Does the Sino-American Cold War signal the return of the inflation of the 1970s?

11/1/2021, 7:03:23 PM

ANALYSIS - Unbridled free trade since 1990 had virtually wiped out inflation. The upheaval of international production chains wanted by Washington for political reasons radically changes the situation.

Since the disastrous withdrawal of the United States from Afghanistan, the 1970s have become fashionable again. Didn't the fall of Kabul on August 16 last in a caricatural way that of Saigon on April 30, 1975? The Americans had then abandoned their South Vietnamese ally in panic, bowing to the northern communists, just as they gave way to the Taliban this summer without firing a shot. Likewise, the current surge in energy prices echoes the oil shocks of 1973 and 1979 against a backdrop of geopolitical tensions. The Cold War between Washington and Moscow was at its peak at the time. Political scientists, such as Dominique Moïsi in France, agree today that

"the new cold war has begun"

, this time between the United States and China.