and slight recovery, another global economic crisis broke out in mid-1937. It was no less acute than the crisis of 1929-33. The total volume of industrial production in the capitalist world decreased by 11%, including in the USA - by 21%. Steel production fell by an average of 23%, automobile production by 40%, merchant ship production by 42%, etc.

This is what I.V. Stalin said about this economic crisis and its possible consequences in 1939 in the Report at the XVIII Congress on the work of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks:

“The economic crisis, which began in capitalist countries in the second half of 1920, continued until the end of 1933. After this, the crisis turned into depression, and then some revival of industry began, some of its growth. But this revival of industry did not turn into prosperity, as usually happens during a period of revival. On the contrary, starting from the second half of 1937, a new economic crisis began, affecting primarily the United States, followed by England, France and a number of other countries.

Thus, not having yet had time to recover from the blows of the recent economic crisis, the capitalist countries found themselves faced with a new economic crisis.

This circumstance naturally led to increased unemployment. The number of unemployed in capitalist countries, which had fallen from 30 million people in 1933 to 14 million in 1937, has now risen again as a result of the new crisis to 18 million people.

A characteristic feature of the new crisis is that it differs in many ways from the previous crisis, and it differs not for the better, but for the worse.

Firstly, the new crisis began not after industrial prosperity, as was the case in 1929, but after depression and some recovery, which, however, did not turn into prosperity. This means that the current crisis will be more severe and more difficult to combat than the previous crisis.

Further, the current crisis did not play out in peacetime, but during the period of the second imperialist war that had already begun, when Japan, having been at war with China for the second year, was disorganizing the vast Chinese market and making it almost inaccessible to the goods of other countries, when Italy and Germany had already transferred their national economy on the rails of a war economy, squandering their reserves of raw materials and currency on this matter, when all other major capitalist powers begin to rebuild on a war footing. This means that capitalism will have much fewer resources for a normal exit from the current crisis than during the previous crisis.

Finally, Unlike the previous crisis, the current crisis is not universal, but is currently affecting mainly economically powerful countries that have not yet switched to the war economy. As for aggressive countries, such as Japan, Germany and Italy, which have already rebuilt their economies on a war footing, they, while intensively developing their military industry, are not yet experiencing a crisis of overproduction, although they are approaching it. This means that while economically powerful, non-aggressive countries will begin to emerge from the period of crisis, aggressive countries, having depleted their gold and raw material reserves during the war fever, will have to enter a period of severe crisis.»

But this economic crisis did not fully develop; its course was interrupted by the Second World War of 1939-45.

After the 2nd World War 1939-45. The economic growth of capitalist countries did not last long. Already in 1948-49. The capitalist economy experienced its first crisis shock after the war. The economic crisis hit primarily the main capitalist country - the United States. The output of American industry fell by 18.2% from October 1948 to July 1949. The crisis in industry was complemented by overproduction in agriculture. The volume of US foreign trade has sharply decreased. In Canada, industrial production fell by 12%. The total volume of industrial output in developed capitalist countries decreased by almost 6% compared to the previous year. The commodity famine characteristic of the first post-war years was replaced by general difficulties of sales on the world capitalist market. Exports (by value) of many countries in Europe and Asia fell. World exports of wheat, coffee, rubber, wool, and coal decreased. All this dealt a blow to the already difficult currency situation of many countries, which caused a massive devaluation of capitalist currencies in the fall of 1949. Thus, the crisis of 1948-49. was not a local phenomenon, characteristic only of the USA and Canada, but had an essentially global character.

Features of the global economic crisis of 1974-75.

After World War II, another important trend of capitalist development emerged, once predicted by K. Marx - increased frequency of overproduction crises in the capitalist world.

1948-1949 – global economic crisis

1953-1954 – crisis of overproduction

1957-1958 – crisis of overproduction

1960-1961 – financial crisis, crisis of overproduction

1966-1967 – crisis of overproduction

1969-1971 – global economic crisis, financial crisis

1973-1975 – global economic crisis

1979-1982 – global economic crisis, oil crisis

1987 – “Black Monday”, financial crisis

1990-1992 – crisis of overproduction

1994-1995 – Mexican financial crisis (worldwide)

1997-1998 – Asian crisis (worldwide)

2000 – financial crisis, collapse in prices for shares of high-tech companies

Prepared by KRD "Working Path"

Literature:

