Word: gorbachevized
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Since coming to power in 1985, Gorbachev has repeatedly underestimated the depth of his country's economic troubles and the harshness of the measures required to alleviate them. He finally seems to understand how bankrupt the system is, but his dithering frittered away much of the political capital needed to impose the painful, unavoidable solutions. How did he get into this predicament, and what can he do to climb out of it? While the delay in reform is disappointing, it need not be fatal, provided Gorbachev moves swiftly...
...will cure it is the introduction of market mechanisms. But the Soviet people are not prepared for that sort of shock. True, a free market will put more goods on the shelves of the gastronom, or grocery store, but with state subsidies removed, prices will rise. As Nikolai Petrakov, Gorbachev's top economic adviser, told the Rabochaya Tribuna (Worker's Tribune) last week, "People accept rationing coupons and standing in line -- especially during work time -- but not price increases." And the housewife can now vote for a parliamentary representative able to stand up in the Congress of People's Deputies...
Landsbergis said he would "carefully study" the letter, but he could hardly fail to read it as support for President Mikhail Gorbachev's demands that the Baltic republic consent to an orderly secession by Moscow's rules. Landsbergis had already been stung by George Bush's decision not to impose economic sanctions on the Soviet Union -- a decision the Lithuanian leader likened to the appeasement of Hitler at the 1938 Munich conference. The comparison was farfetched, since Bush was counseling Lithuania to take a less confrontational course toward independence, not to surrender to a predatory totalitarian...
With these signs that the West would not take sides with Lithuania, an antiblockade commission was set up in Vilnius to seek ways around the two- week-old oil-and-gas embargo ordered by Gorbachev. It was also exploring possible food-for-oil swaps. But with the Kremlin in control of the railroads, such schemes were unlikely to break Moscow's squeeze...
...Gorbachev is moving too cautiously to a free-market system. TIME gives a prescription for action. Bond wizard Michael Milken cops a plea, but he's getting off light...