Scientific Bulletin – Economic Sciences, Vol. 8 (14)
ECONOMIC CRISIS, ITS PROSPECTS AND CHALLENGES FOR
ECONOMIC THEORY
Slavica Manic, PhD, assistant professor
Faculty of Economics, Belgrade, Serbia
slavica@one.ekof.bg.ac.yu
Abstract: Actual crisis which originated from USA quickly spread throughout the world
economy. Although at the beginning it was labeled as exclusively financial one, after its
second wave (in 2008) everything became much clear. Finally we all became aware of its
overwhelming influence on both financial and real spheres of national economies as well
as global economic system. Being interested in what is obvious at the moment, in the first
part of this paper we are going to describe (as much concisely as it’s possible) reaction of
economists to its emerging and further developing, focusing primary on short-term
measures and policy responses to crisis. Second part of the paper is devoted to more
fundamental questions of economic science: Was this crisis predictable? Which type of
crisis it represents? Is the crisis itself capable of jeopardizing mainstream dominance?
Key words: economic crisis, economic theory
JEL codes: F4; G17
1. INSTEAD OF ORDINARY INTRODUCTION
Like many times before, world economy happened to be somehow caught in a trap by
events that represented first symptoms of global crisis. So, it took for a while that economists
recognize crisis’ potential. According to recent reports (UNCTAD, 2008), world economy notes
a fall in growth of output since second half of 2007. In 2007 that rate was 3.8%, last year it was
2.5%, and prognosis say that for this year (even for those who are optimistic) more than 1.6%
can not be expected. Judging by measures for easing and overcoming of the crisis, it seems to
have the following key characteristics: first, the crisis has spread throughout financial, as well as
the real sector (slowing down of industrial production, export and GDP), so it is impossible to be
overcome without state intervention; second, taking into c