The World Economy and the East - Studien ber Wirtschafts- und Systemvergleiche

This volume outlines some critical factors that determine the course of the East-West rapprochement now in progress. The risk of isolationist policies and a world split into regional blocs is not yet completely ruled out. Much depends on the economic development in the West, that powerful motor of world prosperity. Dangers threaten from major prevailing imbalances: contrary demographic curves in industrialized and developing countries; imbalances in agricultural production, international trade, indebtedness and energy sources; and the threatened equilibrium of the global environment. New concepts are called for in international trade and finance. The choice in world trade lies between protectionism, bilateralism and fragmentation versus freer trade, multilateralism and integration. This calls for the corollary of a flexible and functioning exchange rate system. Perestroika in the Soviet Union heralds a shift in that country's international economic policy, likely to accelerate cooperation between CMEA (COMECON) and EEC. The reform movements in some countries of the East also point that way and the liberalization process there evokes strong sympathies in the West.