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"No writing or oratory in history has been more replete with bad advice than that given Russia in the last decade. Here, for a change, is something very good--the best, in fact, that truly competent and responsible American and Russian scholars have to offer. I strongly recommend it."--John Kenneth Galbraith
"A searching critique of the strategy favored in the West . . . it contributes fresh perspectives on the much debated question concerning the 'big bang' versus 'gradualism' in communist economic transformation."--Abram Bergson, Harvard University
List of contents
About the author
Lawrence R. Klein, who won the Nobel Prize in economics in 1980, is Benjamin Franklin Professor of Economics Emeritus at the University of Pennsylvania. Among his many books is The Economics of Supply and Demand. Marshall Pomer is President of the Macroeconomic Policy Institute, Santa Cruz, California. He is the author of Intergenerational Occupational Mobility in the United States: A Segmentation Perspective.
Summary
This book delivers an unpopular message: the West has played a pivotal role in the Russian economic disaster of the 1990s. Western advisors, including the International Monetary Fund and the U.S. Treasury, applied a narrow conception of economics that pushed Russia, after more than seventy years of communism, toward another failed utopia.
The twenty-six contributions to this book are divided into three parts: theory, evidence, and policy. Part One directly challenges orthodox economic theory for obscuring the necessary role of government in creating and sustaining a market system and features essays by three Nobel laureates in economics—Kenneth J. Arrow, Lawrence R. Klein, and James Tobin. Part Two describes the dimensions of the economic crisis in Russia and presents a Russian perspective on the failure of shock therapy. Part Three presents policy recommendations, with special attention given to improving the integrity and administrative competence of the Russian government.
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"This admirable work has contributions from an impressive group of specialists who cover the topic comprehensively. Balanced, reasonable transitions in various economic sectors are urged persuasively and in some cases even eloquently. The book has the potential for making a significant impact."