1 V.I.Lenin, Complete. collection cit., 5th ed., vol. 17, p. 21

2. World economic crises, under general. ed. E. Varga, vol. 1, M., 1937;

3. Trakhtenberg I., Capitalist reproduction and economic crises, 2nd ed.. M., 1954;

4. Mendelson L., Theory and history of economic crises and cycles, vol. 1-3, M., 1959-64;

5. Modern cycles and crises. [Sat. articles], M., 1967;

6. Mileikovsky A.G., The current stage of the general crisis of capitalism, M., 1976;

7. “Economic encyclopedia “Political Economy”, vol. 4, M., 1979

Economic crises began almost 200 years ago, during the formation of industrial societies. Their constant companions - a decline in production, high inflation, the collapse of banking systems, unemployment - threaten us to this day.

1857-58

The financial and economic crisis of 1857-1858 can be confidently called the first world crisis. Starting in the United States, it quickly spread to Europe, affecting the economies of all major European countries, but Great Britain, as the main industrial and trading power, suffered the most.
Undoubtedly, the European crisis was aggravated by the Crimean War that ended in 1856, but economists still call the main factor that caused the crisis an unprecedented increase in speculation.

The objects of speculation were mostly shares of railway companies and heavy industry enterprises, land plots, and grain. Researchers note that money from widows, orphans and priests even went into speculation.
The speculative boom was accompanied by an unprecedented accumulation of the money supply, an increase in lending volumes and an increase in stock prices: but one fine day all this burst like a soap bubble.
In the 19th century there were no clear plans for overcoming economic crises. However, the influx of liquid funds from England to the United States helped to initially weaken the consequences of the crisis, and then completely overcome it.

1914

The outbreak of the First World War gave impetus to a new financial and economic crisis. Formally, the cause of the crisis was the total sale of securities of foreign issuers by the governments of Great Britain, France, Germany and the United States in order to finance military actions.
Unlike the crisis of 1857, it did not spread from the center to the periphery, but arose simultaneously in many countries. The collapse occurred in all markets at once, both commodity and money. It was only thanks to the intervention of Central Banks that the economies of a number of countries were saved.
The crisis was especially deep in Germany. England and France, having captured a significant part of the European market, closed access to German goods there, which was one of the reasons Germany started the war. By blocking all German ports, the British fleet contributed to the onset of famine in Germany in 1916.
In Germany, as in Russia, the crisis was aggravated by revolutions that eliminated monarchical power and completely changed the political system. These countries took the longest and most painful time to overcome the consequences of social and economic decline.

"Great Depression" (1929-1933)

October 24, 1929 became Black Thursday on the New York Stock Exchange. A sharp decline in stock prices (by 60-70%) led to the deepest and longest economic crisis in world history.
The “Great Depression” lasted about four years, although its echoes were felt until the outbreak of World War II. The crisis affected the USA and Canada the most, but France, Germany and the UK were also seriously affected.
It would seem that nothing foreshadowed the crisis. After World War I, the United States embarked on a path of stable economic growth, millions of stockholders increased their capital, and consumer demand grew rapidly. Everything collapsed overnight. In just one week, the largest shareholders, according to conservative estimates, lost $15 billion.
In the United States, factories were closing everywhere, banks were collapsing, and there were about 14 million unemployed on the streets, and the crime rate increased sharply. Against the backdrop of the unpopularity of bankers, bank robbers in the United States were almost national heroes.
Industrial production during this period in the USA decreased by 46%, in Germany by 41%, in France by 32%, and in the UK by 24%. During the years of crisis in these countries, the level of industrial production was actually thrown back to the beginning of the 20th century.
According to American economists Ohanian and Cole, researchers of the Great Depression, if the US economy had abandoned the Roosevelt administration’s measures to curb competition in the market, the country could have overcome the consequences of the crisis 5 years earlier.

