Mişcarea de centralizare a anilor 1930
Henry C.K. Liu, analist independent din Asia, publică pe site-ul său o serie de articole sub titlul "The Socialist Revolution Started 90 Years Ago in China". Câteva paragrafe interesante mi-au atras atenţia deoarece nu m-am gândit până acum să privesc sistemele economice folosite de către S.U.A., Germania şi U.R.S.S. (principalii actori ai celui de-al Doilea Război Mondial) în anii '30 ai secolului trecut ca fiind foarte similare în anumite privinţe:
Starting from 1928, the Soviet economy was put under a system of central planning whereby all modes of production were socialized and foreign trade de-emphasized in favor of a largely autarkic system of domestic demand and supply. The success of the autarkic approach in the USSR induced the Third Reich to adopt it in 1933 for Germany.
The irony was that both Soviet and Nazi central planning adopted much of the effective techniques of successful US experience in corporate planning in the era of big trusts. By 1904, 318 trusts controlled about two-fifths of US manufacturing output, not counting powerful trusts in non-manufacturing sectors such as railroads, local transit, and banking [...]
Bătrânul şi marea schimbare
Revista The Nation a decis să marcheze aniversarea căderii Zidului Berlinului prin publicarea unui interviu cu Mihai Gorbaciov, liderul U.R.S.S. care a decis în 1986 că "enough is enough" şi că Uniunea nu are cum să supravieţuiască fără o serie de reforme. Bătrânul politician (78 de ani) are o mulţime lucruri interesante de spus despre evenimentele şi personajele de la sfârşitul anilor '80, începutul anilor '90.
Despre Germania de Est şi căderea Zidului.
I think if the East German leader Erich Honecker had not been so stubborn--we all suffer from this illness, including the person you are interviewing--he would have introduced democratic changes. But the East German leaders did not initiate their own perestroika. Thus a struggle broke out in their country. [...]
On October 7, 1989, I was reviewing a parade in East Germany with Honecker and other representatives of the Warsaw Pact countries. Groups from twenty-eight different regions of East Germany were marching by with torches, slogans on banners, shouts and songs. The former prime minister of Poland, Mieczyslaw Rakowski, asked me if I understood German. "Enough to read what's written on the banners. They're talking about perestroika. They're talking about democracy and change. They're saying, 'Gorbachev, stay in our country!'" Then Rakowski remarked, "If it's true that these are representatives of people from twenty-eight regions of the country, it means the end." I said, "I think you're right."