The proper unit of analysis when discussing economic issues is not obvious. The tradition dating back to the 1930s and the economist Simon Kuznets is to focus macroeconomic discussions specifically on national economies, because the nation-state is the political unit for which attempts to deal with economic turbulence are assumed to be possible. However, it is obvious that in recent decades the process of globalization has intensified quickly, so that referring to recessions in national economies is increasingly irrelevant.