"Oil crisis" of 1973-75

The 1973 crisis has every reason to be called an energy crisis. Its detonator was the Arab-Israeli war and the decision of the Arab OPEC member countries to impose an oil embargo on states supporting Israel. Oil production fell sharply, and during 1974, prices for “black gold” rose from $3 to $12 per barrel.
The oil crisis hit the United States the hardest. For the first time, the country faced the problem of a shortage of raw materials. This was also facilitated by the Western European partners of the United States, who, to please OPEC, stopped supplying petroleum products overseas.
In a special message to Congress, US President Richard Nixon called on his fellow citizens to save as much as possible, in particular, if possible, not use cars. Government agencies were advised to conserve energy and reduce vehicle fleets, and airlines were ordered to reduce the number of flights.
The energy crisis seriously affected the Japanese economy, which seemed immune to global economic problems. In response to the crisis, the Japanese government is developing a number of countermeasures: increasing imports of coal and liquefied natural gas, and embarking on accelerated development of nuclear energy.
The crisis of 1973-75 had a positive impact on the economy of the Soviet Union, as it contributed to an increase in oil exports to the West.

"Russian crisis" of 1998

On August 17, 1998, Russians heard the terrible word default for the first time. This was the first time in world history when a state declared a default not on external, but on internal debt denominated in national currency. According to some reports, the country's internal debt amounted to $200 billion.
This was the beginning of a severe financial and economic crisis in Russia, which launched the process of devaluation of the ruble. In just six months, the value of the dollar increased from 6 to 21 rubles. Real incomes and purchasing power of the population have decreased several times. The total number of unemployed in the country reached 8.39 million people, which amounted to about 11.5% of the economically active population of the Russian Federation.
Experts cite many factors as the cause of the crisis: the collapse of Asian financial markets, low purchasing prices for raw materials (oil, gas, metals), failed economic policy of the state, and the emergence of financial pyramids.
According to calculations by the Moscow Banking Union, the total losses of the Russian economy from the August crisis amounted to $96 billion: of which the corporate sector lost $33 billion, and the population lost $19 billion. However, some experts consider these data to be clearly underestimated. In a short time, Russia has become one of the largest debtors in the world.
Only by the end of 2002 did the Russian government manage to overcome inflationary processes, and from the beginning of 2003 the ruble began to gradually strengthen, which was largely facilitated by rising oil prices and the influx of foreign capital.

Throughout the history of the development of the entire world society, the economies of most countries have been shaken by crises, accompanied by a decrease in production, falling prices, accumulation of unsold goods on the market, the collapse of banking systems, a sharp increase in unemployment, and the ruin of most existing industrial and commercial enterprises.

What is this - a crisis? What are its symptoms? What threat does it pose to the country’s economy and to us, ordinary citizens? Is it inevitable and what can be done? Let's try to give at least approximate answers to most of the questions posed.

First of all, let's look at crisis as a general concept.

This term is translated from Greek as “decisive transition”, “global turning point”, “serious condition” of any process. In general, a crisis is an imbalance of any system and at the same time its transition to a new quality.

Its role and stages

For all its painfulness, the crisis performs useful functions. Akin to a serious illness that affects a living organism, accumulated hidden contradictions, problems and regressive elements undermine from within any developing system, be it a family, society or a separate part of it.

That is why crises are inevitable, because without them it is impossible to move forward. And each of them performs three important functions:

elimination or major transformation of obsolete elements of an exhausted system;
and strengthening its healthy parts;
clearing the way for the creation of elements of a new system.

In its own dynamics, the crisis goes through several stages. Latent (hidden), in which the preconditions mature, but do not yet come out. A period of collapse, instant aggravation of contradictions, rapid and severe deterioration of all indicators of the system. And the stage of mitigation, transition to the phase of depression and temporary equilibrium. The duration of all three periods is not the same; the outcome of the crisis cannot be calculated in advance.

Characteristics and reasons

There may be general and local crises. General - those that cover the entire economy as a whole, local - only part of it. According to the issues, macro- and microcrises are distinguished. The name speaks for itself. The former are characterized by large scale and serious problems. The latter affect only a single problem or a group of them.

The reasons for the outbreak of the crisis can be objective, coming from the cyclical needs for renewal, and subjective, arising as a result of political mistakes and voluntarism. They can also be divided into external and internal. The first are associated with the peculiarities of macroeconomic processes in the economy, as well as the political situation in the country, the second - with an ill-conceived marketing strategy, shortcomings and conflicts in the organization of production, illiterate management and investment policy.

A financial and economic crisis may result in renewal or final destruction of the monetary and economic system, its recovery, or the arrival of the next crisis. The way out can be abrupt and sometimes unexpected, or soft and long-lasting. This is largely determined by the anti-crisis management policy. All shocks have an impact on the state of government, state institutions, society and culture.

