The economic crisis is what a concept is? The economic crisis of 1929-1933, 2008 and 2014. Causes of the economic crisis

Throughout the history of the development of the whole world society, the economies of most countries were shaken by crises, accompanied by a decline in production, a drop in prices, an accumulation of unrealized goods on the market, a collapse of banking systems, a sharp rise in unemployment, and the ruin of most operating industrial and trade enterprises.

What is this - a crisis? What are its signs? What he faces the country's economy and us, ordinary citizens? Is it inevitable and what can be done? Let's try to give at least approximate answers to most of the questions posed.

First of all, we consider the crisis as a general concept.

This term is translated from Greek as "decisive transition", "global fracture", "severe state" of any process. In general, the crisis is a violation of the equilibrium of any system and at the same time a transition to a new quality.

Its role and stages

For all its painfulness, the crisis performs useful functions. Akin to a serious illness that struck a living organism, accumulated hidden contradictions, problems and regressive elements undermine any developing system from within, be it a family, a society or a part of it.

Therefore, crises are inevitable, that without them it is impossible to move forward. And each of them performs three major functions:

• Elimination or serious transformation of obsolete elements of the exhausted system;
• Strength test and strengthening of healthy parts;
• Clearing the path to create elements of the new system.

In its own dynamics, the crisis goes through several stages. Latent (hidden), under which the prerequisites mature, but do not come out yet. Period of collapse, instant aggravation of contradictions, rapid and severe deterioration of all indicators of the system. And the stage of mitigation, the transition to a phase of depression and temporary equilibrium. The duration of all three periods is not the same, the outcome of the crisis can not be calculated in advance.

Features and Reasons

There may be general and local crises. General - those that cover the entire economy as a whole, local - only part of it. Macro- and microcrys- ses are distinguished by problems. The name at the same time speaks for itself. For the former, large scales and serious problems are characteristic. The second affect only a particular problem or group of those.

The causes of the outbreak of a crisis can be objective, stemming from the cyclical needs for renewal, and subjective, arising from political errors and voluntarism. Also they can be divided into external and internal. The former are related to the peculiarities of macroeconomic processes in the economy, as well as the political situation in the country, the latter - with an ill-conceived marketing strategy, shortcomings and conflicts in the organization of production, illiterate management and investment policy.

The financial and economic crisis as a consequence may have an update or final destruction of the monetary and economic system, its recovery or the coming of the next crisis. The exit from it can be sharp and sometimes unexpected or soft and long. In many respects this is determined by the policy of anti-crisis management. All shocks affect the state of power, state institutions, society and culture.

The essence of the economic crisis

The economic crisis is a sharp, sometimes dramatic deterioration in the state of the economy of a particular country or a community of countries. Its signs are a violation of production ties, rising unemployment, bankruptcy of enterprises, a general decline. The final result is a drop in the standard of living and well-being of the population.

Crises of economic development are manifested in the overproduction of goods in relation to demand, changing conditions for obtaining capital, mass layoffs and other shocks of a socio-economic nature.

How does this happen?

The economy of any country in a particular period of time is in one of two states.

1. Stability, when production and consumption (respectively - supply and demand) are generally balanced. At the same time, economic growth follows a straight trajectory.
2. Unbalance, when the normal proportions of economic processes are violated, leading to a crisis.

The economic crisis is a global imbalance in the financial and economic system. It is accompanied by the loss of normal links in the sphere of production and trade and, in the final analysis, leads to a complete imbalance of the system.

What is happening in the economy

From the scientific point of view, the economic crisis is a violation of the equilibrium of supply and demand for goods and services.

Its essence is observed in the surplus production of goods in comparison with demand.

Modern economists characterize the crisis as a state of the economy, in which it is doomed to internal and external changes. Its characteristics are strength, duration and scale.

At the same time, as already mentioned, the consequences of the economic crisis can be beneficial. In the end, it gives an impetus to the development of the economy, bearing a stimulating function. Under his influence, the costs of production are reduced, competition grows, an incentive is created to get rid of obsolete means of production and renewal on a new technical basis. Therefore, the crisis is the most important element of self-regulation of the market-economic system.

What is the impact of the crisis?

From the recession, as a rule, the industries that produce goods and means of long-term use suffer more than others. Especially building. Industries that produce goods for short-term use, react less so painfully.

The ways of exit depend on the causes that caused it. In order to eliminate the social economic crisis, the state should declare, at the same time, the main goal is the transition to a normal economic regime, for which it is necessary to pay off all available debts, analyze the state of resources and prospects.

Now let's try to consider what is happening in society, on specific examples. Let us recall the most famous of the hardest trials that shook the world economy in its time.

