Introduction to Money, Financial Flows, and Credit in the.pdfVIP

This PDF is a selection from an out-of-print volume from the National Bureau of Economic Research Volume Title: Money, Financial Flows, and Credit in the Soviet Union Volume Author/Editor: George Garvy Volume Publisher: NBER Volume ISBN: 0-884-10475-3 Volume URL: /books/garv77-1 Publication Date: 1977 Chapter Title: Introduction to Money, Financial Flows, and Credit in the Soviet Union Chapter Author: George Garvy Chapter URL: /chapters/c4153 Chapter pages in book: (p. 1 - 12) 1 Introduction Background and Summary of the Study UNTIL quite recently, money and banking ranked fairly low among the features of socialist economies investigated by West- ern analysts, who generally tended to assign money and credit a subordinate role in achieving policy objectives in socialist coun- tries. Many studies of the Soviet economy almost ignore money and credit and accord only tangential importance, if any, to the banking system and the monetary plans it implements. Other students of the Soviet scene, observing the impressive degree of price stability since the middle fifties, have concluded that the successful management of money must have contributed to main- taining stability and growth, and, in particular, to avoiding the surges in speculative consumer buying that have plagued some other socialist countries. In the latter view, the contribution of monetary management surely goes beyond servicing the credit needs of the economys socialist sector and adjusting the volume of currency in circulation to the growth in disposable consumer income. These two views are not altogether contradictory. Even official disclaimers to the effect that monetary management pursues no objectives other than implementation of the plan are compatible with the conclusion that—at least since World War Il—it has played an important, if subordinate, part in an overall economic policy aimed at