The essence of the economic crisis

An economic crisis is a sharp, sometimes catastrophic, deterioration in the state of the economy of an individual country or a community of countries. Its signs are disruption of production relations, rising unemployment, bankruptcy of enterprises, and a general decline. The final result is a decline in the standard of living and well-being of the population.

About the crisis of 1929-1933.

The global economic crisis of 1929-1933 was, by its nature, a cyclical shock to overproduction. Added to this was a general turnaround in the economy, which began during the war. It entailed a rapid increase in production, strengthening of monopolies, which led to the impossibility of restoring after its end the economic relations that existed before the war.

The peculiarities of the economic crisis of those years were manifested in the coverage of all capitalist countries without exception and all spheres of the world economy. Its uniqueness also lies in its extraordinary depth and duration.

Let's look at those years in more detail.

What was happening in the world

The period of stability of the 1920s was characterized by increased centralization and concentration of capital and production, which led to increased corporate power. At the same time, government regulation has sharply weakened. In traditional sectors of the economy (shipbuilding, coal mining, light industry), the pace of development has decreased and the unemployment rate has increased. There is a risk of overproduction in agriculture.

The economic crisis of 1929 led to a discrepancy between the low level of purchasing power of the population and high production capabilities. The bulk of capital investments were invested in stock market speculation, which increased instability

The United States, as the main international creditor, has doomed most European countries to financial dependence. The lack of their own finances for most of them required free access of manufactured goods to the American market, but the increased competition and increase in customs duties became the reason for the countries' debt dependence on the United States.

Chronicle of the Great Depression

How did the economic crisis of 1929-1933 begin? This happened on Black Thursday (October 24, 1929), when an unprecedented stock market panic arose in the United States. The price of shares on the New York Stock Exchange fell by half (and even more). This was one of the first manifestations of a brewing crisis of unprecedented depth.

Compared to the pre-crisis level of 1929, US industrial output fell to 80.7% in 1930. The crisis led to a sharp collapse in prices, especially for agricultural products. Bankruptcy and ruin of commercial, industrial and financial enterprises acquired unprecedented proportions. The crisis also hit banks with devastating force.

What should have been done?

The Anglo-French bloc saw the solution to the problem in reparation payments to Germany. But this path turned out to be untenable - Germany did not have enough financial capabilities, competitors limited its opportunities in international trade. The country's leadership sabotaged reparations payments, which required more and more loans and further upset the unstable international monetary system.

The economic crisis is known as one of the worst in the world economy. It took several long years to stabilize the world system. Most countries experienced the consequences of this global economic shock that made history for a long time.

Crisis in 2008

Now let’s look at the general patterns and characteristic features of the concept under study using the example of such a well-known event as the economic crisis of 2008. His character has three important features.

The global crisis has affected almost all countries and regions. By the way, the impact was stronger in the successful ones, while the stagnant places suffered less. In Russia, too, most of the problems were observed in places and areas of economic boom; in lagging regions, changes were felt minimally.
The economic crisis was structural in nature, implying the renewal of the technological base of the entire world economy.
The crisis took on an innovative character, as a result of which financial innovations were created and became widespread as new market instruments. They radically changed the commodity market. The price of oil, which previously depended on the relationship between supply and demand, and therefore was partially controlled by producers, now began to be formed in financial markets by the actions of brokers trading financial instruments related to its supply.

The entire world community had to accept the fact of the strengthening of the virtual factor in the formation of the most important trends. At the same time, the political and economic elite lost control over the movement of financial instruments. Therefore, this crisis is called “a revolt of machines against their own creators.”

How it was

In September 2008, a catastrophe occurs for all the world's businesses - the New York Stock Exchange collapses. All over the world, stock prices are falling rapidly. In Russia, the government simply closes the stock exchange. In October of the same year, it became finally clear that a global crisis was already inevitable.

The ruin of the world's largest banks is becoming avalanche-like. Mortgage programs are being phased out and loan rates are rising. Steelmaking enterprises are shutting down blast furnaces and factories and laying off workers. Due to the lack of long-term money and loans, construction stops, new equipment is not purchased, and the engineering industry falls into a stupor. The demand for rolled steel is falling, the price of metal and oil is falling.

The economy becomes a vicious circle: no money - no wages - no work - no production - no goods. The cycle is completed. A phenomenon called a liquidity crisis arises. Simply put, buyers have no money, goods are not produced due to lack of demand.

