Counter-shock

The oil price collapse of 1985-6 had momentous global consequences: non-fossil energy sources quickly became uncompetitive the previous talk of an OPEC ''imperium'' was turned upside-down the Soviet Union lost a large portion of its external revenues and many Third World producers saw their foreign debts peak. Compared to the much-debated 1973 `oil shock'' the `countershock'' has not received the same degree of attention even though its legacy has shaped the present-day energy scenario. This volume is the first to put the oil `counter-shock'' of the mid-1980s into historical perspective. Featuring some of the most knowledgeable experts in the field Counter-Shock offers a balanced approach between the globalpicture and local study cases. In particular it highlights the crucial interaction between the oil counter-shock and the political `counterrevolution'' against state intervention in economic management put forward by Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher in the same period.