On the Path to Free Prices

Abstract

The need to make the transition from administrative-command methods of economic management to a market-type economy has been officially confirmed in a number of practical actions of the legislative and executive authorities. The low effectiveness of the national economy connected with the extensive nature of using material, labor, and financial resources and the absence of real incentives for highly productive, high-quality labor have led to a profound crisis that the majority of specialists consider unsolvable in a planned economy. In the opinion of these scholars, practitioners, and statesmen, the market is an independent, complete model of an economic system that has a specific structure and internal, characteristic patterns and particular features of functioning. At the same time, certain attempts are also being made to revive the existing economic system with the aid of the market mechanism since all traditional methods of maintaining its viability have already been exhausted.