Why is this recession unique?

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Most recessions in history which have been as big as the current recession, have been associated with major wars and shifting of world powers.  The great depression of the 1930’s was followed by World War 2 and rise of America. Many factors that helped America from coming out of the recession are missing today. The world war setup a culture of innovation and hard work in US. During the World War II the entire country put its mind together to establish dominance in airline industry, auto manufacturing, shipping and nuclear power industry.

The need for most the above industries was forced onto America by the war.  Through out the history mankind the best inventions have come out due to the presence of a crisis. To end the world war 2 US had to develop the nuclear bomb to scare Germany and Japan into surrender.  The technology was later used to generate power in power plants, send rockets into space, power submarines etc.  World War 2 was as much fought on the sea as on land. The German U- boats played a pivotal role in the war. They sank as many as 33 ships of the allies. This led to rapid development of the shipping as well as submarine industry in Europe as well as America.

If land and water were two dominant areas in World War 2 ; air was not far behind. The German and British Air force fought big battles for an extended periods. There was more development that took place in  airline industry in the 10 years around the war than the fifty years prior to it or even fifty  years post it.

Many economist are surprised and somewhat worried that this recession was ble to end without such a crises. The US economy grew 5.9% in last quarter . It is expected to grow by 3% this year according to Fed. Inflation seems to be under control at mere 0.3% in January. Retail sales were up 0.8%. However there worry is all this might be temporary as it is fueled by artificial lifelines provided by the world central banks. As soon the banks will pull out these life lines the economy would move back into a recessionary mode.

So what can change this situation. With both Russia and Europe not being as strong as they used to be World War 3 seems to be far fetched. So can anything happen which might lead to next set of innovations. The answer is yes and it is close to us. It is what was called as “ War on terror” by George Bush. Till now we have only seen the bad impacts of the war in terms of loss of human lives. However as the oil touches 80 dollars a barrel and looking to touch $ 100 a barrel or even  $150 a barrel, the war on terror might start bringing in new innovations. The re-birth of alternate energy sources might become imminent. The country that is able to establish control over the next source of energy which can displace oil would  control the 21^st century.