The global economy in the 1990s: a long-run perspective

Paul W Rhode (ed), Cambridge, paperback, 334 pages, £19.99

Trade unionists are often faced with the argument that we have to accept something “because of the state of the world economy”. This book provides a picture of the global economy during the 1990s, when the term “globalisation” really came to the fore.

Puncturing the myth that the decade was simply a “belle époque”, Rhode and his contributors register a number of significant developments — the emergence of China and India will prove the most important of these in the long term, they say, while noting that the decade also saw the end of the Cold War, closer European integration and the revival of the US economy.

But the book shows that US productivity growth was not in fact as great as some have suggested — and was by no means faster than it had been in the rest of the 20th century — while Europe, Russia, Japan and Africa all endured generally stagnant or declining economic growth during the decade.

A mass of interesting facts useful for trade union internationalists.