Let's go back to the past

Crises have occurred throughout the history of society. The first of them, which struck simultaneously in the economy of the USA, England, Germany and France, occurred in 1857. The impetus for its development was the collapse of the stock market and the bankruptcy of many railway companies.

Other examples include the Great Depression (1929-1933), the Mexican (1994-1995) and the Asian Crises (1997), and, undoubtedly, the 1998 Russian Crisis .

On the crisis of 1929-1933.

The global economic crisis of 1929-1933 in its nature is a cyclical shock to overproduction. To him was added a general change in the economy, which began in the war period. That entailed a rapid increase in production, the strengthening of monopolies, which led to the impossibility of restoring, after its end, the economic relations that existed before the war.

The features of the economic crisis of those years were manifested in the coverage of all capitalist countries and all spheres of world economy without exception. Its uniqueness is also in extraordinary depth and duration.

Let's look at the reasons for the economic crisis of those years in more detail.

What Happened in the World

For the stability period of the 1920s, the increased growth of centralization and concentration of capital and production became characteristic, which led to the strengthening of corporate power. At the same time, state regulation has been sharply weakened. In the traditional sectors of the economy (shipbuilding, coal mining, light industry), the pace of development has declined, unemployment has increased. In agriculture, there was a risk of overproduction.

The economic crisis of 1929 led to a discrepancy between the low level of purchasing power of the population with large production capacities. The bulk of investment was invested in stock speculation, which increased the instability of the economic conjuncture.

The USA as the main international creditors doomed to financial dependence the majority of the countries of Europe. The lack of own finances for most of them required free access to manufactured goods for the American market, but the escalation of competition and the growth of customs duties caused debt dependence on the US.

Chronicle of the Great Depression

How did the economic crisis of 1929-1933 begin? This happened in "black Thursday" (October 24, 1929), when the US experienced an unprecedented stock market panic. The value of shares in the New York Stock Exchange fell by half (and even more). This was one of the first manifestations of an urgent crisis of unprecedented depth.

Compared to the pre-crisis level of 1929, the output of US industry fell to 80.7% in 1930. The crisis led to a sharp collapse in prices, especially for agricultural products. Unprecedented amounts of bankruptcy and the ruin of commercial, industrial and financial enterprises. The crisis with destructive force hit, in addition, and banks.

What should be done?

The Anglo-French bloc saw a solution to the problem in Germany's reparation payments. But this path turned out to be untenable: Germany lacked financial possibilities, competitors limited its opportunities in international trade. The country's leadership sabotaged the payment of reparations, which required the granting of new loans to it and further upset the unstable international monetary system.

The economic crisis of 1929-1933 is known as one of the hardest in the world economy. It took several long years to stabilize the world system. Most countries have long been affected by this global economic shock, which has gone down in history.

The crisis in 2008

Now let us consider the general patterns and characteristic features of the concept under study on the example of such a famous event as the 2008 economic crisis. The nature of it has three important features.

1. The global crisis has affected almost all countries and regions. By the way, it was stronger in successful, and stagnant places suffered to a lesser extent. In Russia, most problems were also observed in places and areas of the economic boom, in the lagging regions, changes were felt minimal.
2. The economic crisis of 2008 was of a structural nature, involving the renewal of the technological base of the entire world economy.
3. The crisis was of an innovative nature, as a result of which financial innovations were created and widely disseminated as new market instruments. They radically changed the market of primary commodities. The price of oil, which previously depended on the supply-demand ratio, and therefore partially controlled by producers, has now been formed in the financial markets by the actions of brokers trading in financial instruments related to its supply.

The whole world community had to accept the fact of strengthening the virtual factor in the formation of the most important trends. At the same time, the political and economic elite lost control over the movement of financial instruments. Therefore, this crisis is called "a riot of cars against their own creators."

How it was

In September 2008, there is a catastrophe for all world offices - the New York Stock Exchange collapses. Quotes are falling all over the world. In Russia, the government of the stock exchange simply closes. In October of the same year it becomes finally clear that the world crisis is already inevitable.

The devastation of the world's largest banks becomes avalanche-like. The mortgage programs are curtailing, the rates on loans are growing. Steelmaking plants stop blast furnaces, plants, fire workers. Due to the lack of "long" money and loans, construction is stopped, new equipment is not acquired, the machine-building industry falls into a stupor. Demand for hire is falling, the price of metal and oil is falling.

The economy turns into a vicious circle: there is no money - no salary - no work - no production - no goods. The cycle closes. There is such a phenomenon as the liquidity crisis. Simply put, buyers do not have money, goods are not produced because of a lack of demand.

