The media are abuzz these days about a purported “return to the 1970s.” Generally speaking, such chatter is not intended kindly, for many today would likely agree with the sardonic assessment of the Seventies made by the editors of New West magazine as that decade wound down: “It was the worst of times, it was the worst of times.” And not just because of the popularity of bell-bottom pants, platform shoes, and disco music. In the Seventies, we had problems far more troubling — more troubling even than the pop group ABBA.
For starters, we saw a quadrupling of real oil prices between 1973 and 1979. We suffered high rates of both inflation and unemployment, which hitherto varied inversely, leading to the creation of the portmanteau “stagflation.” Recessions marked the beginning (1969-1970) and end (1980) of the decade, with another — longer and even more serious — recession (November 1973-March 1975) in between.
Rising crime rates, racial protests, social fissures. An unpopular foreign war that ended badly, problems with Russia, fear of a rising Asian economic powerhouse. Iran being a pain in the ass. A sense of cultural pessimism, exacerbated in the latter part of the decade by a weak Democratic president, who suggested in 1979 that the United States was suffering from “a crisis of confidence,” implying that the country was in a state of malaise, even as he felt our pain.
