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Russia's Choice: An Economic Challenge to the West
Russia's Choice An Economic Challenge to the West Author:Mason Gaffney, Ted Gwartney The power struggle between Yeltsin and Congress is portrayed in the West as a conflict between "reformers", anxious to introduce a market economy, and "hardliners", resisting the imposition of capitalism. Having traveled extensively in Russia, interviewing politicians, civil servants and managers of state industries, Fred Harrison concludes that... more » this is a misleading picture, obscuring a middle way that could unite Russia behind a coherent strategy for reindustrializing the economy. Ironically, it is the legacy of Marxism that makes Russia particularly suitable for a fresh approach to market economics, one that is endorsed by three Nobel Prize-winning economists. The uniting factor among "reformers" and "hardliners" is unease about selling the land of Russia. This fact offers a way out of the dilemma. If the land were to be leased, Harrison argues, it would lay the foundation for a more efficient, more equitable market economy - with far less social upheaval in the process. Leasing the land would reduce start-up costs for firms and provide government with an on-going source of revenue, so reducing the need for taxes. That is the secret of Hong Kong, one of the world's most vital economies, where land rights are based exclusively on the leasehold system. Fred Harrison, economist and journalist, has travelled the world studying the operations of the land markets under diverse social and economic conditions. He is currently advising politicians, civil servants and local government officials in Russia. In his book "The Power in the Land" (1983) he correctly predicted the worldwide collapse of the property market in the early 1990s.« less