ABSTRACT
Two important trajectories have raised interest in post-World War II European reconstruction in the course of the 1990s: first, the contentious debates over “Holocaust-era assets,” namely the issue of expropriation of Jewish properties by the Nazi regime and the restitution efforts after 1945; and second, the “opening of the East” after the end of the Cold War and the transition of Eastern European state-directed economies to market economies. Hans Seidel never denied his calling of being an “old school” economist familiar with econometric models but steeped in applied economic policy thinking. Seidel is fully up to the task. He first presents both an overview of the structural factors of the economy since the 1930s and the basic options for economic policies after 1945. Seidel’s most impressive feats are his analysis of Austrian monetary policy and the Marshall Plan. His analysis is based on his mining the rich archives of the Austrian National Bank.
