Abstract

The recent oil crisis has produced one of the most lively debates of the postwar era. Several taboos seemed at first sight to have crumbled: the myth of unequal exchange between raw materials and finished products; the myth of the weakness and of perpetual subordination of Third World countries. With time, however, the recognition has come that the issues were not as clear as was originally thought. Thus, the idea that an oil scarcity produced the crisis has been rejected (even though it is still put forth in some quarters); indeed, there is so much oil that on the eve of the crisis some argued for the need to lower prices.