Back to Europe [antikvár]

Back to Europe t is always interesting and exiting when a country's political life, economy and social scene changes and after decades of standstill there is rapid transformation. Even the more so if this metamorphosis happens in not only one country but in several countries at the same time. Hungary just hke all of Central Europe is experiencing a major transformation, a gigantic 'leap' so to say into the future. What was once considered a huge and unified mass turnedout to be several nations all with own identity and image and that all of them managed to save some of their national tradition, heritage, industrial and commercial past even during communist rule. All of what is happening in Hungary does not surpries those who know this little country. Privatization, the increasing role of the private sector, the growing competition between commercial bank, the hundreds of new joint ventures, are not a new phenomenon in this country but rather the result of a process that started three decades ago. The tattetered reform process started in 1968 despite some of its disputable elements brought considerably good results in theory and practice as well. Alongside the slow transformation Hungarian economists wrote studies and performed experiments that became know all over the World Only a fraction of these pepars were widely pubUshed and most of then wereonly read by coUegues. It always been true that Hungarian economists are very versatile and colorful. This is even more so today when different education and different views are put face to face after the failure of centralized economic policy. This book is a selection of studies showing all the important trends. Why does a bank the Hungarian Credit Bank publish such a book? The answer is very simple: by showing the different views and trends they have found the most efficient way of proving that Hungary and the Hungarian Credit Bank is already an integral part of the European money markel. Péter Szakonyi