The economic crisis of 2014

Let's move on to the current events. No doubt, any of us are concerned about the situation in the country in connection with the latest events. Rising prices, falling ruble rate, confusion in the political arena - all this gives us the right to say with certainty that we are experiencing a real crisis.

In Russia in 2014, the economic crisis is the worsening of the state of the country's economy due to a sharp decline in energy prices and the imposition of economic sanctions on Russia from the West. It manifested itself in a significant depreciation of the Russian ruble, an increase in inflation and a decrease in the growth of real incomes of Russians.

What are its prerequisites?

Since the beginning of the 2000s, Russia has seen a priority development of the commodity sector. The active growth of world oil prices at the same time strengthened the dependence of the country's economy on the work of energy-producing industries and on the external economic situation.

And the fall in oil prices is caused by a decrease in demand for it, an increase in its production in the United States, the refusal of other countries to reduce supplies. This led to a decrease in revenue for the sale of energy, which accounts for approximately 70% of all domestic exports. Other exporting countries, such as Norway, Kazakhstan, Nigeria and Venezuela, also felt negative consequences due to the collapse of prices.

How it all began

What are the causes of the economic crisis of 2014? What exactly triggered the trigger? Because of the accession of the Crimea to Russia, considered by the EU countries as an annexation, sanctions were imposed on Russia, which were expressed in the prohibition of cooperation with enterprises of the military industrial complex, banks and industrial companies. The Crimea was declared an economic blockade. According to the Russian president, the sanctions imposed on us are the reason for about a quarter of the country's economic problems.

Thus, the country is experiencing both an economic and a political crisis.

In the first half of the year, stagnation continued, economic indicators in 2014 fell below the forecasted ones, inflation instead of the planned 5% reached the level of 11.4%, GDP for the year decreased by 0.5%, which was not since 2008. The fall in the ruble December 15 was a record, this day was called "black Monday". Separate exchange offices decided to establish a five-digit display of the exchange rate in case of even greater growth of figures on them.

On December 16, there was an even stronger fall in the national currency - the euro reached a mark of 100.74 rubles, the dollar - 80.1 rubles. Then some strengthening took place. The year ended at 68.37 and 56.24 respectively.

The capitalization of the stock market has declined, the RTS stock index fell to the last place, the wealthiest Russians fell due to the devaluation of assets. Russia's credit rating in the world was downgraded.

What is happening now?

The economic crisis of 2014 is gaining momentum. In 2015, the problems in the country remained the same. The instability and the weakening of the ruble remain. The budget deficit is expected to be much higher than expected, the same is true for the fall in GDP.

Because of the sanctions, Russian companies lost the refinancing capacity and began to seek help from the state. But the aggregate funds of the "Central Bank" and the reserve fund turned out to be less than the total external debt.

Increased prices for cars and electronics, actively bought by the population in a panic. Rush demand in late 2014 reigned in furniture stores, household appliances, jewelry. People rushed to invest free money in the hope of saving them from depreciation.

At the same time, demand for everyday goods, clothing and footwear fell. Because of the rising prices, Russians began to save on buying necessary household goods or buying the cheapest. Many foreign manufacturers of clothing and footwear of famous brands were forced to curtail their activities in Russia due to lack of demand. Some shops closed. Thus, the crisis in the country indirectly hit foreign investors.

Prices for food products have significantly increased. Before the onset of 2015, the population, fueled by rumors of a future global rise in price, began to sweep salt and sugar off the shelves.

Many banks suspended the issuance of consumer and mortgage loans, especially long-term loans, due to incomprehensible financial situation.

The social economic crisis hit the well-being of ordinary citizens. The real incomes of the population have decreased, unemployment has increased. It was especially difficult for people with serious diseases that required expensive medications or treatment abroad.

At the same time, Russian goods became more accessible to foreign tourists. They began to buy residents of Belarus, Kazakhstan, the Baltic countries, Finland and China.

Is there any good news?

Throughout the past year, the Russian government has tried to influence the economic crisis in the country. "The Central Bank" raised the key rate six times a year, conducted currency interventions to stabilize the ruble. Vladimir Putin recommended that the largest representatives of business help the state by selling surplus currency in the domestic Russian market.

"The Central Bank" softened the terms of currency mortgages, the State Duma plans to help the borrowers, faced with difficulties due to fluctuations in the exchange rate.

Still, economists' forecasts for 2015 are not optimistic. The crisis continues to rage, reducing its turnover has not yet been observed. All of us have long enough to struggle with difficulties. It remains to take reasonable austerity measures, limit expenses and try at all costs to keep available jobs and other sources of income.