Economic crisis of 2014

Let's move on to current events. Without a doubt, any of us is concerned about the situation in the country in connection with recent events. Rising prices, the falling exchange rate of the ruble, confusion in the political arena - all this gives us the right to say with confidence that we are experiencing a real crisis.

In Russia, the 2014 economic crisis is a deterioration in the state of the country's economy due to a sharp decline in energy prices and the introduction of economic sanctions against Russia by Western countries. It manifested itself in a significant depreciation of the Russian ruble, an increase in inflation and a decrease in the growth of real incomes of Russians.

What are its prerequisites?

Since the beginning of the 2000s, Russia has seen priority development of the raw materials sector. At the same time, the active growth of world oil prices increased the dependence of the country's economy on the work of energy production industries and on the foreign economic situation.

And the fall in oil prices is caused by a decrease in demand for it, an increase in its production in the United States, and the refusal of other countries to reduce supplies. This led to a decrease in revenue from energy sales, which accounts for approximately 70% of all domestic exports. Negative consequences due to the collapse in prices were also felt by other exporting countries - Norway, Kazakhstan, Nigeria, Venezuela.

Where it all started

What are the causes of the economic crisis of 2014? What exactly was the trigger? Due to the annexation of Crimea to Russia, considered by the EU countries as annexation, sanctions were imposed on Russia, which resulted in a ban on cooperation with military-industrial complex enterprises, banks and industrial companies. An economic blockade was declared on Crimea. According to the Russian President, the sanctions imposed against us are the cause of about a quarter of the country's economic problems.

Thus, the country is experiencing both an economic and political crisis.

In the first half of the year, stagnation continued, economic indicators in 2014 fell below forecasts, inflation instead of the planned 5% reached 11.4%, GDP for the year decreased by 0.5%, which has not happened since 2008. The fall in the ruble exchange rate December 15 was a record day; this day was called “Black Monday.” Some exchange offices have decided to install five-digit exchange rate boards in case the numbers on them increase even more.

On December 16, there was an even stronger fall in the national currency - the euro exchange rate reached 100.74 rubles, the dollar - 80.1 rubles. Then there was some strengthening. The year ended at rates of 68.37 and 56.24, respectively.

The capitalization of the stock market has decreased, the RTS stock index has fallen to last place, and the wealth of the richest Russians has decreased due to the devaluation of assets. Russia's credit rating in the world was downgraded.

What's happening now?

The economic crisis of 2014 is gaining momentum. In 2015, the problems in the country remained the same. Instability and weakening of the ruble continue. The budget deficit is expected to be much larger than predicted, and the same applies to the fall in GDP.

Due to sanctions, Russian companies lost refinancing opportunities and began to turn to the state for help. But the total funds of the Central Bank and the reserve fund turned out to be less than the total external debt.

Prices for cars and electronics have increased, which the population is actively buying in panic. At the end of 2014, rush demand reigned in furniture, household appliances, and jewelry stores. People rushed to invest their free funds in the hope of saving them from depreciation.

At the same time, demand for everyday consumer goods, clothing and footwear fell. Due to rising prices, Russians began to save on purchasing necessary household goods or buy the cheapest. Many foreign manufacturers of clothing and footwear of famous brands were forced to curtail their activities in Russia due to lack of demand. Some stores have closed. Thus, the crisis in the country indirectly affected foreign investors.

Food prices have increased significantly. Before the onset of 2015, the population, fueled by rumors of an impending global rise in prices, began to sweep salt and sugar off the shelves.

Many banks have suspended issuing consumer and mortgage loans, especially long-term ones, due to the unclear financial situation.

The social and economic crisis has hit the well-being of ordinary citizens. Real incomes of the population have decreased and unemployment has increased. It was especially difficult for people with serious illnesses that required expensive medications or treatment abroad.

At the same time, Russian goods have become more accessible to foreign tourists. Residents of Belarus, Kazakhstan, the Baltic countries, Finland and China began to buy them.

Any good news?

Throughout the past year, the Russian Government has been trying to influence the economic crisis in the country. During the year, the Central Bank raised the key rate six times and carried out foreign exchange interventions to stabilize the position of the ruble. Vladimir Putin recommended that major business representatives help the state by selling surplus foreign currency on the domestic Russian market.

The Central Bank has softened the conditions for foreign currency mortgages, the State Duma is planning measures to help borrowers who have encountered difficulties due to exchange rate fluctuations.

