Contents: Preface -- PART I A historic transformation: heterogeneity in CESEE in a changing global context -- 1 Looking back on 30 years of transition - and looking 30 years ahead / Robert Holzmann -- 2 1989: the year of the great ambivalence / Anton Pelinka -- 3 The price of unity: the...

Introduction : the attributes of the crisis / David Bailey, Dan Coffey, Philip R. Tomlinson -- The workings of the Japanese economy / Donald W. Katzner -- The cause of Japan's recession and the lessons for the world / Richard A. Werner -- Transnational monopoly capitalism, the J-mode firm and...

Against the backdrop of the financial crisis that unfolded in 2008, this book deals with policy challenges going forward, focusing in particular on the ongoing catching-up process in Central, Eastern and South-Eastern European countries