Apocalypse 2000 : Economic break-down and suicide of democracy, 1989-2000 / by Peter Jay and Michael Stewart

An historian writes, in the early years of the next century, of the political and economic events which led the world to disaster. Monetary systems have collapsed, free trade is a memory, social and economic devastation is apparent everywhere. Drugs offer the only escape from despair.

It was in the late 1980s, the historian notes, that things started to go badly wrong. In Europe, a neo-Hitler figure emerged, to impose on the EEC his vision of a third economic and military superpower. In the United States, a man of reason and vigour took over the Presidency, but was displaced by a right-wing religious megalomaniac. In the Far East, Western consumerism clashed fatally with traditional verities, and in the Soviet Union, several dilemmas collided. The result was apocalyptic: complete economic breakdown, and the disappearance of democracy.

That 'historian' was Peter Jay and Michael Stewart. Together they have written an en thralling and awesome 'future history' of the last part of our century. They have intelligently and imaginatively thought ahead to where the world might be in fifteen years' time if drastic social, economic and political steps are not taken. A world not fit to live in is the prospect - a world far more horribly plausible than doomed planets in science fiction novels.

But they offer suggestions, as economists, as to how all this might be avoided. So, in 1987, this is a constructive, if controversial book. Their message is clear and our politi cians should heed it before it is too late.