The management of the exchange rate by the Russian authorities obviously lacks both effectiveness and efficiency. “Black Tuesday” has vividly shown how vulnerable the rouble is to speculative attacks. In this article, a “classical” proposal is evoked and is discussed as an alternative to...

Assuming the convergency criteria are not watered down, European Monetary Union will begin on 1.1.1999 with just a few core countries. With the help of the theory of clubs, Professor F. L. Sell analyses the incentive effects of the “monetary club” on founding members and “outsiders”.

The debt crisis of the developing countries, which loomed so large at the beginning of the eighties, appears for the time being to have been overcome. However, under the surface problems are growing that could give a debt crisis among the developing countries an entirely new dimension. Under...

The question whether European Monetary Union should include all the EC countries from the start or should initially be limited to a few core countries is again being discussed more intensely. What advantages would a small EMU have from an economic point of view? Which countries should be its...

The measures taken so far to move towards currency convertibility and combat inflation in Russia and the other CIS countries are based largely on a three-stage programme formulated by the IMF. The following article presents alternatives and compares them with the IMF concept from the point of...

Only a few years ago, it was a widespread belief that globalisation would trigger processes of democratisation worldwide. However, even old and established democracies such as the United States have recently revealed serious weaknesses. This article shows that the US election system is heavily...

Portugal's high public debt, its weak economic growth and its great attractiveness for foreign tourists are legend. Less well known is its unstable system of public pensions. This article addresses the underlying economic and political reasons, such as poor labour productivity, low real wages,...