PODs that could prevent the “malaise” of the 1970s

Well the oil shock was of huge consequence - some of it was a reaction to the end of gold but change the political situation in the Middle East and you get far less of an inflationary shock in the West.

In the UK, a much more effective Conservative Government from 1970 would produce a change (e.g. Macleod not dying early, avoiding the failure of the Industrial Relations Act 1971). If you took the POD of the oil shock above, avoiding this and the overheated Barber Boom probably means that the Tories are re-elected in 1974/1975 and perhaps with a mandate for trade union reform and cuts that along with improved sterling without 1973 may avoid the IMF crisis and winter of discontent.
 
No Watergate, so no Constitutional crisis in the 70s relating to Nixon impeachment and South Vietnam doesn't fall.
this. Watergate coming right after our inglorious retreat from Vietnam was a double whammy that we never really got over. It's likely that the single best POD for avoiding a lot of the melancholy of the 70s would be 'the US never gets involved in Vietnam in the first place'...
 
Well the oil shock was of huge consequence - some of it was a reaction to the end of gold but change the political situation in the Middle East and you get far less of an inflationary shock in the West.

In the UK, a much more effective Conservative Government from 1970 would produce a change (e.g. Macleod not dying early, avoiding the failure of the Industrial Relations Act 1971). If you took the POD of the oil shock above, avoiding this and the overheated Barber Boom probably means that the Tories are re-elected in 1974/1975 and perhaps with a mandate for trade union reform and cuts that along with improved sterling without 1973 may avoid the IMF crisis and winter of discontent.
OK, I'll bite...what's a "Barber Boom"?
 
OK, I'll bite...what's a "Barber Boom"?

The 1972 Budget where the chancellor Tony Barber engineered an economic boom through cutting taxes, only for this to be cancelled out by a rise in imports, wage demands and inflation, and then made much worse by the OPEC shock in 1973.
 
The 1972 Budget where the chancellor Tony Barber engineered an economic boom through cutting taxes, only for this to be cancelled out by a rise in imports, wage demands and inflation, and then made much worse by the OPEC shock in 1973.
Bad timing can really blow...thanx for the quick answer!
 
What PODs could prevent the oil shortages and things like that?
The Embargo didn't last that long, and Oil is Fungible. No real shortage.

More fuel efficient cars, enabled by above, and incented by higher gas taxes on imported Saudi oil.

That's treating the symptoms, not the cause.

Why were there Gas Lines? even with the Embargo and OPEC Production cuts, real and threatened between October 1973 and March 1974, wasn't the full story on why there was no Gas to be had in some markets.

In 1971, President Nixon laid the groundwork for most of the trouble., starting when taking the US off of the Gold standard, ending the 1944 Bretton Woods Agreement. That resulted with the price of Gold skyrocketing. Since Nixon's action was so unexpected thatvalue of the Dollar dropped.

Besides the US, it also OPEC countries. Near all Oil contracts were priced in US dollars. That meant their Oil revenue dropped with the dollar.


Most (12)OPEC had enough with the US heavily supporting in the Yom Kippur War. On October 19, the Arab members of OPEC halted Oil exports to the United States and others who assisted Israel, like some European countries, and others, like South Africa

Oil prices had quadrupled from the 1973 base of $2.90/barrel, but even with the Oil production cuts(that started to be rolled back in December), there was plenty of Oil on the Spot Market.

But most US Companies couldn't get access to that oil, due to 'New' and 'Old' Oil importation rules--fees would have increased the cost to whe there not only be no profit, but would lose money on each barrel refined.

And even if they decided to take bath from the fees, Nixon's Price controls locked in the price of Gas at the Pump.

So there were shortages everywhere.
No one produces to lose money. That's Today in Venezuela, and USA in 1973. Controls lead to scarcity.

So that's how the 'Even-Odd' and other Rationing took place.

You'd have to make some change to the system so that inflation is never a problem to the degree it is OTL, meaning you either put someone else who's a little less fond of government spending to oversee Depression-era recovery efforts, or you just tweak whatever POD is necessary to put candidates in office that would mitigate the causes of inflation in the 70s

The Oil embargo was not the only driver for the 1973-1975 Recession and Stagflation. Government policies really were responsible for this. Wage controls forced companies to keep wages unchanged, which meant businesses laid off workers to reduce costs(and forget about new hires), all the while could not stimulate demand by cutting prices from the Price Controls

To make matters worse, the Fed raised and lowered interest rates at whim that Businesses were unable to plan for the next Quarter, let alone ahead of that.

That's an easy one, Israel is never created, and the Yom Kippur war is butterflied away.

No Watergate, so no Constitutional crisis in the 70s relating to Nixon impeachment and South Vietnam doesn't fall.

With Nixons coverup not revealed, the US Economy would still be going into recession from the Price and Wage Controls Nixon kept adding to make 1972 good for the election, it just delayed a minor downturn to a real Recession. Then all the added regulations had been piling up all thru the '60s, and accelerated under Nixon.

But there would be more trust than OTL, but the Economy would still get Stagflation
 
With Nixons coverup not revealed, the US Economy would still be going into recession from the Price and Wage Controls Nixon kept adding to make 1972 good for the election, it just delayed a minor downturn to a real Recession. Then all the added regulations had been piling up all thru the '60s, and accelerated under Nixon.

But there would be more trust than OTL, but the Economy would still get Stagflation

More trust, less humiliation without the loss of South Vietnam.
 
how would a 1970s malaise less world affect future economic theories?

The seeds had been sown - e.g. Milton Friedman’s 1968 speech to the American Economic Association on monetary policy, and if looking for a short POD some of the malaise and rise of new ideas was the result of long-term trends e.g. rise of oil exporters, Japan, W. Germany, globalisation and decline of the dollar and sterling, deindustrialisation in the West, mass trade unionism and wage push inflation.

But with a more peaceful 1970s there is much less of an incentive for politicians, officials, and journalists to take new ideas seriously and the focus on demand management as economic orthodoxy would continue for longer. In the UK for example you wouldn’t get Jim
Callaghan’s famous speech to the 1976 Labour Conference that you can’t spend your way out of a recession.
 
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