ABSTRACT
Let me begin with an old joke. Brezhnev and other members of the Soviet Central Committee are reviewing a May Day parade in Moscow. Thousands of infantry march by, followed by armored cars, the latest tanks, long range artillery, and progressively larger, sleeker and more impressive missiles. At the end, a battered flatbed truck rumbles by carrying a half-dozen unathletic and bespectacled middle-aged men and women in dirty raincoats sitting around a card table. The crowd is restless and members of the Central Committee are scandalized. One is bold enough to ask Brezh-nev what these nondescript civilians are doing in the midst of such a magnificent military parade. Brezhnev replies, ‘Ah, those are our economists. You’d be amazed at the damage they can do.’
