Global Recession and the Free World

Europe is in the grip of severe inflation, while major decline in productivity has been witnessed. Estimates of such a rise in inflation have never been made. The economic recession has reached a more disturbing state than the economic depression 10 to 12 years ago.

The developed European countries have never suffered from an inflation crisis in the past, as much as they are experiencing inflation in the current decade of the 21st Century. The current situation of inflation in the European countries is inviting a big economic crisis.

Although the UK has left the European Union, the scope of the British economy cannot go out of the larger perspective of the economy of the European countries. Britain, Germany and Italy are three countries where the inflation has crossed double-digits. Inflation in Britain has reached 10.1 per cent.

According to experts, this rate is the highest level in the last 40 years. The German inflation has reached 10.4 per cent, which is the highest level since the reunification of West and East Germany. Similarly, the inflation in Italy has reached the highest level of 11.9 per cent in the last 38 years. Inflation in Greece has reached 9.1 per cent, while in Spain it is at 8.9 per cent. In Switzerland, inflation has started to rise in the winter of 2020 and reached 7.9 per cent.

The recent downturn in Europe’s struggling economies is not a new phenomenon but what is surprising is that the economic indicators show the situation to be worse than the 2010 recession.

If the inflation rate crossed 40 years in Great Britain, 38 years in Italy and 32 years in Germany, then the situation cannot be said to be satisfactory at all.

Moreover, inflation and consumer prices are also increasing in Europe. The situation in Europe is moving towards a recession and economic inefficiency that cannot be managed even by the generous investment of the Arab princes. Now, it is to be seen what economic difficulties the 34 million population of the Eurozone is going to suffer and what means will be adopted to deal with these difficulties.

Another big economic shock that will hit the world, in general, and the Europe, in particular, in the next 10 to 12 years is a million dollar question for the beginning half of this century.

In the current situation, should it be assumed that after the fall of the Soviet Union and the destruction of communism, capitalism as a system is about to fail and if there is going to be emergence of some new system to carry forward a series of destruction of other countries in the world and the destruction of resources.

Let us take a look at the situation and statistics of the decline in production in Europe. In the UK, the output fell 1.5 per cent in the quarter to August 2022, compared with the previous quarter. Among the sectors where the output fell, mining and quarrying went down 2.7 per cent; manufacturing, 2.2 per cent; and oil and gas, 3.5 per cent. This has resulted in inflation and increase in the prices of essential commodities.

The rising prices in food, fuel and energy sectors have also had their impact on production. These conditions have adversely affected the common consumers.

In Germany, from January to August 2022, the production of iron and steel industry decreased 4.8 per cent. The expansion sector industries such as chemicals or metals production also declined sharply.

In Italy, during the last nine months, there was a significant decrease in the production of automobiles. According to statistics, the drop in the production in the first half of this year has hit the transport industry hard. Similarly, the drop in production in Spain and Greece has hit the economies. During this period, Spain faced financial burden, inflation and economic stagnation, while Greece experienced an 11.5 per cent reduction in the electricity sector, 5 per cent in the water supply sector, and 3 per cent in the mining sector.

We have to keep in mind that the tightening of policies will further reduce production. When the policymakers come to fight against inflation and price rise, they will have to resort to inflexible policies that will put the entire burden on the consumers and make them suffer more than before.

That is the trick of capitalism, as it offloads the burden placed on it and places it on the head of the common user. The system has to make up for its losses. It does not care about the effect of its actions on the common man.

Three decades ago, there is no similarity between the conditions of the Soviet Union in the 1990s and the situation in Europe in 2022. But it is a fact that 32 years ago, the Soviet Union was a large country in terms of area. This country, located on 2.4 million square kilometres, surrounded the sixth largest part of the world. It had the most nuclear weapons in the world, undoubtedly, these weapons were in the number of thousands, but some experts believe the nuclear weapons are in millions. Its influence spread to the whole of Eastern Europe.

The European countries included in the Warsaw Pact were part of the defence alliance of the Soviet Union. Despite all this, the Soviet Union collapsed in less than a year and the Western political and economic experts considered it the demolition of ideology itself.

The Western experts began to describe it as an ideological failure, as well as an economic and bureaucratic structural disaster. On the contrary, Europe’s left-wing elites and intellectuals began to call it the result of conspiracy, anti-revolution and imperialism of the last general secretary of the Soviet Communist Party, Mikhail Gorbachev.

Gorbachev became the general secretary of the Soviet Communist Party on March 11, 1985. At that time, the “free world” surrounded the Soviet Union in Afghanistan. Since the 1950s, the United States had been waging an ideological, non-ideological, religious, non-religious, psychological, non-psychological, practical, non-practical, academic, non-academic and a de facto cold war against the Soviet Union, which was ideologically against the Soviet Union and in reality it was an undeclared world war that was being fought in every corner of the world.

On the one hand, in the extreme west, General Pinocha of Chile was the imperialist soldier of this war and, on the other, General Suharto of Indonesia was working as a mercenary pony in this war.

Meanwhile, in South Asia, General Ayub, General Yahya and General Zia were offering their services on the hot of fronts of the war. In this last hot front, Afghanistan, General Zia inflicted huge wounds on the Soviet Union and then on the last stage, the “free world” found a tool like Gorbachev, who undermined the foundations of the Soviet Union with his plans for openness and reconstruction.

Under these circumstances, China started a new journey by integrating its characteristics, while maintaining its state structure and party organisational structure.

According to Europe’s left-wing intellectuals, the collapse of the Soviet Union was made possible by Gorbachev’s ideological betrayal, while China made a remarkable journey of development with ideological steadfastness, state independence and the organisational commitment.

Now the question is how the “free world” that won against the Soviet Union at the end of 1992 will be able to save its capitalist way of life, while suffering from successive global recessions. Are there not situations now when new serious questions have arisen regarding the survival of the planet? Will not the recession of Europe affect the United States, Australia, Canada and the developed world, as well as the developing world? Isn’t the coming year bring new big questions for the world?