World Economy After World War II

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 473.

TEXT A

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International words

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1 prosperous [¢pr sp r s] - процветающий, зажиточный

2 output - производство, продукция

3 consumer goods [k n¢sjum ...] - потребительские товары

4 advances [ d¢va:nsiz] - зд. прогресс

5 access (to) [¢ kses] - доступ к ...

6 prosperity [pr s¢periti] - процветание, успех

7 transition [tr n¢zi n] - переход

8 unemployment [ nim¢ploim nt] - безработица

9 commodities - товары, предметы потреб-

ления

10 debt payments [det ...] - платежи по долгам, погашение

долгa

1 ... that defied every attempt at - зд. ... которые создавали непреодо-

unification долимые трудности на пути к

объединению

2 ... have sought to preserve ... = have tried to preserve ...

3 at all costs - любой ценой

4 drive towards = organized effort at ...

5 had gambled = had risked money (Compare:

a gamble = a risky undertaking)

6 soaring interest rates - резко повысившиеся процентные

ставки

7 to line the pockets = to make money in a way that is

disapproved of

Over the past three thousand years, the world has changed its main centre of economic activity many times. The world economy was once centered around Mediterranean, where Egypt, Greece and Rome based their prosperous economies on seafaring trade.

With European expansion into the New World, following Columbus's voyage of 1492 - and with the rise of the great trading nations of England, Holland, Spain and Portugal - the Atlantic became the centre for international trade and commerce.

After World War II the United States, Canada, Australia, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore became major trading nations, all located on the Pacific Rim. By the end of the 1980s these countries produced a large part of the world's output of goods and services.

The rapid economic growth of such countries as Japan, Hong Kong, South Korea and Taiwan was based essentially on exports. South Korea, for example, decided to concentrate its economic production on consumer goods, such as televisions and VCRs that could be sold to affluent consumers in Europe and North America. The success of this export-led economic growth was based on a hard-working, low-wage work force, combined with rapid technological advances and improved access to world trade.

Apart from brief periods of military rule - such as the Roman or the Napoleonic empires - Europe has been divided by sturdy political and ethnic barriers that defied every attempt at unification¹. England, for example, has often preferred to maintain closer relations with its former colonies around the world than with its European neighbours. Other countries such as Switzerland have sought to preserve² their independence and neutrality at all costs³. But by the end of 1950s some countries of Europe decided that the best way to encourage trade and economic growth was to remove economic barriers between countries. In 1957 six countries - Belgium, France, the Netherlands, Italy, Luxembourg, and West Germany - signed the Treaty of Rome to form the European Economic Community (EEC).

As the EEC grew during the 1970s and 1980s to include Britain, Ireland, Denmark, Greece, Spain, and Portugal, it became known as European Community or EC (now the European Union).

The rapid change in Europe was, in part, brought on by outside economic forces. During the 1980s, Western Europe looked abroad and saw the United States creating millions of jobs and expanding rapidly in the Pacific Rim. In the Far East, Japan was booming and had become the second largest economy in the free world. The fear of being left behind sparked a renewed drive towards⁴ European political, economic and monetary integration and a new Treaty on the European Community was signed in February 1992.

The Communist countries of Eastern Europe - the U.S.S.R., Poland, Hungary, East Germany, Bulgaria, Romania, and Czechoslovakia - saw their modest post-war growth. The failure to “deliver the goods” led to the fall of most Communist governments by the end of the 1980s. But the eagerly awaited prosperity of the free-market systems that replaced them was a long time coming. Their transition from communism to capitalism was often hindered by a crumbling infrastructure, rising unemployment, hyperinflation, and internal dissension.

The developing and relatively poor countries are said to make up the Third World. The term “Third World” was based on the idea that the “first” and “second” worlds were made up of the free-market and centrally planned countries with advanced industrial economies. Although the Third World comprises three quarters of the world's population and 90% of the world's population growth, it provides only 20% of the world's economic production.

The developing countries had gambled⁵ in the 1970s and borrowed billions of dollars from Japanese and Western banks, hoping to grow their way out of poverty. But the gamble failed. By the 1980s, the debtor countries of the Third World found themselves confronted with soaring interest rates⁶ and an economic slump in the developed countries. The prices of commodities such as coffee and sugar fell sharply, reducing many developing countries' export earnings. Debtor countries were forced to borrow even more money to pay for the increased cost of oil and debt payments.

Although some of the original loans had been used to line the pockets⁷ of government officials and businessmen, much of the money was actually spent on valuable infrastructure projects like electricity systems and roads.