Jihad vs. McWorld - Benjamin R. Barber [208]
4. Padma Desai, “Ease Up on Russia,” The New York Times, December 10, 1993, p. A 35. In the same vein, Saul Estrin introduces his careful conceptual and economic analysis of privatization by admitting that “privatization of the former state sector is, however, not the only way, and may not be the best way to ensure successful transition to the market economy,” although he does not raise (and could not be expected to raise) the question of whether the market economy is the only alternative to the Communist command economy. Saul Estrin, Privatization in Central and Eastern Europe (New York: Longman, 1994), p. 4.
5. Because so many American progressives and liberals supported Gorbachev, Yeltsin relied in the early days on more conservative advisors including the Heritage Foundation. Cold War veteran Richard Perle is currently involved in joint ventures with new Russian enterprises aimed at the conversion of military facilities! See Jim Hoagland, “The New Guest in Moscow,” The International Herald Tribune, April 1, 1992.
6. Margaret Shapiro and Fred Hiatt, “The Agony of Reform,” The Washington Post, National Weekly Edition, March 14–20, 1994, p. 6.
7. Michael Specter, “The Great Russia Will Live Again,” The New York Times Magazine, June 19, 1994, p. 31.
8. Celestine Bohlen, “Russia’s New Rich on a Giant Buying Spree,” The New York Times, August 31, 1993, p. A 1.
9. AP report, “Russia’s Reckless Capitalism,” The Berkshire Eagle, August 4, 1994.
10. Specter, “Russia Will Live,” p. 32.
11. David M. Kotz, “The End of the Market Romance,” The Nation, February 28, 1994, pp. 263–265.
12. Melvin Fagen, “Russia: Shock Therapy Isn’t the Way to Promote Democracy,” The International Herald Tribune, May 12, 1992.
13. James Sterngold, “Summit in Tokyo: Yeltsin Arrives in Tokyo as Aid Plan Is Prepared,” The New York Times, July 9, 1993, p. A 7.
14. Joseph Blasi, “Privatizing Russia—A Success Story,” The New York Times, June 30, 1994, p. A 23.
15. See Louis Uchitelle, “In the New Russia, an Era of Takeovers,” The New York Times, April 17, 1994, p. C I. This is “a world of investors still more interested in buying ownership of Corporate Russia for a fraction of its value than in improving what they own.”
16. Liesl Schillinger, “Uneasy Rider,” The New Republic, April 19, 1993, pp. 9–11.
17. Michael Dobbs and Steve Coll, “The Free Market’s Ugly Face,” The Washington Post, National Weekly Edition, March 1–7, 1993. Also see “From Russia with Cash,” The Washington Post, National Weekly Edition, February 15–21, 1993. The polite version of this phenomenon is given by Alexander Bim, D. Jones, and T. Weisskopf in their soothingly economistic account of “Privatization in the Former Soviet Union and the New Russia,” where they write: “The predominance of insider control of privatized enterprises in Russia at the present time reflects not only problems in the tactics of the radical reformers … (but) the strong desire of a large proportion of the Russian people for stability and security.” Estrin, Privatization, p. 274.
18. Bill Gifford, “Art of the Zdyelka,” The New Republic, February 28, 1994, p. 12. Gifford describes how the ruble exchange rate leapt in January 1, 1994, from 1,250 a dollar to, just three weeks later, I,800 a dollar, with the July 1994 ruble futures contract selling at 2,174 a dollar. The original Russian voucher plan offered every Russian vouchers worth 10,000 rubles each, or two weeks of a miner’s salary or ten bags of potatoes or three cases of vodka or in dollars, ten cups of coffee in the West. The total voucher offer was for an estimated fixed capital of I.4 trillion rubles divided by 150 million people. Companies with over one thousand employees or fixed capital of 50 million rubles were required to privatize. Bill Gifford, “Russian Citizens to Get Share,” The New York Times, October 1, 1992, p. A 1.
19. See Wendy Carlin and Colin Mayer, “The Treuhandanstalt: Privatization by State and Market,” Paper Presented at the National Bureau of Economic Resources Conference on Transformation