ABSTRACT
The creation of an effective “social safety net” today is of paramount political and economic importance. The general economic health and future of the country are far from being determined only by the giant Uralmash plant or VAZ. Finding a balanced way of conducting our foreign trade is particularly important because international economic conditions are very unfavorable for Russia. Russia unfortunately faces the same task for the second time in the 20th century. The familiar Biblical saying, “a prophet is without honor in his own country” holds true for Russia as does the belief that “outside experts” know the solutions to all our problems. Of course some will object that the Russia of the 1920s and the Russia of the 1990s are far different. In 1923 when price controls were lifted, Russia’s monopolistic state industry was in the same sorry condition as it is—highly inflated prices, demand for supply, massive overstocking of goods, and a general “crisis of non-payments.”
