1970s Oil Crisis and Stagflation

Podcast created by: Samuel Kerner, Katherine Bablin, and Mathew Faulkner

The 1970s were characterized by periods of stagflation in which unemployment and inflation both rose. The stem of the issue came from political tensions in Arabia which led to a disruption in the supply of oil for the rest of the world. The resulting energy shocks disrupted the economies of many countries around the globe that imported oil from OPEC nations. It has been investigated time and time again the extent to which these energy shocks affected the economy. Specifically, economists want to know how much of the resulting stagflation was due directly to the energy shocks themselves, and how much was due to the government’s monetary policy in response to the shocks. This podcast explores both sides of the debate between the oil shocks and monetary policy.