And yet, economists' forecasts for 2015 are not optimistic. The crisis continues to rage, and no slowdown has yet been observed. We all still have to struggle with difficulties for quite some time. All that remains is to take reasonable saving measures, limit expenses and try at all costs to preserve existing jobs and other sources of income.

History knows a lot of global crises: comprehensive or affecting a narrow circle of countries, protracted and shorter - their causes, as a rule, are always different, and the consequences are extremely similar. Crisis phenomena leave their mark not only on the economies of countries, but also on human destinies, turning many people (sometimes even the wealthiest) into beggars literally in a day.

The twentieth century was rich in world economic crises. The First and Second World Wars played a significant role in this, during which the financial markets of countries turned into “ruins”, like cities after bombings...

Financial crisis of 1907

The series of crises of the twentieth century opens with the crisis of 1907, which affected 9 countries. The reasons for this are purely economic, expressed in the Bank of England increasing the discount rate to 6% from the original 3.5%. The purpose of such actions by Great Britain was the desire to replenish its gold reserves. The influx of capital into the country turned out to be simply incredible, with the United States becoming its main source. Accordingly, in the United States itself, this led to negative consequences: a stock market crash, a decline in business activity, a liquidity crisis and a protracted economic recession. These events immediately affected Italy, France and some other countries.

World crisis of 1914

The global financial crisis of 1914 arose in the run-up to the First World War. Its reason was the complete sale of securities issued by foreign issuers. States needed monetary resources to finance ongoing military operations, and the USA, Great Britain, Germany, France and some other countries sold their securities without hesitation. This global crisis is perhaps the only one of all that did not develop according to the “domino principle”, but arose in most countries almost at the same time. Global and national markets for goods and money have collapsed. In a number of countries, the situation was saved thanks to the intervention of Central Banks.

The First World War also ended with the crisis of 1920-1922, caused by post-war deflation against the background, as well as currency and banking crises in a number of countries.

1929-1933 – Great Depression

There are many “dark” days in the history of crises, and most of them are associated with the United States. It was with “Black Thursday” on October 24, 1929 that the next world crisis began, which turned into a great depression that affected the whole world. It all started with a sharp drop in the Dow Jones index and stock prices on the New York stock market. After the end of World War I, the US economy experienced an unprecedented rise, and the securities market became an attractive platform for investment by other countries, which caused an outflow of capital from Latin America and Europe. The collapse of the stock market amid tightening monetary policy by the US Federal Reserve led to multiple stock crises around the world. This was immediately followed by a decline in production in all countries affected by the crisis, by an average of half, and, as a consequence, huge unemployment. Under the dominance of the “gold standard” system, the authorities of many states were unable to make the necessary cash injections into the economy, which only aggravated the situation. The crisis dominated the world until 1933, and its echoes were felt until the 40s of the last century.

Crisis of 1957

After the end of World War II, the first crisis that affected several countries at once was the crisis of 1957. It struck the USA, Canada, Great Britain, the Netherlands, Belgium and a number of other countries of the capitalist system. The crisis continued until mid-1958.

Oil crisis of 1973-1974

The 1973-1974 crisis was called the oil crisis because it was caused by a sharp and unprecedented increase in oil prices, which increased by almost 400% (from 3 to 12 dollars per barrel). Part of the reason for this phenomenon was the decrease in oil production in Arab countries, and partly the Israeli war against Syria and Egypt. All Israel's allies (including the United States) stopped receiving oil supplies from Arab countries. During the crisis, the dependence of the economies of developed countries on energy prices was clearly exposed.

1987

Once again, the United States experiences a black day - “Black Monday” on October 19, 1987, when another collapse of the country’s stock market occurs due to a sharp drop in the Dow Jones Industrial index by 22.6%. Following the United States, the stock markets of Canada, Australia, South Korea, and Hong Kong also collapsed.

This was followed by a series of more localized crises: in 1994-1995 - Mexican crisis , in 1997 – Asian crisis and in 1998 – Russian crisis .

The 1998 crisis turned out to be one of the most difficult in history for Russia. Devaluation, default... lay in the huge amount of public debt, the low level of prices for raw materials in the world, as well as the large debt of the state to repay state bonds, the deadlines for which had already passed.

This is the history of the world crises of the twentieth century. Its successor, the 21st century, has already begun its record of “dark days”...