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From International Socialism, No.22, Autumn 1965, p.32.
Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for ETOL.
COMECON, Integration Problems of the Planned Economies
Michael Kaser
Chatham House/Oxford, 35s
The fully-planned states east of The Wall share fewer, less influential supra-national bodies than those west; their mutual trade is smaller in proportion to output than is the case west; they are more jealous of national sovereignty (and national currencies) than the most prickly de Gaulle. Despite Polish prodding and some relaxation of their autarkies in the five years up to 1962, they have got no farther than a series of bilateral agreements between planning commissions relating to trade, some specialisation in some branches of industry, and a minute flow of capital. Compared with the Common Market they are still fortresses of mutual suspicion and defence. So much for international solidarity.
Michael Kaser shows all this as also the rifts and landslips brought about by their growing involvement with the world market. He does so thoroughly, although his style makes ‘communese’ seem gay.
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Last updated on 12.5.2008