Talk:Long boom

Merge?

This article (the Long boom) and the Golden Age of Capitalism both refer to the same period, and are the term used by a single source to refer to it.

Since the topic is the same, shall we merge them?

Is there a common term? (i.e., not specific to a single source)

Most neutral would be “World economy, 1945–1970”, but perhaps there is a term generally used?

—Nils von Barth (nbarth) (talk) 23:20, 26 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Hello there. Im not sure about this, there's certainly a case for merging the articles but it would present a few problems. Long Boom also talks about a second period in the 90s, so I guess it would be logical to merge Golden Age into it. However Golden Age is a much more common term IME. Its supported by several of the existing references in the Golden Age article and there are many more that could be added. A google scholar for {"golden age" 1950 1960} returns 24,300 hits whereas for {"long boom" 1950 1960} only 751. I also think long booms a POV title as its highly debateable that the 47-70s instance was really a boom - the only times I recall the phrase being used is by neo liberal types who want to discredit the generally Keynesian policies that were used during the period. For me the ideal solution is for "Long Boon" to be tweaked so it more clearly describes the phrase, while golden age can describe the specific 47-70s period. FeydHuxtable (talk) 14:19, 27 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

While reading up on Keynes, I read on p3 of Roger Middleton's The British Economy Since 1945 that "economic historians consider the golden age to be the long boom starting in 1950...". Also read this |article recently in the Financial Times, where it uses "long boom" in a 3rd sense, to specify the period from 1982 - 2007. There's doubtless countless sources I can dig out, but it certainly seems that "Golden Age of captialism" invariably refers to the 1950 - 73 period, where as "long boom" is most commonly a general phrase, thats only rarely used as a specific lable for 1950 -73. If its okay I'd like to remove the merge tag, and edit the articles to make the distinction a little clearer. FeydHuxtable (talk) 16:42, 1 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

The term golden age is used quite widely so I think that it should remain irrespective of how the contents of the two pages is reconsiled. Paullb (talk) 06:03, 6 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Completely agree , Paullb. Golden age of Capitalism is by far the most common term for this period of economic history:

Search Phrase	Google web hits	Google Scholar hits
golden age of capitalism	387,000	1,700
long boom	89,900	5,230
Post-World War II economic boom	15,200	348

Per the table Golden age is by far the most frequently encountered term, except long boom apparently has the edge in Scholar. However, looking at the top 3 results, its clear the term is used for different periods. In the no 1 scholar result it "defines the Long Boom from 1982 to the present" The no 2 & 3 results are cites to a book that uses the phrase to refer to a future period. Likewise when you look at the results for Post-World War II economic boom its often referring to regular booms of just a few years in particular markets. Im going to check with NBarth to see if this discussion can be closed. FeydHuxtable (talk) 12:31, 10 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Merge discussion closed

Per the evidence above I dont think theres any chance folk would want to decide not to have Golden Age as the title for the 1950 - 1973 period. There's some good stuff in Post-World War II economic boom and most of it could be merged into Golden Age if you guys wish? Alternatively you could keep that article , but maybe exspand it per sources so it refers to the various short booms in specific markets and regions which is how the term is often used. FeydHuxtable (talk) 15:12, 14 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks kindly FeydHuxtable for your detailed research; agree that disambiguation is the best answer, as Yvwv has done.

Also agree that Golden Age and Post-WWII cover the same topic; I've started a merge discussion at Talk:Golden Age of Capitalism#Merge Post-World War II, with the main question to my mind being the name of the merged article, with the above research speaking in favor of "Golden Age".

—Nils von Barth (nbarth) (talk) 21:53, 16 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]