One of the key issue of the social policy problems is the differences in living standards which are evidently increasing. This trend does not only have a negative impact on the general atmosphere and mood of the people but it is also a hindrance of the emergence of a modern market economy. The author discusses the changes of the structure of consumption and states that people with medium level incomes are waging a tough struggle against slipping down on the social scale but their retreat is evident.

The famous economist, member of the Academy of Sciences, and a well-known left-wing politician, died last year, leaving behind his comments on Janos Kornai's assessment of the economic reforms of the 1960s. He was an active participant of the reform process for three decades, and in this article he calls the new generations for a thorough study of the period and practice of reforms in Hungary.

A review of The Socialist System, a comprehensive work by the well-known Harvard economist Janos Kornai. The reviewer compares Kornai's theses to the findings of leading international historians, and draws some grave, but not entirely unexpected consequences.

Conventional debt management has only deepened the economic and social misery of many countries in the Third World. The so-called treatment offered by the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank cannot be a solution to the problem. A breakthrough towards development is possible only with a substantial debt relief, i.e. a partial or full cancellation of foreign debts.

The liberalisation of world trade under the auspices of GATT is often interpreted as creating equal opportunities for various countries in the world economy. A deeper analysis discovers the surviving discrimination behind the facade, and the increasing exposure of low income countries to monopoly groups of the capitalist core.