Economics
Discovering natural gas quietly wrecked the rest of the Dutch economy
After the Netherlands found a huge natural gas field in 1959, gas exports pushed up the value of the guilder, making Dutch manufactured goods pricier abroad and hollowing out the export sector even as the country grew richer on paper. The Economist coined 'Dutch disease' for the pattern in 1977; it now describes any resource windfall that quietly undercuts a country's other industries.